EXCLUSIVE: Grieving mum tried to find happiness cruising the high seas after her daughter’s …
A cruise ship passenger who jumped to her death in the middle of the Tasman Sea left handwritten notes instructing her luggage be returned to her only son.
The American woman had been crippled by grief over the loss of her daughter when she climbed over a railing as the Majestic Princess sailed from New Zealand to Australia.
She had repeatedly threatened to take her own life during one of her regular cruises, stating before each departure that her latest voyage would also be her last one.
An inquest into the mother’s disappearance commenced at the NSW Coroners Court at Lidcombe on Wednesday and lasted barely an hour.
Deputy State Coroner David O’Neil issued a non-publication order preventing the woman being identified and Daily Mail Australia will refer to her as Ms C.
Ms C’s son watched proceedings via an audio-visual link from the US, having provided detectives with as much background information as he could about his mother.
The court heard Ms C’s daughter died in 2006 and she had spent the next year suffering severe depression. In 2014 she required a knee replacement.
That surgery was bungled and both Ms C’s knees and hips subsequently had to be replaced, causing her intense and ongoing pain.
A cruise ship passenger who jumped to her death in the middle of the Tasman Sea left handwritten notes instructing her luggage be returned to her only son.
The American woman had been crippled by grief over the loss of her daughter when she climbed over a railing as the Majestic Princess sailed from New Zealand to Australia.
She had repeatedly threatened to take her own life during one of her regular cruises, stating before each departure that her latest voyage would also be her last one.
An inquest into the mother’s disappearance commenced at the NSW Coroners Court at Lidcombe on Wednesday and lasted barely an hour.
Deputy State Coroner David O’Neil issued a non-publication order preventing the woman being identified and Daily Mail Australia will refer to her as Ms C.
Ms C’s son watched proceedings via an audio-visual link from the US, having provided detectives with as much background information as he could about his mother.
The court heard Ms C’s daughter died in 2006 and she had spent the next year suffering severe depression. In 2014 she required a knee replacement.
That surgery was bungled and both Ms C’s knees and hips subsequently had to be replaced, causing her intense and ongoing pain.
‘She would often tell him before departing on cruises that it would be her last and she would not return,’ Mr O’Neil said.
Ms C’s final trip was on Majestic Princess and she had been on board for three months when in January last year the ship set off on a 14-day journey from New Zealand to Sydney.
Majestic Princess is a British-registered Royal-class ship operated by Majestic Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation. The 330m vessel has 19 decks and capacity for 3,560 occupants, including 1346 crew.
For her trip, Ms C was booked into a premium state room with a balcony – cabin D218 – on the port side of Deck 9 and became a familiar sight on her red scooter.
Due to visa requirements, Ms C was required to disembark and not return to the ship when it reached Circular Quay on January 18.
Ms C was not happy she could not continue sailing but on the evening of January 16 asked a crew member for disembarkation tags for her luggage.
About 8pm on January 17 a cleaner knocked on her cabin door and when there was no answer went inside to tidy the room.
The cleaner noticed Ms C’s passport was on the dresser and her tagged bags were in a wardrobe.
Also on the dresser was Ms C’s Ocean Medallion, a casino chip-sized wearable disc which passengers can use to open doors and pay for services on Princess Cruises.
Majestic Princess docked at Circular Quay’s Overseas Passenger Terminal about 7am the next day but Ms C did not leave the vessel.
About 8.30am a crew member entered Ms C’s cabin and found the room just as it had been the previous evening.
Handwritten notes attached to each piece of Ms C’s luggage requested that her belongings be returned to her son and stated he would pay for the cost.
With no sign of Ms C a search began but failed to find any sign of the missing passenger.
At 4pm the next day Majestic Princess’s captain informed police that CCTV cameras had captured Ms C jumping overboard.
She had climbed over a railing at 1.10am on January 17 and jumped into the Tasman Sea halfway between New Zealand and Australia.
Majestic Princess (above) made headlines in November 2022 when an estimated 800 passengers and crew contracted Covid-19 following a 12-day tour of New Zealand
The court heard expert evidence that she would not have survived the first minutes after she landed in 46 knot winds and a 2m to 2.5m swell.
A search after Ms C was reported missing would have been futile as it would have had to cover a 13,000 nautical mile area.
Police established Ms C had ordered a large meal after making a restaurant booking for 5pm on January 16 and left about 7pm on her scooter.
About 10.30pm she went to the ship’s reception area on Deck 5 to rectify her account being overcharged for drinks and stayed there 15 minutes.
About two hours later, at 1.04am on January 17, records showed her cabin door being opened from inside the room.
She was seen on CCTV getting out of a lift with her walking stick and making her way to the promenade deck on the starboard side, two levels below her cabin.
Further CCTV footage showed Ms C place her cane on a cabinet, climb over a railing and plunge into the water.
Mr O’Neil said it was not possible to determine her precise cause of death because her body had never been found.
Majestic Princess is a British-registered Royal-class ship operated by Majestic Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation
She could have been killed upon impact, suffered a medical episode in the water, or been taken by a marine predator.
‘What is clear is that [Ms C] intended to end her own life,’ Mr O’Neil said.
‘She had a history of expressing that she would take her own life during a cruise on a ship.
‘[Ms C] made quite deliberate arrangements in relation to her belongings even to the extent of indicating payment by her son.
‘Her actions leading up to and jumping from the ship were clearly intentional.’
Detective Senior Constable Phillip Taylor, the officer in charge of the investigation into Ms C’s death, had only communicated with her son via phone or email until he stepped into the witness box.
At the end of his evidence, the detective offered his condolences to Ms C’s only surviving child on behalf of the NSW Police Force and thanked him for his help.
‘Thank you for your investigation and keeping me up to date all the way,’ the son responded.
Mr O’Neil closed the hearing by adding his condolences to Ms C’s family, particularly her son.
‘Thank you for the assistance you provided,’ he said.
‘You have had a lot to deal with in losing your sister and now your mother.’