Investigation leaves family in the dark
Port Moody resident vanished while on a Caribbean cruise last week
The sister of a Port Moody esthetician who vanished while on a cruise from the Bahamas to Florida last week says her family feels left in the dark about important details of the investigation being led by the FBI.
Fariba Amani, 47, is believed to have disappeared at some point overnight on Feb. 28
while on a cruise ship bound for Palm Beach.
“They’re keeping everything confidential,” Fariba’s halfsister Saloumeh Amani told The Sun Wednesday. “They keep saying to be patient and to wait.”
She said she wonders if the FBI has reached out to other passengers on the cruise, or to police in the Bahamas, where her sister spent two days with her boyfriend before they embarked together for Florida on the MS Bahamas Celebration.
“Will they go out and search again for her body in the water at some point?” she said, pausing repeatedly to contain her emotions.
The 1,100- passenger cruise ship arrived in Florida Feb. 29 without Amani, but with her possessions and passport still on board.
Authorities searched the ship and combed the waters along its route to no avail.
Her boyfriend, 46- year- old Ramiz Golshani, reportedly said he saw her last around 1 a. m., the night she disappeared shortly before he visited the casino and then went to sleep.
He reported her missing at 8 a. m. the next day after the ship had docked, when he had still not heard from her.
Port Moody police said Amani’s family reported her missing to them on Feb. 29, after being instructed to do so by the FBI.
“At this point we are assisting [ FBI], but I can’t actually disclose in which ways we are, because it is their investigation,” Port Moody police spokesman Const. Luke van Winkel said Wednesday. He said the investigation continues.
Saloumeh Amani said the family still has questions for Golshani, whom they hadn’t met during his eightmonth relationship with Fariba Amani. “We haven’t heard anything from him,” she said, noting they live in the same community and it would be easy for him to get in touch.
Golshani said he told investigators everything he knows, but because of emotional stress has remained quiet — not even speaking to Amani’s family — since returning to B. C.
“You don’t know what happened to me over the last week,” he told The Sun on Tuesday, his voice breaking up. “I haven’t even slept for 10 hours in one week. Last week, at this time, we were sitting and watching a comedy show on the ship. Two hours after this, she was missing.
“I am missing a loved one – both families love her. We want her safe back home right now.”
Golshani told The Sun he would share his version of events on Wednesday, but on Wednesday said it would have to wait another day because of his emotional state.
“I have to be stable to talk about this,” he said. “It is only one week past. I cannot eat, I cannot sleep. It’s very hard on me too.”
Van Winkel said Golshani was questioned and released by authorities in Florida. No one at the FBI’S Miami division could be reached for comment as of Wednesday afternoon.
Saloumeh Amani described her sister as a happy and outgoing person and said her relationship with Golshani was “onagain, off- again.”
“I texted her the day that she left,” Saloumeh Amani said, recalling a Feb. 22 message to wish her sister a good trip. “She wrote back and said, ‘ Thank you, I love you, and I’ll see you soon.’ ”