Murder on Emerald Princess

[USNUZULOOSE]

The ladder would be used to access the pull down bed from the ceiling. The ones I have seen are wood and look very sturdy with some bulk to them. Unless things have changed I believe that the sofa has only one pull out bed, maybe someone will have more clarity on this.

I also read that a ladder was the murder weapon.

If this goes to trial, the weapon that was used would be brought in as evidence. No matter what whatever it was anything that was used, or any evidence would have been bagged upped and removed from the ship. I think they would try and be as descret as much as possible from other passenger's.

 

The DA may not even give him a deal. And they want it to go to a full trial. But no matter what it has happened to be a tragic thing for both sides of the family. I really hope that both sides get some counseling to help deal with all of this , especially the young girls they have.

[Maxmom05]

I asked because some people are more spiritual than others and I will be on that ship next year. I definitely don't plan on changing my cruise because of this but I wouldn't want to be in that room either. Idk, I'm weird like that I guess lol. I do sympathize with everyone on board, especially her family. Very tragic!

 

This link lists the room number for those that want to know. If you don't want to know, do not look

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4734962/Federal-authorities-announce-charges-cruise-ship-death.html

[sherryf]

I also read that a ladder was the murder weapon.

 

Don't believe everything you read online. There have been many inaccuracies in the articles about this incident.

 

 

I've heard the ladder theory, but the first rumor I heard on the ship (through my adult children who had friends they met on board who were in a nearby cabin) was a completely different weapon. I won't even speculate about what the weapon is. I'm sure it will come to light eventually, when the husband goes to trial.

[LucyR.]

I was on the Emerald Princess ship when I heard the announcement about needing medical and security. The deck and cabin number was stated. Since I am a long time member of cruise critic I decided to go investigate the situation. I noticed there was a yellow strip on the door and several Captain men were there looking into the cabin. I decided to walk away as I saw a security man walking towards the cabin.

 

Then I noticed a young man walking away from the area. He told me his grandmother's balcony was located above the couple's balcony. He told me that the husband was trying to jump from the balcony into the ocean. The people on deck 10 kept telling the man to not jump. Meanwhile a man ran to grab him away from the rail and was able to save his life.

 

A friend of mine was in her cabin near by and she told me that she will never forget the little girl screaming for help by knocking on doors to get help for her mother. My friend was tramatised by the violence that took place that night. So were some of the other witnesses.

 

Many of the cabin cruisers located in that area were interviewed by the FBI. The murder happened on deck 9 and the people in the deck 8 and deck 10 were interviewed and asked what they saw or heard about the incident. My friend was also interviewed.

 

A cruiser told me that the woman that got murdered was a karaoke singer finalist and was supposed to be part of 8 finalists to compete against each other. But she never got there to compete. The cruiser gal said that it was sad and felt it was bad luck for the cruiser gal's husband who later injured his arm. The cruiser gal said that the number 7 brought them bad luck. I thought that was a strange comment.

 

My final words are that ..yes.... there were some cruisers that did get tramatized from the violence of the murder.

A lot of the cruisers were getting phone calls from their family members who were concerned for their cruiser family members. There were a lot of first time cruisers who had never cruised before and they were really excited on being on a cruise to Alaska. Most of the new cruisers did the best they could to see as much as they could of Alaska by taking as many tours as they could. Most of them stayed positive because they were having lots of fun hanging out with their family members. Lots of the cruisers were in super large groups. I was part of a Singles group that had 300 cruisers. They all had a great time.

 

I have never had the experience of being on a ship where a murder took place. I would tell the new cruisers that I had been cruising since 1973 and had cruised for more than a hundred cruises on 7 different cruise lines and had never had that experience of a violent murder taking place.

[1emerald1]

I wonder if anything is claimable on typical travel insurance. As a minimum passengers would need to take more annual leave, maybe new airfares and accommodation as well if they want a new cruise.

 

Sent from my Pixel XL using Forums mobile app

There is a clause for trip interruption or trip delay. I was able to use that on a cruise where I got norovirus and missed 3 days of the cruise due to it. For those who took out the insurance, it's worth a try.

[Aquahound]

LucyR - Some of the details you posted have not been reported by the media...at least, not that I've seen. Thank you very much for your post.

[pablo222]

. You do not need our permission to offers your thoughts and prayers. .

 

Permission? No. But if you do post your thoughts and prayers, you'll be bashed like this:

 

It's just something people say so they can feel better; most never take the time to offer an actual prayer. But golly, they feel good about themselves. It's just a line to self-trigger a chemical reaction. It does absolutely nothing if people are not willing to talk about the real life issues at play. You nailed it.

[LMaxwell]

Permission? No. But if you do post your thoughts and prayers, you'll be bashed like this:

 

Pointing out studies that have not been done is not bashing. Also, people can feel free to pray as they wish without permission or announcing it to the world. Very different things. If this emotional topic bothers people I am simply offering friendly advice; remove oneself from the discussion so they are not so upset. I'm not the personal attack type of person this board gets a bad rep for.

[EastBay Cruisers]

Permission? No. But if you do post your thoughts and prayers, you'll be bashed like this:

 

Originally posted by LMaxwell It's just something people say so they can feel better; most never take the time to offer an actual prayer. But golly, they feel good about themselves. It's just a line to self-trigger a chemical reaction. It does absolutely nothing if people are not willing to talk about the real life issues at play. You nailed it.

________________________________________________________________

I don't automatically announce "thoughts and prayers" all the time, but if I do, I make it a definite point to take time to pray for them and for the situation.

 

When people express sympathy for a tragic, real-life situation such as this death, it's disconcerting to be told that they are untruthful and insincere.

 

We cannot look into people's hearts and see what they are doing, so it's best to assume that they are acting in good faith when they offer thoughts and prayers.

[Mr. Muster]

________________________________________________________________

I don't automatically announce "thoughts and prayers" all the time, but if I do, I make it a definite point to take time to pray for them and for the situation.

 

When people express sympathy for a tragic, real-life situation such as this death, it's disconcerting to be told that they are untruthful and insincere.

 

We cannot look into people's hearts and see what they are doing, so it's best to assume that they are acting in good faith when they offer thoughts and prayers.

 

AMEN!!!

 

Toot-Toot, Dearies!!!! :*

[Drews_Cruise]

________________________________________________________________

I don't automatically announce "thoughts and prayers" all the time, but if I do, I make it a definite point to take time to pray for them and for the situation.

 

When people express sympathy for a tragic, real-life situation such as this death, it's disconcerting to be told that they are untruthful and insincere.

 

We cannot look into people's hearts and see what they are doing, so it's best to assume that they are acting in good faith when they offer thoughts and prayers.

 

Well said!

[spleenstomper]

Trip interruption reimburses for cost incurred from the delay like hotel rooms, etc. There is nothing to use trip interruption for, unless someone gets charged for an excursion he didn't make, though I doubt that would happen.

 

As for the murder weapon, I'm thinking it was his fist.

[Cruzaholic41]

________________________________________________________________

I don't automatically announce "thoughts and prayers" all the time, but if I do, I make it a definite point to take time to pray for them and for the situation.

 

When people express sympathy for a tragic, real-life situation such as this death, it's disconcerting to be told that they are untruthful and insincere.

 

We cannot look into people's hearts and see what they are doing, so it's best to assume that they are acting in good faith when they offer thoughts and prayers.

 

Thank you. Well said. I think we've reached a new low when anyone has to defend themselves for saying such kind words.

[LucyR.]

Hi Aquahound, I was hoping that different cruise critic members would come here to report what they learned on the ship of what happened on the murder case. I had written down notes to report here at cruise critic but what I had written was made known as public information by the News. So I chose to write about information that has not been made public info.

 

I thought that the man had killed his wife by slamming her head on the steel wall in their cabin. I don't know if this was made public but her final words were "You are going to kill meee....". I am guessing that by saying those words she felt she was going to die if he kept hitting her.

Some people were making up stories on how she got killed.

 

There were many cruisers that felt truly bad and sad for the children and family members. They wanted to cry with sadness I noticed.

[neilsak]

I have been following this thread, as well as the coverage of this story in the news and on social media. I usually do not comment/post much on CC (mostly read), but thought I would take the time to share this extra bit of info I found on CBS News (which may have already been shared). The comments are not mine, but of a neighbour who knew the couple very well (who also started a fundraiser campaign for the daughters). You can read the whole story in the link below, but thought I would capture some of his comments that stood out for me.

 

Reason I am posting these comments is because, like some of you, I also thought this may have been a case of dometic violence building up to this breaking point on the cruise, but according to their long time neighbour, does not seem to be the case at all....None of us were there, including me, so all comments on CC is speculation, but based on the neighbor's comments below, my speculation is that sadly, even with what seemed like a solid marriage, and planned cruise celebration for that solid marriage, a situation occured that brought him to an unacceptable breaking point.

 

QUOTE:

Even in hindsight, there was never any warning signs, no police at their home, Nicholls said.

"Everybody thinks that there's a big path that leads to something like this -- and absolutely nothing. Just absolutely nothing," Nicholls said in a phone interview from Santa Clara, Utah.

He also said he does not want the world to see Kenneth as a monster.

"He was not a bad person any little bit, as far as we know," Nicolls said. "Everybody has probably issues behind closed doors that nobody knows about, but these people were the perfect American family."

On a side note (general observation, please don't read into it), I too always travel with my wife's family and our friends in multiple rooms (long time cruiser), and realize that people's personalities, mannerisms, attitudes, beliefs, schedules, needs, and patience can often test and get in the way of other's own enjoyment of the cruise, often causing tense situations that many in the group have to deal with. Everything from friends going off loudly on staff for various issues to couples getting into public arguements for small stupid reasons. I think someone may have mentioned this on this thread, but while many think of a cruise as a happy Disneyland (and it should be), the closed quarters, the timed schedules, and having to manage large complex groups often leads to unplanned stressful moments (again general comment).

 

In this case, speak your mind and walk away to diffuse would have been the ideal !!

 

Thanks for listening

Neil

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2017 by neilsak

[mek]

Everything posted by people who were not directly involved, i.e. eye witnesses, or legal documents is simply speculation at this point.

 

I personally don't see any harm in posting hearsay or theories, but remember they are just that and people should stop being so sensitive about it.

[Boytjie]

Maybe Princess should offer that cabin to prospective passengers at a significant discount -explaining what had happened.

 

At least they would know what they were renting.

 

 

 

Should all cabins where someone has died of natural causes also be discounted? How about suicides/jumping off a balcony? As a ship ages more and cabins would fall in that category and they would have to raise prices on the "normal" cabins to subsidize the cheaper ones. Would deck plans get a new icon to id these cabins?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[caribill]

Should all cabins where someone has died of natural causes also be discounted? How about suicides/jumping off a balcony?

 

Some people might not want to drive over a bridge someone jumped from to commit suicide.

[tonit964]

If this goes to trial, the weapon that was used would be brought in as evidence. No matter what whatever it was anything that was used, or any evidence would have been bagged upped and removed from the ship. I think they would try and be as descret as much as possible from other passenger's.

 

The DA may not even give him a deal. And they want it to go to a full trial. But no matter what it has happened to be a tragic thing for both sides of the family. I really hope that both sides get some counseling to help deal with all of this , especially the young girls they have.

 

 

There won't be a plea deal, they only do that when they're not confident they could get a conviction or they are going for bigger fish so to speak. This one is in the bag. I'm sure he will get a conviction and maximum sentence of the charges pending against him.

[triptolemus]

There won't be a plea deal, they only do that when they're not confident they could get a conviction or they are going for bigger fish so to speak. This one is in the bag. I'm sure he will get a conviction and maximum sentence of the charges pending against him.

 

Agreed. This guy is toast.

[Loonbeam]

Not true at all. Sometimes they do it just to save the cost of a trial, if the deal is reasonable. We have absolutely no idea what defense if any he will put up (and there are a lot) will he put up any, etc, but a deal is certainly still on the table. Again, we know NOTHING official other than the posted criminal complaint, so suppositions about what will or will not happen at this point are unreliable.

 

There won't be a plea deal, they only do that when they're not confident they could get a conviction or they are going for bigger fish so to speak. This one is in the bag. I'm sure he will get a conviction and maximum sentence of the charges pending against him.

[tonit964]

Not true at all. Sometimes they do it just to save the cost of a trial, if the deal is reasonable. We have absolutely no idea what defense if any he will put up (and there are a lot) will he put up any, etc, but a deal is certainly still on the table. Again, we know NOTHING official other than the posted criminal complaint, so suppositions about what will or will not happen at this point are unreliable.

 

I respectfully disagree.

Although we don't know everything, the prosecutor in the case has no reason to plea deal and I'm sure the family of the victim would never go for that. There are no other suspects, based on reports, the husband, after killing her, tried to dump her body overboard. I don't know the man's history but I doubt there would be an insanity plea. It seems like he knew right from wrong by trying to get rid of the body.

 

Of course all of this is speculation as we don't know all of the facts and evidence but I was responding to the poster that said they could plea deal and I don't think there is basis for that.

[trbarton]

After reading many posts I feel a need to explain my situation.

After being single for many years I met the love of my life in my middle 60ies.

Something happened that caused my wife to snap, neither myself or her family never saw any danger signs, & I'm fortunate to be alive, experiencing one night of terror. Of course she was arrested and found guilty. When she was sentenced she was in tears & apolligized for what she had done to me & her family. It was painful 😖 to go to all of the court proceedings & see my wife in handcuffs along with her family dealing with what had happened. Her daughters work place were very accommodating & allowed her time off for all of the court proceedings.

She was sent to state prison for evaluation & they determined that she should be returned to do local time, which is what I asked for, so she could near her family. Otherwise she would have been sentenced to state prison, away from family.

After being released, I was told she was a model prisoner, she took her own life. Do I wish things could have been different, I sure do. It was horrible for her daughter to come home & find her mother dead.

 

Just taking a shower & concerned that someone would come in & attack me took time for me to deal with.

I was fortunate to have friends from my Senior Center & my Odd Fellows Lodge to give me support & offer any help that I needed. I also received help with someone to talk with from Kaiser.

I also had a cousin who, when he heard about my near death experience, flew down & stayed with me to make sure I was OK & helped me move things into a storage locker until I could find a new place to live.

Realize that there can be situations where, like myself, there was no danger signs. Everything seemed normal.

Hearing what happened onboard the ship brought back memories of what had happened to me & how lucky I am to be alive.

This is the first time I have ever explained in public what I went through through in hopes that it might help other people.

All hugs are welcomed.

Tom😎

[DRPWDunIL]

I respectfully disagree.

Although we don't know everything, the prosecutor in the case has no reason to plea deal and I'm sure the family of the victim would never go for that. There are no other suspects, based on reports, the husband, after killing her, tried to dump her body overboard. I don't know the man's history but I doubt there would be an insanity plea. It seems like he knew right from wrong by trying to get rid of the body.

 

Of course all of this is speculation as we don't know all of the facts and evidence but I was responding to the poster that said they could plea deal and I don't think there is basis for that.

Do you have extensive experience in the legal system? Do you have experience in prosecution of homicides? Questions not intended to be confrontational. I don't think anyone has enough information here to speculate about anything related to the case or its adjudication. Let's follow what is made public and observe. I have no preconceived notions about what will or will not happen. Nor do I believe I necessarily even know many relevant facts that would lead me to an informed understanding of the case from a legal standpoint.

 

Sent from my SM-N910V using Forums mobile app

[julie3fan]

All hugs are welcomed. Tom😎

 

Tom, thanks for the courage to share such an incredibly personal and emotional story. I give good hugs - consider yourself hugged!