On March 22, 2011, Rebecca Coriam, a crew member on the Disney Wonder cruise ship, went missing while the ship was docked off the Pacific coast of Mexico.
Rebecca was last seen on security cameras in the crew lounge that morning she disappeared.
She was having a phone call that seemed to upset her when she was last seen.
She didn't show up for her shift a few hours after she was last seen and was nowhere to be found on the ship.
That was the last day anyone saw Rebecca.
Early Life and Career
Rebecca Coriam was born on March 11, 1987, in Chester, England.
She grew up with her parents, Annmaria and Mike, her sister, Rachael, and two foster brothers.
Rebecca graduated from Chester Catholic High School.
As a young person, she worked at Chester Zoo, where other family members had also worked.
Infact, there is a memorial bench for her grandparents, Kevin and Dolores, at the zoo.
In her teenage years, Rebecca joined the British Army cadets and went on to study sports science at Plymouth University.
She later volunteered with the cadets and took part in some outdoor activities
Rebecca Coriam studied at Liverpool Hope University, then moved to the U.S. for four months to teach sports at Camp America in Maine.
In June 2010, she went to London for a job interview with Disney Cruise Line and was hired.
She received training at Disney's theme parks in Florida.
After working for four months on cruises to the Bahamas, she took a two-month break in England.
When she returned to work, she was assigned to the Disney Wonder, based in the Port of Los Angeles.
She traveled to all the ports on the Mexican Riviera and through the Panama Canal.
During this time, she briefly returned to Chester for her grandfather's funeral, which was the last time her family saw her.
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The Day of Disappearance
Rebecca Coriam's last known contact was a Facebook message to her parents on March 21, 2011, promising to call them the following day.
Her mother became worried when she didn't hear back from Rebecca the following day.
At 9 a.m. that morning Rebecca Coriam missed the start of her shift which prompted a search on the Ship.
She wasn't in her room or anywhere else on the ship and didn't respond to the PA system announcements.
An early, unverified report from another crew member suggested she might have gone overboard at 3 a.m.
However, CCTV footage showed her at 5:45 a.m.
In the video, Rebecca Coriam is seen using one of the ship's internal phones in a crew area and seems upset.
A young man approaches her and seems to ask if she's okay, and you can clearly see her mouth the words, "Yeah, fine."
She then hangs up the phone and walks away, pushing her hair back and putting her hands in her back pockets.
There has been no record of her since then.
Despite an extensive search by the crew, U.S. Coast Guard, and Mexican Navy, Rebecca was not found.
This was also the first time anyone had ever disappeared from a Disney Cruise Line ship.
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| Rebecca Coriam final moments |
Investigations and Theories
Since the Disney Wonder is registered in the Bahamas, a detective from the Royal Bahamas Police Force was sent to investigate.
He arrived at the ship three days after Rebecca's disappearance, and reportedly spent "several days of onboard investigations."
Rebecca's parents were flown from England in order to assist with investigations
They met the Bahamian detective, who told them he had only spent one day on board investigating.
The detective also said he had interviewed only a few crew members and none of the passengers.
According to Rebecca's parents, the crew were kept in a car with tinted windows, then brought on board through a rarely-used side entrance after all the passengers had left.
Several theories have emerged regarding what could have happened to Rebecca.
1. Rough Waves - The most common theory is that she fell overboard, possibly because of a rough wave while she was near the crew pool.
The captain of the Wonder also suggested that Rebecca might have been swept overboard.
However, her parents questioned this theory because of the crew pool's high walls.
2. Deadly love triangle - There were rumors that Rebecca might have been part of a love triangle.
At first, people thought that her final call that morning was with her romantic partner.
Later, it was confirmed that she was actually speaking with a friend, not a romantic partner as the call was recorded.
On the anniversary of Coriam's disappearance, her parents told the Liverpool Echo that they had heard about a young woman and an older man on the ship who might have been part of a love triangle with her
Rebecca's parents have since urged them to step forward.
3. Voluntary Disappearance - The day before the first anniversary of her disappearance, Coriam's father got an email from a woman.
She said she saw Coriam with a dark-haired man in Venice.
The woman was 85% sure it was Coriam after looking at the family's website
Coriam's uncle said, "It was just an email, but it seemed real. Everyone was very upset thinking she might still be out there somewhere all this time later."
He wondered how she could have gotten there without her passport, which her parents had found among her things.
4. Suicide - There was also an idea that Rebecca might have chosen to end her own life by intentionally jumping off the ship.
However, Rebecca's parents never believed this theory.
When they visited her room after she went missing, they found tickets she had prepared for them and her sister to visit Disneyland Paris.
This was meant to be a surprise trip she had been planning for them during her upcoming break.
These plans, along with her regular conversations with her mother on Facebook, reassured them that she was not thinking about suicide.
5. Accident- A crew member who had seen Coriam last at 11 p.m. the previous night, said she thought Coriam went to the crew pool (one of her favorite spots on the ship) to be alone and relax for a while.
While there, she might have climbed up and sat on the wall, as she was "a bit of a risk-taker."
After Rebecca vanished, a pair of slippers were allegedly found where she was last seen, and most people believed they belonged to her.
However, one crew member didn't believe the slippers belonged to her.
She said, "Mike and Ann showed them to me. They were too big and not her style. They were pink, flowery, and Hawaiian. I never saw her wear them. Why didn't Disney ask me or her girlfriend if they belonged to Bex?"
Later, the Coriams argued that the flip-flops were too small, but they couldn't find anyone on the ship who had seen her wearing them.
Also, they discovered that no forensic analysis had been done on them.
In 2016, private investigators hired by the family confirmed that the footwear did not belong to Coriam.
They weren't her style, and they had another crew member's name and cabin number written on them.
This made the Coriams strongly question Disney's statement that the slippers were found near the pool area and its theory that Rebecca fell or was swept overboard from there.
6. Murder - In the video of her final call, it was observed that Rebecca's clothes appeared too big for her.
Her friends and fellow crew members have speculated that they might have belonged to someone else.
Former City of Chester MP Chris Matheson believes that Rebecca was a victim of a crime and may have been sexually assaulted or murdered.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo in 2015, he said, "The more you investigate this, the more it seems suspicious—like a crime has occurred."
He claims to have a copy of the original police report with "compelling" evidence supporting his theory.
A private investigator who has collaborated with the family says that records show the sea conditions around the Wonder were normal that night.
This makes Disney's claim of a "rogue wave" less believable.
He also argues that any wave strong enough to sweep Rebecca off the ship would have caused visible damage to the ship itself.
This theory believes that Rebecca was thrown overboard rather than having fallen.
In October 2011, journalist and author Jon Ronson took the Wonder along the same route Rebecca disappeared.
While on board he quietly made some inquiries.
With the Coriams' approval, he wrote about his findings in The Guardian.
Some crew members who had been on the ship when Rebecca disappeared spoke to him anonymously.
They said that there could be additional details about what happened to Rebecca, beyond what Disney or the Bahamian police had said publicly.
Many people interviewed were very cautious in their responses.
One bartender told Ronson, "I can't say it happened. That's the answer I have to give."
After exploring the areas of the ship that passengers could access, Ronson concluded that Coriam likely slipped and fell while jogging on the Deck 4 track.
The railings were low enough for such an accident, and she often jogged to stay fit.
However, this track was closely monitored by hidden security cameras.
Ronson shared his theory with a crew member who disagreed, stating that Coriam had actually gone overboard from the crew pool on Deck 5.
The crew member said, "I was on the ship that day. Everyone knows."
He pointed to a flip-flop found in the area as evidence.
When Ronson returned home, he was contacted by a woman, referred to as "Melissa," who had been instructed by the Coriam family to reach out.
She mentioned that the company had placed flowers near the pool wall the day after Coriam went missing, which caused confusion.
The woman said, "It caused a lot of questions. Why were they placing them there? Nothing was clear."
When Ronson looked into the crew pool where Rebecca supposedly fell overboard, he had doubts about these claims.
The pool area was surrounded by a tall steel wall that completely blocked any view.
Another crew member said it was a popular spot for relaxation away from guests, especially because their cabins were quite small.
There were also noticeable security cameras mounted there.
While Ronson considered the possibility that the cameras might have been installed after the incident, he couldn't see how someone could have jumped or fallen from that area.
All crew members who spoke to Ronson insisted that Coriam had fallen overboard from the crew pool, with one saying, "Disney knows exactly what happened. Everything here is recorded. There's CCTV everywhere. Disney has the footage."
Towards the end of the cruise, another crew member approached Ronson.
He explained that despite the high walls around the pool, the sea was rough at the time and she could have been swept off the ship, especially if the deck and walls were slippery.
The crew member also mentioned that being outside on the pool deck during rough weather was considered a serious offense by Disney.
He mentioned that this resulted in one of their crew members being fired one certain time.
Advocacy and Criticism
Rebecca's disappearance highlighted significant gaps in cruise ship safety and investigative protocols.
Her family, supported by British officials and advocacy groups, has called for stricter regulations and more comprehensive investigations into incidents on cruise ships.
They argue that cruise lines, including Disney, prioritize their reputation over uncovering the truth.
Former City of Chester MP Chris Matheson and other prominent figures have suggested that Rebecca may have been murdered, pointing to the lack of substantial evidence supporting the rough wave theory and the possibility of a cover-up.
The mystery surrounding Rebecca Coriam's disappearance continues to unsettle.
Despite various theories and widespread media attention, her whereabouts remain unknown.
We hope that new leads will surface one day, bringing closure to her family.
Learn more about the case of Brian Shaffer, who was seen on camera entering a bar but never came out. Click here to read more about that mystery.
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