WA WA - Merrian Carver, 40, Alaskan cruise, 28 August 2004

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Missing from cruises

Since mid-2004, at least eight Americans have vanished from cruise ships.


• July 23, 2004: Chris Caldwell, 37, Virginia. Disappeared from the Carnival Cruise ship Fascination while it was about 14 miles from the Florida coast. Caldwell, a father of three, was vacationing with his girlfriend, who reported him missing to ship officials. The Coast Guard was notified and began a search of the area.


• Aug. 28, 2004: Merrian Carver, 40, Massachusetts. Disappeared on the Celebrity Cruises ship Mercury on the second night of an Alaskan cruise. Carver's room steward noticed she wasn't using her room and reported it to supervisors. No action was taken. Her belongings, left on board at the end of the cruise, were put into storage. The cruise line, owned by Royal Caribbean International, did not file a missing-persons report until several weeks later after being contacted by her family.


• Nov. 23, 2004: Glenn Sheridan, 54, Virginia. Disappeared from the Carnival Cruise ship Celebration in the Atlantic Ocean. Sheridan's wife reported him missing just after midnight as the ship was headed toward Jacksonville, Fla. The Coast Guard searched for more than 24 hours.


• Dec. 4, 2004: Annette Mizener, 37, Wisconsin. Disappeared from the Carnival Cruise ship Pride while it was headed to Mexico. Mizener was traveling with her parents and her 17-year-old daughter. Her family reported her missing when she failed to show up for a late-night dinner. A crew member found her purse near an outside railing.


• May 13, 2005: Hue Pham, 70, and Hue Tran, 65, California. Disappeared from the Carnival Cruise ship Destiny near Aruba. The couple had been married for 50 years. The cruise was a Mother's Day present from their children. When the couple did not show up for a shipboard show, their family became concerned. Earlier, one of their parents' bags had been found on the deck. The family notified the ship's staff and a search began. It is believed they fell overboard.


• June 23: Vonnie Ales, 40, Texas. Disappeared on the Carnival Cruise ship Elation between Belize and Galveston, Texas. Ales was traveling with her husband. Passengers last saw her by herself just after 7 a.m. as the ship was 30 miles off Mexico. When notified, the ship turned around and initiated a search. The FBI reported that Ales neither had an accident nor was the victim of foul play.


• July 5: George Smith, 26, Connecticut. Disappeared on the Royal Caribbean ship Brilliance of the Seas in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey. Smith was on a honeymoon cruise. Passengers heard loud noises, including scuffling and a thud, coming from Smith's cabin around 4 a.m. In the morning, passengers noticed a bloodstain below his cabin balcony. The cruise ship notified Turkish authorities and the FBI.
 
I was just looking over a few cruise options last night- this has certinly changed my mind. Its just mind boggoling! The worst part is little to no help is offered for the search.
I would be scared the whole trip. Thanks so much for posting this article.
 
There is one person missing from this list. Offhand I think her name is Amy Bradley - I'll have to google her and see. She was on a cruise with her parents and brother I believe. Someone saw her napping on a lounge chair on one of the decks and that was the last time she was seen. Can anyone confirm this?

Edited to add, sorry - I just noticed the list was from mid-2004. I believe her disappearance was prior to that.
 
This is a really weird thing that is happening. I wonder what's behind it all? My parents were on a Carnival cruise last December and when I heard that someone was missing from one I thought it was my mom (it turned out not to be) and it wasn't someone from their ship but it scared me for a minute.
 
I read about this at the cruise forum I post at, very tragic indeed!
 
Amy Bradley disappeared off a cruise ship in 1998.
 
As tragic as this is, I really think all things point to suicide.
The most telling sign is the cash left for the steward. She knew she had no more need for money, so she left it to someone who could use it.

As for the two sandwiches thing...maybe she was just really hungry? I eat two sandwiches all the time, and I am not overweight at all.

She didn't contact family because she didn't want them to know she was going on a cruise to commit suicide...she prob. thought it would be better if they knew she might be a victim of foul play than for them to have to live with the fact that she killed herself.

And how easy it would be to just voluntarily fall overboard. Seems like it would be an instant death, plus there would be no body to be found...her parents and daughter would never know, which, in hindsight, is even worse than knowing.
 
Hmmm, this is odd. Those cruise ships seem to be unsafe.

I know this may seem funny, but when I was a kid, my mom always told me not to eat before I went swimming or I would "drown".
Maybe she ate a little more because she was planning on jumping overboard?
I don't know.

That's beside the point. This was handled badly from the beginning. Her poor parents have been going through some serious mental anguish. :(
 
This is just unbelievable! I can't imagine being in their situation. I does make you wonder about human trafficing in these cases...
 
I wonder if the parents/investigators have investigated the following and if so, what they found out:

What was her ex's input, if any? I was surprised that he didn't contact the family after his lil girl couldn't find her mom. As the parent, it seems that he would've called one of Merrian's family members, no matter how good/bad the divorce may have been.

I've never been on a cruise but I don't think I'd enjoy it as much if I were alone. Is there any mention of a beau? I wonder if she was planning to meet someone on the ship. Internet love connection? May be she didn't want to get lectured about the dangers of online dating so she kept it to herself. Someone the family might not approve of??

Something struck me as odd...seems that some of her belongings were missing. Per cruise line reps, her personal belongings consisted of clothes (that were supposedly given to charity by the cruiseline), her purse (with papers in it-doesn't say what they were), keys and computer disks with her poems on them.

Where is the rest of her belongings? Jewelry, cell phone, makeup, wallet? The stuff we carry daily. And why carry disks only of her own poems? Was she planning to let someone read them? Were there more disks containing valuable info taken from her cabin? Did she take a laptop aboard?

Did the employee that reported her missing mention it to co-workers or anyone else or just the same supervisor over and over?

DId she order both sandwiches exactly the same? Meat, condiments, etc...might determine whether she ordered for herself only or another person as well.

One article said the family was provided a copy of a pic taken as she boarded. Anybody know if the boarding pics they take are casual pics (with others in the background) or headshots- like ID or passport pics?

Maybe she was walking/talking to someone as she was boarding. I wonder if they cross-ref'd the various flight lists arriving Seattle around the same time as hers, with the passenger list of cruise passengers. That sounds like a lot of work, though!!
 
Call me chicken if you like, but I would be afraid to go on a cruise after hearing these stories. I know that is irrational, but that is how I feel about a cruise.
 
the "Disney" mentality, ie: that they try their utmost to avoid any type of widespread media coverage of unfavorable/unsavory events that occur much like the Disney corp does when things go bad at one of their theme parks. But with cruise lines, because of various registries, and the not knowing exactly when or where a person disappears, and the contained atmosphere aboard cruise ships, it is much easier for them to impede, delay, ect. ANY type of investigation-usually to the point where trying to reconstruct a missing persons last hours are virtually impossible.


In Annette Mizener's case, it was widely reported that their was clear evidence of a struggle(purse contents scattered about on the deck)as well as evidence that the surveillance camera in the area she was last seen had been deliberately tampered with. And only because the individual who discovered Annette's things on the deck went the extra mile and contacted the FBI directly was even this much info brought to light!


I firmly believe that the ONLY reason that George Smith's case received the publicity it did was because of the family's wealth-otherwise, it would have simply been just one more case of a missing person on a cruise...and even in his case the cruise line managed to "muddy the waters" and destroyed evidence and impeded and evaded so that while there was almost certainly a crime committed-the chances of anyone ever answering for it are slim to none!


And I think that if more parents were aware of these tragic cases, they would be much more inclined to NOT allow their teens to go on school-sponsored trips on cruise ships. And then maybe, just maybe, if cruise lines revenues were impacted sufficiently, they would FINALLY get the message that their actions needed to be much more effective in assisting families of the missing, instead of hiding behind lawyers!
 
Seems like with so many missing persons, they might (?) consider a few cameras - or would that impede on privacy issues and well, any improprieties that may be going on between people ?




"I've always been crazy but it's kept:crazy: me from going insane!"


Lucky~~~~
 
SpongeBathHotPants said:
Missing from cruises

Since mid-2004, at least eight Americans have vanished from cruise ships.


• July 23, 2004: Chris Caldwell, 37, Virginia. Disappeared from the Carnival Cruise ship Fascination while it was about 14 miles from the Florida coast. Caldwell, a father of three, was vacationing with his girlfriend, who reported him missing to ship officials. The Coast Guard was notified and began a search of the area.


• Aug. 28, 2004: Merrian Carver, 40, Massachusetts. Disappeared on the Celebrity Cruises ship Mercury on the second night of an Alaskan cruise. Carver's room steward noticed she wasn't using her room and reported it to supervisors. No action was taken. Her belongings, left on board at the end of the cruise, were put into storage. The cruise line, owned by Royal Caribbean International, did not file a missing-persons report until several weeks later after being contacted by her family.


• Nov. 23, 2004: Glenn Sheridan, 54, Virginia. Disappeared from the Carnival Cruise ship Celebration in the Atlantic Ocean. Sheridan's wife reported him missing just after midnight as the ship was headed toward Jacksonville, Fla. The Coast Guard searched for more than 24 hours.


• Dec. 4, 2004: Annette Mizener, 37, Wisconsin. Disappeared from the Carnival Cruise ship Pride while it was headed to Mexico. Mizener was traveling with her parents and her 17-year-old daughter. Her family reported her missing when she failed to show up for a late-night dinner. A crew member found her purse near an outside railing.


• May 13, 2005: Hue Pham, 70, and Hue Tran, 65, California. Disappeared from the Carnival Cruise ship Destiny near Aruba. The couple had been married for 50 years. The cruise was a Mother's Day present from their children. When the couple did not show up for a shipboard show, their family became concerned. Earlier, one of their parents' bags had been found on the deck. The family notified the ship's staff and a search began. It is believed they fell overboard.


• June 23: Vonnie Ales, 40, Texas. Disappeared on the Carnival Cruise ship Elation between Belize and Galveston, Texas. Ales was traveling with her husband. Passengers last saw her by herself just after 7 a.m. as the ship was 30 miles off Mexico. When notified, the ship turned around and initiated a search. The FBI reported that Ales neither had an accident nor was the victim of foul play.


• July 5: George Smith, 26, Connecticut. Disappeared on the Royal Caribbean ship Brilliance of the Seas in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey. Smith was on a honeymoon cruise. Passengers heard loud noises, including scuffling and a thud, coming from Smith's cabin around 4 a.m. In the morning, passengers noticed a bloodstain below his cabin balcony. The cruise ship notified Turkish authorities and the FBI.
Click to expand...







Of these all listed 5 were from Carnival Cruise. I think there may be more to this.
 
http://blog.lipcon.com/2013/02/cana...spected-cruise-ship-disappearance-victim.html

February 6, 2013

<snipped>
Attention was recently given to the subject of cruise disappearances after the remains of a woman who had vanished from a vessel several years ago were uncovered.

Police suspect the bones of a deceased victim that were recently found on Merry Island in Canada were those of Merrian Carver. Age 40 at the time of her disappearance, Carver vanished from the Celebrity Cruise ship Mercury while it was on an Alaska itinerary in August 2004.
Click to expand...
 
Was her recovery ever confirmed? :( Rest in peace, Merrian.
 

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