Number 10 Walter Bouknight
26-year-old US tourist Walter Bouknight died while attempting a stunt on a Carnival Fantasy
cruise ship docked in the Bahamas. Bouknight had reportedly tried to jump from one floor to another
but either slipped or misjudged the distance. He subsequently plummeted to his death. One witness
reported seeing blood on some marble steps, near a desk in the lobby. The ship remained overnight
in Nassau, while an investigation was carried out, but it remained unclear what had driven Bouknight
to attempt the dangerous stunt. Number 9 Christopher Caldwell
In July of 2004, Christopher Caldwell and his fiancé were aboard a ship operated by Carnival
Cruise Lines. On the last night of the trip, the couple went to dinner with friends they’d
met on the ship. Afterwards, they visited some nightclubs on the vessel, before heading back
to their cabins, at about 02:00 am. Caldwell, however, decided to remain in the casino and play
some more. Later that morning, upon noticing that he hadn’t returned to their room,
the man’s fiancé started looking for him. Caldwell would never be found and his body
was never recovered. The last reported sighting came from a bartender claiming he’d seen Caldwell
on the promenade, at about 3:30 am, and that he was severely intoxicated. The belief is that
the 37-year-old had fallen overboard, about 14 miles southeast of the Cape Florida Lighthouse.
Number 8 Jose Sandoval Opazo
In 2015, a worker aboard the Carnival Ecstasy cruise ship suffered a horrific and fatal
accident. At the time, the ship was on the final leg of a three-day trip from Miami. 66-year-old
electrician Jose Sandoval Opazo was working on an elevator, when he was crushed to death.
A sheet of blood covered the elevator’s entrance and it kept coming down like rainfall. Terrified
passengers compared the gruesome sight to a scene from the movie “The Shinning”.
Early reports indicated that another person was on the elevator at the time and they had to get
out through a curtain of pouring blood. The exact cause of Opazo’s accident wasn’t clear
but mechanical failure was the main hypothesis. Number 7 Amy Lynn Bradley
In 1998, during a Caribbean cruise, 23-year-old Amy Lynn Bradley disappeared from aboard a ship
called the Rhapsody of the Seas. The young woman was on the trip with her brother and her parents.
In the early hours of March the 24th Bradley was drinking with the ship’s band.
Her father saw that she was asleep on the cabin’s balcony, at around 5:30 am. When the man got up,
roughly half an hour later, Bradley was gone. Her father couldn’t find her and a broader search was
launched once the ship docked in Curaçao, in the Antilles. The search for her concluded by the end
of March and Bradley was never seen again. No one knows for sure what happened to her as there were
no indications of foul play, suicide or that she’d accidentally fallen off the ship. There were,
however, a few possible sightings of her in the disappearance’s aftermath. In August of 1998,
a couple reported seeing a woman matching Bradley description, including her tattoos, on a beach in
Curaçao. In 1999, another sighting was reported by a member of the United States Navy. He mentioned
meeting the woman at a brothel and that she’d begged for his help, claiming she was held against
her will. In 2005, another witness reported seeing Bradley in Barbados, accompanied by three men who
didn’t let them talk for long. According to the witness, the woman only had the chance to mention
that her name was Amy and that she was from Virginia. Since the disappearance, her parents
were anonymously emailed a picture of a scantily dressed woman, who could’ve been their daughter.
Number 6 Nick Naydev During a Bahamas cruise,
American passenger Nick Naydev jumped from the 11th floor of the ship he was on, in what has been
described as a “foolish stunt”. The 27-year-old was aboard the Symphony of the Seas, the world’s
largest cruise ship, with a group of friends who filmed him as he leapt from the balcony. Naydev’s
jump measured roughly 120 feet, or about half the wingspan of a 747. The impact alone could’ve
killed him but there was an added danger. The waters the ship was navigating at the time were
known for the presence of various shark species. Naydev took the death-defying leap in the morning
and admitted, in a subsequent Instagram post, that he was still intoxicated from partying the
previous night. The stunt resulted in him and his friends being banned for life from Royal Caribbean
Cruise liners and the company also considered pursuing legal action. The pain to Naydev’s
back and tailbone was so severe that he couldn’t walk or sleep right for three days after the jump.
Number 5 Kenneth Manzanares In July of 2017, Kenneth Manzanares and his wife,
Kristy, were on an Alaskan cruise alongside their three daughters. During the trip, the couple,
both aged 39, started fighting in their room and the woman said she wanted a divorce. Manzanares
then struck her with a closed fist, saw blood, and hit her again. He subsequently told the
authorities that he had no recollection after that but some reports indicate he’d tried to throw her
body overboard. The ship’s security were alerted and arrived to the room. Manzanares emerged with
blood on his hands and clothing. He’d reportedly told them “She wouldn’t stop laughing at me”.
There was some confusion, at first, as the ship had been organizing a murder mystery night.
Staff initially believed it to be part of the experience. It soon became evident that Manzanares
had brutally beaten his wife of 17 years. She succumbed to blunt force trauma to the head
at the scene. The man would later plead guilty to second-degree murder, as part of a plea agreement.
Number 4 Man Rescued by Disney Cruise Ship In 2015, an unnamed 22-year-old man
fell from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, off the coast of the Cozumel, Mexico. No other
crew or passengers were around at the time and the ship’s detection systems didn’t record his fall.
The man, identified as an American citizen, would spend over five hours in the water. He’d
all but given up hope when he was spotted by the passenger of a passing cruise ship, operated by
Disney. The passenger had heard the man’s cries in the water and threw him multiple lifesavers
before raising the alarm with the ship’s crew. A message of M-O-B, code for man overboard, was
issued over the ship’s speakers. A rescue boat was dispatched and the young man was saved. He didn’t
remember how he’d gotten in the water. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced
in good condition, before returning to the US. Number 3 Disappearance of George Smith
In July of 2005, American man George Smith and his wife were honeymooning aboard the Brilliance
of the Seas, a cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean. Smith mysteriously disappeared in
the early hours of July the 5th. His wife believed that he’d fallen from the ship while intoxicated
but stated she had no recollection of the events that had taken place that night. In the incident’s
aftermath she received a $1.1 million compensation from Royal Caribbean and remarried several years
later. The police cleared the woman but still suspected foul play in Smith’s disappearance.
There was blood in his cabin and on the side of the ship, indicating that he’d been thrown off.
The 26-year-old’s body was never found. One theory has put forward that his disappearance
and presumed death might have been the result of a robbery gone wrong. A few years after his
disappearance, the New York Post would report that the case was referred to the FBI’s Mafia division.
Today's topic was requested by 8ight 8it, GerardWay4President and
Chelsea Wood. If you have any other topics you'd like to learn about, subscribe & let
us know in the comments section below Number 2 Paul Rossington and Kristen Schroder
While on the Carnival Spirit cruise ship, traveling off the coast of New South Wales,
Paul Rossington and Kristen Schroder got into a heated argument. The cruise, which took place
in May of 2013, was described by those close to the couple as their last attempt to reconnect in
their volatile, 10-month relationship. The engaged couple had a heated exchange of words while in the
ship’s gaming lounge, which they continued as they dined in a restaurant. Then, infrared surveillance
footage showed the woman climbing over the rail of their cabin balcony, at about 9 pm.
An investigation later suggested that Schroder might’ve resorted to the dramatic gesture as a
way of testing her fiancé. Unfortunately, it would end in tragedy. The 27-year-old slipped
from the 5th-floor balcony and could only hang on for a few seconds. She fell 20 feet,
struck the ship’s 3rd level and then plummeted another 40 feet into the ocean.
Almost immediately, Rossington dove in after her. Both were lost to the ocean and never seen again.
Number 1 Shirley McGill
In July of 2009, Robert and Shirley McGill had been just three days into their luxurious Mexican
cruise when a gruesome discovery was made. The woman was found beaten to death in the couple’s
cabin bathroom. Another couple had raised the alarm after stumbling upon Robert on the ship’s
top deck. Shirley and Robert had spent the day with the couple in Cabo San Lucas. The 55-year-old
was reportedly smoking a cigar and drinking beers out of a bucket. His hands and knuckles
were bloody as if he’d been in a fight. The couple asked where Shirley was and if the woman was all
right. Robert replied “No, she’s dead. I killed her.” The ship’s security was alerted and Robert
confessed to the crime. The woman had died from strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head
and torso. Robert and Shirley were high-school sweethearts who’d reconnected over the Internet
after the man’s divorce. They got married in Las Vegas, in 2003, and, up to the fatal incident,
hadn’t had a history of marital problems. It’s believed that alcohol had played a significant
role in their argument turning violent. Thanks for watching! Would you jump from the
top of a cruise ship if it meant that afterwards you’d get to sail on cruise ships for free,
for the rest of your life? Let us know in the comments section below!