Rebecca Coriam (born 11 March 1987) was a British crew member on the cruise ship ''
Disney Wonder
''Disney Wonder'' is a cruise ship operated by Disney Cruise Line. She was the second ship to join the Disney fleet on entering service in 1999. ''Disney Wonder'' is of the same class as . The other three ships in the fleet are the , , and . The ...
'' who disappeared from the ship 22 March 2011. She was captured by
CCTV
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...
in the crew lounge in the morning of 22 March, having a phone conversation that appeared to be causing her some emotional difficulty. Several hours later, she missed the beginning of her work shift and could not be located anywhere aboard the ship, then at port off the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
coast of
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. Her disappearance was the first such incident in the history of
Disney Cruise Line
Disney Cruise Line is a cruise line operation that is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The company was incorporated in 1996 as Magical Cruise Company Limited, through the first vessel, ''Disney Magic'' and is domiciled in London, England ...
.
Coriam's disappearance remains under investigation, and her whereabouts since the phone conversation have not been established. Her parents have been critical of Disney's handling of the investigation, believing the company knows more than it claims to and has been more interested in avoiding unfavourable publicity than cooperating with investigators. Her family settled a lawsuit against Disney out of court in 2016.
The Coriam family have been supported by British government officials, who have instituted policies allowing for more comprehensive investigations of such incidents in the future, and advocates for the relatives of many other crew and passengers who have been reported missing from cruise ships over the last decade.
Life
Coriam was born on 11 March 1987 in
Countess of Chester Hospital
The Countess of Chester is the main NHS hospital for Chester and its surrounding area. It currently has 625 beds, general medical departments and a 24-hour accident and emergency unit. It is managed by the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Founda ...
,
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
, England. She grew up in Chester with her parents, sister Rachael and two
foster brothers,
finishing
Chester Catholic High School
Chester Catholic High School or CHSC but officially called The Catholic High School, Chester is a co-educational Roman Catholic secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located on the outskirts of Handbridge, Chester, England.
T ...
. In her youth, she also worked at the
Chester Zoo
Chester Zoo is a zoo at Upton-by-Chester, Cheshire, England. Chester Zoo was opened in 1931 by George Mottershead and his family. It is one of the UK's largest zoos at . The zoo has a total land holding of approximately .
Chester Zoo is operate ...
, where other relatives had worked. A
memorial bench
A memorial bench, memorial seat or death bench is a piece of outdoor furniture which commemorates a dead person. Such benches are typically made of wood, but can also be made of metal, stone, or synthetic materials such as plastics. Typically mem ...
to her grandparents Kevin and Dolores is on the zoo grounds.
She joined the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
cadets in her teens and attended
Plymouth University
The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...
at
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
, where she studied
sports science
Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sport and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally inc ...
. Later she got a Staff Volunteer position within the cadets and participated in some outdoor events. She took additional studies in youth studies at
Liverpool Hope University
, mottoeng=Hope to all who need it
, established=1844 – Saint Katharine's College (as Warrington Training College)1856 – Notre Dame College (as Our Lady's Training College)1964 – Christ's College1979 – Liverpool Institute of Higher Edu ...
and then spent four months teaching sports at Camp America in the U.S. state of
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
.
In June 2010, she went to London to
interview
An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...
for the Disney Cruise positions; after being hired she went to the company's theme parks in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
for training. After four months on cruises to the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
, where the ships are registered, she went back to Britain for two months off. When she returned to work, it was on the ''
Disney Wonder
''Disney Wonder'' is a cruise ship operated by Disney Cruise Line. She was the second ship to join the Disney fleet on entering service in 1999. ''Disney Wonder'' is of the same class as . The other three ships in the fleet are the , , and . The ...
'', based in the
Port of Los Angeles
The Port of Los Angeles is a seaport managed by the Los Angeles Harbor Department, a unit of the City of Los Angeles. It occupies of land and water with of waterfront and adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach. Promoted as "America's Port", t ...
. She visited all its ports of call on the
Mexican Riviera
The Mexican Riviera refers collectively to twenty cities and lagoons lying on the western coast of Mexico. Although there are long distances between these cities, they are often collectively referred to as the ''Mexican Riviera'' because of the ...
and went through the
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...
.
She returned to Chester for two weeks during this period when her grandfather died. It was the last time her family saw her in person.
Disappearance
Coriam returned to the ''Wonder'' and her duties as a youth worker, maintaining contact with her family via
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
and
Skype
Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...
. Six weeks later, on 21 March 2011, the day the ship left Los Angeles, she sent what would be her last message to her parents via Facebook, saying she would call the next day.
Her mother grew concerned when, following her reply, twelve hours went by without a response.
![Disney Wonder 20110216](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Disney_Wonder_20110216.JPG)
At 9 a.m.
Pacific Daylight Time
The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00) ...
that morning on the ''Wonder'', off the coast of Mexico bound for
Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta ( or simply Vallarta) is a Mexican beach resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
Puerto Vallarta is the second largest urban agglomeration in the state after the Guadala ...
and
Cabo San Lucas
Cabo San Lucas (, "Saint Luke Cape"), or simply just Cabo, is a resort city at the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. As at the 2020 Census, the population of the city was 202,694 inhabitan ...
, Coriam had missed the start of her shift. She was not in her room or anywhere else on the ship, and did not respond to pages over the ship's
public address system
A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...
. A review of
CCTV
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...
footage found one appearance of her, timestamped 5:45 a.m.
An early, unverified account, purportedly from another crew member, claimed she had gone overboard at 3 a.m., nearly three hours earlier.
In the video, Coriam is talking on one of the ship's internal phones in a crew area. She appears distraught. A young man walks up to her and appears to ask if everything is all right. Her mouth can clearly be read to be saying "Yeah, fine", after which she hangs up. She then walks away, pushing her hair back and putting her hands in her back pockets, mannerisms her parents say were common for her. There has been no record of her presence anywhere since then.
Investigations
The crew searched the ship for her. Ships of the
U.S. Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...
and
Mexican Navy
The Mexican Navy is one of the two independent armed forces of Mexico. The actual naval forces are called the ''Armada de México''. The ''Secretaría de Marina'' (''SEMAR'') (English: Naval Secretariat) includes both the ''Armada'' itself and ...
searched the
international waters
The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regiona ...
through which the ''Wonder'' had been sailing during the hours in which Coriam could have
gone overboard, if that was what had occurred. They likewise found nothing.
Since the ''Wonder'' is
registered in
the Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
, a detective from the
Royal Bahamas Police Force
The Royal Bahamas Police Force is the national law enforcement agency of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. It operates within the portfolio of the Ministry of National Security. The police force was established on 1 March 1840 and is headquartere ...
(RBPF) flew to the ship to investigate once it had returned to Los Angeles, three days after the disappearance. He was reported to have undertaken "several days of onboard investigations".
Mike and Annmaria Coriam, Rebecca's parents, were flown out from England to meet the ship when it returned. They met the Bahamian detective and said he told them he had spent only one day on board investigating before flying back home. The detective also told them that he had interviewed only a few crew members, and none of the passengers. The Coriams claimed Disney kept them in a car with blacked-out windows and brought them on board via a little-used side entrance after all the passengers had disembarked. The ''Wonders captain gave his condolences and expressed his theory that Rebecca had been washed overboard by a wave while at the crew pool, a theory the Coriams doubted due to the high walls around it.
After that, they were taken to a meeting with Disney executives and the woman Rebecca had been speaking to on the phone.
On the day before the first anniversary of her disappearance, her father received an email from a woman who claimed she had seen Rebecca with a dark-haired man on the street in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
the previous August. The woman said she was "85% sure" it was Rebecca, and seeing the family's website had roused her memory. "It was just an email but it seemed legitimate," said her uncle. "It was very upsetting for everyone to think she could be out there somewhere after all this time." He wondered how she could have got there without her passport, which had been among the belongings her parents had recovered from her quarters.
''The Guardian'' article
In October 2011, journalist
Jon Ronson
Jon Ronson (born 10 May 1967) is a British-American journalist, author, and filmmaker whose works include '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'' (2001), ''The Men Who Stare at Goats'' (2004), and ''The Psychopath Test'' (2011). He has been desc ...
took the ''Wonder'' along the same route and made discreet inquiries while aboard. With the Coriams' permission, he wrote about it in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. Several crew members, none of whom wanted their names used, who had been on the ship at the time of Rebecca's disappearance, spoke to him. They suggested that more was known about her fate than Disney or the Bahamanian police had publicly admitted.
Many were circumspect. "It didn't happen," a bartender told Ronson. "You know that's the answer I have to give." After touring the areas of the ship open to passengers, he decided that Coriam had probably slipped and fallen while jogging on the Deck 4 jogging track. The railings there were low enough for that accident to happen, and she regularly kept herself in shape that way. However, the track was well covered by disguised security cameras.
![Disney Wonder bow and crew pool](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Disney_Wonder_bow_and_crew_pool.jpg)
He shared this theory with a deck worker, who told him he was mistaken. Coriam had, according to him, actually gone overboard from the crew pool on Deck 5. "I was on the ship that day." the man said. "Everyone knows". He cited a flip flop found in the area as proof. After the reporter returned, "Melissa", a woman whom the Coriams had told to contact him, told him that the day after the disappearance, flowers were placed on the wall near the pool, apparently by the company.
"It really stirred things up," the woman recalled. "Why
ee they putting them there? Nothing was clear."
When he took a look at the crew pool, visible from the fore of Deck 10, he doubted these claims. Around the railings on the pool is a steel wall high enough to completely block any view (another crew member had told him it was a popular place to go when not working as their cabins were very small and it was a place crew members could be themselves, away from guests). There were conspicuously mounted security cameras as well. Although he allowed that they could have been placed since the incident, Ronson did not see how anyone could have jumped or fallen from there.
But all crew members who spoke with him insisted that Coriam had gone overboard from the crew pool. "Disney knows exactly what happened", one said. "Everything here is taped. There's CCTV everywhere. Disney has the tape." Near the end of a voyage, another crew member who sought him out explained in further detail that even though the walls around the pool are high, the seas were rough at the time and she could have been tossed off the ship, especially if the deck and walls were slippery. He said a friend of his had to get someone inside in similar conditions, and the offence of being outside on the pool deck in such conditions was serious enough that Disney sent that person home from the cruise.
Theories
Since Rebecca was not found on the ship despite a thorough search, investigators concluded that she
went overboard, possibly as a result of a
rogue wave
Rogue waves (also known as freak waves, monster waves, episodic waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves) are unusually large, unpredictable, and suddenly appearing surface waves that can be extremely dangerous to ships, even to lar ...
. The Coriams and their lawyer say they never received a copy of the final report as they were promised by the Bahamian police; British detectives who did receive it have refused repeated
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request:
* Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act
* ...
requests for a copy on the grounds that it contains restricted personal information.
A crew member told Ronson that the call was taped. Several others believed it was with a romantic partner. "She was in a relationship, and there were problems, and it was upsetting her," "Melissa" told Ronson. "It was a very, very intense relationship. It was great and then it was awful ... I can't think of any other reason why she'd have been upset and wandering around by herself at 6 am." However, she says Coriam was on the phone not with the partner but a mutual friend.
On the anniversary of Rebecca's disappearance, her parents told the ''
Liverpool Echo
The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St Paul's Square, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Sunday, and is Liverp ...
'' that they heard the names of a young woman and older man on the ship mentioned as possibly being involved in a
love triangle
A love triangle or eternal triangle is a scenario or circumstance, usually depicted as a rivalry, in which two people are pursuing or involved in a romantic relationship with one person, or in which one person in a romantic relationship with so ...
with her, and called for them to come forward. They also disclosed that they had heard Disney had sent some additional footage to the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
for
enhancement, but could not say what that footage might contain.
They recall her personality as constantly cheerful and upbeat, traits that got her the Disney job in the first place. When her parents visited her quarters after the disappearance, they found passes she had obtained for them and her sister to visit
Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disneyland Park is the origin ...
, a gift trip she was apparently planning to surprise them with on her next break at home. These plans, as well as her continuing Facebook exchanges with her mother, argue for them against suicide.
"Melissa", who had last seen Coriam at 11 p.m. the previous night, told Ronson that she believed Coriam went out to the crew pool, one of her favourite places on the ship, to be alone and relax for a while. While there, she might have climbed up and sat on the wall, and then fallen. "Bex was a bit of a risk taker," she said.
However, "Melissa" was dismissive of the suggestion that the slippers allegedly found near the pool, which were included among the belongings returned to Coriam's parents, had been hers. "Mike and Ann showed them to me," she told Ronson. "They were too big. They weren't her style. They were pink and flowery and Hawaiian. I'd never seen her wear them. Why didn't Disney come to me or her girlfriend and say, 'Can you identify these as Bex's?'"
While the Coriams later claimed the flip flops were too small, they were unable to find anyone on the ship who had seen her wearing them and learned that no
forensics
Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and crimina ...
had been done on them.
In 2016, private investigators working for the family said that they had conclusively established that the footwear did not belong to the couple's daughter. Not only were they not in a style she would wear, they noted, the flip-flops had another crewmember's name and cabin number written on them. The Coriams said this led them to strongly doubt Disney's claim that they had been found in the pool area, as well as its theory that Rebecca was swept or fell overboard from there.
It was also noted that in the video of the phone call, Rebecca's clothes appear very large; her friends and fellow crew have speculated that they may have been someone else's.
Former
City of Chester MP
Chris Matheson believes Coriam was the victim of a crime and was possibly sexually assaulted or murdered. He told the
Liverpool Echo
The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St Paul's Square, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Sunday, and is Liverp ...
in 2015, "the more you look into this the more it smells rotten; the more it smells like a crime has taken place". He claims to have a copy of the original police report with "compelling" evidence to support his claim.
John Anderson, a private investigator who has worked with both the Coriams and Matheson, says records show the seas around the ''Wonder'' were normal that night, casting doubt on Disney's "rogue wave" claim. He also says that any wave capable of taking her off the ship would have caused visible damage to it as well.
Baron
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (born 31 May 1938) is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he w ...
, former
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
under
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
and now a
life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...
in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
, has also taken an interest in the case. He believes Rebecca was thrown overboard rather than having fallen.
He has also called for laws that would allow British authorities to investigate their own citizens' deaths on cruise ships in international waters.
Criticism of investigation
Ronson reported that at the time his article was published, the Coriams had received no further updates from Disney or the RBPF on the progress of the investigation. "
enever we call anyone, all they say is, 'The investigation is ongoing,'" Mike Coriam said. "We've tried emailing, telling them how we feel, how it's getting harder ... But nothing. Just, 'It's ongoing.'" The Bahamian police officer assigned to the case never returned Ronson's calls.
The Coriams have been joined in their criticism of the investigation by British government officials, Rebecca's friends among the crew, and advocates for victims of other incidents on cruise ships and their families. The latter, especially, note that 170 passengers and crew have disappeared from cruise ships since 2000, many without being seriously investigated or widely reported. All critics contend that Disney, like other cruise operators, is more interested in avoiding adverse publicity related to these incidents than anything else.
In November 2011,
Stephen Mosley
Stephen James Mosley (born 22 June 1972) is a British Conservative Party politician and former Member of Parliament. He represented the City of Chester from 2010 to 2015.
Education
Stephen Mosley was educated at King Edward's School in Bir ...
, then the Coriams' MP, brought the case up in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
. "The investigation into Rebecca's disappearance was appalling," he told
Mike Penning
Sir Michael Alan Penning (born 28 September 1957) is a British Conservative Party politician, who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hemel Hempstead since 2005.
Penning was the Minister of State for the Armed Forces from 2016 to 20 ...
, the Minister for Shipping.
"
e Bahamian authorities made virtually no attempt at investigating Rebecca's disappearance," he continued, saying the RBPF was "internationally recognised as almost toothless
... Very few people know that when they board a cruise ship that they are so poorly protected."
Countries such as the Bahamas, often criticized for the lax standards of such "
flag of convenience
Flag of convenience (FOC) is a business practice whereby a ship's owners register a merchant ship in a ship register of a country other than that of the ship's owners, and the ship flies the civil ensign of that country, called the flag state ...
" ship registrations, did not have the investigative capabilities to deal with such incidents.
Penning responded by announcing that the
Marine Accident Investigation Branch
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) is a UK government organisation, authorised to investigate all maritime accidents in UK waters and accidents involving UK registered ships worldwide. Investigations are limited to establishing cau ...
would investigate all deaths or disappearances of British citizens from vessels anywhere in the world, paralleling similar legislation signed by U.S. President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
that gives the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
that authority in the event of the death or disappearance of any American citizen. The Government would also work through the
International Maritime Organization
The International Maritime Organization (IMO, French: ''Organisation maritime internationale'') is a specialised agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating shipping. The IMO was established following agreement at a UN conference ...
to increase international cooperation on such investigations.
Penning, too, was critical of Disney, saying the company was "more interested in getting the ship back to sea than in investigating the case of the missing member of their crew".
"In other corporations, police get involved," said Kendall Carver, an American who founded the lobbying group International Cruise Victims after his own daughter's 2004 disappearance from the ''
Celebrity Mercury
''Mein Schiff Herz'' (formerly MV ''Mercury'', ''Celebrity Mercury'' and ''Mein Schiff 2'') is the second of two s operated by TUI Cruises. Built for Celebrity Cruises at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, she was launched on 11J ...
''. "On cruise ships they have, quote, ''security officers'', but they work for the cruise lines. They aren't going to do anything when the lines get sued."
Miami lawyer Jim Walker, publisher of the blog ''Cruise Law News'', which is highly critical of the industry, concurs. "The Coriam family does not deserve Mickey Mouse games," he commented in Ronson's article.
Walker later represented the Coriams in a suit against Disney in American courts; they
settled
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area.
A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer.
Settle ...
with the company in 2015 for an undisclosed sum and an agreement not to discuss the case publicly.
Carver and Walker
both believe Disney has more evidence than it has shown, particularly security footage of the area by the pool, and is covering up knowledge of what happened out of fear of adverse publicity. "If there's a video that shows your daughter going overboard," Carver told Ronson, "that's the end of the story. There's no way someone can go off a ship and it not be recorded."
Melissa told Ronson it was implausible that there was no footage since the pool is close to a number of other important offices, such as
human resources
Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include m ...
and the payroll department, where money and sensitive documents were kept. She believed any coverup by Disney may have been as much about protecting themselves from charges of
negligence
Negligence (Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate and/or ethical ruled care expected to be exercised amongst specified circumstances. The area of tort law known as ''negligence'' involves harm caused by failing to act as a ...
, since the pool is just below the ship's
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
and would thus be the portion of the ship where a fall would most likely be seen by someone in a position to start a rescue.
"If it was 6 a.m. and they were doing their job and watching the front, someone must have seen her go over," she told Ronson. "Or if they didn't, they're covering up why they didn't."
Disney told Ronson that they are deferring to the RBPF. "
hey have toldus the investigation is still ongoing. They have not shared a timeline with us, either." Their spokesperson refused to comment on specifics about whether a tape of the phone call or additional security-camera video exists. "
wish we knew what happened as much as anyone ... Rebecca's disappearance has been difficult and heartbreaking for everyone."
See also
*
Disappearance of Sarm Heslop
Sarm Joan Lillian Heslop (born 19 December 1979), is a British woman who went missing from a catamaran, moored in a bay off the western coast of Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands, Saint John, one of the United States Virgin Islands, in March 2021. ...
*
Incidents at Walt Disney World
This is a summary of notable incidents that have taken place at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The term "incidents" refers to major injuries, deaths, loss (or injury), or significant crimes related to the attractions themselves, or pers ...
*
List of people who disappeared mysteriously at sea
Throughout history, people have mysteriously disappeared at sea, many on voyages aboard floating vessels or traveling via aircraft. The following is a list of known individuals who have mysteriously vanished in open waters, and whose whereabouts r ...
References
External links
Official Find Rebecca websiteInternational Cruise Victims
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coriam, Rebecca
2010s missing person cases
2011 in Mexico
Disney Cruise Line
March 2011 events in Mexico
Missing person cases in Mexico
People lost at sea