An Iowa woman accused of assaulting a teenager surrendered to local authorities in Miami on May 4, a month and a half after the alleged crime. The woman, Jennifer Frost, 44, reportedly punched and broke a teenager’s nose on March 19 while on the Carnival Sunshine.
According to the arrest report, Frost approached the teenager while she was in line at a restaurant with her friends and family and tried to insert herself into their conversation. The teenager said Frost appeared to be intoxicated and that she felt very uncomfortable during the interaction. Frost eventually walked away but then later confronted the teen on the other side of the restaurant before suddenly attacking her.
Frost was detained by the ship’s security and later admitted to punching the teenager in the face. The confession was captured on ship security body-cam footage, according to authorities.
Despite being detained and admitting to a crime, Frost was able to disembark the Carnival Sunshine on March 21 and travel back home to Iowa without being arrested by local police in Miami.
No reports indicate how Frost was able to avoid being arrested but it’s hard to imagine how this is not the fault of ship security. She should have been kept in a holding cell or in her room with security outside for the remainder of the voyage and then transferred directly to Miami Dade police.
Frost later hired an attorney and agreed to travel back to Miami to surrender herself to law enforcement. A judge set her bond at $2,500 during a court hearing on May 5.
The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Q1 2026 crime report shows Carnival had zero physical assaults with serious injury, despite this incident falling within the timeframe. There are two explanations for why this crime wasn’t included in the recent report. The first could be a reporting timing discrepancy. Crimes are recorded by the quarter they were reported to the FBI, not necessarily when the crime was committed. A two week reporting delay could push the incident to the Q2 2026 crime report.
The more likely explanation, however, is that Carnival simply did not report the crime to the FBI. Carnival has a track record of underreporting crimes on its ships, particularly physical assaults, as evident when they reported only 3 crimes in Q4 2025 despite there being 5 publicly reported crimes during that time period.