Blake Kepley, a Fallbrook High School graduate was last seen between 12 and 1 a.m. on Friday, July 22, 2011. His family reported the 20-year-old missing at about 2:30 p.m. that same day according to the Village News; however, Sign On San Diego reports that the family notified the cruise line as early as
The Rebecca Coriam Search Foundation is holding a fundraiser and rally to help raise money to continue the search and investigation into the disappearance of Disney crew member, Rebecca Coriam.
The rally is being held on July 23, 2011, from 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. at the Chester Race(2)(2).jpg)
Course Pavillion. For more information visit
The media’s interest into the "missing groom" story was unparalleled in the history of the cruise industry. Royal Caribbean had been able to dodge bad press about the disappearance of passengers and women and children sexually assaulted on its fleet of cruise ships for decades.
But the case of George Smith was different. Every network was covering the
Two days after George Smith went overboard from the Brilliance of the Seas, the cruise ship’s captain prepared a casualty report concluding that Mr. Smith accidentally fell off of the railing. The official report did not mention any of the suspicious noises in the Smith’s cabin heard by other passengers or that other young men (later accused of raping a passenger
In December 2005, Congress convened its first hearing on the issue of the safety of U.S. passengers on foreign flagged cruise ships. The hearing came about primarily due to the efforts of several families who had lost loved ones from cruise ships on the high seas, under suspicious circumstances.
George Smith’s family was instrumental in bringing a great
One of the tests which Dr. Henry Lee wanted to perform during his inspection of the Brilliance of the Seas cruise ship was dropping a life size mannequin from the rail of the balcony.
A metal awning is located several floors below the balcony. It is around 12 feet wide and ran the length of the cruise ship
After months of silence, the Hagel and Smith families were losing their patience with Royal Caribbean. By Thanksgiving it had been almost five months since George’s death. The cruise line had released no information about the circumstances surrounding George Smith’s disappearance.
As soon as Jennifer Hagel retained our firm to represent her, we retained forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee.
Royal Caribbean did not permit Jennifer Hagel back into her cabin after blood was discovered on the awning below the cabin. No one on the ship explained to Jennifer that she had been found unconscious on the floor near a stairwell early in the morning, or that her husband’s blood was covering the awning.
Eventually, the cruise
Following Mr. Smith’s disappearance, the Master of the Brilliance of the Seas quickly concluded that his disappearance was simply an “accident.”
Royal Caribbean never told the families that there was blood on the awning below the cabin (which the cruise line quickly cleaned off with high pressure hoses) or that four men had entered Mr. Smith’s
George Smith and Jennifer Hagel married in late June 2005 in Newport Rhode Island. Their honeymoon was a cruise in the Mediterranean Sea aboard Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas, which departed from Barcelona to ports in Italy, Greece and Kusadasi Turkey.
Little did George and Jennifer know that these would be their final days together.
In the early morning hours
Numerous news sources are reporting that a cruise ship carrying 173 passengers and crew sank in Russia’s Volga river today.
The sinking involved the Bulgaria cruise ship, which had 140 passengers and 33 crewmembers aboard.
To date, there have been reports of two confirmed dead bodies recovered and 96 people unaccounted for after the Bulgaria sank at 1358 local time (0858 GMT)
This past week marked six years since George Allen Smith IV disappeared from Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas.
Mr. Smith’s disappearance, and the manner in which Royal Caribbean chose to handle the incident, brought much needed attention to the cruise industry. The events which followed Mr. Smith’s death led to five Congressional hearings into
The Los Angeles Times has an interesting although very sad article about the mystery of a missing crewmember from the Disney Wonder cruise ship. Written by Corina Knoll, the LA Times article is entitled "Bereft Parents’ Loss is as Deep as the Ocean."
Rebecca Coriam, a 24 year old from Chester, England, joined Disney Cruise Line to work with kids
The Nassau Guardian reports that a cruise ship passenger went missing sometime Saturday after he left a Paradise Island beach on a rented jet ski and did not return. The newspaper reports that the U.S. Embassy has been notified of the passenger’s disappearance, and that two friends who accompanied the passenger on the cruise left with the ship.
The
Multiple new sources in the U.K. are reporting that a crewmember from the Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship went overboard last night and is presumed dead.
Sky News reports that, according to the cruise line, a Filipino crewmember was captured on closed circuit television (CCTV) climbing over a railing and jumping from the cruise ship. The luxury cruise ship, operated
Local ABC affifilaite channel 7 in Los Angeles has this update on the disappearance of Rebecca Coriam, a youth counselor employed on the Disney Wonder cruise ship:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y9wi1WH0P3I%3Frel%3D0
If you have information about Rebecca, please contact her family:
Website: Rebecca-Coriam.com
Email: help@rebecca-coriam.com
Coriam Family: 07747359968
Media Spokesman: 07932815970
You read other articles about
News sources are reporting that a 65 year old passenger is missing from a cruise ship which ported in San Diego on Tuesday.
The unidentified passenger was aboard the Celebrity Millennium cruise ship which was was on a 15-day cruise.
The cruise line did not realize that the passenger was missing until she did not show appear for
In the past two months, two citizens from the United Kingdom have disappeared during cruises. Disney crewmember Rebecca Coriam went missing from Disney’s Wonder in March while the cruise ship was sailing from California to Mexico. This month, U.K. passenger John Halford vanished from the Spirit cruise ship operated by Thomson Cruise Lines while the ship was approaching Egypt.
Disappearances from
