Posted on 12/29/2008 11:04:48 AM PST by cll
MIAMI | A Norwegian Cruise Line cruise ship at the center of a missing person mystery returned to the Port of Miami on Sunday morning, where FBI agents stood waiting.
Sunday they launched an investigation into the disappearance of Jennifer Seitz, 36, who was a passenger aboard the Norwegian Pearl, officials said.
Were looking to see if a crime was committed on the high seas, said FBI Special Agent Michael Leverock. He added that agents interviewed numerous passengers and crew members Sunday morning and searched the cabin Seitz was staying in for any potential clues to what may have happened to her.
Surveillance footage from a camera on the ship shows a woman falling overboard about 8:08 p.m. on Dec. 26, U.S. Coast Guard officials said Sunday.
Seitzs husband reported her missing early Friday as the vessel sailed about 15 miles east of Cancun, Mexico, according to the Coast Guard. The cruise ship had set sail from the Port of Miami on Dec. 21.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
the key is, did the husband recently buy life insurance for her?
come on... you’ve been here long enough to know that it will continue to be Bush’s fault right up to the day after 0bama’s term ends... and then it may continue in order to place the blame for all 0bama’s mistakes on someone that is not a dem
Sure, but seeing what is happening on any individual balcony would be difficult, especially at night.
While they might pick up someone physically throwing an adult overboard (an extremely difficult manuver), would they see someone standing on a chair get pushed?
Well there ya go. She was immediately disembarked!
I too have noticed similar stories starting around 2006. IIRC, this coincides with the release of Carl Hiaasen’s book, Skinny Dip. In it, a husband attempts to murder his wife by flinging her over a cruise ship handrail one night. It’s a wonderfully entertaining read (she survives to exact revenge), but I suggest it has given a few folks like minded ideas.
I saw the video from last year’s incident. It showed the woman climbing unto the railing, attempting to cross to next door, and falling. But you’re right, the angle doesn’t show much inside the balcony if at all. I guess if there was a struggle, it would somehow show depending on zoom ability.
I heard on the radio that the ship had two thousand security camera’s.
I know that can’t be right....but the point is, no matter how many were operating what does it matter if you don’t have someone monitoring them all the time?
That's odd. I had just figured that cruise ship deaths weren't on my radar screen before I started planning a cruise myself. I suspect a more likely explanation would be that cruises were getting cheap enough that those inclined to be drunken fools could more easily afford them.
I've read that book! LOL! I do think that most cases have turned out to be accidental drunken incidents instead of murder.
You’ve been to CruiseCritic.com, no?
http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=2988
Search, FBI Investigation Continue in Case of NCL Passenger Overboard
Jennifer Seitz, the 36-year-old passenger who reportedly fell off Norwegian Cruise Line’s 93,500-ton, 2,394-passenger Norwegian Pearl, remains missing after three days of searching by the U.S. Coast Guard and Mexican Navy. The FBI is now involved, investigating whether the woman’s disappearance is foul play, suicide or an accident.
The Coast Guard reports that surveillance video on the ship shows a woman falling from a balcony at 8:08 p.m. on Christmas Day. Search-and-rescue efforts in the waters off Cancun were originally hindered by high seas, but at this point over 2,500 square miles of ocean have been searched. No sign of Seitz has been found.
Several media outlets have identified Seitz’s husband as Ray Seitz and the couple’s place of residence as Winter Haven, Florida.
The Cruise Critic message boards are rife with rumors about the cause of Seitz’s disappearance. In general, many if not most cases of people going overboard are found to be suicides, with alcohol-induced foolishness or sheer accidents other possibilities.
In its most recent statement, NCL says it “is cooperating fully with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who is investigating the cause of the incident in which a female guest traveling on Norwegian Pearl went overboard the evening of December 25, 2008 when the ship was off the coast of Cancun, Mexico.”
We’ll keep you posted as more details are revealed.
—by Erica Silverstein, Associate Editor
CruiseCritic.com message boards re: incident/accident (membership required but great resource):
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=893573
More details from passengers on the husband’s behavior after wife’s disappearance.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/28419077/?GT1=43001
Very strange!
You have to wonder why there is no ship’s crew member monitoring the cameras in real-time for such incidents as this? What possible use do the cameras serve?
FWIW, cruisebruise.com says that she went overboard in her bathrobe.
Ah, gotcha..............When they said falling, they actually meant in the act of falling, but were not positive how she got from ‘a’ to ‘b’. They only know she got to ‘b’ and saw her on her way and are investigating ‘a’. Thanks :)
Or -- pushed or tossed overboard..
Since many of the cruises are nothing more than big drunken parties I doubt if they ever cut off anyone’s alcohol. Besides, booze is the big money maker for them.
Hi sod...long time no see ;) Hope your holidays are going well!
I agree. Very strange. In fact, I have been on a cruise and can’t imagine any newly wed husband who’s wife is obviously missing at 8pm at night...very early for cruise life...would allow her disappearance to go unreported until the following morning. (8 hrs. later..or..4am). Even if he hadn’t been involved in her disappearance, the fact that he waited 8 hrs., imo, speaks volumes about their relationship. And then I read this:
“Raymond Seitz was arrested in April on a charge of domestic violence-battery after being accused of head-butting his wife. The charge was dropped after he entered a pretrial diversion program. Records show that she asked the prosecutor not to pursue the case.”
I’m not one inclined to believe that leopards change their spots. I’m just surprised that her family would extend him the benefit of the doubt due to ‘previous emotional issues’.
I’ve also stayed in a stateroom with a balcony. It is impossible to ‘fall’ overboard...unless you use something to climb atop the railing. I’m quite tall and the railing was mid ribs. I hope they continue to investigate...regardless of what the family believes.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081229/ap_on_re_us/missing_cruise_passenger
Happy but suicidal Got it.
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