Katharina Buczek
She made sure to keep in touch with her parents regularly using Facebook and Skype. But, on March 21, 2011, the 24-year-old sent her final message to her parents– claiming that she would call them the following day.
Just 12 hours later, on March 22, Rebecca’s parents did receive a phone call. It was not from their daughter, though. Rather, it was a Disney official calling to inform them that their daughter had gone missing.
Rebecca reportedly missed her 9:00 a.m. shift– when the cruise ship was off the coast of Mexico and headed for Puerto Vallarta. The 24-year-old also was not in her room, and crewmembers could not locate her elsewhere on the ship.
Rebecca was even paged over the cruise ship’s P.A. system. However, she never arrived to check in to work.
Security camera footage was subsequently reviewed, and Rebecca was seen speaking on an internal phone in the crew lounge at 5:45 a.m. She also looked distressed.
Then, a young man was seen approaching her in the footage, appearing to ask if she was okay. Rebecca nodded before hanging up the phone and walking away from him. That was the last time the 24-year-old was ever seen.
Disney staff then contacted the United States Coast Guard and the Mexican Navy to conduct a search of the surrounding waters. Unfortunately, though, nothing was uncovered.
Rebecca’s father, Mike Coriam, was not satisfied with Disney’s efforts to find his daughter. He claimed that the cruise staff did not follow standard operating procedures since the ship was never turned around to look for Rebecca.
Mike also alleged that the Coast Guard and Navy teams were provided incorrect coordinates. So, he believes they searched the wrong region of the ocean.
Due to the Flags of Convenience (FOC) system, though, Rebecca’s case fell to the ship’s registration country– which was the Bahamas. So, three days after her disappearance, Disney alerted the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) to launch an investigation.
One detective, Paul Rolle, was assigned to the case. He was flown in by Disney on a private jet before spending a day on the Wonder ship once it returned to the port of Los Angeles. While on the ship, Rolle reportedly only interviewed six employees out of 950 staff members and zero passengers– even though there were over 2,000 aboard.
