Search Suspended for Woman Lost at Sea

Dec. 29, 2008 — -- The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended the search for an American woman who may have fallen off a cruise ship on Christmas night near the Mexican coast, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Authorities believe Jennifer Seitz, a 36-year-old freelance writer from central Florida, could have gone overboard early Friday morning when the ship was near Cancun, Mexico. A video recovered on the ship reportedly shows a woman in a white bathrobe falling over the side.

The ensuing search by both the U.S. Coast Guard and Mexican authorities covered more than 4,600 miles without success.

"The more time that passes, the less likely it is that we're going to find a survivor," Capt. Dean Lee of the U.S. Coast Guard told ABC News this morning.

According to the FBI, which is in charge of crimes on the high seas involving Americans, the investigation is "ongoing" and they are "still trying to determine if a crime occurred," said FBI spokesman Mike Leverock.

Early Friday morning, Seitz's husband reported her missing aboard the Norwegian Pearl Cruise Ship, which was steaming toward the Caribbean. He has not been named a suspect in the woman's disappearance.

"At that particular point, they started a search on the ship, and they eventually discovered some recorded tape, the image of a woman going overboard wearing a white bathrobe sometime around 8 o'clock the previous evening. That would be on Christmas night," Lee told ABC News Sunday.

Other passengers on the ship said the Seitzes were vacationing with Jennifer's mother and took part in cruise activities (they played the the "Newlywed Game") before Seitz's disappearance.

"They seemed like they're pretty fun and stuff," passenger Austin Stovall told ABC News. "Pretty wild if anything."

This is hardly the first time cruise ship passengers have found themselves off the deck and in the salty waters below.

The Coast Guard told ABC News this is the sixth time this year they've searched for someone who's gone overboard from a cruise ship.

According to the International Cruise Victims Association, 20 passengers went overboard in 2007.

Many who go overboard are never found.

George Allen Smith of Greenwich, Conn., vanished from a Royal Caribbean ship under mysterious circumstances while on his honeymoon in 2005. Investigations into Smith's disappearance continue.

Others have been luckier.

Tim Sears survived a 10-story plunge from a Carnival Cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico in 2003.

"I was asking God to send me any ship and hear any ship to rescue me. And I just -- it brought me to tears," Sears said at the time.

Sears fell overboard after a late night of drinking onboard.

Investigators are still searching for clues to whatever caused Seitz to go missing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.