Royal Caribbean crew allegedly stashed a passenger’s body in a shipboard fridge and carried on with the voyage, even after he died following a nonstop drinking binge, the family’s attorney says.
Michael Virgil, a 35-year-old father from California, was reportedly poured 33 drinks at a shipboard bar the day he died — details revealed in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his fiancée.
Virgil, who was restrained by cruise ship security during a drunken outburst and later died in custody, had a blood alcohol level of 0.182 to 0.186 percent — more than double the legal driving limit, according to an autopsy report obtained by the Daily Mail.
In December 2024, Michael Virgil (left) set out on a three-day Royal Caribbean cruise from Los Angeles to Ensenada with his family — a voyage that would take a deadly turn. Connie Aguilar
Connie Aguilar, Virgil’s fiancée, alleges that after his drunken rampage, he was injected with a sedative by the crew — a decision she says caused his death.
After the harrowing incident, Aguilar, who was with Virgil and their 7-year-old autistic son, pleaded with the crew to return the ship to Long Beach — a request the cruise line reportedly denied, her lawyer says.
“They would not do it,” attorney Kevin Haynes told the Mail.
“They put Michael in a refrigerator and continued the cruise for multiple days.”
Virgil, the lawsuit claims, became aggressive after allegedly being poured nearly three dozen drinks through the cruise’s unlimited alcohol package — and it’s unclear how many he actually finished.
Extremely intoxicated and unable to find his cabin, he reportedly erupted into a violent rage, allegedly attacking and threatening crew members and fellow passengers.
Virgil, on Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas, was allegedly given 33 drinks during the voyage — a number that would prove deadly. FOX 11 Los Angeles
Virgil, the lawsuit alleges, was tackled by crew members, pinned under their full weight, injected with Haloperidol, and sprayed repeatedly with pepper spray.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s autopsy report notes that Virgil was restrained for three minutes before being handcuffed and taken to the cruise ship’s medical center, still breathing.
While officials said Virgil’s blood alcohol level alone wasn’t deadly, they cautioned that alcohol can depress respiration, affect coordination, and "diminish the individual’s ability to respond to distress during restraint."
His family alleges that during the incident, multiple security guards — four or five — applied their full weight on the 35-year-old. FOX 11 Los Angeles
Virgil died of “significant hypoxia and impaired ventilation, respiratory failure, cardiovascular instability and ultimately cardiopulmonary arrest, leading to his death which has been ruled a homicide,” the lawsuit alleges.
“The first domino that fell in terms of causing his death was mechanical asphyxiation, and that is where approximately five, maybe more, Royal Caribbean employees were trying to restrain him by putting their full body weight on him,” Haynes told the Mail. “And they did that for three minutes.”
Haynes likened the father’s death to the high-profile killing of George Floyd.
“Everyone remembers that very tragic story with George Floyd, and this is similar in the sense that they suppressed someone against their will, restrained him and caused him to stop being able to breathe,” he said.
