Disappearance Before Dawn

The honeymooners, Jennifer and George, had booked themselves on a snazzy state of the art cruise ship, a floating five-star hotel with round-the-clock diversions.

Up on deck 7, Illinois teenager Emilie Rausch and her sister, cruising with their mom, were thrilled with the view out their balcony.

Emilie had a brand-new camera and was eager to try it out. Emilie’s family had booked the vacation as a college graduation present for her sister. That made them typical passengers on this Mediterranean run.

This particular line of ship was designed with active families in mind more than the sedate retirees, of the cruise ship stereotype.

Up on deck 9, Clete Hyman, for instance, a deputy police chief from Redlands, Calif., now retired, had reserved cabins for eight extended family members: a stress-free, no cell phones, no e-mail, spin around the Med.

“There’s very little that you have to worry about,” says Hyman. “Your hotel goes with you. You’re not packing and unpacking.”

Down the same hallway, Pat and Greg Lawyer had a special celebration underway. “This was our 35^th anniversary present to each other. I’ve always wanted to go to the Greek Islands,” says Greg.

And the cruise line delivered on schedule...the delights of Florence on July 1st. And wonderful weather in Rome on the 2nd.

Raucus party-throwers
Two days into the trip, though, Clete Hyman did have one complaint. After leaving France, the young couple in the cabin right next door, no. 9062, had a noisy party with he guessed four to six other people that lasted until 3 a.m.

Murphy: Are the walls that thin? Or were they that loud?

Hyman: Well, I think it’s a combination of both.

The raucus party-throwers were the honeymooners, George and Jennifer.

According to some fellow passengers who got to know them, the younger people on-board— the 20-somethings along on those family reunions and special celebrations— tended to hang out together at night after the older passengers turned in.

After dinner, the young crowd would try their luck at the casino on deck 6, continuing the festivities late into the night at the disco bar on 13, with the newlyweds sometimes joining them.

One of the couple's new acquaintances was Josh Askin, a then-20-year old college student from California. He was along with his  family to celebrate his parents' 25th wedding anniversary.

Murphy: Did Josh get to know these honeymooners, George and Jennifer?

Keith Greer, lawyer for Josh’s family: Yeah, the family actually met them at first in Florence, they got off the boat together. Neither of the groups had tours set-up and so they shared a cab. They spent a little bit of that day together that day, which is when they first met.

According to fellow passengers, George, Jennifer, and now Josh, were joined by another group of young men who, like Josh, were vacationing with their family— two cousins and a friend — who were vacationing with their families from Brooklyn, New York, and Florida. Their parents had emigrated from the Soviet Union so they became known in the events that followed as the three Russian Boys.

Murphy: How does Josh describe his temporary friendship with these guys?

Greer: Fun, good group of guys, loud. You know, 18-to-20-year old guys on a boat partying.

The honeymooners, Josh and the three Russian boys became buddies— boisterous young compadres at sea with a mostly older crowd. Though a young woman on the same cruise, who told us off-camera that she thought the Russian boys were rough around the edges. She remembers them trying to pick fights and stealing liquor from the ship’s bar. Her instincts told her to give them some distance.

The night in question
On the Fourth of July, the ship tied up in Mykonos. The Greek island with the whitewashed houses and blue doors was as beautiful as the brochures.

What would happen in the next 12 hours after Mykonos is the crux of the mystery, between the evening of the 4th of July and the wee hours of the 5th, with the ship bound for it’s next port of call in Turkey.

The account of the evening is told through Josh's lawyer who says that Josh, George and Jennifer and the Russian Boys made the ship’s casino their home base in a night of heavy drinking.

Greer: This evening you can’t even imagine the amount of drinking. There was an incredible amount of alcohol.

Josh's attorney says the newlyweds gambled, but not always together.

Greer: In and out of the casino—there Josh sees Jennifer at the blackjack table and George at the craps table. And in fact, that night, George taught Josh how to play craps for the most part.

Murphy: Was George having some luck that night?

Greer: No, and see that's interesting. There’s talk about big money and big winnings — that didn’t happen. George at one point in time went over to the table with Jennifer and she had been losing, not big, but losing—and he had to go back to the room and get some money to come back and give it to her.

Murphy: So he doesn't stagger out of the casino that night with a wad of hundreds in his pocket?

Greer: No, nothing like that.

With the night in full swing, Josh would make an emphatic point about what he thinks he sees next.

Jennifer and the man he callst he casino manager getting cozy.

At 2:30 in the morning, now July 5th, the casino is closed for the night and the honeymooners, Josh, and the three Russian boys head for the disco bar up on deck 13. Everyone’s tipsy or better, according to Josh. This, says Greer, is when it stops becoming a normal night.

Packed into the elevator with the party-ers is the casino manager and one of his dealers. Josh says he thinks he sees the casino manager put a move on Jennifer, right in front of her by now very drunk husband.

Greer: Jennifer’s there on the other side of the elevator with the casino manager next to her with his arm around her in the elevator and then another casino dealer.

Murphy: So presumably, George is seeing the same kind of thing taking place?

Greer: Yeah, but everybody’s still happy. Everybody’s still jovial. You know even you know George is happy and hugging and singing and it was still a party atmosphere at that point.

Up at the disco bar, as another account goes,  Josh notices that the new bride and the casino manager are together again.

Greer: Jennifer's there, but there's a couch adjacent to the table. Jennifer sits down on the couch with the casino manager sitting right next to her.

As another account goes, George and the guys sit around a table and produce their own bottle of alcohol, something not permitted by the cruise line. Someone has a bottle of an especially volatile green liqueur with a notorious history, Absinthe. One form of it was banned at the turn of the last century and young drinkers are attracted now to its taboo and reputation for being a kind of hallucinogenic. That’s largely urban myth— but it will get you smashed.

The boys sat in a semi-circle, doing shooters of absinthe, almost in a kind of ritual.

At 3:30 am, the barman closes down the disco lounge, the party’s over.

Greer: The lights go on. Time for everybody to go to their rooms. The Russian boys and Josh escort George back to his room.

Murphy: Does George get there under his own power?

Greer: No. By that time George was dropping his cigarette according to Josh. He was about 50 percent on his own power on the way back to the room. He wasn’t being carried but he was being guided with some assistance of the two larger boys.

Jennifer is no longer with the guys. For months, there would be speculation about her whereabouts in the next four and a half hours.

Murphy: Where’s Jennifer?

Greer: That’s the big question.

Continuing Josh’s version of events, he and the three Russians stumbled George to his cabin on deck 9. When they see there’s no Jennifer, George changes his shirt and they all set out again to find her.

It’s now about 3:45 a.m.. The posee of five heads right to the place that the young people on board know as the after-hours hook-up place.

Greer: They go to the Jacuzzi in the solarium area. No Jennifer. So it’s 5, 10 minutes there are very short amount of time looking because it’s obvious there’s nobody else there. And then five, ten minutes back to the room which puts them back to the room at about 4:00 a.m.

Josh describes a tame ending to the night. He uses George’s bathroom as the Russians tuck in their drunken friend.

Greer:  The other boys put him down on the bed, take his shoes off, leave the room, ‘Goodbye goodbye, let’s go we’re outta here.’ They go down to one of the Russian boys’ rooms, order an incredible amount of room service, room service shows up 4:30, 4:45—with the food. They eat. Josh is back in bed by 5:15 that morning.

But Clete Hyman, the veteran California police officer in the cabin next door had been awakened at 4 a.m. by a ruckus through the wall— that’s at odds with Josh’s account. Through the common wall, he heard 15 minutes of loud voices and commotion that make him one of the best witnesses to the mysterious events in stateroom no. 9062.

“That’s when I heard what I described as a horrific thud,” says Hyman.

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