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Kristy Manzanares’ Cruise Ship Death: 200 Interviews Done, Plus Murder Eyewitnesses – Ken Tried To Dump Body

By Paula Mooney
Published on: 13:10 PST, Jul 30, 2017

The attached photo shows the location of Kristy Manzanares’ death, after the Emerald Princess cruise ship was docked in Juneau, Alaska, on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Now new information is being revealed about what eyewitnesses saw and heard when Kristy died at the hands of Kenneth Ray Manzanares, her husband and high school sweetheart. The last photos of Kristy smiling and happy to be aboard the ship are also being published online. As reported by St. George News in the below tweet, Kenneth Ray and Kristy Lee Manzanares brought their three daughters along with them on the cruise, as well as multiple family members.

But something went horribly wrong on the third day of the cruise, with Kristy and Ken being booked into adjoining cabins that featured a Dolphin Deck balcony. It would be the same deck wherein Manzanares was seen dragging Kristy’s body towards once he realized she was dead, but was prevented. The cabins D726 and D728 were the 462-square foot space of the Manzanares Family on a ship that contained 4,500 people.

Natalie Beckstrom was one of the people on the cruise during the time Kristy was murdered, and the St. George resident reported what she learned from that fateful night. Many of Natalie’s family members met Kristy and the Manzanares Family right before the cruise, when they shared breakfast in a Seattle hotel. Beckstrom heard the announcement that something was amiss during the night of Kristy’s death, but chalked it up to part of the murder mystery game going on at the same time.

However, Kristy’s death wasn’t part of the Sherlock Holmes murder mystery play – a play that confused some passengers when the call for all “medical and security to come to Deck 9” was announced.

Instead, Beckstrom learned that the murder was all too real when her brother-in-law left the show to check on his daughter, and saw a young girl crying, sitting on the lap of a woman believed to be her grandmother. Security swarmed Floor No. 9, and a man emerged from a cabin with blood all over his pants, saying that the situation didn’t look good. That’s when the 13-year-old girl started crying for her mother.

“I want my mommy. I want my mommy.”

Beckstrom described that Kristy’s youngest daughter and another young girl were in the cabin when Ken entered and began yelling at Kristy. The argument intensified, and the girls ran out to get help, but the cruise ship doors locked behind them. People attempted to enter the room as they heard Kristy and Ken yelling, and Emerald Princess security was called, along with medical personnel. One nearby couple whose cabin was near Kristy and Ken’s balcony said they heard loud screaming as well.

Manzanares had blood on his hands and his clothes as Kristy was observed on the floor, with Manzaneres having a “severe head wound.” A family member said Ken grabbed Kristy’s body and began dragging her in the direction of the balcony, but the family member grabbed Kristy’s ankles, pulling her body back into the cabin in an effort to prevent Ken from throwing her body overboard. Ken also tried to jump off the balcony himself, according to the FBI report cited by St. George News. About 200 passengers and crew members were interviewed, including “witnesses to the killing itself.”

Manzanares doesn’t have a criminal history in Utah, and people are calling the incident out of character for Ken. Manzanares had his first court appearance on Thursday, where he appeared to cry.

A GoFundMe page has raised $28,102 thus far.

[Featured Image by Becky Bohrer/AP Images]

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