The family of the Dublin schoolgirl who fell from a cruise ship off the coast of Mexico in January is to offer a $250,000 (€205,000) reward for help in the recovery of her body.
Lynsey O'Brien (15) fell from the Italian-registered vessel Costa Magica on the night of January 15th while on a cruise from Fort Lauderdale in Florida.
In an interview with The Irish Times, her family said that without a body there could be no inquest.
The FBI has said it has no role because Lynsey was not an American citizen.
The family has been told that although the ship sailed from a US port, the incident occurred in international waters, where investigations and reporting depend on the goodwill of the cruise-ship operators.
Bar receipts obtained from the cruise ship by the family indicate that Lynsey, although only 15, had been served a number of alcoholic drinks while her parents were at dinner.
After they discovered that Lynsey had been served alcohol in a bar on the ship, her parents, Paul and Sandra, immediately complained to a senior officer.
They gave Lynsey some water to drink and then brought her to her cabin.
They assume that later Lynsey felt ill and went outside to the balcony to be sick.
The O'Brien family says that when the alarm was raised after Lynsey fell overboard, it took 15 minutes for the ship to turn around.
They claim that no lifeboat was launched from the ship to try to find Lynsey.
They maintain that when a lifeboat was launched five hours later, its task was to retrieve marker buoys.
A spokeswoman for the cruise company could not be contacted in Florida yesterday.
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