A California woman is speaking out about what led her brother to jump from a cruise ship earlier this week.
Thomas Gigler, 56, was reported missing Saturday while aboard the Carnival Panorama, which was en route from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to Long Beach, California.
He and his wife, Michelle, had boarded the ship to mark 15 years of marriage. Investigators say security footage shows him jumping from the ship’s 11th deck, and he is now presumed dead.
The search was then handed over to the US and Mexican coast guards.
“Carnival Cruise Line confirmed Saturday that a male guest aboard Carnival Panorama jumped overboard while the ship was sailing from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to Long Beach, California,” the company said in a statement, according to LADbible.
“When notified of a missing guest, the ship’s team initiated search and investigation procedures, including reviewing CCTV footage and notifying both the US and Mexico Coast Guards.”
According to one passenger, Thomas had opened up about marital issues the night before he jumped. But now his sister, Wendy Dowden, is pushing back against those claims, saying the couple “were getting along quite well,” in an interview with Daily Mail.
Thomas Gigler went missing
Instead, Dowden said that her brother may have experienced a sudden “psychotic break.”
“We think something must have happened in his head,” she said, adding that he “wasn’t in his right mind to have done this.”
Gigler had spent 24 years working for the mapping software company Esri and shared three young kids with Michelle, 48.
Michelle first alerted the crew after she realized she couldn’t find her husband anywhere on the ship. That set off a series of onboard announcements asking for anyone with information on his location, and eventually passengers were told to return to their cabins so staff could search the vessel deck by deck.
It was only after reviewing days of surveillance recordings that crew members spotted the footage showing him going over.
The cruise line also offered condolences, saying it is “providing support to the family who was travelling with the guest, and our thoughts and prayers are with them and their loved ones.”
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