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Missing Woman At Sea

By Eddie Farah

Millions of people go on cruises every year and have a wonderful time.

Then there are the mysteries at sea which are difficult to solve, largely because no one is watching.

The latest mystery involves a Florida woman, Jennifer Ellis-Seitz, 36, a journalist who apparently had everything to live for. She had married a year earlier, had just lost 130 pounds, was anxious to start a family, and had lined up a new job.

On Christmas day she plunged off the 15-story cruise ship, Norwegian Pearl, into the waters off Cancun. She hasn’t been seen since. A surveillance camera captured someone wearing a bathrobe falling overboard Thursday night, but it was six hours later - about 2 a.m. - before Ellis-Seitz’s husband and her mother began looking for her. Almost 5 a.m. he reported her missing.

Talking to the Today show, a couple who befriended the two said the husband had a bag of coins and was headed off to the casino that night to “see if he could change his luck.”

Now her family thinks she may have committed suicide.

Passengers need to be very careful they don't become a victim at sea. Generally, too much time passes before anyone knows there is a problem and a search begins. There was reportedly an 11-hour gap between the fall and efforts to find her at sea.

There were no announcements or cabin checks on board. Passengers learned of the death when they saw the news onboard. There is no one carefully watching surveillance cameras and no alarms that go off when someone goes overboard.

Cruise lines are not required to report deaths, but they happen.

The Naples News in February 2007 reported that among 12 million people who take cruises ever year, 97 cruise ship deaths from 1999-2007, recorded by the Broward County Coroner’s office.

From 2004-to-2007 Miami reported 33 deaths. Many people die from natural causes at sea, as many elderly retirees take cruises. Others remain mysteries, and those are just the statistics from two Florida ports.

Ships are all registered to foreign countries so they do not have to follow U.S. law or regulations. This is not an accident – it is intentional and a way to avoid liability.

Make sure you read the fine print on your ticket. Understand that the doctor on board is not an employee of the cruise line. Find out about security and surveillance cameras and whether anyone is watching them.

A vacation is not a time to worry – but nor is as time to entirely let your guard down. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Full post as published by Jacksonville Personal Injury Lawyer on December 30, 2008 (boomark / email).