NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — A spokesperson for Carnival Cruise Lines said Tuesday, Nov. 14, that “multiple reviews of the shipboard surveillance video” on the Carnival Glory shows the Houma man who was reported missing “climbing on a lifeboat and jumping” from the ship.
The family of 28-year-old Tyler Barnett reported him missing on Monday, Nov. 13.
Destiny Barnett, Tyler Barnett’s sister, told WGNO that Barnett had not been seen since the prior evening, and that when the family checked his stateroom, they saw that his bed had not been slept in.
The crew alerted the Coast Guard, which launched a search that followed the ship’s path from the mouth of the Mississippi, 200 nautical miles to the south, toward the ship’s next port stop in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
In an email sent to WGNO Tuesday evening, Carnival Cruise Line Public Relations Senior Manager Matt Lupoli said that it appears Barnett “jumped from the ship’s Deck 4, at approximately 1:40 a.m. on Monday.”
According to Lupoli, part of the delay in finding surveillance video of what happened was that Barnett had changed his shirt in his stateroom, before he went on deck.
“Only on Tuesday were we advised of the possibility of [Barnett’s] wearing a different shirt, which allowed our security team to change the profile of the guest as we searched onboard video,” Lupoli said in the email.
Destiny Barnett told WGNO that Tyler Barnett was a single father of twin girls, who were staying with their grandmother while Barnett and other family members were on the cruise.
Lupoli said the cruise line is “providing assistance to [Barnett’s] family” and that the ship will arrive in Jamaica as scheduled on Wednesday, Nov. 15
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