Today’s Crime Story episode explores not one, not two, but three cases. We will be looking at the disappearance of Rebecca Coriam, the disappearance of Amy Lynn Bradley, and the murder of Kristy Manzanares. The commonalities between these three incidents: they all happened in international waters and aboard cruise ships.
First we must discuss International waters and the law of the seas. At first glance one might see the seas lawless places, where pirates roam and one can get away with murder. Well…not exactly. Article 27 of the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea provides that the criminal jurisdiction of a coastal state should not be exercised to arrest any person or conduct any investigation in connection with any crime committed on a foreign ship passing through its territorial sea, except in relation to cases outlined in the Article and which relate to that jurisdiction. What a mouthful----let’s break it down! Basically, this aspect of the Law of the Sea means if I am on a ship 15 miles off the coast of France, but the ship is registered to Italy and flies under the Italian flag. Italian authorities would investigate and crime that happens while on board. Maritime countries essentially control their territorial waters from the shore out to a distance of 12 miles, a.k.a. the “12-mile limit.” Within this zone, all laws of that country apply. Maritime countries are also entitled to an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) made up of the water column and the seabed out to a distance of 200 miles, meaning they can set fishing regulations, drill for oil in this zone, but a country cannot prevent vessels from coming into their EEZ. With respect to international crimes—such as piracy, human trafficking, and crimes against humanity—any country or international organization can theoretically claim authority over the matter using the concept of universal jurisdiction. Now that we have a basic understanding of this complex article controlling the seas, lets move on to our first crime story!
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Rebecca Coriam, an English national born in 1987, grew up in a loving home with two loving parents, Mike and Annmaria, along with a sister and two foster brothers. Rebecca enjoyed the outdoors, physical activities, and even majored in Sport Science in college. In particular she ran, biked, swam, and walked her dog, Jesse. In 2010, Rebecca travelled to London to interview with Disney Cruise Line. Hundreds of people interviewed ship jobs so she really did not think she would get the job, but she did! She started working for Disney in 2010 as a youth worker, which is kind of like an activity’s manager for children on board the ship. Rebecca trained in the Bahamas for Disney before stationing on the Disney Cruise Ship Wonder, docked in Los Angeles, California. The line sailed from LA down to Mexico and back. While working the cruise circuit, Rebecca got a call from her family and learned that her grandfather had died. She flew home to England to be with her family; little did anyone know that this would be the last time Rebecca’s family would ever see her.
Unlike yesteryear when individuals sailed the seas without the ability to remain in contact with friends and family, Rebecca maintained constant contact with her family. On March 22, 2011, she wrote on her Mother’s Facebook wall for the last time stating that she would call her mom soon. The call never came, and her parents soon worried. The next day Rebecca missed her shift at 9am on Disney’s Wonder, the crew looked for her in her cabin, the crew’s lounge to no avail. The United States Coast Guard and Mexican navy started searching the waters for Rebecca, in fears that she had gone overboard. The ship’s security team started looking at CCTV, and a camera spotted Rebecca at 5:45am. In the video, Rebecca has on clothing that does not appear to be her own, baggy clothing that looks more like men’s clothing and she seems distraught. The footage shows Rebecca on her cell phone when someone approaches her and asks her if she is okay. She replies, “Yeah I’m fine”.
Disney registered their ship, Wonder, in the Bahamas and under the Law of the Sea meant Bahamian authorities took charge of the investigation. Disney flew out Bahamian detective Paul Rolle via private jet to investigate. The investigation begame three days after the boat had re-docked. Detective Rolle spent ONE DAY onboard Wonder and interviewed six employees and no passengers. This investigation seems lax, and, as a former Disney employee myself, I am surprised that Disney allowed such: one of their employees was MISSING on their watch for heaven sakes.
After several days of “stalled” communication, Disney flew Rebecca’s parents to Los Angeles. In the matter of their missing daughter, the Corian’s were treated “Disney-style”. Everything is a show to Disney, even missing employees. According to Annemaria “Everything was staged by Disney. We were taken in a car with blacked out windows, on the boat’s back entrance, as passengers disembarked from the front. They took us to a room where they played the CCTV footage of Rebecca where, largely, she appears to be fine.” While onboard, Rebecca's parents spoke with the ship’s captain. The captain had a theory and opined that Rebecca was at the crew’s pool on Deck 5 and a rogue wave came in and swept Rebecca out into sea. Rebecca’s parents found the story lacking and complete B.S. as seven foot high walls exist on deck 5 by the pool. The captain based his conclusion on crew members finding a sandal on Deck 5. The sandal supposedly belonged to Rebecca. The following day Rebecca’s parents left the ship while Disney handled this “heartbreaking” matter by placing a lay of flowers on Deck 5 for Rebecca. The matter seemed over…...BUT (MUSIC)
A year after the incident a woman emailed Rebecca’s family stating she saw Rebecca in Venice with a man. Her father did not take this sighting as fact because how could his daughter get from the coast off of Mexico/California to Italy without a passport? But the email did make him feel hopeful that his daughter was still alive. The “sighting” did cause Rebecca’s parents to hire a journalist to play PI to try to get to the bottom of what happened. He actually boarded the ship on a cruise in a chance to discover the truth. Crew members told this journalist under anonymity that everyone knows she went overboard from the crew pool on deck five from a wave but after looking at weather reports the ocean seemed calm that night. But then he heard another story from a crew member that Rebecca had a rocky relationship with a girl crew member. Apparently a love triangle existed and on the night in question Tracy and Rebecca engaged in a threesome with Tracy’s boyfriend. Tracy, Tracy, Tracy…..she had both a girlfriend and a boyfriend. Apparently, Rebecca knew the situation and did not want to share Tracy. According to Tracy, Rebecca became depressed and told her that she wanted to jump off the ship. There was a love triangle, Tracy was Rebecca’s girlfriend, and the night Rebecca went missing t Tracy believes Rebecca did just that, she committed suicide while on board.
To this day, no one knows what happened to Rebecca. As I mentioned earlier, I worked at Disney World and there are cameras EVERYWHERE. I find it hard to believe that if Rebecca went overboard intentionally or unintentionally that CCTV’s did not capture it. Theories on what happened to Rebecca range from a rouge wave, to suicide, or possibly an accident took place. The obvious area to explore would be the love triangle going amiss theory. What about the sighting in Italy? Is Rebecca still alive, a person who saw a story on Rebecca and saw someone who looks similar to her, or were they just a cruel person wanting to insert themself into the story? Perhaps, we will never know.
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Our next crime story focuses on the disappearance of Amy Lynn Bradley. Her case is creepy, sad, and frightening. It makes me never want to go on a cruise. Amy, an American, was born in Virginia in 1974. I really could not find much about her personality. Y’all know how that just devastates me because Amy was a person above all else, she has likes, dislikes, dreams, goals--all lost because of the terrible event that happened to her. In 1998, her family took a cruise. Consisting of her mother Iva, father Ron and her brother Brad, they all wanted to have a trip as a last hurrah before Amy and her brother Brad really started on their own lives and ventured off into adulthood. The family decided to go on a cruise to the Caribbean, on Royal Caribbean’s boat Rhapsody. On the cruise the family had a great time, they spent time as a family, went on to the islands to have fun and took pictures in front of those scenes. All perfectly normal events that millions of families engage in; in fact, my mom made me do all of these things when we went on a family cruise! On the night of March 24th, Amy and her Brother Brad partied at one of the ship’s nightclubs. Amy had a great time, drinking as well as dancing with the house band’s bass player, one Allister Douglas, nicknamed Yellow. Video of Amy dancing that night exists, having a blast, not a care in the world.
Amy and her brother returned to their room and sat out of the room’s balcony to have a late night smoke. Brad told her that he loved her then went off to bed to catch some Z’s before the ship docked at the next port. At 5:30 am Amy’s father woke up and looked onto the balcony and saw Amy’s legs in the chair. Ron assumed that she must have fallen asleep out there and decided to let her stay out there, and he then went back to bed. When Ron woke back up only 30 minutes later he noticed that Amy, her cigarettes and lighter were no longer on the balcony but her shoes remained there. Ron searched for Amy around the whole boat for an hour and could not find her and started to worry. Ron woke up his wife and Brad in a frenzy. The boat had just docked at the next port-of-call, Carousel, and Ron found the captain and begged him not to let people get off the dock so that they could have a greater chance in finding Amy. The captain rejected this request and even refused to make an announcement regarding the situation. He did, however, agree to have the crew help look for Amy while the passengers were out and about in Carousel. Yellow, remember the bass player from the night before went up to Brad and said, “Sorry for what happened to your sister.” This interaction occurred before anyone really knew the situation.. How did Yellow know? A crew member told the Bradley family that around 5:30 am, the same time that Ron believes he saw his daughter on the balcony, that he saw Amy at the club with Yellow. The ship later told the Bradley’s that they had searched the entire boat and Amy was not on the ship. The Bradley’s decided to disembark the boat because if Amy was not on the boat she had to be in Carousel, right? The Bradley’s contacted the US Embassy that night. The Carousel authorities helped search for Amy the following day.
A family member contacted the The FBI and they determined that the initial authorities did not search the ship properly. The Bradley’s met up with the ship at the next port along with the FBI. But because the boat was in international waters, the captain did not have to comply with the FBI’s request to search. The captain, however, allowed the search. The FBI interviewed Allister Thomas, even hooking old Yellow up to a polygraph: he passed. But Allister’s story has changed several times over the years and there just seems something fishy about him. . Another crazy detail is when you enter on a cruise, ship personnel take a stock photo of you with a green screen behind you and they hope you buy it by the end of the cruise. Amy’s picture cannot be found. While these factoids might not relate to the disappearance something was amiss and I’ve read and watched enough crime stories to know that when coincidences occur I perk up.
The case becomes terrifying to me at this point in the story. Two possible sightings of Amy in Carousel have come to light, one in 1998 and the other in 1999. The people who supposedly saw her thought they recognized Amy’s tattoos. In 1999, a US Navy man said he saw a girl in a brothel who told him her name was Amy Bradley and [she] begged him for help," explaining that she was being held against her will and not allowed to leave. In 2005, Amy may have been spotted in a department store in Barbados. Three men followed her. A witness stated that a woman approached her and stated her name as Amy and that she was from Virginia before the three men took her away. Authorities created a composite sketch was of the men and the woman. Also, in 2005, A member of an organization that locates sex trafficking victims on adult websites noticed the photo and thought it might be Amy. How awful. No new leads have surfaced since 2005.
What do you think happened to Amy? The Bradley’s do not believe that Amy committed suicide. Amy was terrified of the ocean and she had so much going for her back at home including a new job and a new puppy. Do you think Alistair Douglas had something to do with it? Do you think Amy ended up in a sex trafficking ring? Too many credible sightings exist. Some have speculated that Amy walked away from it all, to start a new life in the Caribbean?
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Now, on to our third crime story taking place in international waters and on a cruise ship: the murder of Kristy Manzanares. Born in 1973 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Kristy but her and her family now lived in St. George, Utah. By 2017, Kristy, now a mother of three and a realtor, has been described as a dedicated and loving mother who juggled her business schedule to make her children her top priority. Vibrant personality, welcoming smile, kind heart, and compassion for everyone she met are also words used by those who knew her. In 2017, Kristy along with her husband Kenneth planned a cruise to Alaska to celebrate their 18th wedding anniversary. They took with them their three daughters as well as some extended family members.
On July 25th while having dinner Kenneth became belligerent. According to a source he had been acting terrible all night and at one point in the evening Kristy asked him for a divorce and wanted him to disembark the vessel at Juneau in order for him to travel back to Utah. On Tuesday night members of the entertainment team held a murder mystery party fo the passengers. Sadly, this murder mystery took a twist and caused some confusion when announcements for security and medical blasted throughout the ship. Thinking it a part of the dramatics around 9pm passengers heard screaming coming from Cabin D276. Around the same time Manzanares’ youngest daughter came running out of their cabin saying her parents had been in a fight. Confusion turned to horror as these events were not part of the show. Around 9:20pm medical pronounced Kristy dead in her cabin. Kristy had a severe head wound and blood had spread to “multiple surfaces” around the room. In my research the timeline of events gets a bit murky, but a witness did tell security that he went into the couple’s cabin and saw Kristy on the floor, covered in blood. More significantly, he stated that when he saw Kenneth with blood on his hands and clothing, he asked what happened, to which Kenneth allegedly replied, “She would not stop laughing at me.” Kenneth then allegedly grabbed his wife’s body and dragged it towards the cabin’s balcony. The witness told security that he himself grabbed Kristy’s ankles and pulled her back inside the cabin. Moments later, security arrived. While being processed by the FBI, Kenneth allegedly said, “My life is over.”
Only 7 miles from Frontier Island in Alaska, the ship’s captain headed there where the American authorities met the ship and started their investigation. The FBI agent came aboard the boat less than an hour after the murder. The ship now diverted to Alaska’s capital city of Juneau and authorities allowed no one to leave the ship. Passengers remained sequestered in their cabins for 9 hours while the FBI investigated. Princess cruise lines told fellow passengers and the media that Kristy died as a result of a “domestic dispute”. On February 7th, 2020, Kenneth Manzanares pled guilty to one count of murder in the second degree and faces a life sentence. Due to the COVID pandemic he may still await sentencing. This concludes the awful crime story of the murder of Kristy Manzanares.
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Lets review the stories: Rebecca Coriam disappeared from the cruise ship while employed with the Disney cruise line. Do you think a rouge wave swept her out to sea, she committed suicide or there was foul play in involved? In the terrifying case of Amy Lynn Bradley, I personally think she was sold into sex slavery, too many credible sightings support the theory. But yet those sightings ended in 2005, nothing has come of her case in the past 15 years, I honestly doubt she is still alive. In the murder of Kristy Manzanares, her husband obviously snapped during what should have been the trip of a lifetime. Kenneth felt it necessary to take a life and destroy the lives of his three children while on vacation. There exists a special place in hell for people like Kenneth. All three cases show perfectly normal women making their way through life victimed while on a cruise ship. We see shortcomings in the Law of the Sea as well as the difference between an immediate investigation and a delayed investigation. It does not surprise me that crime happens on floating cities of 2 to 3 thousand people yet the legal apparatus does not seem efficient enough to deal with the most horrendous of crimes. The conclusion of “she leapt off the ship to her death” seems too convenient of an alternate theory to there being a crime that perhaps we should be surprised that more people looking to commit mayhem don’t use the seas for their criminality.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence please call the National Domestic Abuse Hotline for America at 1-800-799-7233 or text LOVEIS to 1-866-331-9497.
That concludes the third episode of A Crime Story. I would love to hear your thoughts about today’s cases. You can comment on a crime story’s instagram @acrimestorypod, where I will be posting images from today’s story. Or you can comment on A Crime Story Podcast on Facebook or @acrimestorypod on Twitter. Or even comment and see additional photos on A Crime Story Podcast on Youtube. I have also started a website, where you can listen to the podcast as well as read a transcript of today’s story under the blog tab. The website URL is acrimestorypodcast.wixsite.com/mysite. Thank you so much for listening. If you could please leave a review of the podcast, it helps others find it. Also, if you could tell a friend about A Crime Story, I would greatly appreciate it. I hope to see you next time where I will be covering A Crime Story from Brazil. You won’t want to miss it.
A Crime Story is hosted and written by me, Kailin Lois. Sources for today’s episode can be found in the show’s notes. Theme Music is from Ross Bugden. Additional story editing is brought to you by my father, Mike. Francois Tardinov helps me produce the show. Thank you for listening to A Crime Story! Stay safe and be kind.
Sources: Britannica, Rebecca-coriam.com, the guardian, Bailey Sarian, allthatintresting.com, the things, film daily, FBI, the tv show Disappeared, People Magazine, heavy.com and ABC news
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