A Utah man was charged with killing his wife aboard a cruise ship which was in the middle of its journey. Kristy Manzanares was found dead on the Cruise Ship, Emerald Princess, which travels between Juneau and Ketchikan. Her husband Kenneth Manzanares was immediately charged with the murder as several eyewitnesses found him at the scene trying to move his Wife’s bloody body while he was covered in all the blood.
Husband charged with murder
According to a report by CNN, on Tuesday, July 25, passengers aboard the cruise ship were alerted to a commotion from one of the cabins.
Some passengers went inside to investigate and discovered that the accused, Kenneth, was standing over the bloodied body of his wife and trying to move her toward the balcony of the ship. When one fellow passenger stopped him, Kenneth dragged the body back inside the cabin.
He was asked what had happened by horrified passengers and he claimed to have had no choice as his wife would not stop laughing at him. This statement became a vital point in further indicating his guilt in the murder. Medical examiners who reported at the scene described a substantial head wound on Kristy’s head, which likely caused her death. A security officer present on the ship handcuffed Manzanares and locked him up inside a nearby cabin while they waited for authorities to arrive.
The FBI was called in to investigate the crime as the murder had taken place in U.S. waters. The investigative team conducted hundreds of interviews with possible witnesses and staff members of the cruise ship. They also recorded the accounts and the statement that Kenneth had blurted out after allegedly committing the crime.
A passenger whose cabin was just opposite to that of the Manzanares’s claimed that a small girl came running out from that cabin to inform them that her parents were fighting terribly, which alerted the staff and they came up to check on what was happening quickly. However, it was already too late to save the poor woman.
Kenneth Manzanares attended in court on July 27
Manzanares is currently being held in custody in Juneau and took part in the first of many court proceedings on Thursday by teleconference. He was seen crying and dabbing at his eyes and nose throughout the proceedings. Bail has not been set yet and a preliminary hearing date has been scheduled for August 10. The accused has no criminal record which may play some part in the eventual outcome of the case. Family and friends of the Manzanares refused to comment even though several media outlets reached out to them.
