June 9, 2007
Dark Voyage
An Aspiring Actress Dies Under Mysterious Circumstances
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Play CBS Video Video Dark Voyage See more of Ashley Barnett's home video, filmed just hours before she died under mysterious circumstances.
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Video Lagattuta's Notebook Only On The Web: Bill Lagattuta talks about the case of Ashley Barnett, an aspiring actress who turns up dead in her cruise ship cabin.
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Ashley Barnett (Michael Maples/CBS)
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Interactive Forensics 101 Find out more about forensics, DNA and some cases in which DNA has made a difference.
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Interactive Substance Abuse In America Get the facts on a national problem. Find out where to get help, learn how drugs affect the body and compare state drunk-driving laws.
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Dr. Posey found Ashley’s organs were healthy and her body in pristine condition. There was evidence that she had consumed some alcohol. There were no signs of trauma.
"There were no signs of trauma," Dr. Posey explains.
His was the second examination of the body. The first one was in Mexico and both autopsies reached the same conclusion.
"It was the toxic effects of methadone that had killed her. And I was just stunned. Stunned. You know he said he had methadone on the ship. How in the world would it have gotten in her?" Jamie wonders.
Methadone is a tricky drug – less than a teaspoon can be fatal.
"You’re saying this is an extremely dangerous drug to begin with. But, even more so, if your body has never had any methadone in it," Lagattuta asks.
"That is correct," Dr. Posey agrees. "It’s a very dangerous drug to be using, even in, even in the best of hands."
Jamie and Ashley’s friend Allie are convinced of one thing: that Ashley would not have tried methadone on her own. And to prove it, the family ordered a test of Ashley’s hair. One strand could determine if she was a habitual drug user.
"No other drugs were found. Her hair was negative," Dr. Posey says.
But who could tie this case together? Jamie demanded that Carnival provide her with all the evidence they had gathered and she turned to attorney Gloria Allred for help. "
Their campaign yielded numerous documents from Carnival’s internal investigation, and even landed them a personal meeting with company officials in Miami.
Seven months after Ashley’s death, Allred and Jamie went to Miami to meet with officials from Carnival, hoping to finally get some answers to their many questions.
But the biggest question still lingered: how did the methadone end up in Ashley's body.
There were so many places Jamie Barnett expected to go in the name of the daughter she loved but she never expected that one of them would be the FBI.
She wanted details of the federal investigation into the death of her daughter. All she wanted to know was what happened to Ashley.
When asking FBI officials, Jamie says she got few answers. The FBI told her it was an ongoing investigation, prohibiting them from disclosing facts.
The FBI confirms to 48 Hours that the investigation is still open. But the truth in this case is especially elusive. That’s because the only version of events about what happened behind the doors of Geoff and Ashley’s cabin comes from Geoff himself.
Asked if he gave Ashley the methadone, Geoff insists, "No way. Never I would never ever, ever done that."
If Geoff didn’t give her the drug, did someone else?
"I think somebody may have slipped her something. Just trying to loosen her up, I think maybe that she might have been tricked into taking something she didn’t know," says Ashley's friend Allie Tweast. "I just, I know something’s wrong, in my heart."
Produced By Nancy Kramer
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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