A passenger aboard the same cruise ship where a husband reportedly killed his wife last Tuesday, witnessed a heartbreaking scene as she watched the couple’s teen daughter cry out for a mother who was no longer with her.
Natalie Beckstrom, a passenger aboard the Emerald Princess cruise ship, met Kristy Manzanares, 39, and her family at a Seattle hotel prior to boarding the ship for a cruise to Alaska and back. Beckstrom, from Utah just as the Manzanares family, told People that Kristy was traveling with her three daughters, ranging in ages from 13 to 22, along with her extended family members.
Beckstrom later spotted the youngest daughter “standing there wrapped in a blanket, just sobbing” after her father, 39-year-old Kenneth Manzanares, allegedly killed her mother while aboard the cruise ship. The young teen wasn’t sure of the extent of her mother’s injuries, but Beckstrom said when the girl overheard a man say “it’s not good,” the child completely lost it and cried out for her mother.
Kristy Manzanares, a "dedicated and loving mother," was allegedly murdered by her husband on a cruise https://t.co/tgm0leT4mh #RIP pic.twitter.com/zIKo8nFIkL
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) July 28, 2017
“She just started sobbing, ‘I want my mommy. I want my mommy,’ ” Beckman said.
ABC News reports that another passenger, Jen Larson, also witnessed the girl screaming and crying while desperately asking for her mother. Larson remembered that the child seem confused and distraught, and wanted to know why she couldn’t see her mother.
“She was just really scared. She said, ‘I just want to go and see my mom! I just want to see my mom! What’s happening?’ ”
Beckstrom was part of the group that thought perhaps the intercom announcement asking for medical personnel and security was part of the murder mystery dinner play that guests were participating in. In fact, she was watching a Sherlock Holmes-themed murder mystery on television when the announcement came through.
“He sounded a little breathless as he was talking [over the intercom].”
Shortly after the announcement, Beckstrom checked on her children, who also echoed the sentiments that the announcement was part of the murder mystery theme.
“I said, ‘Oh yeah, duh.’ So that’s kind of what everybody in the room was thinking was that it was just part of the play. So, you know, we all just kind of sat down and went on with the play.”
Court documents indicate that Kenneth Manzanares beat his wife so badly that her blood spatter was found all over their cabin room and in the hallways. Kenneth Manzanares allegedly tried to throw his wife’s body overboard after the murder, but a witness grabbed Kristy by the ankles and made sure she stayed aboard.
Kenneth Manzanares then tried to throw himself overboard, but cruise ship staff members caught him in time.
Witnesses said that he reportedly claimed that his wife wouldn’t stop laughing at him, which led to a gruesome fight that ended in tragedy.
Authorities arrested Kenneth Manzanares and charged him with murder. He’s being held without bond.
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[Feature Photo: Handout]
