The Sapphire Princess at dock in Vancouver after a woman passenger was reported missing from the vessel during an Alaskan cruise.The Sapphire Princess at dock in Vancouver after a woman passenger was reported missing from the vessel during an Alaskan cruise. (CBC)

RCMP believe an elderly U.S. woman who disappeared from an Alaskan cruise off the coast of B.C. jumped from the ship and drowned.

Edelgard Carney, 67, of Sutter Creek, Calif., was suffering from an undisclosed medical condition and had wrapped up some of her personal affairs back home before going on the cruise, according to Bella Bella RCMP Sgt. Nelson Salter.

Video surveillance from the Princess Cruise ship Sapphire Princess shows Carney jumping from the ship Tuesday in an apparent suicide, Salter said.

The woman was reported missing when the vessel docked in Vancouver on Wednesday. A search of the ship failed to find her, although her personal belongings were still in her state room, according to Vancouver police.

Before the finding on the surveillance tape, Carney was last seen Monday night as the cruise ship left Ketchikan, Alaska, headed south through the waters between Vancouver Island and the mainland.

Her disappearance initially prompted a search by the Canadian and U.S. coast guards from Vancouver to Alaska, but that search was called off.

Salter says Carney is presumed to have drowned in the waters off Bella Bella, which is about halfway between Vancouver and Ketchikan, where Carney last boarded the ship.