"Here's what I don't understand, and maybe I missed an important part of the story... When the ship was cleared after the forensics were taken, how could they set sail again, with the possibility that there were murderers on board? Wouldn't the passengers and crew be worried about being crime victims themselves?"
I think what happened is that the Captain of the ship immediately made the conclusion that it was either suicide or an accident. The ship was cleaned up, the wife was left on shore in Turkey, and the ship took off.
So no one on board would have been worried about it being foul play at that time.
And basically, what the family is saying is that RC cruises is doing this a lot - just making an assumption that there is no crime involved when someone turns up missing from a ship.
I think the most outrageous story is the one where the woman was on the Alaskan cruise by herself and failed to show up in her stateroom for 5 days and her steward kept reporting it and the ship authorities did nothing, put her belongings in storage and didn't contact anyone. Her father was on one of the shows for an interview and said it took him weeks to track down the fact that she had been on the ship, much longer to get her things.
That is just total, total irresponsibility on the part of the cruise line. The woman's father appeared at the congressional hearings about this issue:
"Kendall Carver, an older gentleman in a gray suit, stood quietly with the Smiths. His daughter, 40-year-old Merrian Carver, disappeared last summer with less fanfare.
When his daughter was not on board at the end of a seven-day Alaskan cruise, Royal Caribbean officials put her belongings in storage without any attempt to notify family members, Carver said.
"We didn't realize she was missing," testified Gregory M. Purdy, a director of safety, security and environment with Royal Caribbean. "We regret that we caused this family anguish before figuring this out."
The company fired the supervisor who did not investigate a cabin steward's reports that Merrian Carver had stopped using her room, Purdy said.
Also, as a result of the case, Purdy said Royal Caribbean now tracks passengers at the end of a cruise to ensure that all passengers who got on get off. The company also started an anonymous hotline for employees to call should their concerns not be taken seriously by a supervisor. "
Link to excellent article:
http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/travel/tourism/2005/12/19/jacksonville_story1.html?t=printable
Terrible thing to say, but it sounds like if you want to get away with murder, just take your unwanted spouse on a cruise!
