Cruise passenger goes missing as ship approaches Miami

Second case in a week of a disappearance from a cruise out of Florida

Miami police are looking for a cruise ship passenger who has gone missing. On Thursday, the Coast Guard called off its search.

Kevin McGrath, 26, was on a three-night Bahamas cruise aboard the Carnival Conquest last weekend. According to CNN, he was celebrating his father’s 60th birthday with family members.

McGrath was last seen in his cabin around 2 a.m. Monday, according to his brother. He did not join his family for breakfast before the ship’s return to Miami at 8 a.m., and they informed the crew after searching for him.

According to Miami-Dade police, the cruise line claims there is no video or other evidence that he went overboard, but the Coast Guard searched nearby waters for more than three days.

A week earlier, a 19-year-old Texas man went missing while on a weeklong cruise from Port Canaveral, Fla., to Mexico on the Wonder of the Seas. Sigmund Ropich is believed to have gone overboard on August 29 near Cuba and has yet to be found.

Other recent incidents in which US cruise passengers have gone missing and are presumed to have drowned:

• August 11 in Hilo, Hawaii. Kenneth Schwalbe, 59, of Costa Mesa, Calif., was reportedly seen on video falling from the Emerald Princess on a cruise out of Los Angeles as it approached Hawaii.
• Jacksonville, Florida, July 23. According to cruise line officials, Jaylen Hill, 30, jumped from the Carnival Elation as it returned from a four-day trip to the Bahamas.
• Ronnie Peale Jr., 35, vanished from the Carnival Magic as it returned from a five-day trip to the Bahamas on May 29, Norfolk, Va. According to cruise officials, he fell from a balcony.

In addition, on May 24, a Louisiana teen on a graduation trip to the Bahamas went missing after jumping or falling from a sunset excursion boat.