Los Angeles teacher to be arraigned in wife's death on cruise ship
Posted on 07/16/2009 10:17:23 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Robert McGill was taken into custody aboard the Carnival Cruise ship Elation that returned to San Diego Thursday and is being charged with murdering his wife while on the cruise.
The San Diego Medical Examiner's office identifies the victim as 55-year-old Shirley McGill. She and her husband Robert lived in Los Angeles. They were on vacation on the ship.
FBI Special Agent Darrell Foxworth said the 2,052-passenger Carnival Elation was on the last leg of a five-day trip to Baja Mexico on Tuesday when members of the ship's crew responded to a domestic dispute between the couple in their cabin. He says the crew members entered the cabin and found the woman dead. Investigators said the death happened Tuesday evening between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. The FBI sent agents out to sea Wednesday to investigate the incident.
Passengers said they were told nothing official but rumors flew on the ship Wednesday that a man may have killed his wife. Passengers disembarking told reporters waiting on shore that they had heard a man may have murdered his wife during the trip. According to one woman, on Tuesday night passengers heard a ship code over the public address system. Later they were told the code meant there had been a death onboard the ship. The passenger, Janie, told KOGO news partner NBCSanDiego.com that her maitre ‘d informed their table the man had stabbed his wife in the shower with their two children in the room. He also told the passengers that the man had been taken to the brig and the woman's body was kept in a morgue onboard.
The ship left San Diego on Saturday, July 11 and spent two days in Cabo San Lucas. The ship was scheduled to leave San Diego Thursday for four days and sail to Cabo San Lucas. An FBI spokesperson said Carnival Cruise Line is providing full cooperation and support in this investigation.
Robert McGill, a longtime teacher for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, is accused of killing his wife, Shirley, while they were on the Carnival Cruise ship Elation on a five-day cruise to Cabo San Lucas. Shirley McGill, 55, was a recently retired employee of the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Canoga Park.
Robert McGill has worked for the Office of Education since 1979, most recently as a teacher in an independent study program for at-risk teens in Canoga Park.
Shirley McGill
I thought the appropriate think to do in such a situation was to throw her overboard.
Does Carnival provide knives to distressed passengers?
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