Woman Missing from Celebration Cruise Ship
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Stockbyte/Thinkstock(PALM BEACH, Fla.) — A Canadian woman has vanished from a Celebration line cruise somewhere between Grand Bahama and the Florida coast, according to police and the FBI.
The woman “was reported missing by her boyfriend at 8 a.m. today,” said Charles Kinnear, president of the Celebration Cruise Line, in a news conference Wednesday.
Neither the missing woman, said to be in her mid-40s, nor her boyfriend have been named.
The boyfriend told authorities he’d last seen the missing woman at the ship’s gift shop before heading to the casino at around 1 a.m. Tired, he then decided to go to sleep.
The ship docked at the Port of Palm Beach in Riviera Beach, Fla., at 7 a.m.
When the boyfriend awoke, he searched the ship. At around 8 a.m., he alerted the ship’s crew, which along with the Coast Guard launched a full search of the ship for the woman.
No trace of the missing woman has been found.
“We’ve given [investigators] our complete track from when we left Grand Bahama last night, every position that we took during the evening,” Kinnear said. “We’re still hoping for the best — that somehow she snuck off the vessel or she is still hiding somewhere.”
Two searches occurred — once the ship reached port in Riviera Beach and as the ship’s passengers began to disembark. The ship has a capacity for 2,000 passengers, according to Celebration Cruise Line.
The FBI, which is leading the investigation, told ABC News it had nothing further to report.
Adding to the mystery, the Coast Guard and customs officials believe the woman was on the ship when it left Freeport, in the Grand Bahamas, at around 8 p.m. Tuesday night, because every passenger must swipe a card to get on or off the ship.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio