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Nancy Grace

Nancy Grace Mysteries: The Missing Groom Cruise Ship Mystery

Aired May 09, 2014 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Michaels. May I get your attention, please? As some of you may notice today (INAUDIBLE) usual activity on board this evening. The crew and I have been working with local authorities and (INAUDIBLE) investigate whether a person may have gone overboard last night, or as I say, early this morning. We hope to have the issue resolved shortly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My son boarded a Royal Caribbean ship for his honeymoon and he never got off, and we want to know why.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: I recall when I first heard about the so-called missing groom, 26-year-old George Smith. He had met his wife-to-be, Jennifer Hagel, while she was teaching school and he was set to run the family business. She had been at Trinity College. He had been in Massachusetts at college.

They seemed to have everything in the world going for them. They were happy. They were in love. They had a lavish wedding. I recall seeing all the photos of them outdoors at the wedding. They went on a really luxurious honeymoon. And sadly, that is where everything went wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jennifer Hagel Smith was found at 4:30 in the hallway, further down the hallway from my brother`s cabin. And three crew members, from their own statements, went back down the hallway to see if my brother was there.

And he was not in the room. They entered the room. You know, they obviously must have turned on the light to look for my brother and did not notice the blood in the cabin, ignored the fact that there had been complaints on both sides of my brother`s cabin, and then got Jennifer and returned her to the cabin in a wheelchair, with no concern about where my brother was.

Really, they should have realized that a crime had been committed in that room at 4:45 or 4:30 in the morning, not 8:30 in the morning, when they saw the blood on the overhang.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was a honeymoon cruise, and this was a couple that had just been married and were very, very much in love. In fact, George Smith contacted his family and said, I`m having such a wonderful time, I don`t want anybody to contact me unless there`s a death.

This was a cruise that the -- the value of it was about $10,000 for the couple. There were 2,300 people on board the ship. And Jennifer and George flew from JFK Airport in New York to Barcelona.

They spent a couple of days in Barcelona. Then they boarded this cruise ship, and they began their cruise going toward the French Riviera, where they stopped and enjoyed themselves in that area. And then the cruise continued down the southern part of Italy. And that`s where it docked and that`s where it was on July 4th. It was to be a day of excitement and enjoyment. They got back to the ship, rested for a bit, and had a very romantic dinner the night of July 4th.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When that ship came to Turkey, that ship should have been locked down. That was a crime scene. And they pulled -- Royal Caribbean pulled out of there with my son and his wife off the ship and the murderers left on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has gone away from -- this ought to be about Mr. George Smith and his disappearance and how can we get answers to that. And we have gone far afield from that.

And you know, I do understand they`ve gone through a terrible trauma. I can`t even imagine what it`s like to lose your child and -- and it must be a terrible feeling. And I`m sure I would feel like lashing out at the world.

But there has been so much misinformation. There have been so many erroneous, misleading, just dead wrong things said about this. We waited six months. And in deference both to the family and to the FBI`s investigation, we said absolutely nothing. We did as little as we could to do anything that would in any way impede the investigation or upset the family.

But I think the crew in this case worked very hard under very difficult circumstances, and I think they did an outstanding job. I don`t think they did a perfect job. I don`t think we ever will. This is not something we have experience in.

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Why didn`t the ship just stay? They`re saying you moved on for commercial reasons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. You know, we`re the only industry in the world that I know of that voluntarily reports, without any obligation to do so, to the FBI any crime that happens anywhere in the world on our ships to American citizens. No other industry does that. But we do it voluntarily.

And in this case, we told the FBI, we told the U.S. embassy, we told the Turkish authorities. They came on board. They did a full investigation. They did fingerprints. They took evidence. They took. blood samples. They took photographs. We gave them 97 tapes. We gave them the computer lock information, of when people come in and out. We have a special pass system we call Sea Pass on the ship. We keep track of every person who goes in and off the ship. And we gave all that information.

And at the end of their forensic investigation -- it doesn`t take forever to do that, apparently. I`m not an expert. They said they were finished. And we waited another three hours before we took any action whatsoever. We left, actually, about four hours after they said, We basically have nothing more we need to get from you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clearly, the scene has been contaminated, if you will. And I don`t mean anything negligent or -- by that. But just that it`s been cleaned and people have been in and out of the cabin, apparently may have been used, and so forth. So that really impacts on your ability to get evidence related to the event that happened seven months previously.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our tragic story made headlines for a long time, day after day, night after night. My family, who is here with me today, and I were so devastated by his loss and all the negative attention, which was very intrusive and overwhelming during such a painful time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George was an excellent swimmer. He could have -- 15 miles I think he could have made with no problem.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was in good shape when he left that ship. He could have survived.

GRACE: What about the blood?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, that`s why we probably think he couldn`t have done.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mother says she looks at the back door and waits for him to come in.

GRACE: It`s hard not to think of George in this house, filled with so many memories.

That`s from the wedding?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s the wedding, yes.

GRACE: Including the photos the family shared with me of George and Jennifer Smith`s wedding on June 25th, in Newport, Rhode Island.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had never seen him so happy in his life. He was so thrilled. They were madly in love.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything, of course, came to a crashing halt only 10 days into their marriage. It was near the island of Mykonos in the Aegean Sea where tragedy struck. George and Jennifer had a romantic dinner aboard the ship on July 4th, 2005. And after that, they decided that they`d go gamble a little bit, something they had been doing. So they went to the ship`s casino. They were playing at separate tables. When the casino closed, though, at 2:30, they weren`t ready to call it a night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: According to our reports, the evening`s events did not jive with the physical evidence. Reports were that Jennifer and George had been partying all night, that they had had a lot to drink, including a particular liquor that`s actually outlawed in a lot of countries, absinthe. Now we know why.

What happened in the next hours has always remained unclear.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) as some of you may notice today, we have a bit of unusual activity on board the ship. The crew and myself have been working with the local authorities and some guests on board to investigate whether a person may have gone overboard last night or earlier this morning.

We hope to have this issue resolved shortly, and very soon, we will be ready for our departure. The next port of call is Santorini Island.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: George was a very loyal person. He was a real family guy. He was hysterically funny. And I think everyone that knew him loved him because he had so much to offer and he was just genuinely kind. And it really is a terrible loss to all of us that loved George.

George was very athletic. He played a lot of sports. And he was always out with his friends and being sociable. And he was also very family-oriented. We used to go on vacations together, and you know, he was always calling us. He just really was the all-American boy that everyone wishes that they could have in their family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: I had interviewed George`s family in person extensively, and they are convinced that George was murdered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: George disappeared on July 5th, 2005. So it is now seven-and-a-half years that -- almost seven-and-a-half years that George has been missing.

George was halfway through a 10-day cruise in the Mediterranean when he disappeared from the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Brilliance of the Seas. His last day was spent at Mykonos, the port of Mykonos, and he and Jennifer were enjoying the local Greek food, which my brother loved. And they were riding a scooter around the islands and they were having an amazing time.

When they got back to the ship, they dressed for dinner and they went to Chops (ph) Steak House, one of the more elegant dining rooms, apparently, on the Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas. And that`s, unfortunately, when everything started to go bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Twenty-six-year-old groom George Smith`s body was never found. It was lost at sea. Even after relentless attempts by multiple authorities to find his body, it was never found. It was claimed by the sea.

But what we did find was blood -- blood inside his cabin on the ship, blood on a tent top, an awning outside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, well, something happened in that room. I mean, you`ve got earwitnesses who are hearing something happening there that sounds like there`s an altercation. And we know the end result. We know that he disappears. So you take a look at the physical evidence there. You take a look at the blood on the side of the boat. And you try to put this together.

And who -- in a timeline -- timelines are so important. If you`ve got videotape surveillance and you`ve got a time for when that is taken, and you have a rough estimate as to when this altercation takes place and what does it all mean. Where is everyone during this timeframe?

And for me, that`s crucial in trying to understand what happened. So who would be able to be in the room at the time that you have these earwitnesses telling you that they hear a struggle? It sounds like someone is rummaging through what`s inside the room. You hear that thud. Those are specific things that people witnessed, and you`ve got to be able to say who could have been in that room? Who says they were in that room?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really, the lack of justice in my son`s case -- you know, the seven-and-a-half years of fighting, going in and out of courts, you know, depositions, litigation, and then nothing happened. That to me is just -- it just blows my mind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Somehow, he ended up on the balcony of his cabin and then fell off the balcony. It was about four feet up. You`d have to be Nadia Comaneci to get over that balcony, and they`re designed that way so people don`t fall overboard. He fell down from the balcony, onto an awning and then out to sea.

Passengers on the ship were the ones that saw the blood up on the awning and started taking pictures of it. They found the blood, George Smith`s blood, on the awning, not the authorities.

You had a captive audience there on Brilliance of the Seas. His body was lost somewhere between Mykonos and Turkey. What did they do? They let people leave. Sure, police can go back and look at the roster of the hundreds and hundreds of people on the ship, but they needed to be questioned then.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Another issue came up as to the bride, Jennifer Hagel. Where was she? She by all accounts was found passed out far away from the cabin chambers where they were sleeping, still dressed in her outfit from the night before. Either she was slipped a drug in her drink or she drank so much, she just passed out sitting in the hallway. She had no idea what had gone on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, something happens, you`ve got to cordon off the scene. You`ve got to get the forensic people in there immediately. You`ve got to lock down the witnesses or potential witnesses and speak to them almost immediately.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What most people don`t realize, that 10 minutes before Jen was brought back, two Royal Caribbean employees went into George`s cabin looking for George. This has not been out there before. This is a new timeline. And we think when that they went into George`s room, they saw the crime scene and they would have realized that something had gone down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We also have the same problem in the missing groom case that we have in a lot of cases, and that is a delay in reporting. When Jennifer Hagel finally sobers up and gets back to her room -- she has a spa appointment that morning at 8:30. So she sees that George isn`t in the room and she mistakenly believes he is still hanging with his friends he was partying with the night before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need more. You need the words of someone who was there. And those words could come from someone admitting it to authorities, or those words could come in that videotape.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember coming out and being approached by these men and having them just say, you know, We are looking for George and we found blood, and whatever. We now have reason to believe that there`s some blood in the room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George died. He`s gone. He`s not alive. I think we know that. How did he die, though? Was it accidental? Was it murder? Was it -- was it a robbery gone bad? That`s a question that can only be answered by someone who knows, someone who was there. The physical evidence and the way the investigation took place -- it just wasn`t an ideal investigation.

HENRY LEE, PROFESSOR OF FORENSIC SCIENCE: We did not have opportunity to examine the carpet and padding. That`s probably yield much more evidence. And of course, we was planned to conduct a mannequin experiment. That wasn`t conducted. So basically, five original experiment I want to do, we was able to achieve three.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: So it was well on mid-morning before she realized her husband was missing. Can you imagine looking out at the ocean and seeing the waves pass and knowing that somewhere, way back God knows where, your husband has gone overboard?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We did everything we could because George was so strong and so muscular, we thought that he could swim, if, you know, he was OK when he went in the water. But unfortunately, I don`t think he was OK when he went on the overhang.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all love and miss George very much. Today is not simply about George. This is a much larger issue. It is about helping other families get their stories out in the forefront. This is about standing together on Capitol Hill with other victims and their families and about shedding light on some important issues regarding safety and security on cruise ships worldwide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: In the case of the missing groom, another factor weighs in. And it`s money, as is so often the case. Now, remember, George and Jennifer had just come from their wedding and their reception. And apparently, at the reception, people were stuffing checks and money into their pockets.

They apparently -- one or both of them -- bragged that they had thousands of dollars back in their stateroom on the ship, Brilliance of the Seas, just what you don`t do when you`re traveling abroad and you`re among strangers. You don`t get drunk and brag about thousands of dollars back in your stateroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were definitely rumors on board that George and Jennifer had between $15,000 and $50,000 in cash. I don`t believe that those rumors are true. My brother was actually very responsible with money, and I highly doubt he would have had that kind of money in cash.

However, what matters is the fact that somebody believed that, and that could be a possible motive for the crime, and we believe that probably is the motive for the crime. But we were not made aware of any missing money.

Jennifer, you know, told us very little about the night that George went missing. She said that she couldn`t remember. And she couldn`t recall a lot from that night, and so she didn`t actually ever tell us that there was any money missing from the room or the safe, or any of her jewelry, for that matter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, when I think about this story and I think about what happened here -- this is a bright young couple. She`s going to be a school teacher. He`s going to take over the family business. The future is so bright for this couple.

And then on their honeymoon, for this to happen -- I mean, George was excited, excited to be married, excited about what was going to happen and really excited about the cruise and the honeymoon. He didn`t want anyone to -- it was, Don`t contact me. He was, Don`t contact me unless it`s the end of the world or somebody dies. Other than that, just leave me alone. We`re going to have fun here. And this was supposed to be a trip to remember for a lifetime. It wasn`t supposed to be the end of his life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: What we know is this. That evening, the two of them go to a very romantic dinner. They`re on their honeymoon. Everything`s romantic. They go to this fancy dinner, very elegant dinner. Then they go to a casino on board the ship.

They spend time there, and that`s very well documented because in the casino on the ship, there are tons of video surveillance cameras. So that is very well documented. Also, we learn, on these cruise ships, there are surveillance cameras all over the place.

The surveillance cameras then catch them going on to a bar. So they`re at dinner, they`re at the casino, then they`re at a bar. And they`re drinking and they`re drinking and they`re drinking. And it`s been a long time since suppertime, all right? And they`re drinking all these exotic wines and liqueurs they may never have had before, including, again, absinthe. They get to the bar. There they befriend a group of Russians.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And for his family, for George Smith`s family, to this day to not have the answers -- first, you`ve got the tragedy of losing George, and then not knowing what has happened here, and the way it has torn people apart, and the level of frustration that goes through your mind when you`re trying to -- how does this happen? It`s a honeymoon. This is the happiest time of his life.

And now you flash forward so many years, seven years, and still not an answer, no arrests, no George Smith.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Six victims of cruise crimes testified before Congress. And then there was a panel of expert witnesses discussing maritime law. And finally, the cruise lines answered up. Congressman Chase (ph) and other representatives there discussed possibly putting air marshals -- you know, cruise marshals, in effect -- on board, as well as other possible reforms, such as mandating reporting.

KING: Marie, where were you the night or the day this happened?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was in my office when Jennifer came with the staff captain. And he told her that something outside the ship indicated that Mr. George Smith may have gone overboard.

KING: And what did you and Jennifer do together during that time after that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I basically spent the entire day with Jennifer. She was not alone. I was with her all day long, from 10:00, 10:15 AM until quarter to 6:00 PM.

KING: And what -- how was -- what was she -- what did she think? What did she go through?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think -- I mean, it was a terrible moment for her. She was crying. She was confused and disoriented. I was with her when we had to go to the terminal during the questioning, to the police station, to the hospital, and then in the terminal again.

KING: In your opinion, did the cruise line do everything it could?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we did, sir.

KING: Why wasn`t the -- why wasn`t the questioning done on the ship?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, we asked the authorities to come on board. They didn`t want to. They wanted us to go outside in the terminal.

KING: Do you know why they didn`t order the ship -- because there was some blood at the scene, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s what I heard at the time. I was not aware of it.

KING: Oh. Do you know why they didn`t order the ship to remain in dock while there was an investigation?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I think Mr. Fein (ph) will answer this question.

KING: Do you know why, Mr. Fein?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They did their investigation, and they said they had collected all the evidence that they needed. And the ship stayed about another four, four-and-a-half hours after that point.

KING: The captain thinks, Marie, I understand, that he fell overboard, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s I think what he said.

KING: What does he base that on?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, the fact that we found blood on top of the canopy, on top of the lifeboat.

KING: Which would tell you that he fell and hit the lifeboat?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eventually, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, Larry, in retrospect, I`m certainly sorry the captain expressed his view. Captains do tend to speak their mind. But he based his personal opinion on the evidence that was available to him at the time, having looked at a cabin that didn`t appear to be amiss, what evidence he had.

Frankly, we don`t like to speculate on those things. That`s why we bring in the authorities as soon as we know. And in retrospect, I wish he had just left it to the authorities to make their own statements.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: What we know is there was blood in the stateroom, and that somehow, George Smith ended up outdoors, on his balcony. Now, according to people that processed the scene, it`s very difficult to close the doors and then close the curtains. Imagine that. How, out on the balcony, do you shut the curtains and shut the doors behind you? But that`s what police found. They found blood in the stateroom, the drapes totally closed, the door to the balcony shut tight, and blood on the balcony.

It`s so easy to be that Monday morning quarterback, sitting in your easy chair calling all the shots, saying coulda, woulda, shoulda. But I know one thing. I know you don`t treat a crime victim the way Jennifer Hagel was treated.

Jennifer is George`s bride. The Turkish police drag her off the ship like she`s a suspect. She`s not a suspect. They question her roughly, OK? Her husband is missing at sea. Well, we all know he`s dead now. She probably thought he was dead then, based on the blood on the awning.

The Turkish police drag the bride off of Royal Caribbean`s Brilliance of the Seas. They get all of her belongings and dump them in a box or suitcase and leave them in front of where the ship was. She has to find her own way home. Here her husband is probably dead, she`s being treated like she`s a suspect, and the ship leaves!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: We managed to obtain statements of the neighbors of George and Jennifer that evening -- George Smith, the 26-year-old missing groom, and his bride Jennifer. And one of them was very credible -- in fact, is a police officer in the States. The neighbors claim -- on either side of the stateroom, claim that they hear furniture being moved around, thuds in the room of George Smith, the missing groom.

There are the Russians that befriended the groom, George Smith, that night. There`s also Jennifer Hagel, the bride, who was with him near the end. There`s also a young man from California. His name is Josh Askin (ph). Now, Askin is a friend that the couple, the newly married couple, befriended on this cruise. They met, I believe, in Florence.

The night that everything went wrong, that George goes missing, Josh Askin is on the scene. He`s a California resident. And that evening, he was the one with the absinthe.

Now, interesting about Josh Askin. Getting drunk is not a crime. But Askin claims he passed a privately conducted polygraph. But when the FBI gave him a polygraph, he flunked. On the other hand, Jennifer Hagel, the bride, passed her polygraph with flying colors, as did the casino manager. Now, a lot of people argue polygraphs are not allowed in evidence, and that is true in some situations.

Now, as to the Russians -- sadly, they all took the 5th. They refused to answer questions. Just recently, they were caught on tape, unbeknownst to them the tape would ever surface. And they were joking and laughing about George Smith`s death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tape first came to our -- we found that it existed when I had some conversations with in-house counsel at Royal Caribbean, and it was part of the turnover of information and evidence that they made to us as part of the settlement that we entered into with Jennifer Hagel Smith and the Smith family, with Royal Caribbean.

And as part of one of our discussions regarding what information they had, they mentioned that they had this -- at the time, there was a videotape which had the -- you know, in which the Russians sat around the afternoon of the morning that George passed away, and they discussed his death in a mocking fashion.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These guys are obviously bratty kids. They`re punks. They`re troublemakers. It doesn`t make them murderers. The fact that they`re callously making fun of an obvious tragedy, whether it`s accidental or whatever happened in that stateroom, doesn`t mean it measures up to murder. Just because they`re saying horrible, rude things, it`s not necessarily a confession. I think if it was a confession, we`d have seen arrests.

LEE: We investigate this whole incident. And we measure that stand (ph) area. It`s about four feet. Of course, this case, we have to keep an open mind. There`s two possibility. One is an accident, he fall. Second is a murder. So the murder, of course, have a possibility. And equally, it`s possible could be accident.

That`s why we went to -- on the ship to try to reconstruct, to hopefully, find some clue to eliminate other one, and then we can look at (INAUDIBLE) a murder. We should take a more detailed look and try to find evidence. I`m so happy to hear that have a videotape now surfaced. It`s so important to see that videotape, also when the videotape was taped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As you know, my brother, George Smith, went missing on July 5th from the Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas. We believe he was murdered on his honeymoon, with a lifetime of happiness and a promising future ahead of him. George is very missed by his family, as well as his many friends.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we are talking about a probable murder, and we`re having questions whether somebody was partying or not partying. And what that has to do with the murder, I don`t know. And the FBI I`m sure doesn`t think that has anything to do with a murder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Now, it`s very interesting to me that renowned scientist, forensic scientist Henry Lee, Dr. Henry Lee from O.J. Simpson fame, actually went onto the boat to perform scientific tests. He wanted to look at the stateroom and perform tests. Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines refused to allow Henry Lee to perform a reenactment with a mannequin to determine what he could about the fall from the stateroom. Now, why is that?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the record will clearly show that the appropriate authorities were involved from the word go, that the Turkish police -- and again, this is the normal procedure for the FBI, that they will allow and request that the local authorities do whatever investigations, forensic or otherwise, that need to be done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good luck to passengers wishing to understand their rights at sea. Even attorneys find it difficult to navigate the complex jurisdictional boundaries, statutory definitions, treaty provisions, maritime traditions, and fine print liability disclaimers.

Even when the law is clear, the effective reach of U.S. authority depends on the willingness and ability of cruise ship operators to make security a visible priority, recognize and report incidents, preserve evidence, and conduct thorough on-board investigations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: You know, when you don`t know a horse, you look at his track record. I don`t know what, if any, involvement the three Russians had to do with George Smith`s disappearance. But I know this. A couple days later, they were thrown off the boat, them and their families, after claims they sexually molested a woman on the boat.

When all the dust settled, this is when what we know. Jennifer Hagel has since remarried. She sued Royal Caribbean. She got a settlement of about $1.1 million. She`s remarried and she`s a mother.

George Smith`s family never gave up the fight. They have been front and center looking for answers, looking for justice. True, they got a settlement from Royal Caribbean, and yes, they should have sued. Their settlement was about $300,000. And Royal Caribbean has finally released thousands of pages of documents that George Smith`s family hopes will help solve the case. His body has never been found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sometimes I speak to him. I pray to him that I get justice for him. I speak to him sometimes when I go on the computer and I say, I`m going to get justice for you, George. And you know what? I will one day.

We fight and we fight and we fight for justice because there`s something very dodgy here, very, very dodgy going on. And it`s very sad that we`ve -- you know, that you can`t rely on your justice system to help you when we`ve done so much. And here we sit today, seven-and-a-half years later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END