Pat Lawyer didn’t hear what Clete Hyman thought was a drinking game—but they did hear that same moving about of furniture, and she said it sounded like the cabin was being trashed. She says that all of a sudden there was a lot of noise coming from the cabin next door, the George Smith cabin, and what it sounded to me like is somebody was throwing things against the wall, like throwing furniture in the room against the wall or against the floor
4:30am - Clete Hyman and Pat Lawyer hear the sound of a horrific thud. The sound was so loud, it reverberated through our cabin, and it sounded like somebody fell out on the balcony.
4:30am - After the awful thud, both the deputy chief and the couple heard knocks— two sets of raps on the Smith cabin door about 4:30 a.m. It was security. Greg Lawyer opens her cabin door and looks out in the hall at them, and tells them. "Hey, you guys , you better get in there because that room is trashed." The cruise line confirms they were ship’s security officers responding to the noise complaint Clete Hyman made just after 4:00 a.m. Security walks away without further invesitgating, because all is quiet.
4:30am - The Russians say they are back in their cabin, they order a huge amount of food from room service, and it is delivered around 4:45am. The group took photos of the room service because they were amazed at the amount of food.
4:30am - Mrs. Smith is found sleeping on a floor in a hallway, on the other side of the ship, right outside a crew only room, and five doors down from Josh's cabin. She is unable to make it back to her cabin. Ship personnel arrived and remained with Mrs. Smith while two crew members went to her cabin to find her husband, but the cabin was empty. A wheelchair is brought to take her to the cabin.
4:47am - Jennifer arrives back to her cabin. At that time George is not there, and ship staff do not notice any blood in the room. More oddly, security nor the female crew member who accompanied Jennifer to her room, find the room trashed as described by neighbors on both sides of the Smith cabin.
5:15am - Josh Askin arrives at this cabin, and goes to bed.
6:14am - The ship arrived in Kusadasi, Turkey
6:39am - passengers were cleared to go ashore
8:30am - Teenager Emilie Rausch, her sister, and her mother reported seeing what appeared to be a bloody stain several feet long on the almost 12-foot wide metal canopy over the life boats below passenger balconies. A tally of passengers is done, and three are found missing. Mr and Mrs Smith and another passenger. The third passenger is located, and the ship begins to page the Smiths.
8:30am - Mrs. Smith had reported for their 'couples massage' appointment an hour and half early, four hours after being put to bed, drunk, according to her and the account of other passengers. She reports to the massage right after other passengers found the blood outside and reported it.
She was wearing the same clothes she had on the night before. No blood was seen on her clothing. It was at the massage apporintment where she was retrieved and brought to security, where she was told that it was suspected something happened to her husband, and he may have gone overboard.
8:30am - There's a knock on Rusty's cabin door, and he hears somebody say "Wake up, we have a missing person on a ship,' Rusty says he thought they were talking about Jennifer because they had gone looking for her the night before.
8:41am - The ship's Chief Officer entered the Smiths' cabin, and determined the cabin was empty.
8:50 a.m. - The Smith's cabin is sealed and a guard is posted outside the cabin door., Ship's personnel continued to search the ship for the missing guests.
Sometime after that, one of the male passengers with George the night before, is brought to security and questioned. They ask if he knows where George is, and tell him it is suspected that George went overboard. The passenger asks if they found blood. Security begins looking for Mrs Smith.
Jennifer Hagel Smith has passed a lie detector test and is not considered a suspect.
The male witnesses involved are interrogated by Turkish police. The father of Josh Askin, Dr, Jerry Askin, has the foregthought to video tape the interrogation. This video tape, the cruise line has said didn't exist. According to Royal Caribbean's official statement: Turkish authorities refused the ship’s explicit request that the interviews take place on the ship. It is shown on 48 Hours Saturday April 8, 2006, and does in fact exist. After the interrogation is over, Dr Askin asks what is next, and he is told that they are going to arrest Jennifer Hagel Smith. That never happened.
During the interrogation Josh Askin is very protective of Jennifer, and insists they talk to the casino manager, Lloyd.
Lawyer, Albert Y. Dayan for Rustislav Kofman, one of the Russians questioned by the FBI, denied his client had any role in the disappearance.
The 3 Russian speaking men are forced off the ship in Italy, when they are accused of raping a woman that one of them met in the jaccuzzi. They had sex with the woman and video taped it. They deny raping the woman, saying it was consensual sex. All three admit having sex with her.
The ship's captain, says he figures that George pushed a chair up to the balcony, sat on the railing, and then accidently fell overboard. The captain is no longer working for the cruise line, having taken early retirement.
This case continues on Page 2, see the links below.
George Allen Smith IV
Missing Passenger On Cruise Ship
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines - July 5, 2005
