Featured Image Credit: Royal Caribbean/CBS
Topics: Crime, True Crime, US News, News, World News, Sex and Relationships
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Crime, True Crime, US News, News, World News, Sex and Relationships
It's been 19 years since newlywed George Smith was last seen alive while enjoying a honeymoon cruise through the Mediterranean, and police are still no close to discovering what happened to him.
Almost two decades later, however, and his widow Jennifer Hagel still maintains that her new husband befell a harrowing fate that evening, having sustained her chilling theory since the night he seemingly disappeared into thin air.
In the early hours of 5 July 2005, George and Jennifer - who'd tied the knot 11 days prior in plush ceremony in Newport, Rhode Island - were enjoying a booze-fuelled evening onboard Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas ship, where they'd holiday for the next two weeks.
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The boat departed from Barcelona, with Italy, Greece and Turkey on its itinerary.
During their stop of in Italy, however, George became friendly with fellow passenger Josh Askin, 20, who was travelling with his family.
The day prior to George's disappearance, the collection of seafarers had visited the Greek island of Mykonos, marking the last time that he was seen on dry land.
The evening of the 5 July saw the couple head down to the vessel's on-board casino at around midnight, where they reconnected with Askin, as well as four other passengers Rusty Kofman, Greg Rozenberg and Zach Rozenberg.
CCTV recorded outside the gambling facility showed the final known images of George being alive.
The foursome - who were interviewed by police after his disappearance - claimed to have partied with George and Jennifer until the early hours of the morning, leading up to his death.
They allege they'd returned George back to his cabin shortly after 4am, having helped take him remove his shoes before putting him into bed.
The men then insisted they'd returned back to their own cabins before ordering room service.
Shortly afterwards, Jennifer was discovered by staff having passed out in one of the ships' hallways, later telling police that she had no recollection of leaving the casino.
It was upon being returned to her honeymoon cabin that she discovered George was missing.
Investigating officers who turned up to the scene immediately discovered blood stains on the bedsheets in his cabin, leading them to suspect that some foul play might have been involved.
This theory was initially correlated by the fact that - according to CBS - there was no evidence found in the ship's record that supports Josh Askins, Rusty Kofman, Greg Rozenberg and Zach Rozenberg's room service claims.
A legal representative for Askin later argued, however, that a simple oversight in the hand-written hospitality records may have meant that the orders weren't written down.
Police also discovered blood stains spread all over the side of the ship, leading them to consider whether he'd fallen overboard.
And following the recognition that a chair had been propped against the railing of their cabin's balcony, Jennifer also believed this story to be the truth.
So much so, that two years later in 2007, she agreed to a $1.1 million (£862,000) settlement with cruise operator Royal Caribbean.
Jennifer also gave a statement, suggesting that George might have fallen off the ship while trying to balance on the balcony in their cabin to smoke a cigar.
George's family, however, have continued to dispute this version of events - despite having reached their own settlement with Royal Caribbean in 2011.
Four years later, George Smith's disappearance was closed in 2015, despite police never having found his body.