Cruise passenger, 80, found dead after being abandoned on Great Barrier Reef island

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https://apnews.com/article/australia-cruise-passenger-dead-abandoned-island-reef-8bf78d604872df4804bb29bd09d53689

Cruise passenger, 80, found dead after being abandoned on Great Barrier Reef island
By ROD MCGUIRK
Updated 10:01 PM CDT, October 30, 2025

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An 80-year-old cruise passenger has been found dead on a Great Barrier Reef island, a day after she was accidentally abandoned there by the ship’s crew.

The passenger’s daughter Katherine Rees on Thursday accused the cruise company Coral Expeditions of a “failure of care and common sense” that left her mother Suzanne Rees to die alone.

Suzanne Rees, a Sydney resident, was on the second day of a cruise circumnavigating Australia when she disembarked the Coral Adventurer last Saturday at Lizard Island. She planned to hike with other passengers to a mountain lookout.

The ship left the resort island around five hours before reporting her missing late on Saturday, officials said.

Rees was first noticed missing when she didn’t appear in the ship’s dining room for dinner, [The Australian] newspaper said.

The cruise ship returned to Lizard Island early Sunday morning.

Australia’s safety standards for its Great Barrier Reef tourism industry came under intense scrutiny after American couple Tom and Eileen Lonergan were abandoned at sea during a group scuba dive in 1998. The tour boat crew didn’t realize they were missing until two days later. The Lonergans’ bodies were never found.

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