In mid-November, the world's largest cruise ship arrived at its new home in Port Everglades to throngs of cheering fans. Soon it embarked on its maiden voyage, a cruise of the Caribbean -- including a stop at Labadee, Haiti, an isolated hamlet just miles from the cholera and destruction of Port-au-Prince.
But the ship's first real tragedy came on Saturday, when 32-year-old Polish crew member Monika Markiewicz was killed on the beaches of Cozumel, allegedly by a 24-year-old Mexican bartender. Nelson Perez Torres told Mexican authorities that
he and Markiewicz had been seeing each other for a few months.
He
said that she met him at the bar where he worked, Barracuda, and that the
two of them walked to a remote beach last Saturday evening. He told
police that when he tried to kiss her, she resisted, and he hit her in the head with a rock and threw her body into the ocean.
Markiewicz worked as a musician aboard the 5,400-passenger ship. "We thank the Mexican authorities for their commitment to quickly solving the
murder of our crew member, Monika Markiewicz. Her
untimely death is tragic and has saddened all of us at Royal Caribbean," said CEO Adam Goldstein.
The Mexican newspaper La Cronica de Hoy reported on the incident. Allure of the Seas' next departure from Fort Lauderdale is scheduled for Sunday.
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