disney cruise ship rebecca coriam

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Rebecca Coriam

Her next assignment was working with other young people on board the Disney Wonder, based in Los Angeles. She was on board the ship when it left port for a Mexican cruise on March 21, 2011. She sent a message via Facebook to her parents in Britain that she would call them the next day. Their next report was from a Disney official saying that Rebecca had missed her work shift and could not be located. Since then, despite some evidence suggesting that she may still be alive, there have been no confirmed sightings of Rebecca Coriam.

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Inside The Mysterious Disappearance Of Rebecca Coriam

On March 21, 2011, cruise ship employee Rebecca Coriam sent her parents a text message, letting them know that she would call them the following day. However, Coriam did not report for work the next morning, and her friends and co-workers had not seen her since the previous evening. Although the crew conducted an extensive search, there was no sign of Coriam or any clues to her whereabouts. The 24-year-old woman had simply vanished without a trace.

As reported by Mirror , Rebecca Coriam, a British citizen, joined the crew of the Disney Wonder cruise ship in June 2010. On the evening of March 21, 2011, the ship left Los Angeles, California en route to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. At 5:45 the following morning, the ship's surveillance cameras captured Coriam in the crew lounge, where she was making a phone call.

All That's Interesting reports Coriam was using an internal phone line and was "visibly distressed" during the call. She was also wearing what appeared to be "men's clothing." The surveillance footage was the last time Coriam was seen alive.

As Rebecca Coriam was not found anywhere on the ship, Disney contacted The United States Coast Guard and Mexican Navy — who conducted an extensive search of the waters along the cruise ship's path. However, Coriam was never found.

The ship's captain concluded Rebecca Coriam was likely standing on Deck 5 when she was struck by a rogue wave and swept off the deck and out to sea.

Disney claims Rebecca Coriam was killed by a rogue wave

As reported by All That's Interesting , the only proof that Rebecca Coriam was on Deck 5 was one of her sandals, which was reportedly found on the deck.

Although Disney has expressed confidence in their theory, Coriam's family is not convinced their daughter was killed by a rogue wave. In an attempt to find out what actually happened on the evening Coriam disappeared, they hired private investigator Roy Ramm.

All That's Interesting reports the rogue wave would have had to be approximately 100 feet tall to have reached Coriam and swept her off the deck. Ramm noted that the deck was surrounded by six-foot walls. Furthermore, there were no reports or storms or any large waves on the evening Coriam vanished.

Ramm also discovered the footage of Coriam on the telephone was missing the timestamp and location. Although Disney said the footage was recorded near Deck 5, she was actually on Deck 1.

As reported by All That's Interesting, the investigator also discovered the sandal found on Deck 5 was labeled with the name and cabin number of another individual. Coriam's family and friends also confirmed it was not the correct size and not a style that Coriam would normally wear.

It has also been suggested that Rebecca Coriam may have committed suicide. In a 2017 interview with The Sun , Coriam's co-worker and former lover, Tracie Medley, said Coriam was still struggling after being raped as a teen.

What happened to Rebecca Coriam?

Medley said Rebecca Coriam used cocaine to self-medicate. However, she was still "in turmoil." During her interview with The Sun , Medley also suggested Coriam's family was "ashamed that she was a lesbian."

The night before Coriam's disappearance , she was reportedly drinking heavily and had some kind of a mental breakdown, according to Medley. Medley said she and three others were trying to help Coriam back to her room. However, she began to "scream, cry, punch herself in the face, and bang her head against the walls of the ship." Later that same night, Coriam reportedly "said something along the lines of feeling like a failure because she wasn't brave enough to jump off the ship."

Tracie Medley told The Sun that she and Coriam spent the evening of March 21, 2011, with Medley's boyfriend Deven Hyde — who was a bartender on the ship. Medley said that Coriam left Hyde's room in the early morning hours of March 22, 2011, and she never saw her again.

Although she has been accused of being involved in Coriam's death, Medley said she "never did anything to physically harm" her friend. She believes Coriam "jumped," because she had attempted suicide in the past.

Rebecca Coriam's family and friends in England do not believe she was capable of taking her own life. Instead, they suspect foul play. Member of Parliament Chris Matheson agrees. As reported by BBC , Matheson said he thinks "there's sufficient evidence to indicate a crime may well have taken place."

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Missing Disney worker's parents speak out about 'nightmare'

T he family of a young woman who went missing while working on a Disney cruise ship say that their "nightmare" was made worse when they visited the cruise liner and the firm's employees asked them to take away her possessions, increasing their fears about the quality of the investigation.

Rebecca Coriam 's parents say they were taken to the ship, the Disney Wonder, in cars with blacked-out windows and ushered through a rear entrance, creating the impression with them that the firm wanted to keep the matter low key.

Coriam, 24, from Chester, who was a youth worker on the Disney Wonder, has not been seen since 22 March, when she disappeared during a week-long cruise from Los Angeles to Mexico. Her credit card is missing but has not been used.

Six months after her disappearance, the Coriams, Mike and Ann, have told the Guardian of their daily struggle to keep going and that they retain hope she is still alive. They are also campaigning for international law changes to help families who may be forced to face similar ordeals.

A photograph of their smiling daughter in her yellow Disney uniform is on the mantelpiece at their home in the village of Guilden Sutton, Cheshire. "We do not know if she is dead or alive" says Ann. "We have hope, and then the next minute you are thinking the worst."

They speak of their happy, sporty, popular daughter who had everything to live for and who had planned a surprise visit for her family to Disneyland Paris in April, when she was due home. The tickets were on her bedside table.

At the heart of their campaign is that, currently, crimes are investigated by the police force where the ship is registered. As the Disney Wonder was registered in the Bahamas , a single officer from the Bahamas police force is investigating Rebecca's disappearance.

The couple – who also want more CCTV cameras installed onboard cruise ships – say they had their concerns about the investigation underscored when they went onboard the Disney Wonder and were taken into a tiny room, where they were asked to take all Rebecca's possessions home with them.

"A nightmare," is how Ann describes it. "We couldn't understand it as we thought it would be part of the investigation."

Last week, they met the shipping minister, Mike Penning, who is contacting the International Maritime Organisation on their behalf. The couple have organised an online petition and hope to reach 100,000 signatures and trigger a Commons debate.

–According to the campaign group, the International Cruise Victims Association (ICV) – set up by US businessman Kendall Carver after his daughter disappeared on a cruise – 165 people have gone missing at sea since 1995, 17 so far this year.

US president Barack Obama last year signed the cruise vessel security and safety act that requires ships to report disappearances and crimes against US citizens to the FBI and US coastguard. The Coriams would like an international agreement.

Mike says the biggest crime on cruise ships is rape, but there is no independent police force overseeing cruises, that are often the same size as a small village on ships, which can have 3,000 passengers and crew.

Within days of their daughter's disappearance, Disney flew her parents to Los Angeles and they visited the ship in the city's port of San Pedro, where it had docked.

"Disney took us out there and Disney orchestrated it," says Ann, "and sadly we went along with it because we were upset, as it was only three or four days after she had gone."

"As a family, we were on our own, although my sister was with us," adds Mike. "But we had no legal representative, just someone from the consulate. We were taken from the hotel to the ship in blacked-out cars and taken in the back way when the passengers had finished disembarking. When it was finished, it didn't feel right."

After getting off the ship, the couple inquired around the port, holding a photograph of their daughter.

"There was an old guy who we just started talking to and he said he'd helped Rebecca onto the ship," says Ann. "He remembered her laugh. She told him what she was doing, where she was going and how excited she was."

The ship's captain told them that he thought she was standing by a ledge on the ship and a wave had washed her overboard. But the couple do not accept that, as the ledge was big and had a rail.

Their eldest daughter, Rachael, is struggling to cope with what has happened and it is difficult, too, for her grandmother. The Coriams say they have received hundreds of cards and letters. A press photographer gave Ann a picture of St Jude that he had carried in his wallet for 30 years. At their parish church, St Werburgh's in Chester, the priest has placed Rebecca's photograph on the altar with a candle next to it. It will stay there until they hear definite news.

Fundraising events have been held to help their campaign and a candlelit vigil was held at Liverpool Hope University, where Rebecca studied.

"Rebecca would be really proud of what we're doing," Ann says. "She was not frightened of speaking out and she was just herself, with lots of character."

Disney Cruise Lines said: "Our hearts go out to the Coriams. We've shared everything we can, but many details are still under investigation by the police and it is their role to provide the details of their findings to the family."

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The Chester woman who vanished on Disney cruise ship 11 years ago

Rebecca Coriam, 24, went missing at sea in March 2011

• 14:33, 12 SEP 2022

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More than 11 years ago, 24-year-old Rebecca Coriam vanished while she was on board a Disney cruise ship. The Liverpool student disappeared from the Disney Wonder ship in March 2011.

Born in Chester , Rebecca was employed as a youth activity worker on board the vessel, having graduated in Youth Studies from Hope University. She was last seen at dawn on March 22, 2011, as the ship made its way into Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, the Liverpool Echo reports.

Her disappearance remains under investigation, though the family settled a lawsuit with Disney out of court in 2016. In 2019, t he Echo reported that there were a number of questions remaining relating to the case.

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Rebecca's parents Mike and Ann claimed their beloved daughter was murdered, believing she was thrown overboard after being sexually assaulted. But Disney insisted she was swept overboard by a freak wave and vanished at sea and the alarm was raised a few hours later when she failed to turn up for work.

A nine-month investigation completed by a solitary policeman in the Bahamas, the Caribbean country where the Wonder was registered, concluded her disappearance was "not suspicious." However, a number of issues remain up in the air.

Key CCTV footage, first uncovered by the ECHO, shows Rebecca talking on an internal Disney phone in Deck One’s crew quarters – at one point visibly getting upset. A male colleague briefly puts a concerned arm around her as she anxiously chats on the phone.

Her friends and family stated this footage suggests Rebecca was sexually assaulted and in a state of distress.

The footage, which was recorded in the middle of the night, also appears to show Rebecca wearing men's pyjamas. Her family believe this is a sign their daughter desperately threw on any available garments to escape the cabin after some sort of attack.

Rebecca's shorts were also ripped when they were handed back to her parents, which led them to believe she was engaged in a violent struggle just before her death.

Moreover, our 2019 report included the detail that, when Rebecca's parents went aboard the ship, they were surprised to see a pair of flip flops neatly placed side by side on top of Rebecca’s suitcase in her wardrobe, which had not been taken away for forensic examination.

Further inconsistencies revealed they were a size-and-a-half too small for Rebecca, and her friends never saw her wearing them. The footwear, said to be left on the edge of the ship where Disney said she fell overboard, had a different signature and cabin number written on their side.

A further potential inconsistency is that some Disney employees believe Rebecca went overboard on Deck 5, close to the crew swimming pool - or appear to have been told this was the case.

A reconnaissance trip of the area revealed the pool had no ocean view because behind the railings is a high steel wall, which reaches well above head height. The Coriam family did query how their daughter could have been swept over any of the ship's 6ft-plus high walls, one of which was where Disney later laid flowers on deck to mark the tragedy.

The investigation into Rebecca's disappearance was carried out by one detective - Supt Paul Rolle of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, because that's where the ship was registered. He flew in from Nassau in the Bahamas, 1,500 miles from the ship – just one man charged with conducting a forensic investigation and interviewing 3,000 passengers and crew.

Neither US forces, where the ship docked after the tragedy in Los Angeles, or Mexican police, as her disappearance happened in Mexican waters, near Puerto Vallarta, were involved in the probe. The Coriam family did not receive any final report and little evidence or related material to the investigation was disclosed to them.

They once said: "Cheshire Police were informed and did liaise with the Bahamas authorities, but Cheshire Police did not proceed with their own investigation, on the grounds of lack of proper jurisdiction in this matter. Cheshire Police also received an interim report which in their words to us, was ‘totally and utterly unsatisfactory’ and they were under instructions not to disclose to the family its contents.

“We have tried under the Freedom of Information Act with no success to see the report.”

Cheshire Police has been contacted for comment.

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Lost at Sea – The Disappearance of Rebecca Coriam

In 2011, Rebecca Coriam disappeared from a Disney cruise ship. Did she fall overboard or did something much more sinister happen?

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In 2010, 24-year-old Rebecca Coriam’s dream came true when she was successful in getting a job on Disney’s cruise ship, “Disney Wonder.” It is a much sought after job and Rebecca from Guilden Sutton beat hundreds of other applicants. She was perfect for the role – she was outgoing, bubbly, and could connect with children. She was described as a “happy-go-lucky person with plenty to live for.” Before joining the Disney Wonder, Rebecca had studied childhood studies, psychology and philosophy at Liverpool Hope University.

After being hired, Rebecca flew to Florida where she trained at Disney World. Initially, she spent four months at sea in the Bahamas before flying back home for two months. She then returned to the cruise ship which was setting sail from Los Angeles to Mexico. It was just a short seven day cruise. The grand 1,000 foot ship could accommodate up to 2,500 passengers in 875 statetooms plus 1,000 crew members.

On the 22nd of March, 2011, Rebecca’s parents, Mike and Ann, received an alarming phone call from one of Rebecca’s colleagues. Rebecca hadn’t turned up for her shift that morning. When a colleague went to her bedroom, she wasn’t there nor did she respond to her name being called from the public announcement system.

A crew member decided to trawl the CCTV footage from the past 24 hours to see if he could spot Rebecca. At 5:45am, Rebecca was seen speaking on the phone in the crew area. She appears to be distraught; she holds her head in her hands at one point. A young man then comes into the frame He approaches Rebecca and asks if she is okay to which she replies: “Yeah, fine,” before walking away. This is the last ever sighting of Rebecca. Somewhere between California and Mexico, Rebecca disappeared.

After it became evident that Rebecca was missing from the cruise ship, the Mexican coastguard was contacted to search the surrounding waters. As the search on the ocean was underway, Rebecca’s parents were en route to the Disney Wonder. Just one police officer was assigned to the disappearance. Just one officer to investigate and question those on board.

After just one day of so-called investigating, the officer would announce to Rebecca’s parents that it was believed that she had been washed overboard by a large wave and that foul play wasn’t suspected. However, no stormy seas had been reported that would support the theory of a freak wave. Furthermore, they claimed she went overboard at Deck 5 which has a large 6-foot wall preventing people from falling overboard.

This explanation was dismissed by the Coriam family as well as senior politicians including ex-Deputy Labour Leader John Prescott. 1 The investigation was condemned by many.

People would soon start to suspect that Rebecca had been a victim of sexual assault and thrown overboard. In the video of her on the telephone, she is evidently upset about something and is wearing men’s clothing. As she talked on the phone, she continually tugs at the clothing – a sign of anxiety. She was in the vicinity of the medical centre which was situated on the same deck as the telephone.

Disney officials have always claimed that the CCTV footage was captured at Deck 5 which was near the door to the bow of the ship where they say she was swept away. However, CCTV footage clearly shows that she was on Deck 1 – four flights of stairs away from Deck 5.

Police gave Rebecca’s parents some items of clothing back that they claimed belonged to Rebecca. One of the items was a flip flop that was discovered at the edge of Deck 5. However, the flip flop had another crew member’s name and their cabin number marked on the side. It didn’t belong to Rebecca at all. Another item handed to Rebecca’s family was a pair of ripped shorts. This further solidified the belief that Rebecca had been sexually assaulted.

After Rebecca’s parents went back to Britain, they discovered that Rebecca’s bank card had been used after she disappeared. While the family considered that something sinister had happened to their daughter, they still held onto the hope that their daughter could potentially still be alive. “This could be a very significant development. The fact that her credit card’s been used could only mean someone has stolen it or she’s still alive. We’ve never believed she simply disappeared overboard and drowned. I have always felt she is still alive. We are just keeping our fingers crossed that she is out there somewhere,” said her father, Mike. 2 Another glimmer of hope that she was still alive came in September, when somebody changed her password on Facebook.

They decided to investigate further and uncovered a crew member on the ship had said “Disney knows exactly what happened. That phone called she had? It was taped. Everything here is taped.” If so, why would Disney refuse to disclose what the phone call was about? Two of Rebecca’s friends visited her parents and revealed to them that Rebecca had confided in them that she was scared of being sexually assaulted while on the cruise ship. This revelation sent shivers down their spin; they already thought she was the victim of a sexual assault and this indicated she was afraid of such an attack. 3

A private investigator was hired by Rebecca’s parents who soon disclosed the belief that “criminal activity” was behind her disappearance. Chester MP Mr Matherson, who was coordinating the private investigation, declared that there was a “real possibility” that Rebecca was murdered and thrown overboard. 4

In 2017, notes from the officer in charge were released which hinted that Rebecca had sex with a male crew member in front of her girlfriend, Tracie Medley, who also worked on board. He believed that Rebecca had been involved in a love triangle which left her depressed and fearing for her life. Rebecca’s family refuted these claims and contended that she had been sexually assaulted and that she had been killed because she didn’t want to get into an open bisexual relationship. 5

The notes also reported that the male crew member had a “very nonchalant attitude” when he was questioned about Rebecca’s disappearance and that he was even laughing about the ordeal.

Another theory was that Rebecca had committed suicide. Her family disagreed. Shortly before she disappeared, Rebecca had purchased tickets for her parents to go on vacation to Disneyland Paris. Inside her cabin, these tickets were found. In 2017, Rebecca’s girlfriend, Tracie, broke her six-year silence and said she believed this theory, adding that Rebecca wasn’t as happy as her parents portrayed her as. “Rebecca felt like a mistfit. She felt that her family was ashamed that she was a lesbian,” she said. 6 Tracie also confessed that the couple had partook in a threesome but that Rebecca was the one who initiated it.

“Something isn’t right about this case, something just doesn’t smell right about it, doesn’t feel right about it and we know the original investigation wasn’t really sufficient,” said Chris Matherson, MP for Chester. 7

Many, including Rebecca’s family, believe that Disney knew exactly what happened to Rebecca but are covering up to save face and to protect their brand. If she had gone overboard at Deck 5 then why did they release no more footage? There was a plethora of cameras around Deck 5. Why did they lie about where the phone call took place?

In 2015, the Coriams settled a lawsuit with Disney for an undisclosed sum and an agreement that they would not publicly discuss the case. To this day, Rebecca is still listed as being missing at sea.

• Liverpool Echo, 28 May, 2017 –“Our Beloved Daughter was Raped and Thrown Overboard”
• News & Politics Examiner, 1 May, 2011 – “Credit Card of Missing Disney Worker Crew Member was Used
• The Guardian,11 November, 2011 – “Lost at Sea”
• Liverpool Echo, 28 May, 2017 – “Our Beloved Daughter was Raped and Thrown Overboard”
• Liverpool Echo, 25 June, 2017 – “Did Missing Disney Worker Have Sex with Man in Front of Female Lover?”
• The Sun, 21 August, 2017 – “I Have Nothing to Hide”
• The Daily Telegraph, 31 October, 2015 – “Murder Claim Over Disney Cruise Worker Who Vanished on Ship”

The Disney company have been paying off families for years to cover their ass… I am disgusted with the company…if its not deaths at Disneyland being hidden its murder..SICK

its just sick when a company can help and decides to cover up the incident rather than come clean, release the tape of that phone call, show all the camera footage. i mean disney is supposed to be about family and kids and having fun and they pull this crap. and theyre making the parents not talk about it after paying them off. i think she was so distraught after that 3 way she either killed her self by jumping overboard or someone didnt want her talking and threw her overboard, either way disney truly knows what happened.

Disney is about making money-they don’t care about family and kids unless that family is spending big bucks. There was no actual proof this young woman was in a “3 way”. Please don’t smear her reputation when you know zip about what actually happened. That’s so cruel and uncalled for. I believe the crewman who brought up this imaginary 3 way had something to do with her death just by the way his behavior was described.

Why are you smearing the reputation of this crew member? You know “zip” about what actually happened, yet you call this crewman a liar and a murderer? While there is no proof it occurred, her girlfriend corroborates the crewman’s story that it did happen.

What a promiscuous woman. May she have all the threesomes she wants in hell

Let me guess your a church going saint. Promiscuous? because she was in a relationship and they had sex with someone else. How horrible. Shocking. Definitely deserves to be murdered.

You are an idiot.

Interesting writeup, though you guys seriously need to proofread your articles first.

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Disney settled with family of missing cruise worker.

The company settled with the family of Rebecca Coriam, a former employee on the Disney Wonder who went missing while the ship was cruising off the coast of Mexico in 2011, but investigations continue.

By Scott Johnson

Scott Johnson

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Rebecca_Coriam - H 2016

The family of a former Disney employee who disappeared under mysterious circumstances off one of the company’s cruise ships in March 2011 settled out of court with the entertainment giant for an undisclosed amount sometime in 2015, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Rebecca Coriam , a British national from Liverpool who was employed as a Youth Activity worker on Disney’s cruise ship Wonder , was 24 when she vanished from the ship while it motored off the coast of Mexico , near Puerto Vallarta, en route to Cabo San Lucas. At the time, the Wonder was registered in the Bahamas.

“The case has been resolved,” says Jim Walker, the Miami-based attorney who has represented the Coriams in the U.S. “They’re pursuing an inquest in the U.K., but I’m not supposed to talk about the case.”

But while the settlement appears to have ended any legal challenge in the U.S, the mystery of Rebecca Coriam seems far from resolved. Several current and former government and law enforcement officials in the U.K., convinced that Coriam was the victim of foul play, are pushing to open alternative investigations into her disappearance. British Parliamentarian Chris Matheson , who believes Coriam may have been murdered, has teamed up with a former police investigator to probe the former Disney employee’s final moments. A website dedicated to Coriam is appealing to the public for tips. And U.K. officials have told friends of the family that they are contemplating opening a formal inquiry.

“My worst fear is that Rebecca Coriam was murdered,”   Matheson told the Liverpool Echo . “It’s a possibility and it needs to be investigated properly. The more you look into this, the more it smells rotten, the more it smells like a crime has taken place.”

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“I am fully convinced that a sexual assault took place and they were aware of it on board the vessel,” says Bill Anderson, a maritime investigation coordinator in the U.K. who has worked with the Coriams .

British press reports have quoted former Labour deputy John Prescott as saying he believes that Coriam was “thrown over the side” of the Disney Wonder . A British ex-shipping minister called the Bahamian investigation “appalling.”

And now, Roy Ramm , a 27-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police and former Commander of Specialist Operations at Scotland Yard, has joined forces with Matheson and the two plan to visit Los Angeles and the Bahamas to pursue their own independent investigation.

Disney has said it stands by the results of an investigation conducted by Paul Rolle , the Bahamian policeman who, after a two-day investigation on the Wonder during a docking in L.A. shortly after Coriam’s disappearance, concluded that Coriam must have fallen overboard. That investigation concluded that Coriam’s vanishing was “not suspicious.”

Disney declined to comment for this article.

After Disney learned that Coriam had disappeared, the company notified the U.S Coast Guard, the Bahamas Maritime Authority and the Royal Bahamas Police Force, as well as the FBI. The U.S. Coast Guard advised Disney to notify the Mexican Navy, which it did.

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But Coriam was never found and her fate remains unknown.

In an email to The Hollywood Reporter , Rolle said, “Respectfully, I have no further comment to make on the  Coriam  case.”

Anderson says Rolle had promised to make the results of his investigation available to the Coriams , but never did. Instead, his report was sent to the local police in the U.K., who also have declined to make it available to the Coriams , despite repeated requests.

Anderson filed several Freedom of Information Act requests with U.K. authorities. But the British police have said they won’t release the report because it contains “restricted” personal details.

“I have tried getting this under the FOIAs , but [they] refused,” Anderson says. “[The Cheshire police] informed me and the family that they have a botched report but can only tell us this and cannot show it to us.”

“You could safely say that the cop who promised to send the results never did,” adds attorney Walker.  

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The Coriams are prevented by the terms of their settlement from discussing the case. Prior to the settlement, the family had reached out to the FBI for help, to no avail. They also wrote a letter to President Obama but received no response.

Disney and Bahamian investigator Rolle have asserted that Coriam was probably swept overboard by a rogue wave, catapulting her off Deck 5. But British press outlets have published CCTV footage showing that Coriam was last seen on Deck 1, four levels below, and that she was wearing what appear to be oversize clothes that may have belonged to someone else. Two months after Coriam’s disappearance, her credit card was used, according to news reports.

Anderson maintains the rogue wave theory is preposterous.

“I checked out the sea states and water temperatures at the time and they were all normal,” he says, adding that a rogue wave would have inflicted further damage on the boat.

“The way cruise lines work, they’re not going to disclose anything they don’t have to disclose,” says one source close to the investigations who also is familiar with Disney. “There are certain legal defenses they’re able to use that are appropriate and proper.”

“It does not matter what avenue you go down,” laments Anderson, who says the Coriams ‘ requests for U.K. authorities to investigate have been delayed repeatedly. “All doors are closed.”  

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The woman who disappeared on a Disney cruise ship

The ECHO revisited the vanishing of the 24-year-old, who was last seen on a Disney cruise ship

• 18:14, 11 SEP 2022
• Updated 18:25, 11 SEP 2022

It has been over a decade since Rebecca Coriam went missing at sea.

The Liverpool student, who was 24 at the time, vanished from the Disney Wonder ship in March 2011. Born in Chester, Rebecca was employed as a youth activity worker on board the vessel, having graduated in Youth Studies from Hope University.

She was last seen at dawn on March 22, 2011, as the ship made its way into Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. Her disappearance remains under investigation, though the family settled a lawsuit with Disney out of court in 2016.

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In 2019, the ECHO reported that there were a number of questions remaining relating to the case.

Rebecca's parents Mike and Ann claimed their beloved daughter was murdered, believing she was thrown overboard after being sexually assaulted. But Disney insisted she was swept overboard by a freak wave and vanished at sea and the alarm was raised a few hours later when she failed to turn up for work.

A nine-month investigation completed by a solitary policeman in the Bahamas, the Caribbean country where the Wonder was registered, concluded her disappearance was "not suspicious." However, a number of issues remain up in the air.

Key CCTV footage, first uncovered by the ECHO, shows Rebecca talking on an internal Disney phone in Deck One’s crew quarters – at one point visibly getting upset. A male colleague briefly puts a concerned arm around her as she anxiously chats on the phone.

Her friends and family stated this footage suggests Rebecca was sexually assaulted and in a state of distress.

The footage, which was recorded in the middle of the night, also appears to show Rebecca wearing men's pyjamas. Her family believe this is a sign their daughter desperately threw on any available garments to escape the cabin after some sort of attack.

Rebecca's shorts were also ripped when they were handed back to her parents, which led them to believe she was engaged in a violent struggle just before her death.

Moreover, our 2019 report included the detail that, when Rebecca's parents went aboard the ship, they were surprised to see a pair of flip flops neatly placed side by side on top of Rebecca’s suitcase in her wardrobe, which had not been taken away for forensic examination.

Further inconsistencies revealed they were a size-and-a-half too small for Rebecca, and her friends never saw her wearing them. The footwear, said to be left on the edge of the ship where Disney said she fell overboard, had a different signature and cabin number written on their side.

A further potential inconsistency is that some Disney employees believe Rebecca went overboard on Deck 5, close to the crew swimming pool - or appear to have been told this was the case.

A reconnaissance trip of the area revealed the pool had no ocean view because behind the railings is a high steel wall, which reaches well above head height. The Coriam family did query how their daughter could have been swept over any of the ship's 6ft-plus high walls, one of which was where Disney later laid flowers on deck to mark the tragedy.

The investigation into Rebecca's disappearance was carried out by one detective - Supt Paul Rolle of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, because that's where the ship was registered. He flew in from Nassau in the Bahamas, 1,500 miles from the ship – just one man charged with conducting a forensic investigation and interviewing 3,000 passengers and crew.

Neither US forces, where the ship docked after the tragedy in Los Angeles, or Mexican police, as her disappearance happened in Mexican waters, near Puerto Vallarta, were involved in the probe. The Coriam family did not receive any final report and little evidence or related material to the investigation was disclosed to them.

They once said: "Cheshire Police were informed and did liaise with the Bahamas authorities, but Cheshire Police did not proceed with their own investigation, on the grounds of lack of proper jurisdiction in this matter. Cheshire Police also received an interim report which in their words to us, was ‘totally and utterly unsatisfactory’ and they were under instructions not to disclose to the family its contents.

“We have tried under the Freedom of Information Act with no success to see the report.”

Cheshire Police has been contacted for comment.

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