Angelo Faliva, 31, was last seen in the galley of the Princess Cruises "Coral Princess" at about 8:15 p.m. Nov. 25 while he was working the dinner shift, his sister Chiara Faliva said. At the time, the ship was sailing between Aruba and Cartagena, Colombia.

The Faliva family was alerted Thursday that he had been reported missing and that a life preserver was also missing, with its nighttime illumination flares torn off and left aboard the ship, she told The Associated Press.

"He surely didn't jump off. It wasn't suicide," she said from the family's home in Cremona. "We think there was an accident or a homicide."

The "Coral Princess" left Miami on Nov. 23. The ship, currently en route from Panama to Acapulco, Mexico, is due to dock in Los Angeles on Dec. 7, at which point the FBI is expected to join the investigation, she said.

The commander of the Colombian Coast Guard station in Cartagena, Lt. Javier Sanchez, said officials there received a report from the "Coral Princess" at 10 a.m. Thursday that one of the cooks had been last seen the night of Nov. 25 when the ship was navigating Colombian waters near La Guajira.

The ship docked in Cartagena at 10 a.m. Thursday. By 3 p.m., the Coast Guard began searching for the cook, using a helicopter and two boats.

Sanchez said at one point later Thursday, the ship sent word that a person had seen the chef at about 6 a.m. Thursday morning; it's not clear what became of that report.

The search continues, using boats. "The case is not closed," he said.

An Italian Foreign Ministry official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said Italian embassy officials in Bogota were working with Colombian maritime authorities conducting the search and that the FBI was expected to investigate as well since the ship is part of the U.S.-based Carnival Corp. cruise empire.

The family is hoping Venezuelan maritime authorities also take part in the search since the ship passed through Venezuelan waters during the time Faliva is believed to have gone overboard.

Chiara Faliva said her brother had been working for Princess Cruises since 2006 and that this was his third six-month tour with the line. He was a sous chef in the ship's Italian restaurant "Sabatini's."

She said she had received an e-mail from her brother the day before he went missing, and he reported that everything was going well. She said the captain had told the family that her brother had last been seen in the kitchen preparing dinner.

"He left quickly without saying anything to anyone and left the kitchen," she said. "From that point on, they don't know anything."

She said the ship had been searched several times and that only the night illumination flares of the life preserver had been found on board. Her brother's cabin has been sealed off pending investigators from the FBI, who were expected to board once the ship docks in Los Angeles, she said.

A Carnival spokesman said Sunday he wasn't aware of the disappearance. Calls placed to Carnival's Princess subsidiary weren't immediately returned.

The "Coral Princess," launched in 2003, can accommodate 1,970 passengers and 900 crew.

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Associated Press reporters Vivian Sequero in Bogota, Colombia and Sarah Larimer in Miami contributed to this report.

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