Jason Leon Watford was charged in connection with the woman's death on Sunday, the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas states. He was being held at the Galveston County Jail on a federal hold and was scheduled for an initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

According to the complaint, Watford told FBI investigators that he and the woman began arguing at a restaurant on the ship and continued the fight after returning to their room, at which point he said he "snapped." Watford said he struck the woman multiple times and choked her for "four to five minutes" before letting go because he was exhausted, the complaint states.

Watford told investigators the woman lay motionless on the floor for roughly 10 minutes before a housekeeper knocked to deliver towels. Investigators said he did not contact ship security or medical personnel during that time.

When Watford opened the door, the housekeeper saw what she believed to be blood on his hands and pants and observed the motionless woman face down on the floor, according to the complaint. The housekeeper alerted ship security, which contacted authorities.

Watford changed clothes and left the room; surveillance video later showed him sitting in the hallway outside his cabin scrolling on his phone, investigators said.

The victim has not been publicly identified. The Galveston Medical Examiner's Office said Monday that an autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday.

MSC Cruises said the vessel was ordered back to Galveston after what the company described as a "guest incident aboard our ship." The line said it was cooperating with authorities and providing support to those affected. The Seascape resumed its voyage and departed Galveston as of Monday afternoon, according to the company.

A passenger aboard the ship, Becsei György, told NBC News that a shipwide announcement around 10 p.m. Sunday broadcast the code phrase "Mike Echo at level 10." He said he awoke Monday morning surprised to find the ship back in Galveston, where he saw law enforcement and Border Patrol vehicles and a person being escorted off in handcuffs. It was not immediately clear whether that person was the suspect.

The Seascape, a large white vessel with 2,270 cabins, more than 1,600 crew members and capacity for nearly 5,900 guests, began sailing from Galveston to the Caribbean on five- and seven-night itineraries after shifting its home port from Miami last November, according to the company.

Homicide investigations aboard cruise ships are rare. Earlier this year, a teenager was charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival cruise ship that departed from Florida; he has pleaded not guilty.