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Smith's disappearance was preceded by a night of heaving drinking and gambling in the ship's casino. A passenger in a neighboring room said he heard men arguing on the Smiths' balcony that night. The next morning passengers photographed a bloodstain on a lifeboat canopy beneath the couple's balcony. Smith mysteriously disappeared in the early morning hours of July 5, 2005,[2][3] and evidence suggested that foul play might have been involved. Blood stains were found in his cabin as well as on the side of the ship, and it appeared that he might have been tossed off the ship or fallen overboard and drowned. The International Cruise Victims Association (ICV) is dedicated to helping the loved ones of passengers who have been involved in crimes at sea, especially those who have disappeared at sea.
NBC News Channel
This was a terrible, terrible night, which filled the public’s imagination with speculation about what happened, night after night on the cable news programs. The FBI in Connecticut has closed its investigation into the disappearance of George Smith IV, a Greenwich man who vanished from his honeymoon cruise in July 2005 and whose family believes he was intentionally sent overboard. George Allen Smith IV (born October 3, 1978) was an American man who disappeared overboard from the Royal Caribbean International cruise ship MS Brilliance of the Seas in July 2005 under suspicious circumstances. His story has been reported on by Dateline NBC and 48 Hours and was depicted in a television film called Deadly Honeymoon, which still airs on Lifetime. The FBI would begin an investigation that would span eight years and remains open to this day.
Passengers Interviewed
The parents of George Smith continue to demand answers to the ultimate fate of their son and seek reform concerning the investigation of crimes on the high seas. In videotaped depositions obtained by INSIDE EDITION, two of the passengers who carried George to his room repeatedly took the fifth when asked about George Smith's death. "They pass a video camera around filming themselves commenting about George's death in a very callous way," Jones explained. "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." The four men and their families were then ejected from the ship in Naples, where Italian police looked into the rape allegation and washed their hands of it saying they had no jurisdiction. As a group, the men told Turkish police, "And that was the end of it. ... We were all together ... But just remember not at one point or at no time did he ever seem angry or anything at all ... he was a happy person."
More of Colin's Police Interview
Again, if Dr. K is correct, there could be, even some 6 months later, trace evidence of blood in the room, on the walls, ceiling, furniture, that an application of a Luminol-like spray might uncover. CSI fans will know that Luminol is often used at crime scenes in the visualization of blood. It is highly sensitive and can usually locate faint blood that is invisible to the eye. When sprayed on surfaces where blood is evident, the Luminol will make the blood patterns appear a bright green.
Dr. Lee wanted to throw a manikin the same height and weight as George Smith over the cabin balcony railing to see where, and how, it would land on the life boat cover below. Dr. Lee believed it important to his investigation, but the cruise line was probably right in its refusal to allow this experiment. For one, it is presumed that Smith disappeared while the ship was under way and at sea. Therefore throwing the manikin from the balcony to the metal awning below while the ship was tied up in port would be nothing like a ship moving at 20 knots in a rough sea, perhaps with sea spray washing over the ship. Further, at the time Dr. Lee proposed conducting the test, 2500 new passengers were boarding Brilliance of the Seas and would have witnessed the test.
"I looked out and saw three male individuals walking away from the room." "My wife and I were awakened by yelling coming from the Smith cabin. This yelling sounded what I would liken to a drinking game," he said. In another cabin, Paul and Galina Kvitnisky were startled by a visit from ship personnel. "And I just remember telling him, 'It's time to call it a night,'" he said.
New Evidence in Missing Cruise Ship Passenger Case Revealed, But Why is FBI Holding Back?
The story of what happens next has been changed several times. Hagel Smith's other lawyer, Elizabeth Byrne, said any embarrassing behavior that may have occurred had already been reported and was not a motivation to settle. She said the probate ruling showed the settlement was reasonable and that her client acted in good faith.
A Decade of Injustice: The George Smith Case - Cruise Law News
A Decade of Injustice: The George Smith Case.
Posted: Fri, 03 Jul 2015 07:00:00 GMT [source]
"Do you believe that George knows that you've been fighting -- that the family's been fighting this whole time?" Miller asked Bree. In the years following George's death, Jennifer has remarried and tried to move on. And until the day the case is solved, they vow to not let George's memory die on that ship. "Our theory is that Josh Askin knows what happened," Mike Jones said. "But we don't believe that Josh was involved in the actual, you know, tossing of George overboard." Greer thinks that there is a simpler explanation for all that took place aboard the Brilliance of the Seas -- the sex assault claim, George going overboard.
'48 Hours' Preview: Murder At Sea? George Smith Case Revisited
"I want to know who took my son away from me. He wasn't a Dixie cup that you throw over the side of a ship," said Maureen. "We want the individuals that are responsible for throwing my brother George over his balcony at age 26 held accountable. We want them put in jail. We want them to rot in jail," said Bree. "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. Photographs taken by Royal Caribbean inside the Smith cabin revealed two small lines of blood on the bed sheets.
The young men said that after putting George to bed, they had all left and then went back to one of their cabins and ordered a lot of room service. According to the young men, shortly after 4 a.m., they had brought George back to his cabin and while Josh went to the bathroom, the other guys had taken off George's shoes and put a drunken George to bed. This is a photo of the Smith cabin showing one of George's shoes on the floor. That night, the couple had dinner aboard the ship and toasted their future together according to Jennifer. "The evidence will be given to a woman whose whereabouts are unknown when George was thrown overboard... and who has done everything in her power to stop us from finding out what happened to George on July 5, 2005," the post reads.
At the time, the ship's captain described it as a likely accident ... A balcony chair had been found with its back against the railing. 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. The Smith family is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading "to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible" for their son going missing from his honeymoon cruise. The Smith family is pushing for a bill to require cruise ships to be equipped with man overboard technology. They don't know what happened to their 26-year-old son aboard that cruise ship.
"George all of a sudden expresses a wish to go search for his wife ... at this time the boys are having a loud discussion, debate about whether they should assist George," Dayan explained. CBS News senior correspondent John Miller has worked in law enforcement and intelligence for 10 years and has been a reporter for 30 years. "48 Hours" asked Miller to take a new look at the unsolved case of George Smith, who went on his honeymoon cruise and was never seen again. The next morning all that was left of Smith was a blood stain on an overhang below his cabin’s balcony and now, 15 years later, the case remains unsolved. That arguing, Jones believes, is what Clete Hyman heard on the balcony. Jones also believes his theory fits with what the witness saw...
"I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever, that my son was murdered on that cruise ship. There is so much evidence, it is overwhelming," Maureen Smith said. NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Eight years after a Greenwich, Conn., man vanished from a cruise ship while on his honeymoon, new questions have surfaced regarding his death. The videotape in question was filmed by three Russian-Americans who have long been suspected of being involved in Smith’s disappearance due to their actions on July 4 and 5, before Smith was last seen. While it was reportedly filmed on the ship, shortly after Smith went missing, the video was only brought to the Smith family a few years ago. Smith’s family has maintained all these years that George was murdered by several men with whom George had an argument. And now, new evidence suggests there may be some truth to the allegations.
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