16-year-old dies after falling from cruise ship, landing on pier

Teen apparently slipped off balcony of Royal Caribbean boat

Harmony of the Seas.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A teenager from the South Pacific died after falling from a cruise ship onto a pier in Haiti, officials said.

The Broward Medical Examiner's Office on Monday announced the death of 16-year-old Laurent Mercer, who had been on a seven-day Caribbean trip with his family when he died Friday.

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Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas was docked at Labadee, Haiti, where the company owns a private beach.

Officials said Mercer apparently didn't have his room card, attempted to enter his eighth-floor room from an adjacent balcony, but lost his footing and fell. His body was turned over to the Broward Medical Examiner's Office when the ship returned Sunday to Port Everglades.

The teen was from the French island collectivity Wallis and Futuna.


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