TURKEY - George Smith, 26, missing from cruise ship, July 2005

[Blondie in Spokane]

I watched the update of 48 hours tonight. The reward is now $100,000.

I think the motive was both robbery and intended rape. These guys allegedly raped another woman on this trip before this happened, and videoed it. No charges pressed by the Italian LE who apparently had jurisdiction at the time. I think both the alleged victim was drugged and so was Jennifer who ended up passed out in the opposite corridor.

Wish there were some answers....

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

Murder at Sea?

JULY 5, 2014, 10:00 PM|"Can a $100,000 reward and a new team of FBI agents solve the 9-year-old case of a missing honeymooner? Richard Schlesinger has the latest on the case."

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/murder-at-sea-2/

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

The new life, marriage and two children of the honeymoon widow ten years after her husband mysteriously died on a cruise DAYS after their wedding

George Smith died on July 5, 2005 under mysterious circumstances on the Royal Caribbean ship Brilliance of the Seas off the coast of Turkey

He had got married just days earlier to Jennifer Hagel in a lavish ceremony in Newport, Rhode Island

Hagel was not with him when he died as she had allegedly passed out drunk in a hallway of the ship

After his death, Hagel reached a $1.1million settlement with the cruise-ship company and said her husband's death may have been an accident

In 2007 she began working at the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in New York City as the major gifts officer

In 2009 she married financial analyst Jeff Agne, and the couple have two daughters, born in 2010 and 2013

She is estranged from her first husband's family, who believe she knows more about their son's death than she has told authorities

The FBI dropped its criminal investigation this year into Smith's death

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...y-died-cruise-DAYS-wedding.html#ixzz3jkpCcfvL

 

[PrairieWind]

I hadn't thought about this case for a while. I feel bad for his family.

 

[10ofRods]

No way did he just fall. Those blood stains were from a sudden impact. If anyone could survive that and move themselves to any other position, there would be rather obvious blood evidence.

Someone picked him up and threw him overboard, having realized he couldn't stay where he was.

 

[Sleuthster]

OGG I am going on Brilliance of the Seas in February. I did not realize this was the ship he disappeared from. Yikes.

 

[kemo]

George Smith had been drinking heavily that night with a group of young men from New York who were referred to as “Russians”. A few of the Russians went back with him to his cabin and hung out with him a while; perhaps continuing to drink. The occupant of the neighboring cabin, a policeman on holiday, heard them talking loudly. He then heard the group leave, followed by the sound of what sounded like someone moving furniture to the balcony. He heard no talking and thought there was only one person there.

The next morning, George was gone but there was blood smear on the side of the ship below the Smith balcony and a chair from the cabin was pushed up near the balcony railing. It appeared he went overboard but not clear what happened.

The family prefers to believe someone, probably one or more of “ the Russians” threw him off the balcony. The cruise line prefers to believe that after “ the Russians” left he dragged the chair out to the balcony to help him climb on to the rail; possibly to smoke a cigar, and he somehow fell over.

I think the testimony of the policeman-neighbor tends to support the later