Disappearance Before Dawn

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George Smith, 11 days into his marriage, had disappeared from the luxury cruise ship.

The reverberating “thud” heard by several passengers about 4:20 am, the morning on July 5^th, and the bloodstain beneath Smith’s balcony cabin, revealed when the sun came up gruesomely answered the question of what happened to the young honeymooner but not how.

Lynn Martenstein, cruise line vice president at the time of the incident: We started notifying proper authorities. In this case it was the FBI and American consulates, because we were dealing with an American citizen. It was the Turkish authorities because we had just docked in a Turkish port.

Story continues below ↓

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Turkish authorities step in
While most of the ship’s passengers departed for a day tour of the ancient city of Ephesus, Turkish authorities boarded the Brilliance of the Seas and began processing the honeymooner’s cabin as you would a crime scene.

Martenstein: They took samples. They took photographs. They dusted for fingerprints. They did their forensic investigation both of the cabin and the metal overhang. They spent the better part of the day on the ship.

According to a Turkish authority, blood was found in the Smith's cabin.

Murphy: Did they find blood in that cabin? On a towel? On the bedcovers?
Martenstein: We have not characterized what they found. Our understanding is that the Turkish authorities turned over anything that had found in that cabin to the FBI…

By 6 p.m. that night, the blood stain on the overhang was cleaned and according to some passengers, painted over. The Turkish investigation on the ship was concluded.

On that same day, because they were some of the last people known to have been seen with George, both Turkish authorities and the ship’s officers had questioned Jennifer, Josh and the Russian boys about what had happened just hours before.

Jennifer, according to the Cruise Line spokesperson, gave a statement to the Turks in the presence of an FBI representative and was then flown home to the U.S.

Josh's statement is the only one we know about in detail. That's because his mother and father sneaked a home video camera to their son's appearance before Turkish authorities on shore. And those bootlegged pictures capture a chaotic initial inquiry.

Josh, in the red shirt, is being asked here to set down a perfunctory chronology of what he did and saw and then sign the statement when it's typed up.

Josh's interview
The translator’s baby cries as the public prosecutor in the provincial Turkish port town tries to understand Josh’s account of the night:

Interrogator through a translator: And then you took George to the room and he was very drunk.
Josh: Yeah, but you’re missing a lot.
Josh’s father: Josh! Let her read.
Josh’s mother: But the story’s the same.
Interrogator through a translator: Yeah, is it the same story. You took George to the room and he was very drunk.
Josh: But you're missing a lot.
Josh’s father: Josh, let her read.
Josh's mother: But the story's the same.
Interrogator through a translator: Yeah, is it the same story?

Were George and Jennifer having a fight, he’s asked? No, they were happy he replied.

Josh told the Turkish authorities, in abbreviated fashion, the same story.

Josh: I said ‘bye’ but i didn’t see if he was laying on the bed or not.
Josh: You guys a missing a whole huge part here… they’re missing a whole huge part though.
Josh’s father: It doesn’t matter. It has to do with the last time you saw ‘em. That’s all they wanna know. They don’t wanna know what else happened. All they want to know is the last time you saw him. So sign it and let’s go.

Josh signs the statement and after the initial business is over, makes a point of defending Jennifer and implicating the casino manager.

Josh: She has no idea what happened. She was with another man. The casino manager, Lloyd. You need to get him in here. I’m not letting her go to jail. I’m not letting her go to jail...
Josh’s mother: Calm down, you’re saying the right thing.

After suggesting that the bride and casino manager had lef the bar together... and offering a motive for George’s disappearance (money hidden in the cabin), Josh is dismissed and returned to the ship with his family.

It had been Josh’s second interrogation of the morning.

The young man’s lawyer says that earlier, before the meeting with Turkish authorities, Josh’s electronic swipe card set off a buzzer when he tried to leave the ship with his family.

Ship’s personnel escorted Josh to a guest services room where he says he saw Jennifer for the first time since leaving the disco bar about six hours before.

Murphy: What does he notice about Jennifer?
Greer: The biggest thing was she’s wearing the same dress she was wearing the night before. She’s distraught. And she asked at some point in the time and they mentioned that there’s a question of ‘Where’s George?’
And Jennifer says to Josh: ‘What happened? I blacked out. I don’t remember anything after the casino.’
Murphy: She drank too much and passed out?
Greer: Blacked out.

Memories may be fuzzy but investigators— now the FBI— have a very crisp record of some of the things that happened on the ship.

In addition to the electronic room keys, documenting down to the second when and where a cabin door is opened, guests on the Brilliance of the Seas may be unaware that the ship has several hundred hidden cameras continuously recording virtually every public area onboard. The cruise line has turned over 97 of those tapes to the FBI.

Martenstein: They’re reviewing them, it is an ongoing investigation and it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment on what’s on the tapes.

Without saying exactly how it knows it, the cruise line claims that the casino manager Josh raises suspicions about— actually a manager trainee— and the other employee drinking with them, a casino dealer, each went to their separate cabins about 3:15 am and Jennifer was with neither man.