Rebecca Coriam disappeared from the Disney cruise ship she was working on six years ago, but now it has emerged that her family strongly suspect she was murdered following a sex attack.
What happened?
The 24-year-old student from Chester was reported as missing from the Disney Wonder vessel as it sailed in Mexican waters in March 2011.
Disney claim she was swept overboard by a freak wave, but that has been dismissed by Rebecca’s parents Mike and Ann Coriam – who live in Guilden Sutton – as well as politicians like ex-Deputy Labour leader John Prescott.
No stormy seas were recorded to support the wave theory, and the Royal Bahamas Police probe has been condemned as ‘appalling’ by influential MPs.
Shocking revelation:
Recently a report has emerged that the Coriams, along with maritime expert and family spokesman Bill Anderson, are convinced their philosophy pupil daughter Rebecca was victim of a sexual assault in the hours leading up to her disappearance.
Names of the potential suspects, one man and one woman, are known to private investigators.
It has been learnt that two of Rebecca’s best friends visited the Coriam parents after she went missing, and dropped the bombshell their pal had voiced fears of being raped or sexually attacked while on the ship.
Maritime expert Bill Anderson told: “What her best friends said to the Coriams sent a shiver down their spines.”
“They told Mike and Ann and they then told the police.”
“We are asking the UK government for an inquiry into Rebecca’s disappearance, but also a probe into what the police in the Bahamas never did.”
Suicide theory fails to fit the bill:
Another theory of suicide fails to fit, the Coriams believe, as the cruise ship worker had recently bought tickets for her parents to visit Disneyland Paris.
Those tickets were found on a table in her cabin when her disappearance first emerged, and were a sign of a young woman looking forward to the future.
The Coriams, Mr Anderson, along with Roy Ramm – the former Commander of Specialist Operations at Scotland Yard the family’s private detective – recently visited policing minister Brandon Lewis at his Home Office HQ in London.
The family left the meeting optimistic, after getting assurances the Tory politician would examine a dossier of new evidence about the case, handed to him by the Coriam campaigners.
After nine months, the investigating Bahamas police department, in the Caribbean, declared the 24-year-old’s disappearance as ‘not suspicious.’
Disney insist Rebecca, who studied childhood studies, psychology and philosophy at Liverpool Hope University, was swept overboard.
But Rebecca’s family think she was probably killed, and in November private investigators disclosed their belief that ‘criminal activity’ was behind her vanishing.
Possibility of murder on the cards:
Chester MP Mr Matheson, who is coordinating the investigation, believes there is a ‘real possibility’ that Rebecca was murdered.
And that train of events is supported by the allegations of rape or sexual assault, campaigners added.
Disney Cruises has been approached for comment.
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Source: Chester Chronicle
