FL FL - Kevin McGrath, 26, missing from a cruise ship, Miami, 4 Sept 2023

[rosesfromangels]

He broke his terms of probation to go on the cruise, his probation could/would be revoked for the violation and he'd be serving the suspended prison sentence. I very much doubt he disclosed to the cruiseline that he was breaking the law to be there.

His family almost certainly knew, which makes me think Kevin committed suicide and had no intention of completing his probation sentence, or he absconded and his family helped. Absconding seems less likely just based on logistics.

JMO

Self harm wasn't my first or even second thought of what happened to this fellow. However, now that you raise that possibility, if he was heavily intoxicated and despondent over his life circumstances, it is certainly within the realm of possibility.

This being said, it's just as likely that the subject of the thread was intoxicated and sitting on a balcony rail and just fell over. Or, intoxicated, he could have gotten in to a fracas with someone and was shoved overboard. We will likely never know.

Of course there is always the possibility that this was a pre-planned escape aided by others. That possibility seems unlikely since someone always talks, but it's not out of the question.

Amateur opinion and speculation

 

[rosesfromangels]

I honestly think it was just a tragic accident. I think he just went to have a few days of fun with his family. I don't think he thought much on his probation. He thought he would be back in a few days and no one needed to know. JMO tho.

I agree that yours is the most likely scenario. Hope we eventually find out, and most especially for the sake of his loved ones.

Amateur opinion and speculation

 

[Kakidoll]

Earlier in this thread there was a quote from a fellow shipmate who said that she never received an email from the cruise line about Kevin's disappearance. This was around 10 days after he went missing so plenty of time for Carnival to provide notification.

Edit - Here's the post: FL - FL - Kevin McGrath, 26, missing from a cruise ship, Miami, 4 Sept 2023

Yeah, i'm not too sure she is telling the truth. She obviously is NOT a frequent cruiser. Didn't' know about the survey that is sent after each cruise (and often goes to spam). She goes on tik tok AND contacts his family. 600k views... lots of attention seekers out there.

 

[Deleted member 50844]

Yeah, i'm not too sure she is telling the truth. She obviously is NOT a frequent cruiser. Didn't' know about the survey that is sent after each cruise (and often goes to spam). She goes on tik tok AND contacts his family. 600k views... lots of attention seekers out there.

But hey, that’s 600 extra views. This man needs to be found.

 

[ch_13]

Yeah, i'm not too sure she is telling the truth. She obviously is NOT a frequent cruiser. Didn't' know about the survey that is sent after each cruise (and often goes to spam). She goes on tik tok AND contacts his family. 600k views... lots of attention seekers out there.

I'm curious what leads you to conclude that she's lying. I get that she's not a frequent cruiser and doesn't know about email surveys. And sure she's got a social media presence and maybe she wants her fifteen minutes of fame. But that doesn't change whether or not she would have received an email about McGrath's disappearance.

In my experience most people who aren't sociopaths don't tell bald-faced, easily provable lies. If she says she didn't receive any notification then I see no reason not to believe her. And to date, I haven't been able to find any passenger on that cruise who says they were contacted about the missing person.

 

[Dreacol23]

I don’t know if this has been discussed but there were only 7 people that were in the group, not 43. Im not sure why the sister changed the number. She also didn’t even go

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

I don’t know if this has been discussed but there were only 7 people that were in the group, not 43. Im not sure why the sister changed the number. She also didn’t even go

Where are you getting this information? Several mainstream media reports have indicated that Kevin was traveling with a group of about 40 family members and friends to celebrate his father's 60th birthday.

‘My brother didn't just vanish': Family frustrated after Carnival Cruise passenger disappears

Kevin McGrath has been missing since Monday. Carnival officials said he wasn’t seen in surveillance footage.

www.nbcmiami.com

...“The whole point of the cruise was to celebrate my dad’s 60th birthday, and it was a big group of about 40 people,” she said...

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Here is another media report during which Kevin's father, Sean McGrath, indicated that there were 43 people on the cruise to celebrate his 60th birthday.

Father of Port St. Lucie man missing from cruise ship: 'We basically just want some answers'

Sean McGrath's son, Kevin McGrath of Port St. Lucie, disappeared from a Carnival cruise ship over Labor Day weekend.

www.tcpalm.com

...Sean McGrath said about 43 friends and family members were on the three-day cruise to the Bahamas aboard the Carnival Conquest as part of his 60th birthday celebration...

 

[branmuffin]

Where are you getting this information? Several mainstream media reports have indicated that Kevin was traveling with a group of about 40 family members and friends to celebrate his father's 60th birthday.

‘My brother didn't just vanish': Family frustrated after Carnival Cruise passenger disappears

Kevin McGrath has been missing since Monday. Carnival officials said he wasn’t seen in surveillance footage.

www.nbcmiami.com

...“The whole point of the cruise was to celebrate my dad’s 60th birthday, and it was a big group of about 40 people,” she said...

But if 33 of them were family friends it changes the dynamics of discussing his mother holding the ID of family members.

 

[ch_13]

But if 33 of them were family friends it changes the dynamics of discussing his mother holding the ID of family members.

I think the document thing may have been misconstrued. The father was explaining that Kevin couldn't have gotten off the ship in Miami because he didn't have his documents with him and they need to be scanned as you disembark. But he could have easily meant that they were in Kevin's room along with his luggage, toiletry kit, etc. and the family found them when they went searching for him.

Here's the quote: “His SeaPass card was not scanned, because when you exit the ship, you have to scan your SeaPass card, and we had his documents, like his birth certificate and driver’s license, so there’s no way he could come off the ship,"

 

[SimplyCass]

I'm curious what leads you to conclude that she's lying. I get that she's not a frequent cruiser and doesn't know about email surveys. And sure she's got a social media presence and maybe she wants her fifteen minutes of fame. But that doesn't change whether or not she would have received an email about McGrath's disappearance.

In my experience most people who aren't sociopaths don't tell bald-faced, easily provable lies. If she says she didn't receive any notification then I see no reason not to believe her. And to date, I haven't been able to find any passenger on that cruise who says they were contacted about the missing person.

I don't think she's lying, but she's clearly off base here. The customer service survey is an automated email that gets sent out. It was not sent out instead of a "missing passenger" alert as she has implied there being something untoward about Carnival's handling of the situation.

Mass emailing an entire manifest of cruise passengers is simply not done. IMO it's because you'll generate a ton of leads that will mostly be useless but will require substantial manpower to determine if they're good or not. Carnival checked their CCTV and other systems and conducted an extensive search. and the Coast Guard conducted a search of the water and cleared the ship to cruise again.

The situation is definitely frustrating for the family and I feel that, but missing passenger cases are simply difficult to solve.

 

[ch_13]

Mass emailing an entire manifest of cruise passengers is simply not done. IMO it's because you'll generate a ton of leads that will mostly be useless but will require substantial manpower to determine if they're good or not. Carnival checked their CCTV and other systems and conducted an extensive search. and the Coast Guard conducted a search of the water and cleared the ship to cruise again.

snipped.

Why is it not done?

In almost every missing person case the police ask for leads from the public. And yes, that leads to a lot of false leads that the authorities have to spend substantial manpower following up on. But that's the nature of diligent police work. Sometime's there's a needle in the haystack that pops up and helps resolve the case. We've seen it time and again.

In this case, a targeted email to those on-board who may have rubbed shoulders with Kevin just prior to him going missing would seem to me to be a lot more effective and generate better leads than the missing poster or televised plea aimed at the general public that you get in most cases.

And if you are correct that the cruise line feels they've done enough already and don't need to do more, then I'd say it goes to the family's point that Carnival isn't being as helpful as they could be.

Honestly, I think because of Kevin's criminal history a lot of people are just shrugging their shoulders and saying whatever. But setting aside the particulars of this case, I can tell you that if my family member had gone missing while on a cruise, I'd want the line to do everything possible to find out what happened. And that would include sending out a mass email to the other passengers asking for information. Even if that is normally "simply not done". Wouldn't you want that as well?

 

[Cedars]

snipped.

Why is it not done?

In almost every missing person case the police ask for leads from the public. And yes, that leads to a lot of false leads that the authorities have to spend substantial manpower following up on. But that's the nature of diligent police work. Sometime's there's a needle in the haystack that pops up and helps resolve the case. We've seen it time and again.

In this case, a targeted email to those on-board who may have rubbed shoulders with Kevin just prior to him going missing would seem to me to be a lot more effective and generate better leads than the missing poster or televised plea aimed at the general public that you get in most cases.

And if you are correct that the cruise line feels they've done enough already and don't need to do more, then I'd say it goes to the family's point that Carnival isn't being as helpful as they could be.

Honestly, I think because of Kevin's criminal history a lot of people are just shrugging their shoulders and saying whatever. But setting aside the particulars of this case, I can tell you that if my family member had gone missing while on a cruise, I'd want the line to do everything possible to find out what happened. And that would include sending out a mass email to the other passengers asking for information. Even if that is normally "simply not done". Wouldn't you want that as well?

However, police get the message out using press releases, they don't get hold of mailing lists, passenger lists, etc, and do mass emails asking the recipients for their memories. If they feel that's necessary, they contact them individually, in person.

However, to answer the question more directly, while you'd be happy to receive such an email, I think many people wouldn't. Some people wouldn't want to feel they are obliged to go through their photos of super happy memories of their honeymoon, social anniversary, etc, looking for images of a stranger who photobombed them and then had something bad happen, through no fault of their own. IMO no company wants to upset their customers and get their product associated with something so negative.

JMO

 

[ch_13]

However, police get the message out using press releases, they don't get hold of mailing lists, passenger lists, etc, and do mass emails asking the recipients for their memories. If they feel that's necessary, they contact them individually, in person.

However, to answer the question more directly, while you'd be happy to receive such an email, I think many people wouldn't. Some people wouldn't want to feel they are obliged to go through their photos of super happy memories of their honeymoon, social anniversary, etc, looking for images of a stranger who photobombed them and then had something bad happen, through no fault of their own. IMO no company wants to upset their customers and get their product associated with something so negative.

JMO

I think you're 100% correct that the company doesn't want to potentially upset their customers. Or more to the point they don't want them to dwell on the possibility that people can and do go missing while cruising.

But serious question: If that was your child or your sibling who went on the cruise and *poof* just disappeared never to be seen again, how would you feel about them not contacting the other passengers? Wouldn't you want them to do everything possible to find out what happened, or would you just shrug and say, "Do whatever's the best for your bottom line."


Edit -
Just to address the first paragraph of your comment:

However, police get the message out using press releases, they don't get hold of mailing lists, passenger lists, etc, and do mass emails asking the recipients for their memories. If they feel that's necessary, they contact them individually, in person.

I disagree that police can't or won't use email or other electronic communications to get the word out if the situation warrants it. It's not as if there's any law or official policy against using email, it's just that in most cases, they don't have the contact information of everyone who rubbed shoulder with the missing person. But on a cruise, they do.

In similar situations, the cops use Amber Alerts to notify a limited population about a missing child. And university police will send texts and emails to the college community when there's a security alert.

 

[joeconn4]

Just heard about this case this morning. We're cruise fans although only been on 5 so nowhere near as experienced as some people on this thread. I have gotten interested in the logistics of how cruises work, kind of fascinated by how the industry operates especially the bigger lines. A few thoughts...

1. A few people mentioned the Sail Passes don't have your room on them. This is false, at least when it comes to Royal Caribbean but I'm not sure about Carnival. We've been on 5 RC cruises. I just looked at my blue Set Sail pass from February, it has our room number on it - although just the number not the floor. 2022, 2020 are the same, but our passes from 2018 and 2019 have the full room number including the floor. If Carnival prints the room on the card but not the floor, someone who finds that card could try that room on every passenger deck and would find the exact room in a matter of just a few minutes and could get inside. Could someone who has been on a Carnival cruise lately and kept their card look to see if the room number is on it?
2. If there is documented access to his room using his key card at around 2:00am or 3:30am (have read both times in different places), without video to confirm Kevin was the one using the card we can only know that the card was used to access that room, not who used it. Until it's confirmed with visual evidence we need to consider the possibility that Kevin never returned to his room at 2:00 or 3:30.
3. We have been in an inside room 4 of our 5 cruises. They are almost pitch black, although (at least on RC) the bathroom has a night light that I don't think you can turn off and it does throw some light under the bathroom door even if the door is fully closed. If someone is a sound sleeper, it is very possible that they won't know that their roommate has entered or left the room. This has happened with us. I get up at 7am to go run on the track. I have my clothes laid out and I get dressed without turning a light on so as to not disturb my girlfriend. When my workout is done and I go back into the room I try to open the door as quietly as possible although the card does make a "lock opening" click. More than once after she wakes up she's asked me if I went for a run because she never heard me leave or come back. I don't expect Kevin and his brother were that quiet entering/leaving, just wanted to point out that it's a possibility that could throw off the reported timeline.
4. I am curious if Kevin was a first time cruiser. If so, I would be surprised if he had much insight at all into all the security measures ships have, the hundreds (thousands?) of surveillance cameras, the procedure for getting on/off the ship in ports and at the terminal, the undercover staff that roams the ship trying to blend in with the guests. Even as a veteran cruiser, it can be tough to know all the security measures each different ship has. It has been noted that some ships have overboard monitors, some don't, and it seems that they're all monitored to differing standards. Not knowing what security/safety measures are in place would make it even more difficult to craft a reliable escape plan, should that be one's goal.

From reading all this through, putting a lot of weight on the recent revelation that he was on probation and may have had some personal complications in his life, I'm leaning towards the idea that he jumped overboard somewhere near the Florida coast. Wherever he went over, either the security cameras were not in that area or Carnival hasn't found the salient footage yet. This ship apparently didn't have the overboard monitors, which Kevin likely wouldn't have known but if it had and he went overboard the monitor would have triggered. If the timeline can be believed, I think Kevin was back in the room around 10:00pm (Dad's note) packing and put his luggage out for the porters to handle. Then he went out to enjoy the last night partying, and somewhere in the 2:00-3:30 range returned to his room. Then around 5am-7am he left the room (brother's note). The closer to 5am, the farther at sea and away from the port the ship may have been and the darker it would have been, but closer to 7am the ship would have been in port by them and it would have been light by then. Therefore, I think he left the room closer to 5am, went overboard and wasn't seen. I suspect it was somewhat a spur of the moment decision to escape his troubles.

I am curious if any of his personal effects, clothes, toiletries, were left in the room, have not heard anything about that. If not, I wonder if his brother packed them up. But if so I wonder if his brother would say he left them there and figured he'd meet Kevin at breakfast and thought Kevin would have planned to go back to the room and grab his stuff after breakfast. Carnival might know if anything was left in the room if the room steward packed them up as L&F. Guests are assigned a departure time and it's possible the 7:30am family breakfast was well before their departure time so his brother might have thought no problem Kevin will just get his stuff after we eat.

I'm also curious if his brother or any other members of his travel party were partying with him after 10:00pm that last night. With 40some people traveling together on a birthday cruise, it would really surprise me if everybody else was in bed early the last night. If others were out partying at say midnight or 1am, there aren't that many places on ships that are going to be open with music and dancing. Of course Kevin could have been out with someone he met on the ship, or even in someone else's room, in which case his family/friends wouldn't have been with him. But I think it's just as likely that he was out with some of his travel party and we haven't heard if that was the case but it would help the timeline.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

However, police get the message out using press releases, they don't get hold of mailing lists, passenger lists, etc, and do mass emails asking the recipients for their memories. If they feel that's necessary, they contact them individually, in person.

However, to answer the question more directly, while you'd be happy to receive such an email, I think many people wouldn't. Some people wouldn't want to feel they are obliged to go through their photos of super happy memories of their honeymoon, social anniversary, etc, looking for images of a stranger who photobombed them and then had something bad happen, through no fault of their own. IMO no company wants to upset their customers and get their product associated with something so negative.

JMO

Imagine contacting LE because you found a photo on your phone that might be the missing person and then being peppered with questions regarding your whereabouts before and after said photo was taken. Police want to know about your interactions with the now-missing person, why you're seen together in a photo, where you went and what you did after the time stamp on the photo, etc. I'd start to feel that I've become part of the investigation and might even be considered a suspect in the case. I'm sure I'm not alone in my thoughts about not wanting to become involved. JMO

 

[PayrollNerd]

Missing Carnival Cruise Passenger Kevin McGrath's Ex-Wife Believes He's Alive

The ex-wife of the missing Carnival cruise passenger believes he's still alive, a month after he vanished.

www.tmz.com

The ex-wife of Kevin McGrath, the missing Carnival cruise passenger who mysteriously vanished during a Bahamas trip, doesn't think he's dead ... telling us his family just wants to see him come home safe.

 

[LauraAnne]

Missing Carnival Cruise Passenger Kevin McGrath's Ex-Wife Believes He's Alive

The ex-wife of the missing Carnival cruise passenger believes he's still alive, a month after he vanished.

www.tmz.com

The ex-wife of Kevin McGrath, the missing Carnival cruise passenger who mysteriously vanished during a Bahamas trip, doesn't think he's dead ... telling us his family just wants to see him come home safe.

Families so often say that, even when the possibility seems extremely remote. Just holding out hope.

 

[steeltowngirl]

I think you're 100% correct that the company doesn't want to potentially upset their customers. Or more to the point they don't want them to dwell on the possibility that people can and do go missing while cruising.

But serious question: If that was your child or your sibling who went on the cruise and *poof* just disappeared never to be seen again, how would you feel about them not contacting the other passengers? Wouldn't you want them to do everything possible to find out what happened, or would you just shrug and say, "Do whatever's the best for your bottom line."


Edit -
Just to address the first paragraph of your comment:

I disagree that police can't or won't use email or other electronic communications to get the word out if the situation warrants it. It's not as if there's any law or official policy against using email, it's just that in most cases, they don't have the contact information of everyone who rubbed shoulder with the missing person. But on a cruise, they do.

In similar situations, the cops use Amber Alerts to notify a limited population about a missing child. And university police will send texts and emails to the college community when there's a security alert.

Also - the cruise lines don’t want to highlight the fact that their man overboard detection systems need improvement.

If a child had gone missing from the cruise, it would be national news. Here we have a missing adult, with 2 possible outcomes: he’s either alive or deceased.

If KM is alive, he most likely went missing voluntarily.
If he is deceased, it was an intentional jump, misadventure / accident, or he met with foul play.

While not impossible, we have no reason to believe he met with foul play. No word of an altercation, or even clarity as to who KM was last seen with. Apparently his brother saw him in the room, but he wasn’t at his side throughout the night.

The public will help when asked. As an example, Gabby Petito was located when a family searched their trip videos and saw her van. In Gabby‘s case, the most likely scenario was foul play and finding her body was critical to the case, which provided a reason for the public to want to assist.

In KM’s case, foul play is the least likely scenario. People who were onboard the cruise can look through their photos all they want, but unless they have a photo of KM going overboard, it won’t prove much. This isn’t a rescue mission, and it’s not even a recovery effort.

Sadly, the most likely scenario is that KM went overboard, and his body will not be recovered.

jmo

 

[IceIce9]

Interesting.



Ex-wife of Kevin McGrath who 'vanished' from cruise ship believes he is still alive

The ex-wife of a man who 'vanished' from a cruise ship en route to the Bahamas says she believes he 'is alive' and hopes he'll 'come home,' and that 'he is a good person' even though he was just placed on probation for threatening her and the children.

Ex-wife of man who 'vanished' from cruise ship believes he is still alive

The ex-wife of a man who 'vanished' from a cruise ship en route to the Bahamas says she believes he 'is alive' and hopes he'll 'come home,' and that 'he is a good person' even though he was just placed on probation for threatening her and the children

www.mirror.co.uk