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Missing newlywed leaves a mystery

A passenger on the cruise ship reported hearing arguing and a "horrific thud' from the missing man's cabin.

STAMFORD, Conn. - George Smith IV had been on a 12-night Mediterranean cruise celebrating his wedding when he vanished between Greece and Turkey.

He was reported missing last month when the ship docked at Kusadasi, a resort area on Turkey's west coast.

Divers and helicopters turned up no sign of the 26-year-old Greenwich, Conn., groom in a four-day search. Just days before, Smith and Jennifer Hagel were married in Newport, R.I. Smith, whose great grandfather of the same name was a pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, played football at Greenwich High School. He planned to takeover his parents' liquor store, the oldest one in Greenwich, and use his Internet marketing background to bolster the business, Gibney said.

Hagel, 25, came from Cromwell, where her grandfather was the town's attorney and her father was a retired police sergeant who runs a construction business.

Smith and Hagel reportedly had been drinking heavily and gambling at the ship's casino before his disappearance, and Hagel woke up the next morning and went to the gym, not noticing anything was amiss. Smith was reported missing after cleaners found bloodstains in the cabin and alerted the captain.

Clete Hyman, a passenger on the ship, told MSNBC's Scarborough Country program that he heard what sounded like a loud party in Smith's room the night he disappeared. "But then, all of a sudden, there became some very loud arguing out on the balcony," Hyman said. The arguing involved several male voices, he said, and then he heard noises in the cabin that sounded like furniture being moved around. He said he then heard a "horrific thud."

The bloodstains, from the balcony of Smith's cabin to lifeboats, and a handprint on the side of the ship prompted a Turkish prosecutor to ask Smith's family to provide blood samples for comparison.

The July 5 disappearance is being aggressively investigated, Connecticut's top federal prosecutor said.

"I certainly think it's fair to characterize this as suspicious," U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said last week.

A Turkish prosecutor said that several passengers had been questioned - but no one, Smith's bride included, was suspected of foul play. The prosecutor said he was waiting for the family's blood samples, which would help establish whether the bloodstains came from Smith, he said.

Information from the Hartford Courant was used in this report.

[Last modified August 4, 2005, 01:06:05]