Disappearance Before Dawn

Dennis Murphy Correspondent • Profile

Take a luxurious cruise ship, handsome honeymooners, add sun-drenched ports of call, parties till dawn... and an ugly blood stain on the awning over the life boat deck, and you have the ingredients for a classic old-fashioned mystery like a dusty Agatha Christie.

But this one’s quite real and quite confounding. What could account for the disappearance before dawn of the young man from his locked stateroom? Where was the pretty young bride during the critical minutes in question? Who are the hell-raisers called The Russians and what part do they play in the puzzling affair?

Dennis Murphy, Dateline NBC: You've got a floating crime scene here, don't you? Potentially.

Clint van Zandt: You really do. You-

Dennis Murphy: 2,000-plus witnesses maybe.

Is it even knowable what happened aboard the vessel Brilliance of the Seas, somewhere between Greece and Turkey in the Aegean Sea?

It had been a lavish wedding in June 2005. Friends and family gathered at a smart inn in Newport, Rhode Island, on a bluff overlooking the bay. An appropriate setting—by the sea. The two had met here in Newport back when.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith
The bride was Jennifer Hagel from central Connecticut, daughter of a realtor and a builder who’d once been a policeman. Jennifer was a high-school athlete: varsity soccer, basketball and golf all four years. She graduated from Trinity College in Hartford.

“She was really pretty, sort of always made-up, and looked really nice all the time,” says Kara Klenk, who was a year behind Jennifer. Klenk was happy to hear that the petite secret weapon of their intramural softball team was excited about getting married.

“She was a nice person. Good looking and athletic. You know, you always think those kind of people are just going to make it. Make happy lives for themselves.”

Jennifer—to no one’s surprise—had married a jock: George Allan Smith IV, the son of a family that has run a very successful liquor store near wealthy Greenwich, Conn.

George was a big guy, 6’ 2” over 200 lbs. Coach Bob Darula recalls a good linebacker and a nice kid at Greenwich High.

“He was very likeable, quiet young man, coachable, you know? He had a very dry sense of humor and always had a nice smile,” says the coach.

George had graduated from Babson College in Massachusetts with a business degree, a background he hoped to bring to the family store when his father retired.

“George did like to go out and have a good time,” says Shawn Keenan, who lived two doors down from George Smith at Babson. George was a friend he remembers as a well-buffed mass of muscles. They lifted weights together almost every day.

“George was one of those guys that in a group situation, he had a tough exterior but he definitely liked being around people, when you got him one on one, he definitely would talk to you more than he would reveal to anyone in a group situation, so we got to talk a lot. He was just the kind of guy that liked to have a lot of fun, kind of a prankster. Not the class clown or anything but definitely, liked to have fun with all the guys on the floor,” says Keenan.

Cruising to a new life together
George and Jennifer— now Mr. And Mrs. Smith— booked a 12-day honeymoon cruise of the Mediterranean on board the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Brilliance of the Seas.

The tantalyzing ports of call included Barcelona, the French Riviera, Rome, and the Greek Islands.

The 2500-passenger cruise ship is one of the most popular in the Royal Caribbean fleet. A virtual floating city of cabins, restaurants, bars, a casino, and health club, everything for travellers who want to see some of the world and still bring the comforts of the mall along with them.

"We attract a lot of active vacationers, a lot of families," says Lynn Martenstein, then-vice-president with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

The honeymooners, George and Jennifer,  bought a package valued at $10,000, a mid-ship stateroom, portside on the 9th deck, a cabin with a desirable balcony overlooking the ocean.

On June 29, four days after the Newport Wedding, the couple boarded the cruise ship in Barcelona, Spain.

They and every other passenger were issued a card called a Seapass or an A-Pass:an electronic key embedded with your photo that not only opens your cabin, but records the precise time of day you entered and left. The same goes for boarding and leaving the ship.

"Everytime that you come and go off that ship, you swipe your card," says Martenstein. "The security guard looks at you, looks at his computer screen, and makes sure you're the same person.  And then you're allowed to come and go on that ship."

Leaving Barcelona, settled into their stateroom, from their balcony, George and Jennifer could watch the water gliding by that night as they made their way to the first port of call, the south of France.

An important new chapter in their lives had opened-up. They were young, by all accounts in love... and he had only five nights left to live.

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