165 people have gone missing from cruise ships since 1995

Updated
165 people have gone missing from cruise ships since 1995
165 people have gone missing from cruise ships since 1995

The cruise harbour in Nassau, Bahamas


It is six months since Brit Rebecca Coriam went missing from a Disney cruise liner travelling from Mexico to Los Angeles.

The 24-year-old vanished from the Disney Wonder near the Bahamas, and still nobody knows what has happened to her.

Last Monday, Mike and Ann Coriam met MP Mike Penning, the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, to push for a change in the law that would allow UK authorities to investigate cases of British nationals who go missing on vessels while abroad.

At the moment, investigations can only be handled from where the ship is registered and, in Rebecca's case, only one policeman in the Bahamas has been assigned to investigate what happened to her.

According to the US-based International Cruise Victims Association, 165 people have gone missing at sea since 1995, with at least 13 this year alone - many of them from boats popular with British holidaymakers.

But what has happened to them? Did they commit suicide, simply fall overboard, or were they victims of an attack?

Rebecca's uncle in particular believes she was a victim, telling the Daily Mail: 'Personally, I feel that someone has done something bad to Becky. The police officer who came aboard the ship to investigate concluded soon after she went missing that at that time there was no sign of foul play, but I don't share that view.

'The implication was that Becky had committed suicide, but there is no indication at all that she was depressed. Yes, she'd had some sort of argument, but it could have been over something quite petty.

'Rebecca had bought four tickets for Disneyland Paris as a surprise so that she could go there with her mum and dad and sister Rachael when she got back.

'That's not the action of someone contemplating suicide.'

Rebecca isn't the only Brit still missing at sea. There are many others, including John Halford who, five months ago, vanished from a week-long cruise in Egypt.

His wife, Ruth, and three children's lives have been turned upside down, and they are still waiting for answers as to what happened, believing it was not suicide.

But whether any of the disappearances will be solved, itself remains a mystery.

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