News Clips

[sparkie]

CBS

"Cruise Passenger Mystery Deepens

NEW YORK, August 1, 2005
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(CBS) United States authorities are probing the disappearance early last month of a Connecticut man who was on a honeymoon cruise through the Mediterranean. They say it appears foul play may have been involved.

George Allen Smith IV was halfway into the cruise with his bride, Jennifer Hagel, when he vanished while the ship was off the Turkish coast, according to The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm.

"The captain came on and announced to everyone that there was a passenger missing," says Linda Bruck, who was on board the Royal Caribbean's "Brilliance of the Sea" with her husband, Larry Bruck.

They say they didn't see Smith or Hagel, but heard all the rumors.

"That there was a possibility he had winnings that people knew he had won and that they were after," is how Larry Bruck describes one such rumor.

"The most outrageous rumor I heard was that there was an old boyfriend on board," says Linda Bruck.

Another passenger thought something might be amiss when Smith disappeared.

Clete Hyman, who was in an adjoining cabin to that of Smith and Hagel, recently recalled what he heard through the walls in the early morning hours of July 5: "The impact, it sounded like something really heavy, and my first thought was maybe throwing furniture overboard," Hyman said on "Scarborough Country" on MSNBC. "All of a sudden, there (was) some very loud arguing out on the balcony."

Candid testimony like that is unlikely to be repeated anytime soon, Storm observes, since Turkish authorities turned the case over to Washington, and the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office are now in charge of the investigation.

Witnesses have been gagged, and the U.S. officials are doing all the talking.Says U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor: "This is not going to be an easy case. We have a moving crime scene, we have a group of international passengers who have dispersed. So, it may take a long time to piece together what happened that night."

Turkish authorities had interviewed and released Hagel, and a Turkish prosecutor has said Hagel isn't a suspect."

Link:http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/01/earlyshow/printable712989.shtml

[sparkie]

From a blog:

"Another American Tourist Goes Missing

George Smith IV of Greenwich, Connecticut was on a honeymoon cruise when he went missing on July 5.

Here's yet another murder handled terribly by foreign investigators. Much in the same manner as Natalee Holloway, missing in Aruba since late May in this year of our Lord 2005.

Folks, they want American money but when Americans go missing they don't want the bother of the investigation or bad publicity.

For the murder of George Smith IV on that Royal Caribbean International cruise ship too was an inexcusable delay in investigation by the authorities involved. There were reports of something untoward going on in that Smith cabin even BEFORE Smith went missing.

Barbara McCulloch reported screams coming from the Smith cabin and took pictures of blood stains on the canopy of a rescue boat. She was on the cruise with her family and the screams as well as the blood-stained pictures were reported to ship's authorities before it was even known that Smith was missing.

In addition, a retired cop phoned the ship's "911" number that very same night and reported a loud "thud" coming from the Smith cabin.

For five days no one interviewed either McCulloch or the retired cop.

Over time more details are emerging about this strange case." and more!

Link: http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/09/062542.php

[sparkie]

MSNBC:

"Cruise ship passengers disappear
Mysterious disappearances on the deep blue ocean go unsolved.

COMMENTARY
By Clint Van Zandt
MSNBC analyst & former FBI profiler
Updated: 4:30 p.m. ET Aug. 15, 2005



Last month George Smith and Jennifer Hagel were enjoying a wedding cruise in the Mediterranean. The weather was great, the ports of call wonderful, and the travel brochure-like life aboard ship consisted of dancing, drinking, and gambling with their fellow passengers. But on July 5 something went terribly wrong. The new bride may now be a new widow.

According to some of the 2,300 passengers onboard the Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas, the honeymooning Smiths were heavy partiers who had drank and gambled well into the night and early morning on the day Smith disappeared. A police officer and his wife were in the cabin next door to the Smith?s and reported that noisy parties were the rule in the Smith?s cabin, usually into the wee hours of the morning. The officer was awakened at about 4:00 a.m. on July 5 by loud noises from the cabin next door; another party in the Smith?s room. This time, though, the officer and his wife heard yelling and arguing, the sound of heavy items being moved around the cabin next door, and then more noise from the balcony area next door to them. All of this was followed by a final loud noise, with other passengers reporting a scream, and then, for the first time in 30 minutes, nothing but silence from the Smith?s cabin." and more!

Link: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8961958/

[vervilledeb1]

After reading a few articles on this subject it makes me wonder how many people take a cruise with this motive in mind. Or, are there terrorists on the ships working as employees??

Debby