Dark Voyage

An Aspiring Actress Dies Under Mysterious Circumstances

(CBS)  Carnival began an investigation, but because the boat was docked in Ensenada, the Mexican authorities boarded the ship. They needed to determine if a homicide had been committed. Later that night, Geoff and the rest of the group were all on board when the Paradise set sail back to California. But Ashley Barnett was left behind in a Mexican morgue. Alone.

"If that had been me, wild horses couldn’t have kept me on that ship. I would have been with her," Jamie says.

"I did not wanna stay on that boat. I wanted to get off that boat. I wanted to be with Ash. I didn’t want to let her go into Mexico," says Geoff.

Carnival says Geoff had no choice and confirms to 48 Hours that he was required to remain on board the ship until U.S. authorities could question him.

One day after Ashley’s death, as the ship was heading back home, Geoff finally called Jamie.

Why did he wait so long to call Ashley's mom?

"I didn’t know what to say," Geoff says. "I was just like in a comatose, kinda just in a state of shock. How do you make that call? What do you say? You know? I‘d never been it that situation before. I did not know how to handle it. And you know maybe I didn’t do it right, but I did end up calling Jamie. You know the following day."

In that conversation, Geoff revealed what would be the first troubling clue.

"The conversation was very short because the people in the room with him took the phone away from him, because he was so upset. He just said, 'I don't know what happened.' And I said, 'You know, Geoff, you have to know what happened. You were with her.' And he said 'Jamie, I have no idea. She went to sleep and that’s all I know. The only thing I know is some of my methadone and some of my Vicodin was missing.' And I said, 'You know, Geoff. What does that mean? What are you saying? She wouldn’t have taken it.' He went, 'I know. I know,'" Jamie recalls.

So, was Ashley’s sudden death caused by drugs, the drugs Geoff says were missing? Jamie was about to learn that the Carnival cruise was not just to celebrate her daughters birthday. Geoff says he planned to use the time on board to detox. He had relapsed into his Vicodin habit. And that’s why he says he had methadone with him.

"Let me ask you this. At the time you were, you were addicted to this Vicodin trying to get off, using methadone. Is it a good idea to go on a three day party cruise?" Lagattuta asks.

"No, it's not," Geoff acknowledges.

Most people associate methadone with heroin addiction but it’s also used to help addicts withdraw from other drugs.

Geoff says he wasn't under a doctor's care and attempted to do this himself.

Asked where he got the methadone from, Geoff told Lagatutta, "I’ve already answered that. I mean that doesn’t matter. The fact is, is that I brought the methadone on with me."

When the ship returned to Long Beach, the FBI stepped in and began its own investigation.

"It makes you think, 'Oh thank God. It’s going to get taken care of. The FBI is involved, you know help is one the way," says Jamie.

Jamie says the FBI told her to be waiting at the harbor when the ship came in. She believed she would find out what happened to her daughter.

"We stood out in the rain and waited and waited. And finally a woman from Carnival came and spoke to my friends that had brought me there and said she was terribly sorry to hear about our loss, and she would go find someone to come and help us. No one ever came," Jamie recalls. "And it continued to rain, for four hours and finally the FBI came out and took me inside to interview me."