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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