Woman sues cruise line for leaving husband in drinks cooler when he died during trip
A widow sued a cruise line for allegedly mishandling her dead husband’s body after he suffered a heart attack during the trip.
According to The Washington Post, Marilyn and Robert Jones—who were married for 55 years— planned to cruise around the Caribbean for more than a week, covering Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, the US Virgin Islands, and the British Virgin Islands via the Celebrity Equinox in August 2022.
Robert, however, died of a heart attack while they were island hopping.
After the unfortunate incident, crew members asked the woman if she “could have her husband’s body removed in San Juan, Puerto Rico or let them preserve it in the ship’s morgue until they returned to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. six days later.”
The media outlet reported that she went with the second option after being assured that they would take care of it and preserve it until the trip concluded. But when it was time to retrieve his body, she found out that they let it rot in a drinks cooler.
As stated in the lawsuit, the funeral home employee “saw drinks placed outside the cooler, which was not cold enough to stop the body from rotting.” The widow claimed that it caused so much damage to her husband’s body that they could not put it on open display at his funeral.
Marilyn and their family have sued the company for at least $1 million (P56 million) for damages.
