Missing Man's Family Wants Answers

(CBS)  The mystery of a newlywed who vanished last July from his honeymoon cruise is heating up. As The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm reports, the captain of the ship said Wednesday night that George Smith IV and his wife Jennifer had been drinking heavily the night he went missing and that Jennifer was found passed out.

The Smith family says the captain's comments are just the latest example of the cruise line trying to deflect criticism of how it handled their son's disappearance.

"You think your family are a strong unit and, you know, nothing's going to really happen to that unit. But it did," says Smith's father, George.

For Maureen and George Smith, the loss of their son still seems unreal.

"It really hasn't set in yet," says George Smith. "But I guess when you get home and you have to sit in a room and think, it settles in."

It wasn't supposed to be this way — the younger George seemed destined for success, a handsome, charming young man and a good son.

"He was gentle and he was also fun," remembers his mother, Maureen. "And very serious when he had to be in the business."

He was supposed to take over the family business, a liquor store, which he had plans to grow. His future seemed even brighter when he married his girlfriend, Jennifer Hagel, on June 25.

"They planned every detail, every last detail to perfection. It was beautiful," says his sister, Bree.

The newlyweds left for their honeymoon the next day.

How did Smith's family learn he had gone missing?

"I got a call from Jennifer Hagel's father that something terrible had happened to George on the ship," Maureen Smith says. "He was really crying. And we really, really didn't believe that. You know, we thought he was somewhere else on the ship."

Royal Caribbean called the Smiths that first day, but they say the representative offered few details.

"No news. Never told us about the blood in the cabin. Never told us about the blood on the overhang," says Bree.

She says all the cruise line told them was that George Smith IV was missing and that they didn't have any further information.

The Smiths turned to their local congressman for help and they say it was through his office they learned that blood had been found in the couple's cabin.

"I think that if we had not gotten that information from Congressman Shays' office, we may have believed Royal Caribbean's usual story, which is it's an accident or a suicide," says Bree.

Bree says the family had very few conversations with the cruise line. "And, actually, the conversations were with their risk management department, which is basically the department that oversees litigation, preventing litigation."

Desperate for answers, Bree started calling authorities overseas and, eventually, more details emerged about what happened.

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