A Florida family said their Christmas cruise took a horrifying turn when they witnessed what appeared to be blood pouring out of the top of an elevator.
The family from Fort Myers, Fla., boarded the Carnival Ecstasy in Miami on Christmas Day for a spur-of-the-moment trip, and said the first two nights of their cruise were everything they thought it would be.
But they describe the last night as a scene out of a horror movie.
Matt Davis and his wife Susan showed WFTX-TV pictures and video of what looked to be blood pouring out of the top of the elevator as the doors were struggling to open and close.
"To look and see the elevator with just blood coming down like a sheet, and not stopping... it was a real life scene of 'The Shining,'" Matt Davis said.
The couple said time stood still, it sounded like a rainstorm, and they could smell the blood.
They said they were heading to dinner on the 10th floor of the ship Sunday night when they saw the horrifying scene.
"One of the crew people from Carnival was trying to get people to go back to the restaurant," Matt Davis said.
You can hear a woman shouting "Come inside please!" in the video the couple gave WFTX-TV.
The couple said a man was inside the elevator, and had to run through the blood that was coming down to get out.
Forty-five minutes later, Matt Davis said the scene was sectioned off with a sign by the elevator reading "Sorry, but I'm not working at the moment."
He said a waiter told him an electrician got hurt, and later a Carnival supervisor said he passed away. In the video, you can hear a woman saying "the man was working on the elevator up there."
"A crew member or somebody was inside or behind that wall when the elevator came down, and I don't know what happened, but something terrifying happened," Matt Davis said.
WFTX-TV reached out to the Miami-Dade Police Department, which is investigating the death. A spokesperson said in an email the victim is 66-year-old Jose Sandoval Opazo, an electrician aboard the ship.
She also said he died Sunday night, and the cause is still under investigation.
"I couldn't wait to get off the ship. I just wanted to get off," Matt Davis said.
WFTX-TV reached out to Carnival headquarters to learn more about the cleaning process and if the ship is still being used, but have yet to hear back.
The family said Carnival offered to pay for the family to go to three counseling sessions.
