FBI investigating 'suspicious death' of woman on Carnival cruise ship

The FBI is investigating a "suspicious death" of a female passenger aboard a Carnival cruise ship while it was en route to the Bahamas.

The incident occurred on Carnival's Sunshine during its Feb. 27 voyage from the United States to Nassau, Bahamas, when medical staff and other crew members aboard the ship were made aware of an unresponsive passenger and life-saving measures were immediately attempted, according to a statement from the FBI's field office in Columbia, South Carolina.

Despite the crew's best efforts, the unidentified female passenger was pronounced dead on the ship of currently unknown causes, though Carnival released a subsequent statement indicating that they believe the passenger died of natural causes.

"While we continue to cooperate with authorities, all indications pertaining to the death of a guest on board Carnival Sunshine suggest that it was a natural death due to a medical condition," Carnival said in the statement released on Tuesday. "We will defer to the FBI on any specific details which may possibly be released at a later date as we fully respect the investigative process, but our initial emergency medical response was appropriate and it appears that this was indeed a medical situation that sadly resulted in the death of a guest."

This incident remains under investigation by the FBI.

"The FBI investigates certain crimes on the high seas, as well as suspicious deaths of U.S. persons," the FBI said. "As such, FBI Evidence Response Team (ERT) members responded to process the passenger's room once the ship returned to the Charleston port on March 4."

The "suspicious death" was isolated, according to the FBI, and there was no threat to any other passengers before or after the passenger was found deceased.