Sunshine, sand and sea; the pure definition of paradise. Relaxation,
adventures and memories to be made. At the turn of the new millennium,
a young woman finds herself stranded on a Jamaican Island. Making the most of the
unexpected trip she visits the beach and bars, making friends along the way, only
to mysteriously vanish. With very few clues and a fairly neglectful
investigation, the fate which befell her remains unknown. Tonight on Dark
Curiosities, The Disappearance of Claudia Kirschhoch. The town of Negril in
Jamaica is a place many would call paradise. Famous for its almost endless
stretch of sandy beaches and the turquoise water of the Caribbean Sea, Negril also
boasts bustling resorts, delicious food, reggae music and enthusiastic townsfolk
who are known for greeting all visitors with a smile. For many tourists, it is an
enormously popular destination and remains on many travellers' wish lists.
Claudia Kirschhoch was born on the 9th of February 1971 to Fred and Mary
Ann Kirschhoch and was raised in Morristown in the state of New Jersey. In
the mid-1990s she spent seven months living in Paris, calling her family
frequently and she became a very seasoned traveler. In the year 2000, the
29 year old was working as an assistant editor for Frommer's travel guides
located in Manhattan, New York City and in order to be closer to her workplace
she had moved into an apartment in Astoria situated in the borough of
Queens. In May, Claudia was notified by her employers at last minute that she
was going to take a trip to Cuba as a guest of Jamaica's Sandals Beach Resort
chain for a press junket. On the morning of the 24th of May on
route to their destination of Havana, Cuba,
Claudia and three other travel journalists were left stranded at
Montego Bay in Jamaica. A disappointed Claudia made a phone call to her
supervisor, followed by a call to her parents to inform them that the Sandals
chain had cancelled their plans to fly to Cuba
due to the unrest in the country and as it stood, there were currently no return
flights to New York available until the first of June. Her mother Mary Ann was
particularly relieved by this and when Claudia told her parents that the
company would let her stay for a week in Negril, they believed that they had no
reason to worry about their daughter. Claudia Kirschhoch and freelance writer
Tania Grossinger were rerouted to Sandals Resort in Negril on the 25th of May.
During their stay, the pair dined together and talked over drinks in the
evening. They appeared to be having an enjoyable experience,
despite their trip having not gone as originally planned. According to Tania,
whilst drinking that night, Claudia became friendly with a bartender
at the resort - a man named Anthony Grant. The next day, Claudia revealed to Tania
that she and Anthony spent the night smoking marijuana and went skinny-dipping
together. On the 27th of May, Tania Grossinger was able to book a
return flight to New York departing later that day. She called Claudia at 8
a.m. and they had breakfast. Claudia told Tania of her plans to stay in Negril for
two more days then go to Montego Bay and Kingston to search for rare reggae
albums. The duo shared an embrace and promised that they would meet up again
whenever Claudia returned to New York. Later that afternoon, once Grossinger had
departed, a lifeguard by the beach witnessed Claudia walking along the
sands wearing a multicolored bikini and t-shirt. Later investigations would
suggest that she had a Walkman a notepad, her sunglasses and the key to her room
at the resort in her possession whilst on the beach. This would be the last
sighting of Claudia Kirschhoch. Fred and Mary Ann Kirschhoch became
anxious when they failed to hear from their daughter by the second of June,
concerned by the fact Claudia was supposed to have returned home the
previous day yet had not they called. The resort security staff at the hotel
managed to enter her room and found that Claudia's belongings were still there -
minus her bathing suit, her clothes were neatly packed in her luggage, her plane tickets,
passport, mobile phone, camera, 180 dollars in cash
and credit cards were secured in a safety deposit box.
Claudia Kirschhoch, however, was nowhere to be seen. In the days and weeks following,
authorities began investigating her disappearance further. The Negril Police
Department were criticized by many about how ill-equipped they were to take on
such a case and with developments in the initial search, this would to an extent
prove that point. The 29 year old's belongings were taken from Claudia's
room to the managers office and the space was actually made available for
other guests to use. Without an extensive search of the room to collect potential
evidence, the negligence of the resort staff meant that the scene would more
than likely have been contaminated. Kirschhoch's mobile phone then mysteriously
vanished - as did a logbook which recorded the license plates of all vehicles
entering and exiting the complex. Other anomalies included the fact that the
security camera footage situated near her room was inadvertently recorded over
and when staff developed the film on Claudia's camera, they reported that
there was nothing on it. Jamaican police searched the land and
sea yet there was no trace of Claudia. Some believed her to have accidentally
drowned however this contrasts to what authorities believe, which is that the
tide wasn't particularly high and the currents weren't strong enough on that
day. Others said she disappeared of her own accord to live with a Jamaican lover
but her family, those who knew her best, strongly opposed this theory. Posters
were placed all over the island offering a fifty thousand dollar reward for
information leading to her whereabouts and police received over 400 tips, yet
they were all fruitless. The eyes of suspicion soon fell upon Green Islands
native Anthony Grant, the popular bartender at the resort who had been
with Claudia. It was discovered that on the 28th of May - the day after Claudia
was last seen - he had called in sick and stayed out of work for a total of four
consecutive days. The FBI investigated further and brought in a search dog who
tracked Claudia scent to Anthony's home. The dog traced her scent on a pair of
Grant's boots, gloves and a knife. A separate search was conducted and a
single strand of Claudia's hair was found in the back seat of his car and
the dog also found her scent in the back seat and the trunk of Anthony Grant's
white Toyota Corolla as well as nearby woodland. The seat covers in the car had
also been it replaced recently. Forensic analysis was carried out and it was
found that there was blood on the knife found at his residence,
however the DNA tests were inconclusive. He participated in a polygraph test yet
the results for this were also inconclusive. When he was brought in for
questioning he initially denied ever knowing Claudia, yet he eventually
admitted that he lied and that he had gone on a date with her, although it was
against staff policy to interact with a guest, which is why he didn't
tell the truth in the beginning. Claudia's family suspect that Anthony
knows something about Claudia's disappearance. He had access to the CCTV,
the logbook, most likely Claudia's room and despite the evidence uncovered by
authorities and search dog, police do not consider Anthony Grant a suspect. The
media were criticized by the Kirschhoch family as the Jamaican tabloids called
her 'an adventure seeker' who was 'more than likely responsible for her own
disappearance'. Jamaican police halted their investigation and never pursued
the case further despite the fact that Anthony Grant and Tania Grossinger's
statements contradicted each other. The family said that Jamaican authorities
were uncooperative in sharing the investigative file of the case with them.
On the topic of Claudia possibly still being alive, her father Fred is quoted as
saying "We have to believe it. [...] we have no other choice but to feel she's alive."
Claudia Kirschhoch was declared legally dead
in 2002 despite no trace of her ever being found. The judge ruled that it was
highly unlikely that she vanished of her own volition and her family have had to
live with the agony of not knowing what happened to their daughter. Since her
disappearance, several sightings have been reported to the police
however they were never confirmed. There are many theories about what could have
happened to Claudia. Was she kidnapped? Did she drown? Was she
murdered? Could she still be alive? Sadly, we may never know the truth but we can
always hope that her family will one day get answers. As, of October 2018 her
mysterious and unexplained disappearance remains unsolved.