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"They took blood samples, they took other evidence ... from the cabin, they dusted the entire cabin for fingerprints. All of that information has been turned over to the FBI," he said. Wright also said the Turkish police came on board the ship and conducted a "full forensic investigation." After that accusation, the cruise line booted Kofman, his friends and their families off of the ship. To date, no charges have been brought against Kofman or his friends for either the alleged rape or any role they may have played in George Smith's disappearance.
Cruise Ship Law Blog
Attorneys on the case say one of the Rozenberg parents produced a copy of the tape. Another copy, these attorneys say, was “found”—they won’t say how. The International Cruise Victims Association (ICV) is dedicated to helping the loved ones of passengers who have been involved in crimes at sea, especially those who have disappeared at sea. George Allen Smith IV (born October 3, 1978) was an American man who disappeared overboard from the Royal Caribbean International cruise ship MS Brilliance of the Seas in July 2005 under suspicious circumstances.
More of Colin's Police Interview
Aboard that night were 2,300 guests, most of them Americans. One was a handsome, muscular 26-year-old Connecticut honeymooner named George Allen Smith IV, whose family owns a popular liquor store in the upper-crust Connecticut town of Cos Cob, near Greenwich. Smith and his attractive blonde bride of 10 days, Jennifer, who was to begin a new job teaching third-graders upon their return, had a stateroom with a balcony on Deck Nine. Afterward, they headed to the casino and then to the discotheque, where they were seen drinking with a circle of shipboard acquaintances late into the night. Sadly, he isn’t the only cruise ship passenger whose case remains unsolved.
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"George and Jennifer dressed well. George had a very expensive Breitling watch. They, sort of, flashed the money at the -- in the casino." "There's a lotta evidence to suggest that that was not as simple as -- as the Russian men and as Josh have said," Jones said. "It's ridiculously provocative," Jones said of the videotape. "You know, they ordered so much food, and they couldn't have killed George because they were in the room eating the room service," Jones told "48 Hours".
A month later they went public, granting interviews to King and Scarborough, and making statements before a congressional hearing investigating cruise-ship security. On Monday evening, July 4, 2005, a mammoth, multi-tiered cruise ship, Brilliance of the Seas, weighed anchor and eased out of the harbor at the Greek island of Mykonos, in the Aegean Sea. It was the sixth night of the ship’s 12-day circling of the Mediterranean, a voyage begun in Barcelona the previous Wednesday. Captain Michael Lachtaridis of the Royal Caribbean line, which owns the ship, ordered a course north by northeast. The ship was scheduled to reach the Turkish port of Kusadasi around dawn. Smith’s family has maintained all these years that George was murdered by several men with whom George had an argument.
George is presumed to have gone overboard, but the circumstances around his death are perplexing and his family is still fighting for answers to this day. Jan. 26, 2006 — -- Eight days into George and Jennifer Smith's dream honeymoon cruise aboard the Royal Caribbean ship Brilliance of the Seas, something went terribly wrong. Passengers two floors below the Smiths' cabin woke up on the morning of July 5 and noticed a metal overhang above a lifeboat covered with blood.
Murder at Sea? The disappearance of George Smith
Hyman added, "And then I banged on the wall a couple of times to hopefully get their attention." Dayan said that Kofman first met George and Jennifer Smith on the night of July 4 at the ship's casino, and they all sat down together to have drinks. The New York field office is now offering assistance and a team of new agents in the Connecticut office has been assigned to the case.
Cruise line amends settlement with Conn. family - The San Diego Union-Tribune - The San Diego Union-Tribune
Cruise line amends settlement with Conn. family - The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Posted: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 07:00:00 GMT [source]
MURDERED: María Marta García Belsunce Part 2
Hyman says the argument went on for a couple of minutes, then he heard male voices say goodnight. "My brother is dead and missing and Royal Caribbean felt that they didn't need to tell us about what happened on that boat," said his sister, Bree. "They never told me that there were suspicious circumstances and they never told me about blood on the overhang." "There's a lot riding on today's meeting," Jones explained.
"The New York office just makes sense. It's a bigger office, they have more - capabilities. ... They are more experienced with big cases." "The ... FBI determined that there is not sufficient evidence to continue the investigation," Bree Smith said, reading the statement aloud. Until the day the case is solved, the Smiths vow to not let George's memory die on that ship. "I think it's another rubber-hose ploy, you know, where just to freak Josh out and upset him more," Greer told Miller. "I think it was just the psychological war that they were waging on him and his family. ... Or they didn't take the time to do it right, one or the other." A source close to the investigation has told CBS News that on the tape, one of the men -- Rusty Kofman -- refers to George going "parachute riding" off his balcony.
Hopefully Smith’s story will shed some light into the hidden world of cruise lines and how – more often than not – they fail to provide a safe environment for those onboard. In 2010, Mike Jones got his hands on Royal Caribbean's case file. Room service records do not show any order being delivered to the men last seen with George Smith that night. The FBI has been investigating George Smith's disappearance for almost eight years, but it has gone nowhere. Mike Jones, an attorney hired by the Smiths, is trying to move the case forward. According to the young men, shortly after 4 a.m., they had brought George back to his cabin and while Josh went to the bathroom, the other guys had taken off George's shoes and put a drunken George to bed.
She complained that Kofman and the Rozenberg boys had phoned in an order and, during the course of ordering, cursed at her. Breheret picked up the phone, called the boys, and took their order. Even so, Breheret felt that two more incidents justified a second meeting with the Rozenberg parents. In the disco, according to all accounts, the group was joined by Kofman and two of the Rozenberg boys.
Ship crew members never even called Smith’s cabin to make sure everyone was ok. The next morning, crews cleaned the blood off the awning with a high-pressure hose, never even telling Jennifer about the blood stains. Smith disappeared from Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas ship on July 5, 2005. Although his body was never recovered, bloodstains were found beneath the balcony of the cabin he was sharing with his new wife, Jennifer Hagel-Smith, who is now remarried.
For months Askin was the only one the press identified, after his attorney spoke last summer to Katie Couric on the Today show and on Dateline NBC. Even after that, most press outlets declined to identify him. Rostislav Kofman, whose name I learned from a cable booker in December, was not publicly named until January, by the New York Post. A strange series of events transpired aboard Brilliance of the Seas in the days after it left Italy.
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