ROCKPORT, Massachusetts — Wendy Portman Lewis was 59, and, with her husband G. Douglas Lewis, co-owned a high-end jewelry store called The Estate Jewelry Collection in Palm Desert, California.
Her obituary, which appeared Sept. 24 in The Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs, remembered her as being “like a diamond in the sky.”
Yet her obituary indicates she died “tragically” and “suddenly.” Her body was found in the waters off Cape Ann the night of Sept. 11, after she fell from the luxury cruise ship Seabourn Quest. More than a month later, her death certificate filed with the Rockport town clerk’s office notes only that the cause of her death is still “pending.”
The office of the state medical examiner says it has still not made any determination regarding Lewis’s death, and the FBI says the death is still under investigation. The FBI is still refusing to even confirm the identity of the woman who fell from the 650-foot Seabourn Quest some 10 miles off the coast of Cape Ann that Friday night.
Kristen Setera, speaking for the FBI out of Boston on Tuesday, reiterated only the case remained an “ongoing investigation,” and that she and the agency would continue to have “no comment at this time” regarding the woman’s identity or the circumstances of her death.
She and the FBI have also not yet indicated whether the agency ruled out foul play, though the death certificate for Lewis — filed with the office of Rockport Town Clerk Patricia Brown and obtained Tuesday by the Times — indicated that her death was not “due to injury.”
The death certificate confirms that Lewis was from Palm Desert, California — a hometown confirmed earlier by Rockport police — and that she was pronounced dead at 7:55 p.m. on the night of Sept. 11 at Rockport’s T-Wharf, the location and the time at which town harbormasters Rosemary Lesch and Scott Story brought the body they recovered to shore.
According to her obituary, Lewis and her husband — natives of Canada and the United Kingdom, respectively, the death certificate notes — were co-owners of The Estate Jewelry Collection store in Palm Desert, California, which encourages customers to call before coming in and, according to online promotions, is home to a “vast collection of large diamonds,” ranging from 1 carat to 150.
A call seeking to reach Douglas Lewis at the store last week was answered by a woman who said she was Wendy Lewis’ daughter. She said that the family would have “no comment” on her passing.
The Seabourn Quest, which includes 11 decks but carries a capacity of just over 450 passengers in luxury suites, was just hours into a New England and Maritimes cruise bound for the St. Lawrence River and Montreal. The ship had begun its voyage in Boston, with the first stop pegged for Bar Harbor, Maine.
The ship, meanwhile, embarked on a new, 14-day Atlantic Harbor cruise on Sunday, leaving from Montreal and with suites priced from $5,499 per person and up. It is due to make a stop in Salem Oct. 20.
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