Cruise ship death: Man’s body left in Celebrity Equinox’s drinks fridge for six days

The Celebrity Equinox cruise ship docked at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Photo / Getty Images

A US woman has taken a case against Celebrity Cruises, alleging that her husband’s body was left to decompose in a drinks fridge after he died on board one of the ships, robbing his family of a proper farewell.

Seventy-eight-year-old Marilyn Jones travelled on the Celebrity Equinox last August with her husband Robert Jones, 79, leaving Florida for an eight-day cruise of the Caribbean.

But her husband tragically died from a heart attack two days into the trip - and his grieving widow was forced to make decisions on what to do with the body, NBC reports.

The lawsuit states that Jones was then told her husband’s body could be held in the cruise ship’s morgue until they returned to Florida.

The suit also alleges that Jones was warned by Celebrity Cruises not to have the body taken off in Puerto Rico because the coroner there could take the body and perform an autopsy, also telling the elderly widow she would then face arranging her own travel home.

The lawsuit claims she was told there was a “50/50 chance that a medical examiner in San Juan would ‘take possession’ of her husband’s body and perform an autopsy. This was especially distressing to Ms. Jones, who is elderly and was travelling alone with her husband.”

But when the ship arrived back in Florida, local police and funeral workers did not find Robert Jones’ body in the ship’s morgue.

They found it in a drinks fridge, in a state of severe decomposition.

Inside the large fridge, his body was just “laying in a bag on a palette on the floor”, the lawsuit said.

“His family was unable to have open-casket funeral and wake services, denying his wife of 55 years, children, grandchildren, friends, and community the closure their family and community deserved, a practice which was a part of his family’s culture,” the suit went on to say.

The Jones family are seeking a jury trial and damages of at least US$1 million ($1.63m), arguing the ship should have been better equipped given the frequency of similar deaths in other elderly passengers.

A representative with Celebrity Cruises told NBC: “Due to the sensitivity of the alleged facts and out of respect for the family, we decline to comment on the matter.”