It all began with a trip out to the deck to smoke a cigarette, he says. He arrived on deck and noticed that something seemed a miss. He saw a woman's black, beaded evening handbag laying open on deck, beads from the handbag strewn about, some blood on the deck, scattered papers on deck, an overturned beverage glass, a note tucked into a life ring nearby and an emergency strobe partially out of it’s bracket.
Approximately 20’ further aft, he also saw a pen. He also saw a security camera covered with paper.Though at the scene, he says he never touched anything, and had never met Annette or anyone from her family.
The covered security camera has been discussed at length since the incident, and there are those who believe this pointed to a pre-meditated murder, perhaps even a contract killing.
Seeing another angle, there are people who have identified themselves publicly as police officers, who say it could very well be the camera was covered for a lover's tryst on deck, and had nothing at all to do with Annette Mizener. Only the video tape would tell when the camera was covered. That is a fact only the FBI and the cruise line know for sure.
Our POI says about the same time, two security guards arrived, and collected her open handbag, then removed a large amount of cash from it. This was around 10pm according to documented accounts of the scene. He went back and joined his traveling companions, and told them about what he saw. In some subsequent trips to the scene, he was accompanied by friends who were curious as well.
He is on record as having at least six trips to the scene. After discovering the scene, he initially visited the scene a couple times at 15-30 minute intervals, saw and talked to Annette's daughter at 11:00pm and again around 1:00am.
He says it wasn't until around 4:30am that security roped off the scene, over six hours after Annette disappeared. This allowed anyone to walk through the scene, look at it, touch things, or whatever. He says he packed, and left the ship with everyone else.
In one account, he stated he was "followed and harassed by Carnival Cruise Lines Security employees who insinuated that I had something to do with the passenger’s disappearance. My cabin was searched without my authorization PRIOR to the Captain announcing that there would be a ship wide search for the missing passenger."
When he was disembarking, he saw a crew member handcuffed and being lead off the ship by the Department Of Homeland Security. Another passenger says he witnessed the arrest as well, but says he doesn't know if it was related to Mizener. Then, our POI says the FBI told him in the beginning the crew member was a suspect, they had a full set of prints.
But, he had left the cruise line and gone back to his native country, and they 'couldn't touch him'. He says that at that point, they began to focus on him, an American, looking for anyone they could pin the crime on. That is our first indication that the case is being treated as a crime, according to this POI.
Immediate reports from the crew, jumping to conclusions, were that it was a suicide, and there are witnesses that heard them say that in front of Annette's daughter.
After leaving the ship, he told his story numerous times, in a wide range of places, saying he "sent numerous emails and faxes with information about what had happened." to the FBI, and he contacted Annette's husband and father, to tell them what he knew as well. He also says after reading a public statement he made, Annette's family contacted him.
A month after the cruise, he received a contact from the cruise line, saying "The head of security of Carnival did call me after the cruise and ask if there was anything that they could do for me and I told him to shove it and that they needed to start thinking about Annette's family."
He alleged, "The FBI waited for over a year [she went missing December 4, 2004] to finally interview me any questions despite the fact that I sent them numerous emails and faxes with information about what had happened.".
When they finally did contact him, he was surprised that FBI agents were not from Long Beach, California where the case was being handled, but from Lancaster and San Jose, California. He says, "The Lancaster agent was retiring in a few months and he said he just wanted to close the case no matter what. The San Jose agent just did not care in the beginning."
He further alleges on July 31, 2006, "I have been harassed by the FBI for over a year and it was continual." and "I have not seen or heard from the FBI in over 6 months now, but I still think of them every day."
Then, in what the POI describes as a "crazy" twist to this case, he tell us that he was labeled by the FBI as a "hit man", who traveled to Southern California to kill people, and that they somehow drew a connection from his Disneyland trips to being a hit man, to killing Annette though he has never known or come into contact with anyone who was murdered. They never told him who might of hired him to kill Annette, or for that matter the others they loosely alleged he killed. Though "They did play the murder for hire thing pretty good", he says.
It is unclear how trips to southern California relate to Mizener who lived with her husband and children in Wisconsin, while her first husband lived in Arizona.
While he did visit the scene at least a half dozen times, and contact the FBI numerous times, that might be behavior associated with some killers, but it seems very odd for a seasoned professional contract killer.
He alleges they told his fiance that he never graduated from high school nor received a college degree. He says since she attended both events, she clearly knew they were fabricating lies. Not only that, he says his diplomas are on the wall in his office. "More puzzling he was labeled as a man with a history as a "woman beater" when they spoke to his fiance, though she is the only woman he has been with since high school.
"They (the FBI) kept asking her (my fiance) to just tell them that I told her I did something to Annette and they would take care of the rest." he said. It is his impression the FBI agents were fishing with the past abuse story, but didn't know the woman they were fishing with knew their story was impossible. He says his finance labeled the agents as the "Federal Bureau Of Intimidation" because of their tactics with her.
Living in a gated community, he says they staked out the community, and went door to door questioning his neighbors. In an action seen on the television show The Sopranos, he further states, the agents would wave to him as he left and entered the complex, trying to intimidate him. The intimidation and contacts with friends and neighbors cost him friendships, after he says they were told "That I was a suspect in a murder and that they should be careful around me."
In April 2006, he says a grand jury was held in Los Angeles, almost a year and half after Annette went missing, and he was requested to provide fingerprints, a full set, "inked prints of my palms, fingers, sides of fingers, fingertips, and sides of my hand." He says he offered to give DNA, they took his DNA, and "informed me that it may be months before I was cleared because the war in Iraq had a higher priority."
A grand jury is held when there are possible charges involving "capital or infamous crimes" under federal jurisdiction, as mandated under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is an opportunity to compel testimony from a person of interest, giving evidence against him/herself, without legal representation, and can prove useful in building up the case they will present at the final trial.
He says he has been cleared after DNA results. It would seem if his prints and/or DNA matched those found near where Annette went missing, after he stated he touched nothing, he would have been arrested by now. According to him, he offered to take a lie detector test, and the FBI refused to issue one, saying " they do not believe in them." Then he adds, "My lawyer later informed me to not take one."
Annette Mizener
Missing Passenger On Cruise Ship
Carnival Cruise Lines - December 4, 2004
