JUNEAU, Alaska (CBS) – It started as a family cruise to Alaska — and ended in death. A husband and father of three is accused of murdering his wife in their cabin.

Exactly how and why Kristy Manzanares was killed aboard the Emerald Princess still remains a mystery.

“”The little girl in that room came running out, calling for help Their parents had been in a fight. She was pretty desperate,” said Chris Ceman, passenger.

One eyewitness told authorities they saw Kristy lying on the floor covered in blood and husband, Kenneth, soaked with blood, dragging his wife by the ankles toward the room’s balcony. The eyewitness confronted Kenneth, who replied: “She would not stop laughing at me.”

As Manzanares was arrested, he told an FBI officer: “My life is over.”

Friends say Kenneth and Kristy Manzanares were celebrating their anniversary with their three daughters and other family members.

Bryan Schroder, acting U.S. Attorney in Alaska said he can’t remember the last time they had a murder on a cruise ship.

The Emerald Princess spans the length of three football fields and has 19 decks.

Ironically, at the time of the incident, a murder mystery dinner was taking place.

“Some of the people that were in the murder mystery thought they were just playing a hoax on them with all the emergency calls,” said Tom Stites, passenger.

The nearly 3,500 passengers were stranded aboard the ship for almost eight hours in the port of Juneau. Nicole and Brice Beckstrom, former neighbors of the couple in Utah who happened to be on the ship, were devastated.

“For us it’s a weekend. For them, it’s the rest of their lives. And those girls have lost both their parents,” Nicole Beckstrom said.

Manazaris was in court Thursday and did not enter a plea. He will be back in court August 10.

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