Robert McGill Arrested In Wife's High-Seas Death
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SAN DIEGO — A Los Angeles man was arrested Thursday for allegedly murdering his wife three days into a five-day cruise to Mexico, turning the luxury oceanliner into a crime scene as it sailed through the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
Robert McGill was taken into custody from the Carnival Elation cruise ship more than six hours after it returned to San Diego on Thursday. He will be charged with the murder of his wife, Shirley, who was found dead in the couple's cabin on Tuesday evening, said Keith Slotter, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Diego bureau.
Slotter said a passenger contacted ship's security Tuesday and expressed concern that Shirley McGill might be dead.
Crew members went to the cabin and found her body, but Robert McGill was not in the room. Slotter wouldn't say why the passenger who notified security was concerned, but said several hours may have passed before the body's discovery.
Robert McGill was detained later and was held in the ship's brig until the boat docked around 6:30 a.m. Thursday. The San Diego County medical examiner removed the woman's body about three hours later, said John Gilmore, a spokesman for the Port of San Diego. The FBI took McGill from the boat around 1 p.m.
Slotter would not provide details about a possible motive or how Shirley McGill was killed. James Ramirez, an investigator with the San Diego County medical examiner's office, said an autopsy would be performed Friday. He did not know when results would be made public.
"We have suspicions at this time of how it was conducted but until that autopsy is done I can't comment ... on exactly how it may have occurred," Slotter said of the death.
Both the suspect and victim were in their mid-50s, Slotter said.
The ship is the length of more than two football fields and carries more than 2,000 passengers and 900 crew members, according to Carnival's Web site. With 14 decks, passengers can spend their days at numerous restaurants, bars, clubs, a spa, a casino, a mini-golf course and three pools. The ship left Saturday, stopping in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
FBI agents leaving the ship carried plastic baggies and a plastic foam box labeled: "Urgent. Refrigerated evidence enclosed."
McGill will likely make a first appearance in U.S. District Court in San Diego on Friday, said Debra Hartman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office.
It wasn't immediately known if McGill had an attorney.
Carnival notified the FBI of the death on Tuesday night. The FBI sent 20 agents Wednesday on a U.S. Coast Guard cutter to intercept the cruise ship as it steamed home, Slotter said. They spent the night and part of Thursday morning interviewing McGill and more than 50 witnesses as shocked passengers disembarked.
Passengers hauling their luggage away from the cruise ship terminal said they received no official word from crew members about what was going on, but said rumors began flying about halfway through the trip.
Arlene Albi, of San Diego, said her family's cabin room was on the same level as the McGills and she noticed a security guard was posted outside the room around the clock starting Tuesday.
"I'd get up and go to the gym at 6 o'clock in the morning and he'd be there," she said of the guard. "I'd look down the hallway when I'd go back down during the day and he would still be sitting there. I don't know if was the same guy, but there was always someone in front of the room."
Other passengers were saying someone had fallen overboard or that someone had died by slipping while in the shower, Albi said.
Hundreds of new guests boarded the ship Thursday afternoon for another Cabo cruise that left around 4 p.m.
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GILLIAN FLACCUS 07/16/09 10:39 PM ET Associated Press