Randal Gary
Story Submission Date: February 14, 2006
Visitor Submittter: Name Withheld
Event Date: May 16, 2003
Cruise Bruise: Missing Passenger
Bruise Location: Ketchikan, Alaska
Age: 50
Home Town: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Cruise Line: Holland America
Ship: Veendam
Details:
Randal was a 50-year-old psychotherapist from Toronto, with diabetes, who had gone missing somewhere between Ketchikan, Alaska, and Vancouver. A search was made, and he couldn't be found, onboard, or in the sea.
A week earlier, the night before the cruise left Vancouver Randal Gary had dropped by to see his sister Lynn Gary at her hotel. She was sleeping and didn't answer the phone when the desk called her, so he left a note, and $500, then continued on to take his cruise.
When the Veendam docked at Canada Place at 8 a.m. Sunday May 20, 2005, Randal had not settled his bill for his cabin number 104 that had a balance due of $127. That is when staff went looking for him.
The following facts create a puzzling sequence of events:
When the stewards went to check, they found the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on his cabin, it had been there most of the cruise.
The double bed showed signs of somebody being on it, but not slept in.
It was an outside cabin with a sealed window, and no balcony.
His belongings all seemed to be in the cabin, including his passport. His wallet was there, with cash in it. His credit card and driver's licence and, the key card to his cabin, where also there.
Staff found his watch, a package of Viagra, with one pill missing, an unopened box of insulin and a log of his blood-sugar levels that included readings up to Thursday.
They found several brochures for his new counselling practice.
Someone had been drinking in the cabin. There was a partially consumed bottle of rye, a half full bottle of red wine and an empty bottle of Bollinger champagne.
Randal hated champagne, never drank red wine, he was allergic to rye, and due to his health problem, rarely drank at all.
His brother was in contact with him almost everyday. The brother says his brother seemed happy and was excited about the cruise, and was excited about launching his new business.
A few years prior, he trained to become a professional counsellor, and had recently opened his own practice.
He had just taken out 100 advertising spots on a radio station, in Toronto, and was to do some on air spots himself, when he returned.
His brother says Gary told him he was taking the cruise alone, but hope to meet a lady. He says gary told him, "I'm going alone with the great expectation of meeting my Penelope Cruz from Vanilla Sky on board."
He planned to have lunch with his brother when he returned from the cruise.
Randal Gary was a bit of a ladies' man.
Vancouver police Detective Bolton received a passenger manifest from, Holland America of women, who were travelling unaccompanied or traveling with other women on Veendam's cruise to Alaska that week, both the married, and the single. There were 300 0f them. They sent Randals photograph to them, and of the 300, less than a dozen responded.
According to police Gary spent most nights at the casino, he was a late riser who didn't like the steward in his room.
On one particular occassion he was "sharp" with the steward, and the steward complained to his superior. Once he complained that the steward had been slow in delivering ice, and after that the steward complained to his superior that Gary was being difficult and he was having hard time getting into the cabin to do his job. Clearly there was friction between the two, with Gary not getting the service as he desired.
Gary told many people that the trip to Alaska was some kind of lifelong dream. Yet he never bothered to go ashore when the ship docked in Juneau and Skagway.
He had switched his restaurant seating assignment after the first night, requesting that he be reassigned to a table with four women, two of them middle-aged sisters from Victoria.
The sisters were interviewed by police, but say they only saw him at the meals, they didn't socialize with him otherwise.
In Ketchikan, he bought postcards of whales, seals and eagles and mailed them to 13 people back home, including his mother. The same day, the ship's log shows Gary leaving the ship again in Ketchikan at 6:19 p.m. and reboarding 6:28pm, two minutes before the ship set sail.
The nine minutes would've been just enough time for him to run to the dock and make a call from a pay phone. His sister says he may have left the ship to call her. May 16 was her birthday.
That night, the restaurant's formal evening, Gary was joined at his table by a ship's officer.
Staff say he was seen in the casino later, as usual.
Randal Gary Case Details: 1 2
Randal Gary
Missing Passenger On Cruise Ship
Holland America Line Veendam - May 16, 2003
