PHOTO: The Carnival Liberty (Courtesy Carnival Cruise Lines)
The United States Coast Guard has suspended its search for a 33-year old mother of four who fell overboard overboard early Friday morning, May 13, on the Carnival Liberty cruise ship.
Several media outlets, including CNN, reported that the search was suspended Sunday night after almost three days.
The Liberty was 195 miles from Galveston at the time it left Thursday for a four-day cruise to Mexico. The woman, Samantha Broberg, was traveling with several friends for a short vacation.
Carnival Liberty security cameras captured footage of Broberg, sitting on a railing on the 10th deck at approximately 2 a.m. Friday morning, as she fall backward into the ocean. The Coast Guard was notified and planes spent approximately 20 hours searching an area of more than 4,300 miles, according to CNN, before finally calling off the search.
Broberg's cabin-mate reported her missing on Friday, and Carnival locked down the ship in a room-to-room search for her. Unfortunately, as video footage determined, it was several hours before she was reported missing and, according to ABC News affiliate KTRK in Houston, the Coast Guard did not start looking for Broberg until 15 hours after she fell overboard.
"We had a good opportunity to find the individual were they in the search area we were looking. Unfortunately we're unable to find the individual as yet," Lt. Commander Mike Martin of the USCG told KTRK.
Broberg's family put out this statement on Friday: "We are shocked and deeply saddened by the incident that occurred on the Carnival Cruise Ship. We hope and pray the U.S. Coast Guard is able to bring Samantha home. We ask for privacy as our family comes together during this difficult time."
Carnival also put out a statement on Friday.
"Carnival's CareTeam is providing support to the guest's traveling companions and family," Carnival said. "We are keeping our guests and her loved ones in our thoughts during this difficult time."
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