Head Butted Off Ship?

Overboard

I admit to not being a 'cruise-type' of person, and that's not just because I saw the original "Poseidon Adventure." I've gotten seasick on ferries, and the more I hear about cruises the less I think I'd enjoy them.

Seems like lately we've ben hearing more about passengers coming down with communicable viruses, being shot at by pirates, and going overboard to become fish food.

This week word came of yet another passenger gone into the drink.

Jennifer Ellis Seitz was on the Norwegian Pearl with her husband, Raymond, and mother on a seven day cruise in the Gulf of Mexico when she apparently went overboard on Christmas.

Word is that her husband didn't even report her missing for eight hours, and today her family issued a statement that seems contradictory at best:

"Jennifer was in a very happy and uplifted mood both before and during the cruise," the Ellis family said in the statement. "She was excited about starting a new job and her future career with a local newspaper. She and her husband had been talking about starting their family. The family suspects that Jennifer chose an unfortunate ending to her life. She was a beautiful and caring person and will be truly missed by all who love her."

It doesn't jive that she was in a very happy and uplifted mood and then jumped overboard.

Jennifer and her husband met at a weight loss support group. Both had undergone bariatric surgery.

However:

Raymond Seitz was arrested in April on a charge of domestic violence-battery after being accused of head-butting his wife. The charge was dropped after he entered a pretrial diversion program. Records show that she asked the prosecutor not to pursue the case.

In an interview on the Today show, fellow passenger Jim Nestor, a retired police officer, recalled how he ran into Mr. Seitz the day after his wife went missing:

"I had given him my condolences, and he had a plastic bag filled with quarters, and he said to me that he was going to the casino to see if he could change his luck," Nestor said.

Seems to me the wife was the one with the bad luck.