Friends of missing teen tried to stop him from jumping off cruise ship
Anish Vij
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/ Virginia Moore /WBRZ
Friends of missing teenager Cameron Robbins tried to stop him from jumping off a cruise ship into 'shark-infested' waters.
The 18-year-old from Louisiana - who was celebrating his high school graduation on a sunset cruise in the Bahamas on 24 May - jumped overboard for a dare.
Robbins recently graduated from University Laboratory School in Baton Rouge and was on a cruise trip to the Bahamas with fellow students from several local high schools.
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The group of friends were staying at Atlantis Paradise Island resort in Nassau.
A few hours after their arrival, the whole group attended a sunset party cruise.
At around 9.40pm, Robbins jumped off the boat and into the 'shark-infested' ocean near Athol Island.
Footage from that evening shows Robbins swimming in dark waters before completely vanishing from view.
After just a few days, the large scale search was called off on 27 May.
The Royal Bahamas Defence Force, with the assistance of the US Coast Guard Southeast, searched for Robbins with no success.
“We offer our sincerest condolences to Cameron Robbins’ family and friends,” they tweeted, explaining they were suspending the search.
Now it's been revealed that friends of the teenager tried to stop him from jumping off the pirate-themed party boat, according to a parent whose son was aboard the Blackbeard’s Revenge vessel.
The mother of one of the students, who wished to remain anonymous, told Fox News that several of the teens tried to grab Cameron before he jumped off the boat, but he broke free from their grip.
She said: “This was a booze cruise, and they were on their way back when this happened.
“My son texted me when it happened, saying, ‘Cameron jumped off. They can’t find him.’ They were out there until 2, 3 in the morning.
“It was a terrible weather that night. The kids were cold, wet and traumatized.
"The girls were in bikinis and bathing suits. The guys were giving them their shirts.
"It was a bad time to bring drunk 18-year-olds out into waters near this island where there’s nothing.”
Royal Bahamas Defense Force (RBDF) Commodore Raymond King has also described the area where Robbins jumped into the sea as 'really shark infested'.
He said: "The probability of survival decreases significantly particularly if a person did not have on a life vest and particularly if a person is perceived to be intoxicated.
"I can tell you that area where an individual reportedly jumped over, it's an area that is really shark infested as well.
"It is so unfortunate but I don't want the family to lose hope.
While looking at footage of the incident, some viewers think they spotted a shark in the video.
One person commented: "The video doesn't lie, he was attacked by a shark and taken under."
Another added: "You can see the shark to the left of the video' and another was adamant they 'saw the fin' in the short video."