From Coffin Pool Floats to Theories About the Black Dahlia: Inside Virgin Voyages’ Inaugural True Crime Cruise

Mai tais and murder. Cabaret and conspiracy theories. Bingo and betrayal. Virgin Voyages showed amateur sleuths and lovers of the macabre a bloody good time when the Valiant Lady set sail for its first-ever True Crime Voyage from Miami on October 10, 2025. Over the course of five nights, guests had the chance to sip on creepy themed cocktails, compete in Halloween trivia and attend three live podcast tapings thanks to iHeartRadio. 

Virgin put a frightening twist on its signature Scarlet Night and pajama parties, infused their itinerary with activities like a ghoulish paint and sip and a haunted bar crawl, and hosted a costume ball where the winner (a silver statue in head-to-toe body paint) won a free cruise. The spookiness even continued during stops in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas when podcast hosts joined vacationers on some excursions, and coffin floats peppered the pools at Virgin’s private Beach Club at Bimini.   

Relive all the chilling details of the supernatural sailing, where A&E Crime + Investigation had a prime balcony room on board. 

Historical crime author Wendy Koile kicked off the voyage with a talk in The Manor about female criminals of the sea. Koile noted the first female pirate, Rachel Wall, and the last known cruise ship stowaway, Paulette Cooper Noble, who smuggled herself onto a 1969 sailing. Wall holds an honor herself, as the last woman hanged in Massachusetts. Koile encouraged cruise goers to make their own mark on the sea without being too wicked.   

Along with being able to order a pumpkin cheesecake in the shape of a coffin at restaurants like Extra Virgin, Pink Agave and The Wake, sailors could pick up caramel apples, horror popsicles and dulce de leche ghosts throughout the ship. After grabbing a burger, bento box, or tacos at The Galley food court, cruisers had the opportunity to finish off their meal with a ghost cupcake, cemetery banana bread, nightmare cinnamon rolls, matcha cookies with multiple eyes and trick-or-treat croissants covered in orange, purple, green and black sprinkles.  

Author and broadcast journalism professor Kate Winkler Dawson and cold case investigator Paul Holes, who worked on the Golden State Killer investigation, packed The Red Room to tape an episode of their hit podcast, Buried Bones, which digs up history's most dramatic true crime cases. They gave the audience the rundown on the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, also known as the Black Dahlia. Dawson joked that the case has “more suspects than people in this room,” and she and Holes explained that, by 1996, 500 people had confessed to the killing, leading the Los Angeles Police Department to stop taking tips. Holes shared the graphic details of how Short was found on the side of the road in Los Angeles: With crosshairs cut into her pelvis, a cut nipple and feces in her stomach. Holes theorized that, before being killed, 22-year-old Short had been drugged and tied up in a five-point restraint.  He didn’t think lead suspect Dr. George Hodel carried out the grisly murder, but he referred to whoever did as a “sexual sadist,” which he deemed the “worst type of offender.”  

Betrayal host Andrea Canning brought out the Rutherford and the Borega families from seasons 3 and 4 of her podcast, respectively, for a live show. Stacey Rutherford and her son Tyler revealed that, after her husband Dr. Justin Rutherford—Tyler’s stepdad—was sentenced to 26 years and 10 months to 70 years in prison for sexually abusing Tyler and another minor and filming the family without consent via a hidden camera in their bathroom, the disgraced physician was now suing Tyler for defamation. This also came after Justin received an additional concurrent sentence of five to 10 years for attempting to arrange Tyler's murder from prison. Canning called the suit a “scare tactic,” and Stacey felt hopeful that her ex-husband's multiple appeals wouldn’t be successful. “More appeals shows they don’t show remorse,” Stacey said. 

While traversing the Bermuda Triangle, Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know co-hosts Noel Brown, Ben Bowling and Matt Frederick, rehashed all of the suspicious things that have happened in the region of the ocean between Bermuda, Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico, during a live podcast taping.  From the torpedo bombers who disappeared in Flight 19 and yacht portals to witchcraft, sea monsters and aliens, the trio entertained all possibilities before deciding that “chances are pretty low” of “getting beamed up” on the Valiant Lady. When they opened up for audience questions, Frederick responded by sharing his belief in Project Blue Beam and Bowling expressed his fear of the U.S.’s Invention Secrecy Act. One audience member claimed they’d seen a UFO, while others asked about the hosts' theories on the moon landing and Jeffrey Epstein's death.  

Bowling and Frederick joined cruisers for a rum and cigar tour excursion in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. The group tried Brugal, the Dominican Republic's first rum, watched cigars be hand rolled at Emmanuel Cigars and wound down the afternoon with a tasting at Macorix House of Rum, which included a Fireball dupe and their Mamajuana liqueur, a supposed aphrodisiac. Hosts from the other podcasts joined different excursions and led additional activities on board, such as crime trivia with Dawson and Holes and a class on making a podcast with Canning. 

Twice during the sailing, the Happenings cast put on Festival of Frights, a Spooky Cabaret, featuring the cursed wedding of a chef and his bride and a gluten-free vampire trying to escape garlic. The vampire asked audience members to shout, “It’s garlic, bitch!” when they spotted the horrifying herb, and some lucky attendees even scored free drinks for participating. Sailors also sipped on spicy-themed cocktails like La Bruja Bailando and the Silver of Your Heart while taking in Halloween covers of beloved pop songs during the show. The performance on the penultimate night of the voyage felt especially festive since guests attended in costumes ahead of the ship’s Halloween party.