Community Corner
What Happened to Cruise Ship Passenger?
A Coast Guard Cutter out of St. Petersburg was enlisted to search for a man seen jumping off a cruise ship. He disappeared without a trace.
The 210-foot Coast Guard Cutter Resolute, ported in St. Petersburg, has been called off from a search for an Army sergeant who was seen jumping off a Carnival cruise ship Tuesday.
According to Fox News, Ronald Kemp, 31, was a passenger on the cruise ship Fascination when he jumped into the ocean off New Smyrna Beach.
The Coast Guard Cutter Resolute joined other Coast Guard vessels to search for Kemp.
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Carnival left port in Jacksonville at 5 p.m. Monday, bound for Key West. A security guard reported seeing Kemp leap from the 10th deck into the water, after midnight Tuesday.
The Fascination left the Port of Jacksonville at 5 p.m. Monday and was headed to Key West, when at about 2:10 a.m. Tuesday it was reported to the Coast Guard that someone had gone overboard.
Find out what's happening in St. Petewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The U.S. Coast Guard searched 2,375 square miles for 35 hours with finding a trace of Kemp, according to Florida Today. The Coast Guard extended its sympathies to Kemp's family. The sergeant had served two deployments to Iraq.
Fascination was able to continue on its cruise, making stops in Nassau and Freeport.
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