January 21st will mark the one year anniversary Juwanna Brooks went overboard a Carnival Cruise ship.
And now one year later, the Lafayette woman’s family is still searching for answers as to exactly what happened and why they still don’t know.
Juwanna’s mother Marilyn Winfrey told News 10 all she knew was that her daughter went overboard a Carnival Cruise ship bound for Mexico.
The cruise was a gift from Juwanna’s husband, Scott Brooks.
Witnesses have said the couple was arguing at dinner and escorted out.
30 minutes later, Juwanna went overboard.
Scott was detained and questioned. He returned home and has not talked with Juwanna’s family about what happened.
He was never named as a suspect and was never charged in her disappearance.
It was Juwanna’s first cruise and her last.
Winfrey still grieving says, “I just want her to come home one way or the other.”
This was their first Christmas without Juwanna and they are still in a desperate search for answers.
Small business, personal injury and criminal defense attorney Donovan Hudson knows what it takes to get answers.
He says there are several reasons why Winfrey can’t find resolution, primarily because Carnival Cruise Lines is based out of Florida.
Hudson says, “If I have my corporate headquarters there it’s much easier to have my attorneys and all the paper work and everything else in one place. If I have to start disseminating that info all over the country, it’s much more costly for them too.
Hudson says, “Now is the time to push harder. Our process is an adversarial process. It doesn’t mean that you’re enemies, it means you want your rights to be enforced. You have to act to enforce them, so don’t hesitate to get in touch with an attorney as quickly as possible so that you can preserve your right to make sure that if there’s an opportunity for answers to be had, if you wait too long, those things go away legally and memories get fuzzy, you don’t want that to happen.”
In the meantime, Winfrey pushes on in her search, and Hudson helped.
He says, “I was happy to help make a connection with someone in South Florida and my understanding is that she has begun to at least talk to someone so she can get some answers.”
We talked to the FBI Thursday to find out the latest and why Winfrey and her family are still without answers one year later.
The FBI New Orleans field office released the following statement to us Thursday afternoon saying quote:
“As a matter of respect to the family of Juwanna Brooks, we are unable to provide comment at this time.”
So what happens next?
Winfrey was very distraught on this one-year anniversary and didn’t want to be interviewed right now, but invited us to contact her again in the very near future to find out what if any conclusion has been reached in the FBI’s investigation.
