Passenger says he found missing womans purse,
saw tampered camera
FBI continues investigation into womans disappearance from ship
By KOLLIN KOSMICKI - GM Today Staff
January 6, 2005
WAUKESHA - A man aboard the cruise ship from which Annette Mizener disappeared a month ago says hes the one who found an array of her belongings on a deck, and that he witnessed a security camera covered with paper near those items.
Michael Gaither, of Milipitas, Calif., said he was surprised the FBI never contacted or interviewed him because he was one of three people who knew firsthand where the items were found. He said he also sent the FBI and Carnival Cruise Lines a detailed account of his observations, along with times.
"I consider myself sort of, kind of, a suspect," Gaither said sarcastically in a phone interview.
Mizener, 37, of Waukesha, went missing from the Carnival Pride cruise ship traveling back to Long Beach, Calif., from its voyage to Mexico. A Carnival spokeswoman has said crew workers found Mizeners purse on a deck that night. A search for Mizener on the ship and in surrounding waters failed to locate a body.
The FBI is still investigating Mizeners disappearance and an agency spokeswoman declined to comment on Gaithers observations.
Gaither, who provided documentation to The Freeman confirming he was a ship passenger, said he discovered Mizeners purse when he went on the deck to smoke a cigarette.
He said he noticed it at about the same time as two nearby security personnel, who then came out and searched it to identify the owner.
He left the area of the ship and returned about 15 minutes later, he said. When he returned, he said, the area had not been taped off.
The first thing he noticed was a security camera covered with a piece of paper, what he described as a brochure that was possibly wet and "draped" over the camera.
"A lot of people have been saying its a rumor," Gaither said about the security camera reportedly being covered. "Its not a rumor. I saw it myself."
He said he also noticed nearby an emergency strobe light out of place on a buoy ring, some sort of note or piece of paper tucked onto the ring, an overturned glass and a pen, he said.
He informed security and left the area, he said, only to return again about 15 minutes later. Mizeners 17-year-old daughter, Danielle, was at the scene "looking around" when he came back, he said.
At that point another teenage boy helping them search the area climbed a ladder and observed beads from the purse that were "spread all over the ground where the bag was first found."
Gaither said he was frustrated it took security several hours to rope off that area and he estimated that a couple hundred people had walked through the vicinity after the discovery of the purse.
A Carnival spokeswoman handling media inquiries about the disappearance, Jennifer de La Cruz, didnt return phone calls Wednesday and this morning.
Mizeners family members, including her husband John, have not commented for weeks on the disappearance.
"I guess John doesnt want to get involved every day with somebody saying this or that," said the familys spokesman, the Rev. Rick Kielley. "Were trying to give him some time to face the facts."
http://www.gmtoday.com/news/local_stories/2005/January_05/01062005_01.asp
