George Smith IV
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In the summer of 2005, 16-year-old Emily woke up to start her day. She was sailing the Mediterranean aboard the Brilliance of the Seas, an incredible ship filled with dancing, drinking, and fun. As she stepped onto her balcony to take an unforgettable sunrise photo, she looked down onto the horizon. She noticed something bizarre on the lifeboats. It was a large pool of blood.

As she continued to snap more photos, she realized that the pool of blood was in the shape of a person. This is Forensic Tales, episode number 132, The Mysterious Death of George Smith IV. ♪

Thank you.

Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola. Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.

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In June 2005, 26-year-old George Smith IV flew to Barcelona, Spain with his new wife Jennifer. The couple said their I do's in a wedding ceremony overlooking the ocean just two days earlier. After tying the knot, they looked forward to their honeymoon. They flew to Barcelona to board the Brilliance of the Seas, a luxury cruise ship scheduled to spend the next 12 days touring the Mediterranean Sea.

The trip's highlight was the ship's plan to dock on the Greek island of Mykonos. Jennifer and George were only two of the total 2,300 people who had tickets to board the Brilliance of the Seas. Most of the 2,300 passengers were just like Jennifer and George, young people on summer vacation looking for a little fun.

This two-week trip was supposed to be Jennifer and George's honeymoon, a trip to celebrate the start of their lives together as husband and wife. But after only a few days on the trip, tragedy struck. At 23 years old, George Smith IV stood tall and athletic, and with a great sense of humor, he had no trouble making friends.

Originally from New England, George grew up in Connecticut. His parents were prominent business owners in the Greenwich, Connecticut area. His parents owned a very successful liquor store, which meant that Jennifer and his sister had a comfortable childhood. In 2000, George graduated with a business degree from Babson College in Wesley, Massachusetts.

Straight out of college, George got a computer search engine analyst job for a Boston company. But spending his days sitting behind a desk in a computer screen didn't fit George's lifestyle. He was active and social. He would much rather spend his days socializing and being around other like-minded people.

So three years after college graduation in 2003, he left his computer analyst job in Boston and returned home to Connecticut. He started working for his parents' liquor store. The plan was for someday George to take over the family business and allow his parents to retire. While working as the general manager for his parents' liquor store, George met Jennifer Hagel.

The two of them had known each other since college, but like many people their age, they went their separate ways. But now that George was back in Connecticut, Jennifer and George picked up where they left off and rekindled their relationship. But this time around, things were different. They were no longer college students. Instead, they were both college graduates looking for something more.

So instead of rekindling their relationship as simply friends, they started dating. Jennifer Hagel was as beautiful as George Smith was handsome. With long blonde hair, she was the type of girl that would turn heads whenever she walked into a room.

But it wasn't only her physical appearance that stood out. She was also smart. At 25 years old, Jennifer graduated with her master's degree in education from Roger Williams University. She was about to begin working as a third grade teacher.

George's parents, George III and Maureen Smith, loved Jennifer. She was sweet, polite, but most importantly, she made George happy. Their son had finally met a good, sweet girl. George and Maureen weren't surprised when Jennifer quickly moved in to their son's apartment. Everything was going well in their relationship, and moving in together just made sense.

Things between George and Jennifer were going so well that George popped the question after two years of dating. And without hesitation, Jennifer said yes. On June 25, 2005, George and Jennifer got married at Castle Hill Inn in Newport, Rhode Island, a beachfront property overlooking the ocean. Jennifer and George tied the knot in a beautiful, lavish wedding ceremony in front of a few hundred guests.

Their wedding was the perfect way to celebrate the young, perfect couple. After the ceremony, Jennifer and George flew to Spain. The plan was to board the Brilliance of the Seas from Barcelona on June 29th and spend the next 12 days cruising around the Mediterranean. After boarding the ship, Jennifer, George, and the other 2,300 guests would travel down the coast of Italy.

As Jennifer and George boarded the cruise ship, they instantly made friends with other passengers, including the Askin family from Laguna Hills, California, and fellow honeymooners Paul and Galena Wisniewski. Everyone on board, including Jennifer and George, were looking forward to having a good time at sea for the next 12 days. The first few days of the trip went off without a hitch.

After stopping at its first port, the ship made its second stop in Florence, Italy. In Florence, Jennifer and George got off the ship to sightsee and go shopping. One of their purchases was a bottle of Abstinence, a potent alcohol brand banned in the U.S. and much of Europe. It's a type of alcohol known to cause hallucinations and extreme intoxication.

Although bringing your own alcohol on a cruise ship is generally not allowed, not all cruise ships are strict about it. Passengers aren't searched when they return, so many passengers can hide bottles purchased at different stops. Some people purchase alcohol because they don't like paying the high prices for cocktails on the ship. Others, like George, want something unavailable on the ship.

When it came time for passengers to re-board the ship in Florence, George tucked the bottle inside of his waistband and got it on board undetected. After cruising around the tip of Italy, the brilliance of the seas headed toward the Greek island of Mykonos. On July 4th, the fourth day at sea, the ship docked in Mykonos, where Jennifer and George once again got off the ship.

They spent the afternoon sightseeing, shopping, and walking around the island's villas and resorts. The island of Mykonos was one of the docks they looked forward to most during their trip together. And when they arrived, the island didn't disappoint. In the evening, the couple returned to the ship. The plan was to have dinner on the ship and go down to the casino.

When Jennifer and George started their honeymoon, George brought a lot of cash with him. Some of the money was his own, and some of the money came from the wedding. They knew the ship had a casino and wanted to spend a lot of time gambling when they were on board.

During the first couple days of the trip, George left most of the cash inside of their cabin. Sometimes he locked the money in the safe, while other days he didn't. He simply left the money inside the room in plain view. Before going to the casino that night, George went back upstairs to their cabin and took a large pile of cash for both him and Jennifer.

Once they got to the casino, they met up with a friend that they had met earlier in the trip, 20-year-old Josh Askin. Josh was traveling with his family from Southern California, and when he met Jennifer and George, they instantly became friends. That night, George and Josh stayed together to play craps, while Jennifer went to play blackjack alone.

While George was showing Josh how to play craps, a few other guys came to the table to hang out. 19-year-old Greg Rosenberg, 18-year-old Zachary Rosenberg, and their friend Rusty Kaufman. Greg and Zachary were Russian-American cousins originally from Brooklyn, New York, and their friend Rusty was also originally from Brooklyn.

Greg, Zachary, and Rusty met with George and Josh earlier on the cruise. The five of them spent a lot of time together, especially in the casino late at night. Although it had only been a few days on board, Greg, Zachary, and Rusty didn't have the best reputation with the ship's crew members.

Earlier that morning, on July 4th, one of the ship's security guards caught the group of guys drinking and smoking by the main pool. Although drinking was generally allowed, smoking wasn't. When the security guard told the guys that they couldn't smoke there, they got rude and aggressive towards the security guard.

Two days earlier, on July 2nd, someone staying inside of Greg's cabin attempted to call for room service, but they were so drunk and belligerent that the kitchen reported the incident to security. After security went to the cabin, the kitchen supervisor told its staff not to serve the room if they tried calling again.

While George and his new guy friends played craps, Jennifer went off on her own to play blackjack. She wasn't too happy that her new husband seemed more interested in drinking with his new friends than spending time with her on their honeymoon. Not long after sitting down at the craps table, George and Josh left to get more drinks at the bar.

At the bar, George pulled out a large pile of cash and offered to buy everyone at the bar a round of drinks, including their Russian-American friends, Greg and Zachary Rosenberg, and their friend, Rusty Kaufman. Jennifer caught up with them as they sat at the bar ordering more drinks. The six of them all continued to drink. George, Jennifer, Josh, Zachary, Greg, and Rusty.

As the night went on, the more they drank. One drink became two drinks. One shot became two shots. And by one o'clock in the morning, everyone in the group was feeling pretty good. At this time, one of the ship's employees seemed to take notice of Jennifer. This wasn't at all surprising since anywhere Jennifer went, she turned heads.

but it was a little out of character for a crew member to flirt with a guest. It was also strange since Jennifer was on her honeymoon, but the crew member couldn't help himself. There was something about Jennifer that he couldn't ignore. His name was Lloyd Both. He worked as a casino manager on the ship. For the next hour, Lloyd and Jennifer played blackjack together and appeared to be having fun.

George kept himself busy at the bar and didn't seem to notice that Lloyd was flirting with his wife. After about an hour, Jennifer got up from the blackjack table to sit at the poker table. Not long after she sat down, Greg Rosenberg also sat down at the poker table. At this point, George and his friend, Josh Askin, left the bar and headed back towards Josh's cabin on deck nine.

Inside of Josh's room, they took a few shots of the bottle that George snuck onto the ship. After taking a few shots, Josh and George briefly stopped by George and Jennifer's cabin to pick up more cash. George had already gone through all of his cash and needed more. The two of them were back in the casino by 2.20 a.m. Ten minutes later at 2.30 a.m., the casino was closing for the night.

But George and his four guy friends weren't ready to call it a night just yet. So after the casino closed, they headed towards the ship's nightclub. Not long after they got to the club, Jennifer and the crew member Lloyd also showed up at the club. By this point, George finally noticed that Lloyd was getting a little too friendly with Jennifer, and he didn't like that.

He tried to pull Jennifer away, but this upset Jennifer. She didn't think that Lloyd was flirting with her, and she didn't like how jealous George got. They had both been drinking all night, and what seemed to be a small incident was exploding into something much bigger. Alcohol and jealousy are the ideal mix for a couple to fight.

George and Jennifer continued to fight in the nightclub for the next several minutes. Jennifer was mad about George spending so much time with his new friends, and George was angry that another guy was flirting with her. At one point in the fight, George said something to Jennifer that she really didn't like. So in return, she kicked him in the groin and stormed out of the club, leaving George and the guys behind.

George was agitated, but instead of running after Jennifer, he decided to stay in the club and continue to drink and take shots. By 3.30 a.m., the club was about to close for the night. By 3.45 a.m., club bouncers were kicking the guests out, but George was too drunk to walk on his own. Throughout the night, he had countless shots of vodka and other alcohol.

Finally, unable to walk on his own, his four friends, Josh, Zachary, Greg, and Rusty, all helped him to his and Jennifer's cabin, cabin 9062 on deck number nine. When they got inside the cabin, they were surprised that Jennifer wasn't there. She had left the club 15 to 20 minutes earlier than they did, so they assumed that she had already returned to the cabin.

George and the guys decided to look around the ship for Jennifer. They returned to the nightclub on deck 13, but no sign of her. They also searched the pool area on deck 11, but she wasn't there either. Approximately nine minutes later, George and the guys returned to the couple's cabin at 4.01 a.m., but when they got there, Jennifer still wasn't there.

Around that time, a guest staying next door, Cleet Hyman, called security. He called security to report the group was making loud noises so early in the morning. He told security that his neighbors inside of cabin 9062 were slamming doors and throwing furniture around on the balcony. This wasn't the first time that Cleet Hyman had called security on Jennifer and George.

Earlier during the trip, he called security because he said it sounded like people were playing a drinking game inside the room late at night. But it wasn't only Hyman who heard the loud noises. Two cabins down from the couple's room, Carlos Menchaca in cabin 9066 was woken up by loud noises.

He called and told security that it sounded like people were fighting inside the cabin. It sounded like someone being thrown against the wall or furniture being thrown to the ground. Carlos Menchaca told security that it was so noisy that it sounded like someone was trashing the room.

For the next few minutes, the commotion seemed to die down. Then at around 4.25 a.m., several passengers, including Hyman and Carlos Menchaca, heard a loud thud. After the thud, cabin 9062 went dead quiet. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash tails to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash tails. At the same time passengers heard the loud thud coming from the newlyweds' cabin, one of the ship's janitors stumbled upon Jennifer. He found her lying on the floor down the hall from her room on Deck 9.

The janitor radioed to his supervisor that a guest was found asleep in the hallway. He figured she simply had a little too much to drink. A few minutes later, his supervisor and two security officers arrived in the hallway. After waking Jennifer up, they realized that she was too drunk to walk on her own, so they got a wheelchair and escorted her back to cabin 9062 at 4.50 a.m.,

When they dropped her off, the cabin was completely dark and the curtains were closed. A few hours later at 8.15 a.m., Jennifer woke up. First, she noticed that George wasn't in bed next to her. But this didn't bother her. She knew that they had too much to drink the night before, so she figured he passed out in another room.

This wouldn't be the first time he did something like that. On a previous night during the trip, George slept in one of his friends' cabin and returned to his own room later that morning. Jennifer had a massage booked at the ship's spa that morning at 8.30 a.m., so she got up and left for the spa.

Not long after she got to the spa, the ship's captain paged Jennifer's name over the ship's intercom. It was about George. The ship's captain told Jennifer that they thought her husband might have fallen overboard. The ship's captain informed Jennifer that earlier that morning, 16-year-old passenger Emily Rash stepped out onto a balcony to snap photos of the sunrise.

Then slightly after 7.30 a.m., she noticed something on the white overhang covering the lifeboats. It was a huge bloodstain in the shape of a human body. She saw patterns in the bloodstain that resembled handprints and footprints, like someone had tried to stand up.

She also saw impressions of fingers at the canopy's edge that looked like someone was trying to hang on the edge before falling into the water. She immediately alerted security, who made their way to the lifeboats. When they arrived, they found a huge bloodstain covering most of the white awning.

Like the 16-year-old passenger who discovered the stain, they also believed it resembled the shape of a human body. The shape of someone thrown off a balcony. The ship's security looked up at the passengers staying directly above the bloodstain. They needed to find out if everyone staying directly above was okay.

they were able to verify everyone's whereabouts, except for one, George. Word about the bloodstain and George's disappearance spread quickly on the boat. Passengers discovered that the ship's crew believed George Smith had gone overboard earlier that morning.

When the crew went to speak with Jennifer, she kept saying she couldn't remember much about the night before. She told the crew that she had almost no memory of the night after leaving the casino. When she got back to her cabin around 5 o'clock a.m., she said that George wasn't there and that he still wasn't there when she got up for her massage appointment.

After speaking with the ship's captain and security team, Jennifer called her father and told him that George had gone overboard. Jennifer's father called George's parents back in Connecticut to break the news. Back on the ship, an investigation was underway to determine how George could have gone overboard. Because the boat was docked in Turkey at the time, the investigation was led by the Turkish police.

Anytime a crime is suspected on a cruise ship, the agency in charge of the investigation depends on the ship's location. So if the incident happens at sea, it generally doesn't fall on any particular country or jurisdiction. Instead, the investigation is led by the cruise ship itself.

However, if the incident occurs while the ship is docked, the investigation belongs to the country or jurisdiction where the ship is stationed. In this case, that's Turkey. Slightly afternoon on July 5th, Turkish police officers boarded the ship alongside a U.S. FBI agent.

The Turkish Crime Scene Investigation Unit boarded the ship and the FBI agent began interviewing passengers. When the Turkish CSI unit examined the bloodstain, they thought it resembled the same size and shape as George's body. They believed the stain was consistent with George falling off his balcony and hitting the canopy on his way down.

Once he hit the canopy, his body must have slid down into the water. Once CSI concluded that they thought George accidentally fell off his balcony and went overboard, they began cleaning up the bloodstain. Within only a few hours after discovering the bloodstain, it was being cleaned up. Unfortunately, the cleanup destroyed any potential valuable forensic evidence.

At the same time CSI was cleaning up the blood, Turkish authorities spoke with the other passengers with Jennifer and George that night, including the Russian-American cousins Greg and Zachary Rosenberg, Josh Askin, and Rusty Kaufman.

They all told authorities similar stories. They had all been drinking together at the casino and nightclub. George and Jennifer had gotten into a fight that night, and around 3.45 a.m., after the club closed for the night, they helped drunk George back to his cabin. When they got there, Jennifer wasn't there. They said they briefly looked around for her, but returned to the cabin at 4.01 a.m.,

Records of the cabin's key card confirmed this part of their story. A key had been used to open Jennifer and George's room at 3.52 a.m. and 4.01 a.m. The men said that they put George in his bed and they all left. This was the last time that they ever saw him.

According to Josh, Greg, Zachary, and Rusty, after leaving George's room, they all went down to cabin 3008, Zachary and Rusty's room. When the Turkish police asked them what they did, they said they ordered room service. They showed the police a picture of the food they ordered. The photo was even date and time stamped.

But when the authorities checked with the ship's kitchen staff, they said they didn't have any record of receiving a room service order from cabin 3008. According to the ship's parent company, the Royal Caribbean, this discovery doesn't mean the order wasn't placed. It only means that the ship didn't keep records of room service orders.

Without any records, it was impossible to confirm their alibis. Turkish authorities also spoke with some of Jennifer and George's neighbors, including the neighbors who called the ship's security to complain about the loud noises coming from Jennifer and George's cabin. Clete Hyman, a police officer from California, provided authorities with critical information.

Here's a small excerpt of Cleet Hyman's statement to the police about what he heard and saw that night. Quote, Just after four o'clock in the morning on July 5th, I was awakened by loud yelling in 9062. The yelling sounded like people cheering on someone doing shooters. I removed my earplugs and could again hear the subjects yelling in unison.

At this point, I called the guest relationships desk and reported the disturbance. I also banged on the wall. During the next several minutes, there was talking in the room, but I couldn't distinguish the voices. It was quieter in the room for approximately five minutes, and then there was a loud arguing on the balcony between several male subjects.

I could not tell what was being said as it sounded like it was Spanish. After about two minutes, I could hear someone speaking in English saying goodnight several times. It sounded as if someone was trying to usher people from the balcony through the room. I heard the door open and male voices outside my door. After five or ten seconds, I opened my door and looked out.

I observed three white or Latin males walking towards the elevators. End quote. Cleet Hyman's statement to the police raised eyebrows for several reasons. Number one, why did he only see three men leaving Jennifer and George's room? Wouldn't Cleet Hyman have seen four men if Josh, Greg, Zachary, and Rusty were all with George instead of three?

Could he have been mistaken? Or did only three people leave and one stay behind in George's cabin? Clete Hyman and a few other of Jennifer and George's neighbor told the Turkish authorities that they heard what they described as a loud thud shortly after Hyman saw the three men walking down the hall. According to Hyman, he first thought that someone had fallen on the balcony.

He didn't initially think that it sounded like someone had fallen off, but all of Jennifer and George's neighbors agreed that they heard a loud thud that night, which now they believed was likely the sound of George's body falling overboard. After the police questioned Jennifer and the other men with George that night, Jennifer got off the ship. She spent one night on land in Turkey, then she flew home to the U.S. the following day.

Jennifer's decision to fly back to the United States less than 24 hours after discovering that her husband had fallen overboard didn't sit well with George's family. In a Facebook post, George's family criticized this move. They asked why she didn't stay behind to try and look for George.

The Post went on to say that instead of looking for him, she, quote, hopped on the first plane back to the United States after her release from Turkish police custody, end quote. Back on the ship, Josh Askin and his family, Greg and Zachary Rosenberg and Rusty Kaufman, were all kicked off the ship.

They weren't facing any criminal charges related to George's apparent fall overboard, but all of them were kicked off in connection to an alleged sexual assault on board. Following George's assumed death, Turkish police and the ship's crew learned about an alleged sexual assault that took place on the ship.

On the night of July 6th, leading into July 7th, an 18-year-old passenger from Georgia returned to her cabin to find her friend, also 18 years old, hysterically crying. The friend told her that she thought she'd been sexually assaulted and that the assault might have been videotaped.

When the friend asked who she thought did this, she said it was Greg and Zachary Rosenberg and Rusty Kaufman. She also said that Josh Askin was present when the assault took place, but he didn't participate.

The woman and her friend reported the incident to the ship's crew on July 8th, and when the ship docked in Naples, the ship's captain ordered the Rosenberg cousins, Rusty Kaufman, and Josh Askin, as well as his family, to get off the ship. They had no jurisdiction to press criminal charges for the alleged sexual assault, but the ship did have the authority to kick them off.

In the hours following George's alleged fall, Turkish authorities conducted water searches of the area, hoping to find George's body. But after hours of searching, the authorities didn't find anything. There was no sign of George. The ship had traveled over 200 miles the night that George allegedly fell overboard. This meant their search area stretched an enormous area.

After the ship's crew and Turkish police wrapped up their investigation, they concluded that George's death was an accident. They believed that George had too much to drink that night, and he accidentally fell off the side of his balcony while smoking a cigar. His body hit the white canopy covering the ship's lifeboats, causing the large bloodstain. After he hit the canopy, his body rolled off the side of the ship and into the ocean.

They believed he was either killed when he fell or he drowned. After approximately two hours of investigating, the Turkish police were rushed off the ship so that the ship could make the next port of call on schedule. Within just hours, George's death was ruled an accident. But George's family disagrees. This was no accident.

No, George was murdered, and his death was made to look like an accidental fall overboard. In the months following George's presumed death, the Smith family worked tirelessly to have authorities consider his death a homicide.

They publicly criticized the ship's parent company, Royal Caribbean, for failing to keep them updated throughout their initial investigation. They also criticized them for allowing passengers and crew members off the ship in Turkey the morning that George was discovered missing. According to the Smith family, this decision could have caused crucial evidence to leave the ship.

If someone on board was responsible for George's death when the ship docked in Turkey, those responsible could have easily taken valuable evidence. There was also the way the ship and the Turkish police investigated the case. Within two hours, they ruled George's death an accident and began cleaning up the blood evidence.

Those who believe that George's death wasn't an accident argue that two hours isn't long enough to conduct a proper criminal investigation. A few weeks after George's disappearance on July 29, 2005, the FBI announced that they were investigating the case as a possible homicide.

The case also prompted a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C. on December 12, 2005, to discuss crucial cruise safety and cruise ship crimes and disappearances. Six months after George's presumed death, world-renowned forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee looked at the case.

Dr. Henry Lee has consulted on thousands of criminal cases from around the world, and he is regarded as one of the best forensic scientists in the world. Throughout his career, Dr. Lee has consulted on famous cases such as the O.J. Simpson murder case and the John Benet Ramsey investigation.

Following the ship's conclusion that George's death was an accident, Jennifer reached out to Dr. Henry Lee and his team to see if they could take a look at the case. And they agreed. Dr. Lee and his team traveled to Miami where the Brilliance of the Seas was docked. They began by searching Jennifer and George's cabin and the spot where they found the bloodstain for any forensic evidence.

Although the FBI retained parts of the cabin's carpet and other items from the cabin, Dr. Lee and his team conducted their investigation, searching for evidence of blood and other trace evidence. Based on what he observed, Dr. Lee suggested that he found something of significance, although what that something of significance is isn't exactly clear.

There may be evidence of blood, scratches, or cuts on the balcony's metal awning. Dr. Lee, however, has not gone public with what he found. While on the ship, Dr. Lee wanted to perform an experiment. He wanted to throw a mannequin the same height and weight as George over the cabin balcony to see where and how it would have landed on the lifeboat cover below.

Dr. Lee thought this experiment would be important to determining whether George accidentally fell or if he was thrown from the balcony. He wanted to find out where the mannequin would likely land if it was sitting on the rail or slipped, or where it would land if it had been thrown from the balcony. How would the mannequin have rolled?

Would the mannequin tend to roll toward the water or back towards the side of the ship? Dr. Lee believed that all of these questions could be answered by performing this one experiment. But when it came time for Dr. Lee to perform this test, the cruise line immediately stopped him. They told him he wouldn't be allowed to do it.

In a statement they made to the media, they said that they weren't allowing Dr. Lee to perform any experiments on the ship due to, quote, passenger safety, end quote. Another famous forensic scientist also weighed in on George's case, Dr. Lawrence Kobolinski, or Dr. K as he's known.

In 2006, Dr. K was interviewed on MSNBC, where he shared that he believed Jennifer in George's cabin was a crime scene. Based on his observations, he believed that George was murdered. He based his conclusions on several factors. First, the blood.

Dr. K believed that the amount of blood found on the canopy below George's cabin suggested homicide. Based on the amount of blood, Dr. K believes that this blood loss is consistent with George being stabbed with a knife and thrown over the cabin railing. He doesn't think the amount of blood discovered on the canopy is consistent with an accidental fall.

According to Dr. K, if George had accidentally fallen off his balcony as the cruise ship suggested, there wouldn't be that much blood. Dr. K believes that he might have been dead when George hit the canopy, or he might have died shortly after when he hit the water.

Dr. K told MSNBC that he does not believe the bloodstain is consistent with a fall based on his expertise and investigation. Instead, he believes it's compatible with someone who's already been attacked and is already bleeding when they fall overboard. Several years after George's disappearance, the FBI uncovered a videotape.

The video was filmed by the three Russian Americans, Rusty Kaufman and George and Zachary Rosenberg, just hours after George went overboard. The video was taken on one of the men's video cameras. In the video, the three men passed around the camera, filming themselves talking about George's death.

Not only are they talking about George's apparent fall, but they're also seen joking and laughing about it. In one part of the video, Rusty Kaufman refers to George, quote, going parachute riding off his balcony, end quote. In another part of the same video, the men flash gang signs and refer to themselves as gangsters.

Attorneys for the Smith family argue that this videotape is an admission to the three men's guilt. They believe that this video acts as a confession that Rusty Kaufman, Greg and Zachary Rosenberg were involved in George's death. Merely hours after George went overboard, they're caught on camera laughing and joking about it.

attorneys for Kaufman and the Rosenberg cousins argue that the video has nothing to do with their involvement in George's death. According to Greg Rosenberg's attorney, he argued that Greg didn't even know that George was dead when they made the videotape. Instead, he chalked the video up to his client and his friends making, quote, stupid comments about the situation, end quote.

In July 2015, 10 years after George's death, the FBI in Connecticut closed its investigation into the case. The FBI told the Smith family that there wasn't enough evidence to prove George had been murdered and that his death may have been an accident.

This announcement devastated the Smith family, who continued to believe their son was murdered. In a public Facebook post, the Smiths announced that they plan to fight the case to be moved to another jurisdiction such as New York, and they will continue to push for criminal charges to be filed. Today, George Smith's case remains listed as an accident.

In June 2006, George's former wife, Jennifer Hagel, received a $1.1 million settlement from Royal Caribbean. In 2010, the Smith family appealed. Shortly before the case went to trial, Jennifer, the Smiths, and Royal Caribbean reached an amended settlement worth $1.3 million.

This new settlement also required the cruise ship to release the case file on George's case to both families. George's story has also led to a great interest in passenger rights aboard cruise ships. In 2013, the Cruise Lines International Association introduced a Bill of Rights.

That same year, the Smith family also supported a bill co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Kay Rockefeller called the Cruise Ship Passenger Protection Act. This bill allows for greater transparency when crimes are committed on cruise ships. It also promotes more federal government protection of passenger rights.

The Smith family continues to push for criminal charges to be filed in George's death. They have vowed to continue to fight until those responsible for his murder are held accountable. To share your thoughts on George Smith's story, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook. To find out what I think about the case, sign up to become a patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales.

After each episode, I release a bonus episode where I share my personal thoughts and opinions about the case. You'll want to listen to this one because this is where I'm going to share with you what I think happened to George. To check out photos from the case, be sure to head to our website, ForensicTales.com. Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode. We release a new episode every Monday.

If you love the show, consider leaving us a positive review or tell friends and family about us. You can also help support the show through Patreon. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please join me next week. We'll have a brand new case and a brand new story to talk about. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.

Forensic Tales is a Rockefeller Audio production. The show is written and produced by me, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola. For a small monthly contribution, you can help create new compelling cases for the show, help fund research, and assist with production and editing costs.

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at ForensicTales.com to find out how you can become involved. For a complete list of sources used in this episode, please visit ForensicTales.com. Thank you for listening. Your support means the world to me. I'll see you next week. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.