Video Footage Of Woman Who Allegedly Jumped Off A Carnival Cruise Ship Released
New video shows moments before and after a woman allegedly jumped off a Carnival Cruise ship to her death in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday afternoon.
The footage shows three security guards on the Carnival Valor holding the apparently frantic woman’s arms behind her back. She was not handcuffed, despite prior claims from passengers.
In the video, she can be heard screaming out the name ‘Alicia’ as the guards help her up a flight of stairs and off of the pool deck after an alleged hot tub incident.
Shortly after being escorted off the deck, the 32-year-old woman allegedly broke free from the guards and jumped off the tenth floor of the ship and into the ocean.
Her leap wasn’t shown in the video, and she hasn’t been found yet.
The footage was released on Twitter Thursday by FOX 8 New Orleans.
Following the hot tub incident, in which some witnesses say she got into a fight with a man, security took her into custody. Witness Kim Barnette told WAFB that the woman was “upset and went over the rail.”
“Security tried to calm her down, and she was belligerent toward them,” passenger Emil Avenarius echoed in an interview with Nola.com.
‘They had to restrain her because she was combative. She broke loose and flipped herself over the side.’
Avenarius, a retired law enforcement officer, claims another eyewitness told him she ‘saw blood and jerking motions’ after the woman went overboard.
‘She said “it looked like a seizure,” and I said “that might have happened with the head injury.”‘
The ship was en route back to New Orleans, after having visited ports-of-call in Costa Maya and Cozumel.
The woman went overboard around 2:28 p.m. Wednesday, approximately 150 miles offshore of Southwest Pass, Louisiana.
Crew members attempted to mark her location and the U.S. Coast Guard begin a search.
After 2,514 square miles and 14 hours of looking, they suspended their search at 5:37 p.m. on Thursday.
‘The decision to suspend a search-and-rescue case is never one we come to lightly,’ Chief Warrant Officer Tricia Eldredge, Command Duty Officer at Sector New Orleans, told Fox 8.
‘We offer our deepest sympathies to the family during this difficult time.’
It’s unclear if any family members were onboard with the woman and her name hasn’t been released yet.
