Missing Cruise Passenger Was Bipolar

Dec. 30, 2008 — -- An eight-story plunge off a cruise ship may have been the purposeful last moment in a life that alternated between happiness and struggle for writer Jennifer Seitz, her brother told "Good Morning America" today in an exclusive interview.

Jennifer Seitz, 36, fought weight problems along with serious emotional issues that could have been a factor in her disappearance early Friday morning.

"She was recently, within the last few years, diagnosed as bipolar," said her brother, who requested his name not be used. "It's going to be a torment and a torture for this family for the rest of our natural lives."

The mystery surrounding the woman's disappearance began on a warm Christmas night aboard the Norwegian Pearl cruise ship off the coast of Cancun, Mexico, when Jennifer Seitz, who lived in central Florida, may have taken a stroll on the decks of the ship.

"My sister commonly woke up in the middle of the night. She was getting up pretty much every night at about, you know, 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning and walking around the ship just to ease her mind and then go back to bed," her brother told "GMA."

The fact that she never came back is about the only thing investigators are sure of, despite the reported existence of a video that shows a woman in a white bathrobe going overboard early Friday morning.

According to Jennifer Seitz's brother, her husband, Raymond Seitz, got up later to find her and, when he could not locate his wife, reported her missing to ship security. Her mother was also staying with the couple.

"It's horrible that they both had to be there when she made the choice she made," her brother said.

After 72 hours of combing thousands of miles off the coast of Mexico, the Coast Guard suspended the search and said Monday, "There's no longer any real probability of survival."

While the FBI attempts to determine whether a crime occurred, the Seitz family is searching for answers as to why Jennifer Seitz may have taken her life. According to the FBI, Raymond Seitz is not a suspect in her disappearance.