Royal Caribbean crew member stabs colleague, jumps overboard. He's found dead

Vinod Sreeharsha, Miami Herald on Jul 26, 2025

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MIAMI — A Royal Caribbean crew member stabbed a colleague on board during a cruise this week, Bahamian police say, then jumped into the waters off the island chain. He was found dead.

The 35-year-old South African male stabbed a 28-year-old fellow crew member “multiple times,” the Royal Bahamas Police said in a July 25 statement. The victim is female and also South African, they said.

The incident took place aboard the Icon of the Seas, billed as the largest cruise ship in the world when it debuted at PortMiami in January, 2024. It is frequently used for week long trips to the Caribbean.

The ship departed Miami on July 19 and was on a seven-night cruise to the eastern Caribbean. It had stops in St. Thomas and Coco Cay, an exclusive resort it uses in the Bahamas. It is scheduled to return to PortMiami on July 26 at 6 a.m., according to Cruise Mapper, an online tracker.

The incident occurred on July 24, shortly before 7:30 p.m. local time, in the waters off of San Salvador Island, the Nassau-based police said. That’s when the crew member is suspected of attacking his female colleague, according to initial information it received from the police in Berry Islands, where Coco Cay is.

“Following the incident, the male reportedly fled from the scene and jumped into the water,” the Royal Bahamas Police statement said. “He was retrieved unresponsive and pronounced dead by onboard medical staff.”

An autopsy is being scheduled to determine the exact cause of death, police said.

The victim was airlifted to Miami to seek further medical attention, a Royal Bahamas Police spokesperson said in a follow-up email to the Herald on Friday evening. That’s according to what they were told by police stationed in the Berry Islands. “Her injuries are not life threatening.”

The Bahamas police didn’t provide any more information on the case because it’s not yet complete, it said. “The matter is under active investigation at this time,” a spokesperson wrote.

It did note that “the female victim sustained stab wounds to her upper body and was treated and is in stable condition.”

The Miami-based Royal Caribbean Group confirmed the victim “is now in stable condition,” in an email from a spokesperson on July 25 and that the male crew member died after going overboard.

But the cruise giant had little else to say.

“Our onboard security team responded to an incident involving two crew members in a personal dispute,” it said.