10 Cruise Ship Passengers Who Vanished Without a Trace

WatchMojo

The open ocean holds many secrets... Join us as we explore the mysterious disappearances that occurred aboard cruise ships. From John Halford's vanishing act near Egypt to Amy Lynn Bradley's troubling case with possible human trafficking connections, these baffling cases continue to perplex investigators. What sinister fate befell these passengers who embarked on vacations but never returned home?

Transcript

00:00But what's not widely known is that the industry also has a very dubious record of mysterious

00:06disappearances. Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're looking at 10 people who disappeared while

00:10traveling on cruise ships. I just can't believe that the international community are letting this

00:16go on really. John Halford. Luxury cruising is supposed to be the ultimate getaway where you

00:23leave all your cares behind. 63 year old John Halford was going through marriage problems so

00:28he decided to embark on an Egyptian cruise. The Thompson ship was approaching Egypt on the night

00:33of April 6th 2011 and was due to arrive in Sharm el-Sheikh the following morning. That evening

00:38Halford packed his suitcase with gifts for his family and left it outside the door of his cabin.

00:43He then went down to the bar and was seen drinking cocktails around 11.45 that evening. He was never

00:48seen again. Halford was gone when the ship reached port the following morning but his suitcase was

00:52still sitting outside his door. Halford was never found and his body was never recovered leading

00:57many to question what exactly had occurred. While the cruise industry has followed some guidelines

01:02such as installing peepholes in cabin doors, few ships have upgraded their video systems or installed

01:10man overboard alarm systems and passengers continue to disappear. Kevin McGrath. What happened to Kevin

01:17McGrath on that Carnival cruise ship remains a mystery. After an extensive search including hundreds of square

01:23miles of open water the coast guard is suspending its role in the case and now police are asking for

01:30the public's help. Florida native Kevin McGrath embarked on a Bahamas cruise with his family to

01:34celebrate his father's 60th birthday. The ship returned to Miami on September 4th 2023 and McGrath had

01:40vanished. He was seen on the night of September 3rd and it was discovered that the key card to his room

01:44was used at 3 30 a.m. on the morning of the fort. His family thought it was suspicious when he didn't show up

01:49for breakfast, but panic really set in when everyone was disembarking and McGrath was still

01:53nowhere to be found. We have no answers. My family and I have no answers. No one just vanishes into

01:59thin air. Where's my brother? McGrath was not seen going overboard on any of the ship's surveillance

02:04cameras and the sensors that indicate a passenger falling off the ship never went off. It's still

02:08unclear what happened. Do you think he's still alive? In my heart, I feel like he is. I don't feel like

02:15he is like dead or anything. I don't want to think of it like that. But then again, you have to also

02:21have that thought like I told you know everybody else before like you have to have that you know, what if

02:26you know, but I don't feel in my heart that he's dead at all. Annette Meisner 37 year old Wisconsin woman

02:31Annette Meisner embarked on a carnival cruise to the Mexican Riviera with her parents and daughter. December 4th

02:372004 was the last day of the excursion and Meisner was last seen at 9 15 pm when the ship was off the

02:43coast of Ensenada. Meisner's daughter Danielle later noticed that her mother was missing and the crew

02:47launched a room-by-room search of the ship. The only trace of Meisner was her purse which was found

02:52near a railing on the lower deck. The US Coast Guard combed over 800 square miles of ocean and the FBI

02:58even got involved to help find the missing woman. Alas, the multiple searches came up empty and Meisner is

03:03presumed dead. Fariba Amani

03:05Tonight, a mystery disappearance on a cruise ship reveals a tumultuous relationship filled

03:11with secrets. 47 year old mother of two Fariba Amani disappeared overnight between the Bahamas

03:18and Florida while on a cruise with her boyfriend. Her family is scrambling for answers.

03:23Vancouver's Fariba Amani embarked on a celebration cruise with her boyfriend of eight months,

03:28Ramis Ghoshalni. Ghoshalni left Amani at the gift shop around 1 am on the morning of February 29,

03:332012. Amani wasn't in the room when he woke up later that morning and she still hadn't arrived

03:38when it came time for everyone to disembark. She was never found and has remained missing ever since.

03:43Sometime between 1 am and 8 am, investigators say a female passenger in her 40s went missing.

03:49Amani's family believes that Ghoshalni knows more than he's letting on, saying that he and Amani had a

03:54fractured relationship and that Amani was thinking of leaving him. However,

03:58Ghoshalni has continued to proclaim his innocence and was not considered a suspect by the FBI.

04:03Cops question Ghoshalni but say he is not a suspect. However, the family isn't buying it.

04:08Marion Carver

04:09But when Carver called the cruise line, he received some shocking news. Officials confirmed that Marion

04:15got on the cruise. They just weren't sure if she had gotten off.

04:2040-year-old Marion Carver boarded the Celebrity Mercury cruise on August 27, 2004, and she went

04:25missing the very next day. But what makes this story so disturbing is the cruise line's bewildering

04:30response. Carver's steward reported her missing to his supervisor, but he was told to just do your

04:35job and forget it. At the end of the cruise, Marion's things were in the room where they'd been for five

04:41days. He asked his boss, should we report this? And the boss says, no. He says, I'll take care of it.

04:46The ship also continued along its planned course, stopping at various places around Alaska.

04:51Carver never disembarked at any of these places, and they continued to ignore her disappearance.

04:56The ship later gave her belongings to charity. Some people believe that the line is hiding something

05:01malicious, while others believe they were simply ignoring a problem for the sake of normalcy and

05:05routine. What do you think?

05:14Christopher Caldwell

05:18In July of 2004, Christopher Caldwell embarked on a Mexican cruise with his fiancee. On the final

05:23night of the cruise, they hit various nightclubs and went gambling in the casino. When Caldwell's

05:27fiancee said she was going to bed, Caldwell said that he would be in shortly, but that he wanted to do a

05:32bit more gambling. She woke up at 6.30 the next morning and Caldwell was not there. Following an

05:37investigation, it was discovered that Caldwell left the casino at 2.17am and went to the promenade

05:42where a bartender saw him and reported him as being very drunk. It's presumed that Caldwell fell

05:46overboard, but this was never confirmed, and his search of the surrounding ocean brought up nothing.

05:51Huay Pham and Hugh Tran

05:53Huay Pham and Hugh Tran disappeared from the Carnival cruise ship Destiny, somewhere between Barbados

05:59and Aruba. Their family says that four hours elapsed between reports of the couple's disappearance

06:06and a call to the Coast Guard. It's not often that couples go missing on cruise ships, but it does happen,

06:11as in the case of Huay Pham and Hugh Tran. The married couple of 49 years were aboard the Carnival

06:16Destiny traveling with their daughter and granddaughter, but they both disappeared on May 12,

06:202005 when the ship was traveling between Barbados and Aruba. Later that day, a ship employee found

06:25various items belonging to the couple, including their passports, driver's licenses, medication,

06:30and wallets, their credit card still inside. A search and rescue effort was launched to look

06:34for the missing passengers, but it was called off less than 13 hours later, with the couple being presumed dead.

06:39They were both in good health, in good spirits. Most of those stories, a month later or two months later,

06:47everybody would forget. But because Michael was one of the, son Michael was one of the founding members

06:54of International Cruise Victim, that story is out there today and is continuing to be read.

06:59George Allen Smith IV. It is the most Agatha Christie-like of any of the big cases.

07:0626-year-old store manager George Smith had gotten married just 11 days before he disappeared.

07:11Smith and his new wife Jennifer Hagel were aboard a Mediterranean cruise to celebrate their honeymoon,

07:16but tragedy struck on July 5, 2005. Unlike other entries on this list, foul play was implied.

07:22Witnesses reported hearing a scuffle in Smith's room and blood was later found in his cabin and on the

07:26side of the ship, suggesting that he may have been attacked and thrown overboard.

07:29It sounded to me like there was furniture or something being thrown around the room.

07:34After about eight minutes of this, it was totally quiet.

07:37Homicide was immediately suspected, and the leading theory is that Smith was the

07:40target of a robbery that turned violent. However, Jennifer Hagel disagrees, suggesting that her

07:45husband accidentally hurt himself and fell overboard following a night of heavy drinking.

07:49My wife and I were awakened by yelling coming from the Smith cabin.

07:54This yelling sounded what I would liken to a drinking game, where individuals are encouraging somebody to

08:01take shots or chug beers.

08:03Rebecca Coriam

08:04Tell us a little bit about what you know and have been able to piece together about what happened to Rebecca.

08:10The story of Rebecca Coriam is an interesting one, as she was actually an employee of the cruise ship

08:14Disney Wonder. Early on March 21, 2011, Coriam was captured on CCTV in the crew lounge, having what

08:21appeared to be a distressing phone call. Another employee can be seen passing her and asking if she's alright,

08:26to which Coriam seemingly replies, yeah, fine. That was the last anyone saw of her.

08:30I thought they must have it wrong or something. Something wasn't right.

08:34They just said that she was missing at sea.

08:36The official explanation is that Coriam was washed overboard by a rogue wave while visiting the

08:41crew pool, but this report has been heavily criticized and security footage of the event is

08:45non-existent. Further research showed that sea conditions were normal at the time, suggesting that a

08:50rogue wave was highly unlikely. Whatever happened to Rebecca on the Disney Wonder remains a mystery.

08:57Whether she slipped and fell, jumped or was pushed into the ocean wasn't properly investigated and the truth

09:04may never be known. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified

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09:21Amy Lynn Bradley.

09:22An all-American girl vanishes from a Caribbean cruise liner.

09:26Somebody saw her, somebody wanted her, and somebody took her.

09:30Back in 1998, Amy Lynn Bradley was vacationing with her family on a Royal Caribbean cruise to Curaçao.

09:36Bradley and her brother partied in the ship's nightclub on the night of March 23rd,

09:39with Bradley drinking and dancing with band member Alistair Douglas.

09:43The siblings returned to their cabin around 3.30 the next morning and talked on the balcony.

09:47Bradley's father woke around 5.15 and saw her sleeping on the balcony,

09:50but when he looked again 30 minutes later, she was gone.

09:53Knowing that she was comfortable, I just decided to lay my head back down

09:56because I knew in about 20 minutes we were going to get up and go off on the aisle and have breakfast.

10:01But when Ron wakes up again 20 minutes later, Amy is nowhere in sight.

10:07Witnesses later reported seeing Bradley with Alistair Douglas early that morning,

10:11although he was cleared by the FBI. There have been multiple alleged sightings of Bradley over

10:15the years, with many suspecting that she had fallen into a human trafficking circle.

10:19He comes up to me and the first thing he said was,

10:21he said, hey man, I'm sorry to hear about your sister.

10:26Alistair Douglas' statement triggers alarm bells with the Bradleys,

10:31because at that time, the only people that knew Amy was missing were the captain and his security team.

10:36What do you think happened to these people? Let us know in the comments below.

10:39The place to get away with the crime is on a cruise ship.

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