Family awaits word on cruise ship disappearance

The family of a B.C. woman who went missing last week from a cruise ship off the Florida coast is wondering why her boyfriend has yet to contact them. Fariba Amani, 47, was on a two-day cruise from Florida to the Bahamas with her boyfriend Ramiz Golshani, 46, when she was went missing. Golshani reportedly told authorities he last saw Amani at 1 a.m. on Wednesday when she went inside a gift shop and he left for a casino. When he woke the next morning, she was nowhere to be found. The U.S. Coast Guard launched a high-profile search for Amani, but were unable to find anything. They scoured the ship and say they believe that Amani somehow fell overboard. U.S. search and rescue crews also searched the waters between Bahamas and Florida, covering an area of nearly 19,000 square kilometres, but failed to find her. U.S. customs officials believe Fariba was on the ship when it left the Bahamas on Feb. 28 because passengers must swipe a card to board the ship. Amani's sister, Saloumeh Amani, says even though the cruise returned to port days ago, her family still hasn't heard anything from Golshani. "He has not reached out to us. He has not contacted us," Amani told CTV's Canada AM Wednesday from Vancouver. "I don't think it would be very difficult for him to find a way to get a hold of us. The Iranian community here is not that large and everyone knows each other. If he really wanted to, he could have reached out to us days ago when he returned." Golshani has declined to be interviewed; he told CTV British Columbia that he's too upset to speak to media. Amani says while her family has been in touch with the FBI, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the RCMP, no one is revealing much about their investigation. Amani says she last spoke to her sister on the day she left for the cruise. "She was really excited to go. It was her first time on a cruise and she's a very adventurous person and wants to experience everything to the fullest. She was really looking forward to it," she says. She also noted that her sister, a mother of two, had told her that her relationship with Golshani was rocky. "She had taken this trip even though she did not think she was going to stay with him. She thought that by maybe taking this trip with him, things might get better, things might change, they might be able to solve some of their problems and if not, she would return and break up with him," she said. In the family's search for answers, they found that Amani had spoken to a private investigator a few months ago in regards to a man she had been dating. She eventually chose not to hire the investigator. Amani says as soon as she heard her sister was missing, she realized that no one from her family had ever met her sister's boyfriend. "I don't know this guy, is what I kept thinking to myself. I've never met him before. He's never introduced himself to us. And I don't know anything about him," she said. Amani says the family is coping as best they can but they realize there is little chance of seeing Fariba alive again. "The first day was the most difficult and we all gathered together to grieve. But then, we still had hope then… Now, we are facing the reality that we may never see her again," she said, her voice trailing off.