Nocturnal 
A father of three has gone missing after apparently going overboard from a cruise ship, just days before he and his wife were due to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary.
Thomas Gigler, 56, was sailing on the Carnival Panorama with wife Michelle, 48, and their three sons, aged nine, 11 and 13, when he disappeared on the sixth day of their seven-night trip. The family, from Redlands, California, had been on a cruise along the Baja California coast when Gigler vanished as the ship made its way back from Puerto Vallarta in Mexico to Long Beach.
According to the Daily Mail, Michelle raised the alarm on Saturday morning after she was unable to find her husband and asked staff to page him over the tannoy. Announcements calling for Gigler to come forward reportedly went out from around 11am, but with no response, the ship turned back between 2pm and 3pm.
Ship-wide search and CCTV confirmation
Passengers told The Sun and The Independent that they were ordered back to their cabins at around 3.30pm so crew could carry out a full search, checking every room and scanning passenger cards. When Gigler still couldn’t be located, staff reviewed CCTV footage, which reportedly showed him going overboard from the ship’s 11th deck.
Fellow passenger Tommy McGraw, who was travelling on the Panorama at the time, told The Independent that the captain had asked everyone to return to their staterooms so crew could search decks and carry out room-to-room checks. He said the captain later confirmed over the intercom that a passenger had gone overboard after reviewing the footage.
Carnival Cruise Line confirmed a male guest went missing from the vessel, and the US and Mexican Coast Guards have been searching the waters off Baja California. As things stand, Gigler has not been found and is presumed to have died.
Family ‘at a loss’ over what happened
Gigler, who spent 24 years working as a computer programmer for software firm Esri, had reportedly given no indication to loved ones of any plan before he disappeared. He and Michelle would have marked their 15th wedding anniversary on Wednesday 23 September, just days after he vanished.
His sister, Wendy Dowden, told the Daily Mail the family were struggling to make sense of what happened, and pushed back on suggestions that marriage troubles played a part.
“We think something must have happened in his head. He wasn’t in his right mind to have done this,” she said.
She also said Thomas and Michelle “were getting along quite well” before the trip, according to further reporting.
Some passengers have pointed to an alleged conversation Gigler had at the ship’s bar the night before he disappeared, in which he reportedly mentioned marital problems, though this remains unconfirmed and his sister has disputed that this was behind what happened. Other reports note that his cabin was on the second deck, meaning he would have travelled several decks before reaching the point where he went overboard, though the reason for that remains unclear.
McGraw said fellow passengers later left a makeshift tribute of small toy ducks around the ship, a tradition among cruisegoers, along with messages of support for the family written on shopping bags as the vessel continued its journey home.
Where things stand now
Search efforts by US and Mexican authorities are continuing, but Gigler has not been located and is feared dead. No official cause has been established, and his family say they are still trying to understand what led to the tragedy.
Anyone affected by the issues in this story can contact the Samaritans free, any time, on 116 123.
