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They believe there was foul play and point out that an "ear witness" heard an argument on George's balcony and George's blood had been found in the cabin -- two small lines of blood on the bed sheets. "They pass a video camera around filming themselves commenting about George's death in a very callous way," Jones told 48 Hours. Smith's disappearance was preceded by a night of heaving drinking and gambling in the ship's casino.
Honeymoon Cruise
Marie Breheret came in and, with other officers, gently explained the situation. Brilliance of the Seas is one of the largest of Royal Caribbean's 19 ships, a 90,000-ton behemoth with 12 passenger decks, powered by gas turbines. It sails 52 weeks a year, spending summers off the coast of Europe and winters in the Caribbean. The ship is manned by about 850 Royal Caribbean employees and can house as many as 2,500 guests. It has a spa, a full-service medical facility staffed by doctors and nurses, and even a brig for unruly passengers. One passenger even recounts hearing large objects like furniture being thrown across the room.
Timeline: The disappearance of George Smith - CBS News
Timeline: The disappearance of George Smith.
Posted: Sun, 05 Jul 2015 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Widow Says Husband Who Disappeared on Cruise Mixed Alcohol, Prescription Drugs
The video only captures snippets of what has emerged over the years as a very complex story -- a story and a timeline that would be dissected and debated for years. As a group they tell Turkish police, "After we dropped him off, the second time, we closed the door, we never saw him again ... Never saw him again." Jennifer said she had almost no memory after leaving the casino and that when she had awakened in the cabin, George wasn't there. She had just assumed George had stayed with Paul and Galina. Asked to describe his son, George Smith says he was very devoted and a family person.
Cruise ship passenger rights
"He hesitates. He's clearly thinking. The question has thrown him for a loop. It's almost, 'What could they have found that -- that would've connected someone to the disappearance?" Houston said of Greg's reaction. "This is a case that should be solved. It's a case that-- frankly, I think it is solved. It's just a question of pulling together enough evidence to get an indictment and a conviction," he said. "They can say there's no conclusive evidence, they can shut down the investigation but they're not going to shut down me," Bree continued. "Nine, 10, 50 and I'm going to continue until there's answers and justice for George."
Nightly News
Other passengers have confirmed the honeymooners were fighting and that Jennifer drunkenly stormed out of the bar. According to several accounts, George was left alone with Kofman and his friends drinking shots of a potent liquor called absinthe. In July of 2005, 26-year-old George Smith went tumbling off a cruise ship balcony into the water below. Smith was never seen again and the mystery of how he went overboard has never been solved. A "48 Hours investigation has uncovered failed polygraphs, questionable alibis and a provocative video made by some of the men just hours after George Smith disappeared. The FBI would begin an investigation that would span nine-and-a-half years.
"What it's not about is an accident, and what it's not about is a suicide," Jones told "48 Hours". "They loved the sites. I remember they were talking a lot of pictures. Like, everywhere they went they were, like, always with the camera," Galina recalled. Maureen Smith described her son as a "Fine young man. Handsome ... Hard working. He was just an all-around great kid." The Smith family and Hagel grew apart after she reached a $1.1 million settlement with Royal Caribbean Cruises in 2007. She has said that while George may have been murdered, he also could have fallen.
The blood stain
The young woman involved, however, remembered it differently, and she would accuse Kofman and two of his friends of rape. They all admit they had sex with her, but say it was consensual. "They're in a Jacuzzi with a young lady," Dayan told "Primetime." "Then, kind of suddenly, there was an argument out on the balcony," he said. "This argument was between three, maybe four individuals. It wasn't what I would call a fight, but it was definitely an argument." Hyman, a deputy police chief from Redlands, Calif., with 30 years on the force, called security to complain about all the noise.
Lawyer Keith Greer
Push a little and it’s clear many don't have all that much information to divulge. George and Jennifer spent long hours together finalizing details of their wedding, which was held at the waterside Castle Hill Inn & Resort, in Newport, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in late June. Another passenger reported the noise disturbance to the ship’s guest relation’s desk just after 4 a.m., but the ship’s crew did not respond until nearly half an hour later.
"And they're laughing and joking very callously about him being wealthy ... And certainly the way they were talking, they either knew or they had a pretty good sense of what had happened." "People [who] have seen that videotape have told me that the person holding the camera is doing kind of a narration and asking her questions and she's responding to them. But as this continues she's crying," Miller pointed out. For almost eight years, Maureen and George Smith have lived a life of torment not knowing what happened to their 26-year-old son aboard that cruise ship. Although his lawyers say he is "the leading target" in the Smith investigation, he has not been charged with any crimes. Kofman has not spoken publicly about the events of the night George Smith disappeared, but his attorneys, Albert Dayan and Tony Mirvis, spoke exclusively to "Primetime" about their client's version of events.
At the time, his death was considered suspicious and now the person who may have had answers about what happened on that ship has been murdered. This weekend, 48 Hours reported on the mysterious disappearance of a cruise ship passenger whose case has yet to be closed. In the wake of two other passengers falling overboard from a Carnival cruise last week in Australia, the need to improve maritime safety regulations industry-wide is blatantly clear.
A page for Mr. and Mrs. George Smith was announced on the ship's intercom. After a few minutes, a spa attendant called to say Jennifer was in a massage room. She said she assumed he might be sleeping somewhere else aboard ship. The officers, who refrained from mentioning the bloodstains for fear of alarming Jennifer, escorted her to a nurse’s office.
Which is why she didn’t get involved that morning when a 20-year-old woman—her identity has not been made public—arrived at the medical center and, according to one source, asked a nurse about the morning-after pill. The nurse sensed something was amiss, and gently pressed the girl, who during the ensuing conversation said she had been the victim of a rape. There were four decks of staterooms above the bloodstains.
Speaking about his daughter-in-law, Smith says Jennifer was very outgoing, very pretty and had a great personality. The FBI investigated the case, and while Hagel Smith and others on the Meditteranean cruise have come under suspicion, no one was charged with a crime. The cruise line said his wife was found passed out on a floor far from their cabin. In the appeal, Smith's parents and sister said his widow agreed to an inadequate settlement with the cruise ship line to avoid embarrassing disclosures about her conduct. Michael Jones, a lawyer for Smith's family, said Sheeley's comments were not accurate, but declined to elaborate.
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