Disney Cruise youth counselor Rebecca Coriam disappeared from the Disney Wonder in the early morning hours of March 22, 2011.
Her parents, Mike and Ann Coriam from Chester England, know no more today than in March when the cruise line told them their daughter was missing from the cruise ship.
How, exactly, can a person simply disappear without a trace from a cruise ship, particularly a ship employee responsible for the welfare of children and from a cruise ship which caters to families? How can there be no CCTV images which provide an answer?
Something is not right with this situation.
Last March, we talked abut the problems families face when their loved ones "disappear" from foreign flagged cruise ships in a number of articles, including Who Investigates Disappearances on Cruise Ships? and What Happened to Youth Counselor Rebecca Coriam on Disney’s Wonder Cruise Ship?
This past week a number of news paper articles have been published in the U.K. such as:
Anguish of Rebecca Coriam’s Parents Six Months After Cruise Ship Mystery
The articles above describe the "investigation" into the mystery as a "farce." The Express states " . . . the investigation into Rebecca’s death has been so lacklustre that it is barely worthy of the name."
A single police officer in the Bahamas is supposedly conducting the investigation. But within a week, the officer announced that the shipboard investigation was over.
A number of news sources, including the BBC, quoted Superintendent Paul Rolle of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in March saying: "With respect to the investigation into the disappearance of Miss Rebecca Coriam from the Disney Wonder cruise ship, the Royal Bahamas Police have concluded its investigation on board the vessel. "At the present time there is no evidence to suggest foul play."
Although the Bahamas police state that the case remains open and under active investigation, Superintendent Rolle is not telling anyone much of anything assuming he is still working on the case.
The Coriam family remains respectful of the involvement of the Bahamian police officer but quickly notes that the Bahamas clearly do not have the resources to conduct an investigation involving a ship sailing between Los Angeles and Mexico.
It is also questionable that a police officer in the Bahamas is going to be critical of a cruise line which pays the Bahamas to flag its vessels there.
A particular irony in this case is that Disney Cruise is actually incorporated in the U.K. as the Magical Cruise Company. So we have a British citizen working for a British cruise line yet only a single policeman in the Bahamas is investigating?
Faced with these obstacles, the Coriam family is meeting today with U.K. Shipping Minister Hugh Penning to seek the introduction of a law in the U.K. so that British authorities can investigate incidents involving British citizens on international waters.
The Express quotes Mr. Coriam: “I am not sure we will ever know for sure what happened to Rebecca . . . my mission now is to bring in laws to protect others.”
For more information about the petition for a new cruise safety law in the U.K., go to the Coriam family’s website.
If you have information which may help the Coriam family find answers about about Rebecca, please use the following contact info:
Photo credits
Top: Corriam family
Bottom: LA Times