Bedsheets photo made police suspicious as they took closer look after honeymooner 'vanished' on cruise
A photo of some bedsheets stirred the suspicion of police who were investigating the mysterious disappearance of a honeymooner who was onboard a cruise ship.
George Smith, 26, completely ‘vanished’ in the early hours of 5 July, 2005, after boarding the cruise ship Brilliance of the Sea for his honeymoon.
George and his new wife, Jennifer Hagal, tied the knot in Rhode Island, US, just 11 days before he vanished while on the Mediterranean cruise, which they planned to stay on for two weeks.
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During a cruise stop off in Italy, George met the Askin family, which included a 20-year-old called Josh Askin.
Back on board the ship in the early hours of 5 July, Jennifer and George went to the ship’s casino, where cameras captured the last pictures of him alive.
Josh Askin, along with three other men on the ship - Rusty Kofman, Greg Rozenberg and Zach Rozenberg - all told the police that they stayed up partying with George, before taking him back to his cabin in the very early hours of the morning, and putting him to bed.
These men were the last to ever see George, and their story doesn’t seem to match up with the cruise’s records.
They claim they took his shoes off and put him in his bed before going back to one of their own cabins and ordering room service, though the cruise ship's records don't show a log of this.
Jennifer was then found at 4:30am, passed out in a hallway on the cruise, but has little recollection of what happened after leaving the casino.
However, there was a lot of suspicion around George’s death - especially after blood stains were soon found on his bedsheets, as well as on the side of the ship.
This pointed the police in the direction of concluding that he had fallen overboard.
A chair was also found placed against the railings in their cabin, which made the captain believe this was the cause of George's death.
But nothing in this theory explains the bloodied bedsheets.
These stains have remained unexplained to this day, and his body has never been found, meaning that whilst George is presumed dead, he is technically still a ‘missing’ person.
Jennifer ended up supporting the claim that George had fallen overboard, and in 2007, agreed to a $1.1 million (£862,000) settlement with cruise operator Royal Caribbean.
She gave a statement which said that George might have fallen off the ship while trying to balance on the balcony in their cabin.
While his family disputed this version of events, they reached their own settlement with Royal Caribbean in 2011.
As a result, the case was closed in 2015.
Topics: World News, Cruise Ship, Sex and Relationships
Mia Williams