Search for missing Winter Haven woman suspended

Rescuers from two nations suspended their search this afternoon for 36-year-old Jennifer Ellis-Seitz, the former Central Florida reporter who went missing during a Christmas cruise in the Caribbean. The family of the Winter Haven woman also released a statement today saying they fear she may have taken her own life.

Coast Guard planes and Mexican naval vessels together searched more than 4,200 square miles off Cancun, according to Coast Guard spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson.

But both mutually agreed to end the search at 3 p.m. today.

Ellis-Seitz had been missing for 91 hours when the search was called off.

"Search and rescue coordinators have looked at all the information we have regarding the search," Johnson told tampabay.com today. "Despite our best efforts we do not think there is a reasonable expectation that we would find a survivor."

Authorities say the missing woman's husband, Ray Seitz Jr., reported her missing from the Norwegian Pearl at 7 a.m. Friday. But authorities say surveillance video showed a body falling overboard hours earlier, around 8 p.m. Thursday on Christmas Day.

The videotape helped the Coast Guard plot where the missing woman may have landed in the water -- but the delay in learning what happened to her may have also hindered the search. It was an 11-hour setback for rescuers.

There's no set formula for when to call off a search, according to the Coast Guard, but many factors played a role in that decision.

"There are so many aspects that go along with whether a person has the ability to survive," Johnson said. "If she went overboard Thursday at 8 p.m., she's had no food, no water. She could be in rough condition, possibly without a life jacket. She's had extreme exposure to sun and heat, and exposure to sun and heat, and also exposure to water which could have the effect of hypothermia.

"The longer the search goes the less and less possibility that you can find someone alive."

A statement released today by the her family and her husband's family offers new details of her disappearance. The couple were not alone on the cruise. They had invited Ellis-Seitz's mother to accompany them on their one-year anniversary.

She and her son-in-law discovered her daughter missing around 2 a.m. Friday. Jennifer Ellis-Seitz often walked the ship when she couldn't sleep, according to the family, so her husband and mother decided to search the ship for her.

When they couldn't find her, they reported her disappearance to ship security at about 3:30 a.m.

Norwegian Cruise Line then searched the ship but could not find Ellis-Seitz on board, the family said. The company then alerted the Coast Guard.

Jennifer Ellis-Seitz was "very happy," and had much to celebrate on that trip, the family said. Not only was she celebrating her first wedding anniversary; she was starting a new job and hoped to start a family.

She showed no outward signs of distress, the family said, but had battled "emotional issues" in the past.

"The family suspects that Jennifer chose an unfortunate ending to her life. She was a beautiful and caring person and will be truly missed by all who love her."

A Coast Guard crew from Clearwater joined search vessels from Mexico's Fifth Naval Regional Command to scan the waters about 17 miles off the Caribbean resort of Cancun.

In a statement released this afternoon Norwegian Cruise Line said it is "cooperating fully" with the FBI's inquiry.

"We are looking to see if a crime was committed with an American citizen on the high seas," agent Michael Leverock, an FBI spokesman, told tampabay.com.

But WFTV-Ch. 9 in Orlando reported that the FBI had ruled the husband out as a suspect, but that agents were still looking into the possibility of wrongdoing or suicide. The TV station also reported that the ship has about 1,000 cameras on board, so there may be more images to help authorities piece together what happened.

Her brother, Chris Ellis, told the Winter Haven News Chief that his sister and her husband were celebrating their first wedding anniversary on the cruise.

Ellis-Seitz told co-workers at the Polk County Supervisor of Elections Office that she was looking forward to the cruise. "She was very excited about that," said spokeswoman Judy Walker.

The missing woman worked as a journalist in Polk and Brevard counties before becoming a freelance writer. Her work has also appeared in the Tampa Tribune, the Lakeland Ledger and USA Today, according to her web site.

It was at Queens University of Charlotte (N.C.) that Ellis-Seitz, an English major, first discovered journalism -- her "nose for news," as Ellis-Seitz put it on her web site, NewsHound Communications.

She was a reporter at the News Chief in the 1990s under the byline Jennifer Ellis and helped cover Polk County politics, according to the newspaper. According to a Tampa Tribune article, the News Chief defended her in 1997 against a defense lawyer who wanted her to testify about her interviews with three women in the criminal case against a Lake Wales doctor.

She left in 2000 to join Florida Today, where she worked the crime beat in Brevard County.

Ellis-Seitz worked as a reporter at Florida Today until 2004. Florida Today sports editor Lee Nessel recalls her former co-worker becoming one of that paper's first online reporters in 2002. She said Ellis-Seitz was a natural.

"I remember her as being a very outgoing, very personable, always being very kind to people on the phone," Nessel said. "Reporter was a very good job for her. She could easily talk to anybody. She had no qualms about approaching people."

Ellis-Seitz owns NewsHound Communications, a media marketing company based in Central Florida, according to her web site. On the site, she describes herself as an "imaginative writer, editor, and teacher who is driven by an incredible passion for self-expression through writing."

She left Florida Today in 2004 to teach, according to the newspaper. She most recently spent six months helping train poll workers in Polk County for the recent election.

"She just had a bubbly personality," Walker said. "She always had a smile on her face."

In her biography, Ellis-Seitz described herself as a "Central Florida native" proud to have worked in the greatest theme park on earth. She mentioned her husband Raymond Seitz and her cat, Ollie. She said she is also a licensed school bus driver and an avid traveler working on her second novel.

Polk County records show her husband, Ray Seitz, was arrested earlier this year on a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery for striking his wife. She told a Polk sheriff's deputy that her husband grabbed her by the wrist and head-butted her on April 18, according to a report released today. The charge was dropped in June after Seitz completed a diversionary program, according to court records.

Ellis-Seitz's disappearance marks the sixth time in 2008 that a cruise ship passenger went overboard in Caribbean waters, said Coast Guard spokesman Nick Ameen. Of those six cases, only once was the Coast Guard able to rescue a stranded person, Ameen said.

"You're looking for a head in an ocean of water," Ameen said. "It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack."

According to several passengers interviewed on the Today show after disembarking in Miami, Ellis-Seitz (above) and her husband, who they knew as "Ray," participated in an on-board mystery game show called "The Not So Newlywed Game."

Suzanne Nestor said Ellis-Seitz was "very excitable" and "outgoing," and spoke of plans to take a New Year's trip to Bridgeport, Ct., and New York City.

Another cruise passenger, Carter Scurry, told the Today show that Ellis-Seitz's husband appeared calm after his wife disappeared.

"It was eerie to me," Scurry said. "He was nonchalant, no remorse."

The search took place east of Cancun, officials said. Waters in the search area have been in the mid-70 degree range since Ellis-Seitz went missing, Coast Guard officials said. Mexican search crews looking for Ellis-Seitz reported rough waters on Sunday.

While a Coast Guard Falcon aircraft based in Miami and a C-130 aircraft based in Clearwater searched for Ellis-Seitz over the weekend, only the Mexican crews searched overnight and today, Ameen said. The Coast Guard said there was no need to send its planes back out because Mexican naval helicopters had joined the search.

Norwegian Cruise Line said the ship returned to Miami Sunday after a seven-day western Caribbean cruise. On land, several passengers said they were not aware that Ellis-Seitz was missing, though they recognized the couple because of their role in the game show, which was shown on the ship's closed-circuit television system.

In her hometown, Seitz's neighbors hoped for the best. So do her old co-workers.

"It was a pleasure having her around," Walker said. "Our entire office is deeply shocked at the thought of her missing.

"Our hearts and hopes and prayers are with her family ..."

Here is the statement the two families released today to the News Chief:

"Jennifer and her husband Ray took the cruise in celebration of their first anniversary. They invited Jennifer's mother along on the cruise to celebrate with them.

"Jennifer was in a very happy and uplifted mood both before and during the cruise. She was excited about starting a new job and her future career with a local newspaper. She and her husband had been talking about starting their family.

"There were no outward signs or indication of anything being wrong or unusual. Jennifer, however, has had previous emotional issues.

"Jennifer's husband and mother discovered her missing at around 2 a.m. As it was common for her to walk the ship when she was unable to sleep, her husband began searching the ship for her. He could not locate her and so he and her mother notified ship security that she was missing at approximately 3:30 a.m.

"The family has since learned that Norwegian Cruise Line security then performed a full ship search. When that search was completed and she wasn't found, the Coast Guard was notified.

"The family suspects that Jennifer chose an unfortunate ending to her life. She was a beautiful and caring person and will be truly missed by all who love her."

-- Luis Perez, Jamal Thalji, Times staff writers

[Photo courtesy of Florida Today magazine]

Comments

[cindy]

Sounds like foul play to me.

[brosh]

usually these overboards are drunk and accidentally fall off. it's easier to do than you might think. the railings are not high on cruise ships.

[gloucester]

Gee, looks like someone has already convicted the husband.