The news stories are filled with the mystery surrounding nurse Mindy Jordan’s cruise vacation over Mother’s Day weekend: she’s missing, and it’s being reported that she fell into the ocean while trying to climb from one balcony to another (her cabin was on the 9th deck of a Norwegian Cruise Line ship, sailing to Bermuda). Jordan’s mother has told reporters that she is certain that foul play was involved — her boyfriend says they were just “clowning around” when she fell over the railing. Mind you, she was under 5 feet tall, weighed less than 100 lbs. and it was storming at the time this happened.
BloomLegal once again warns cruise line vacationers about the risks that this case exposes once again: there are no policing authorities aboard ship, making evidence collection – and preservation – very difficult, and the laws that apply to cruise vacations are not always going to be American. Missing passengers on cruise vacations are far from uncommon, just check the stories at HelpFindTheMissing.Org – where lots of passengers leave eyewitness accounts on what they saw, and when.
CruiseNews reports that Bermuda’s police as well as the FBI are waiting in Bermuda to become involved in Mindy Jordan’s case — NO official investigation has started yet. That’s right: nothing will be done from around 8 o’clock on Sunday night until the ship docks in Bermuda – it’s Wednesday afternoon, and they’re not there yet (the Coast Guard held the ship while a search and rescue effort was begun for Mindy).
CruiseBruise keeps an online list of those individuals who have mysteriously died while on a cruise. Their list is kept by cruise line, and Norwegian shows Mindy Jordan as as “missing passenger” and reports an overboard passenger in 2006, Belinda Clarke. The link also provides the stories behind these reports: in Clarke’s case, fellow passengers report that there were rumors that she had intentionally jumped; her cabin was sealed off and the FBI searched it after the ship returned to US waters.
CruiseBruise is reporting that in Mindy Jordan’s case, the Coast Guard is still searching the waters for her, and the FBI is waiting to board the ship in Bermuda. Her boyfriend, who shared the cabin with her, has reportedly told Jordan’s family and the authorities that Jordan was trying to climb from one balcony to another when she slipped and fell into the water. CruiseBruise points out that she would have been doing this while the ship was pounded with heavy rains and winds – weather conditions that continue today, making the search efforts difficult.
For more information:
Bloom Legal on the Dangers of Cruise Lines
Bloom Legal on 5 Things to Know Before Taking a Cruise Vacation
Bloom Legal on Cruise Vacation Risks that Are Not Being Reported
