Annette Mizener
Missing Passenger On Cruise Ship
Carnival Cruise Lines - December 4, 2004
Annette Mizener
Date: December 4, 2004
Cruise Bruise: Missing - Declared Dead By Judge
Bruise Location: Mexico
Age: 37
Home Town: Waukesha, Wisconsin
Cruise Line: Carnival Cruise Lines
Ship: Carnival Pride
Maritime Attorney: Charles Lipcon
Details:
She was traveling with her parents Wally and Heidi Knerler and teenage daughter Danielle. She was in cabin #6169. She was part of a group of 200 passengers from the Las Vegas Hilton.
On the last night of a West Coast cruise from Los Angeles, Annette had left to go play bingo. She had won at bingo twice already on the cruise, and was supposed to meet her parents for the 10pm bingo. In fact, she said she wanted to arrive early to get a good seat.
When she didn't show up, her parents became concerned and her father began to look for her. He searched for her in the casino. A witness said she was in the casino at 9:30pm. As he continued to search he heard her name paged, and became very worried. The crew had found her handbag on deck, and had paged her to give it back. That page was around 10:10pm
Her small black, beaded evening bag along with an overturned drink glass, and scattered papers was found alongside a railing on a lower deck of the cruise ship, outside an internet Café/Library.
A security camera was tampered with, actually covered with paper near that location. Yet, no cruise ship crew or security noticed the covered camera, or the image not on the monitor in security.
Beads from her purse were found on deck, appearing to have been ripped from the purse in a struggle. That was the single most important clue to her parents, that a struggle had taken place.
Spots of blood were found on the deck near the purse.
Her daughter states there was a man harassing her mother aboard ship. Security had been notified of this many times, and refused to assist.
The cruise lines says the ship's crew launched a room-by-room search of the Pride after Mizener's daughter Danielle and other passengers noticed she was missing. That search took three hours and during that time, the ship continued on their course. Then, they called the U.S. Coast Guard which told the ship to turn around and search the waters. The ship was turned around around 2:00am
The U.S. Coast Guard joined in the search with aircraft and a Navy ship, and searched the waters for 16 hours, searching 833 square miles, before the search was called off.
Annette and husband John were married three years, and were in bankruptcy, according to bankruptcy attorney Christopher Drout, working to extricate themselves from more than $250,000 in debts, the couple knew the case was about to end and that they would be discharged from their debts without losing their home or other personal belongings.
At the time of her disappearance, Mizener and her husband had recently adopted two other children, 11 and 9, and had launched a new business together selling dietary supplements. The business was a dream come true, and she was very excited about it and having the adopted children.
She also had a pending case as plaintiff for child support for children of a past marriage, indicating she had plans to continue her life.
Peter Knerler, Annette's brother said she was in good spirits, and there is no way she committed suicide.
The cruise had been won in a Carnival Cruise Lines raffle by Annette's mother. A letter arrived in the mail to Annette Mizener offering a chance to win another cruise, after she died.
An FBI investigation continues. Early on John Mizener says the FBI told him they suspected foul play. There were some inconsistency's in a particular crew member's responses to questioning. Since the disappearance, John Mizener, her husband, has complained about a lack of communication from Carnival and the FBI. The agency told the family several months after she vanished, that there’s evidence in a crime lab preventing the probe’s completion.
On November 21, 2005, John Mizener filed a lawsuit in Miami federal court against Carnival Cruise Lines. Mizener has hired the Milwaukee law firm Quarles & Brady and also Miami-based lawyer Charles Lipcon.
At the time, the bank was foreclosing on his home, previously protected by bankruptcy court. His financial troubles in recent months, are related to the death of his wife. The family says the incident has really messed up John's life.
UPDATE: AUGUST 3, 2006
We normally associate ' victims' on this site, as the passenger who was assaulted, went missing, or had some other event happen to them, onboard. However, Cruise Bruise has come across a "person of interest" telling a story that indicates he is a victim too, though nothing physically happened to him onboard.
