Family of man lost at sea on cruise still awaits answers

A memorial service is set for Daniel today at Austintown Township Park.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- It was quiet at the DiPiero home in Canfield Township on Friday morning.
In the living room, Sue and Ron DiPiero sat and talked as the television played and the family's cat roamed. At one point their daughter, Annamarie Heasley, arrived with her husband, Gary, from Nevada.
Annamarie cuddled the cat, then sat beside her father on the sofa.
It looked like a normal morning of typical family life. But nothing is normal these days for the DiPieros.
Reporters have been calling; they've been busy taking phone calls from well-wishers, too. Neighbors have been especially kind. And, Annamarie didn't just decide to visit for no particular reason.
The DiPieros' son, Daniel, 21, fell off a ship during the early morning of his second day into a 10-day vacation cruise. He was not found and is presumed dead. The ship had left Florida on May 14 and was on its way to the Bahamas.
"He was going to do everything," said Sue DiPiero. "Scuba dive, zipline across the tropical forest, meet girls in bikinis. He was going to have his best vacation ever."
What happened
But while leaning over a rail being sick at 2:16 a.m. May 15, Daniel tumbled into the water. No one reported him missing until his traveling companions realized he was nowhere to be found -- about 11 a.m. The cruise line, Royal Caribbean, didn't notify the Coast Guard until 7 p.m., after personnel searched the ship and a private island where it had docked.
His parents were also notified Monday evening. Ron was just waking up, groggy after having had knee surgery.
"That's what I woke up to," he said.
"It's been rough," said Sue, summing up in three words what they've gone through since learning their son is missing.
The cruise line flew the DiPieros and their daughters Katie, 17, and Josie, 13, to meet the ship, Mariner of the Seas, while it was at St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands on May 17.
Sue said the cruise line was hospitable, but "We asked questions to blank faces."
Their daughter, Katie, wondered why Daniel wasn't seen going over the rail on a monitor at the time of the accident.
"That's when the attorneys shut them down," Sue said. "We couldn't get answers."
"They check tapes after the fact," Ron said. The cruise line concurred.
While onboard for about two hours, the DiPieros saw a surveillance tape of Daniel at the rail.
"We insisted that we see the boys," Sue said of Daniel's three traveling companions and close friends who were "as torn up as we were." The friends, who were on the ship along with the mother and aunt of one of them, got off in St. Thomas and returned home.
Height of railing
The DiPieros stayed overnight in St. Thomas, they said, just to give Annamarie a chance to get there from Nevada. "'Cause she wanted to see the boat," Ron said. "She couldn't understand how he went over."
"Annamarie is 5-1, and the rail comes to here on her," said Sue, pointing to her torso, just above her belly button.
Ron said that his son, at 5 feet 11 inches with a muscular build, possibly went over the rail because his upper body weight caused him to lose his balance as he bent over.
The DiPieros wonder why the railings aren't higher. They wonder why there's no netting or deck below to catch someone who falls.
The cruise line says its railings are 43.3 inches high, built to standards determined by the International Maritime Organization, and there are no cruise ships that have netting to catch someone falling over a rail.
The DiPieros are also well aware of the cruise line's statement on Daniel's alcohol consumption that afternoon and evening. He was served five drinks between 8 p.m. and midnight, the cruise line has said. He drank wine at dinner, and he and his friends had smuggled three bottles of liquor on board in their luggage, it said.
The DiPieros said they believe the ship's atmosphere leads to drinking as a form of entertainment. Ron also said the friends didn't drink all the liquor they'd brought onboard.
There's no blood-alcohol measurement, Sue said, to prove how much they drank.
The DiPieros have retained a maritime lawyer in Miami but haven't filed suit.
Right now, they just want to spend time with their family. They are preparing a tribute to Daniel, to take place today in Austintown Township Park on Kirk Road. It was to begin at 1 p.m., with a presentation at 4 p.m. at the bandshell.
It's a way for the family to be together with the friends Daniel grew up with, she said. Those friends still send notes to Daniel's myspace.com page and still sometimes call his cell phone just to hear his voice on his answering message.