AOL News - Mysterious Disappearance Spurs Cruise Ship Probe
... Industry officials estimated 13 people have disappeared from cruise ships in the past two years. But Shays and other lawmakers question such statistics because they said the industry supplies its own data to the FBI and might be playing down crime.
Smith's wife, Jennifer Hagel Smith, says ship officials forced her from the vessel after her husband's disappearance and abandoned her in Turkey, where she ended up at a police station and later a hospital with no food, money, clothing or ticket home.
Shays read aloud some of the testimony by Smith's wife, who sat at a front row seat at the hearing, surrounded by her late husband's family.
"There was no compassion, sympathy or sensitivity shown by the cruise line," she wrote, adding that ship officials would not let her call her family immediately after her husband's disappearance. "Initially, the cruise line issued a statement attacking George, stating that it was just an accident and suggesting it was all George's fault."
Lawmakers expressed outrage.
"Here's a woman who has lost her husband and it seems like she is treated in a way that is simply incredible," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, R-Md.
Lawmakers vowed to shine a bright light on what they said are major problems the cruise industry has in reporting and handling crime on the high seas where laid-back vacationers such as the Smiths are vulnerable.
"That just sends a shiver down my back," said Shays of Smith's testimony.
He alleged that crime statistics voluntarily reported by cruise ships to the FBI are bogus: "I'm wrestling with how we can trust any statistic from any cruise line who can do what they did to a young bride..."
