© Franz Waldhausl/Imagebroker/ShutterstockGan Bahia Principe Resort, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
On Monday, the U.S. State Department confirmed that back in April,
an American tourist named Robert Wallace died under mysterious circumstances at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana. According to his niece, Wallace, 67, was last seen having a Scotch from the hotel mini bar before he fell ill.
"He started feeling very sick, he had blood in his urine and stool right afterward," Wallace's niece, Chloe Arnold, said. He died in a local hospital three days later.
Wallace's death, while strange, wouldn't be considered all that unusual, if not for the fact that it is the latest in a string of recent mysterious deaths of American tourists in the Dominican Republic. Most recently, an American couple was found dead at the Grand Bahรญa Principe La Romana in the Dominican Republic, with investigators saying that while no cause of death has yet been determined, no signs of violence were reported on the scene. Last month, a 41-year-old tourist from Pennsylvania was found dead in the same hotel, reportedly also after having a drink from the minibar.
The FBI is working with Dominican Republic officials to determine whether there's any link between the deaths, but toxicology report results aren't expected for at least a month. In the meantime, here's what's been going on in the Dominican Republic, and what we know about the tourist deaths so far.
How many tourists have died under mysterious circumstances in the Dominican Republic?According to the State Department, Wallace's death marks the fourth mysterious death of an American tourist in the Dominican Republic.
But according to CBS News, there have been at least six tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic in the past year alone. Two of the deaths have been at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana, while four took place at Bahia Principe hotels. In a statement to
Rolling Stone, a representative for the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana said that "the safety and health of our guests is now, and has always been our highest priority," and that they have protocols to ensure the safety of their guests, including daily inspections of their mini bars.
Representatives for Grand Bahรญa did not respond to a request for comment,
but in a post on Twitter on June 7th, the resort disputed recent media reports about the deaths of American tourists, saying that it "completely disagree[d] with the dissemination of false information issued publicly which threatens the image and reputation of the company," adding that the hotel chain "would like to express our deep respect to the authorities and the ongoing investigations. We reiterate our firm commitment to collaborating completely with the authorities and the ongoing investigations.")
In addition to Wallace, a Pennsylvania psychotherapist named Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, was found dead in her hotel room on May 25th. She was staying at the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville hotel, an adults-only hotel in the town of San Pedro de Maconis. A preliminary autopsy report found that
she had died of a heart attack, and the resort told CNN that her husband said she had a history of heart conditions.
She also had fluid in her lungs and respiratory failure, according to the report. Curiously, Schaup-Werner also fell ill after having a drink from the minibar, though she was staying at a different resort than Wallace.On May 30th, a mere few days after Schaup-Werner was found dead, employees at the same resort found Maryland couple Edward Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, dead in their hotel room after they missed their checkout time. They had been staying at the Bahia Principe La Romana, another hotel at the same resort.
Like Schaup-Werner, Day and Holmes were found to have fluid in their lungs and evidence of respiratory failure, according to a statement issued by the Dominican Republic National Police following a preliminary autopsy report. Also like Schaup-Werner, there was evidence that one of them had a preexisting condition. Holmes' autopsy indicated that he had an enlarged heart and signs of cirrhosis of the liver, and blood pressure medication and a bottle of oxycodone were found in their hotel room. Tourism Minister Francisco Garcia initially
denied that the deaths were connected, insisting that the country was still safe to visit. But following the discovery of Day and Holmes, as well as reports that the three tourists had fluid in their lungs at the time of their deaths, investigators started to investigate whether there was a link between the three tourists' deaths.
In addition to the deaths of Wallace, Schaup-Werner, Day, and Holmes, which all took place within a two-month period, at least two other tourists have died under mysterious circumstances in the Dominican Republic in the last year, CBS News reports - also at Bahia Principe hotels.
Yvette Monique Sport, 51, died of a heart attack at the Bahia Principe in Punta Cana in June 2018, reportedly after she too had a drink from the minibar. And David Harrison, 45, also died of a heart attack and pulmonary edema during his stay at the Punta Cana Hard Rock Hotel and Casino last year - the same hotel where Wallace died last April."We went down there as a happy family, and we came home a broken family," his widow, Dawn McCoy,
told Maryland news station WTOP.
"I came home a widow and my 12-year-old son came home fatherless."There have also been nearly 70 reports of tourists reporting symptoms of food-borne illness in the Dominican Republic since March alone, according to the website IWasPoisoned.com. More than half of these reports came from tourists who stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana. One couple from Colorado has also reported becoming violently ill after staying at the Grand Bahia Principe La Romana Resort, where Holmes and Day were found dead.
They told KMGH/CNN that their doctor told them they had likely suffered the effects of "organo-phosphate poisoning," or poisoning from chemicals used in some pesticides. They are suing the hotel and seeking $1 million in damages.Is the Dominican Republic safe?For now, it appears that the answer is a tentative yes. Although the U.S. State Department issued a
level 2 travel advisory warning for tourists visiting the island back in April (for reference, there are four levels of advisory warnings, with a level 2 urging visitors to "exercise increased caution"), it appeared to be due to concerns about "violent crime, including armed robbery, homicide, and sexual assault" and not illness.
Tourism Minister Francisco Garcia has
denied that the deaths were connected, referring to them as "isolated incidents" and insisting that the country was still safe to visit. And security experts seem to agree with this assessment. "It's not an overly dangerous place," Matthew Bradley, the director of security organization
International SOS, told
Time. "I would still consider the Dominican Republic a safe place to go."
Tourism is an incredibly popular industry in the Dominican Republic: the island attracts nearly two million American visitors per year, and tourism accounts for about 17% of the country's GDP, according to one 2014 paper. This story has been updated to include comment from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana.
Comment: Update 6/14/2019:A seventh person, Leyla Cox, was
reportedly found dead of a heart attack in an undisclosed hotel room. An autopsy was ordered, but according to her son, there was a problem with getting a toxicology report:
Following her death, an autopsy was ordered to be performed, but a toxicology report could not be guaranteed, the son told the Advance.
Despite acknowledging that a toxicology report could be ordered if a "red flag" was found during an autopsy under Dominican Republic law, William said that he was told that no toxicology report could be given to his mother in the Dominican Republic because "the toxicology machine is broken."
"That's what they told me," he said ...
William Cox knows that cremation will eliminate the opportunity to perform a toxicology report, something his family sorely wishes could be completed.
"They've put me against a wall where I don't have a choice," he said. "Our own toxicology report would cost copious amounts of money."
Another woman has
reported that her brother, John Corcoran, died under "eerily similar" circumstances in a Dominican Republic hotel back in April of this year. It's unclear where he was staying:
Barbara Corcoran's brother was found dead in his hotel room in the Dominican Republic, and the circumstances sound eerily familiar to the 6 mysterious tourist deaths in the country over the past year ... TMZ has learned.
The "Shark Tank" star tells us her brother, John, was in the D.R. with a friend in April on his yearly vacation when he died of a heart attack. At least, that's what she was told. As far as she knows, there's been no autopsy.
Barbara says her brother's friend -- who was staying in the same suite -- discovered the body, but nobody knows exactly what happened.
The
New York Post is
reporting that cops are investigating whether the tourists were poisoned by counterfeit booze:
Others have reported falling ill, but surviving, after drinking from their minibars.
A Post reporter at one of the resorts noted the vodka in the room had a strange, potent smell resembling pure alcohol.
Lawrence Kobilinsky, a forensic science professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, said the symptoms among some of the dead - including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea - were consistent with poisoning from methanol or pesticides.
Methanol is a type of alcohol not safe for humans. It is regularly used as antifreeze.
"Adulterated alcohol is usually methanol added to alcohol or just plain methanol, which is very, very toxic," Kobilinsky said.
"It looks to me, from what I've heard and read, is that something was added to the drinks or bottles in those little refrigerators."
Update 6/22/2109Fox News is
reporting that two more Americans died during their vacations in the Dominican Republic. Chris Palmer and Barbara Maser-Mitchell both died at resorts in Punta Cana. The two deaths would bring the number up to 9:
They have been identified as Chris Palmer, a 41-year-old Army veteran from Kansas who died April 18, 2018, and Barbara Diane Maser-Mitchell, a 69-year-old retired nurse from Pennsylvania who died on Sept. 17, 2016, after falling critically ill at a resort. ...
... In reports given to Palmer's family, Dominican authorities said that he had pulmonary edema and that the official cause of death was a heart attack. For Maser-Mitchell, authorities have said a heart attack was the official cause of death.
"As soon as he died, I wondered if he was poisoned, if he was drugged," said Bernadette Hiller, who dated Palmer for about 10 years and saw him the week before he died. "He was healthy as a horse."
... Prior to taking the trip, Mackey said, Maser-Mitchell had a medical exam and was cleared to go on vacation.
Representative, D-New Jersey, Adriano Espaillat will be travelling to the Dominican Republic next month to meet with government officials. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Representative Frank Pallone, D-New Jersey, in a letter dated June 19 wrote:
"The circumstances surrounding the untimely deaths of nine Americans is heartbreaking, and I ask that you immediately take steps to update the bereaved families and ensure they are given all information on the cause of their loved one's death as the investigation continues ...
...at least nine American tourists without pre-existing illnesses experienced similar symptoms, including pulmonary edema, bleeding, and vomiting blood and death....I also urge you to expedite a reassessment of the Travel Advisory for the Dominican Republican to make sure American travelers have a full understanding of travel risks. I ask the Department of State and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to provide our offices with an update on the current investigations of these illnesses and deaths, and what possible steps can be taken to prevent any further loss of American lives ..."
"... There are no problems of contaminated or adulterated beverages as has been falsely said [by the media]," Garcia said. "We [Dominican officials] are the ones who have taken the samples, multiple samples, from kitchens, rooms, water, minibars, etc. This testing includes the Bahia Principe resorts, the Hard Rock resort, and others. The samples are being analyzed in laboratories and that results may be available Friday or Monday ..."
Comment: Update 6/14/2019:
A seventh person, Leyla Cox, was reportedly found dead of a heart attack in an undisclosed hotel room. An autopsy was ordered, but according to her son, there was a problem with getting a toxicology report: Another woman has reported that her brother, John Corcoran, died under "eerily similar" circumstances in a Dominican Republic hotel back in April of this year. It's unclear where he was staying: The New York Post is reporting that cops are investigating whether the tourists were poisoned by counterfeit booze: Update 6/22/2109
Fox News is reporting that two more Americans died during their vacations in the Dominican Republic. Chris Palmer and Barbara Maser-Mitchell both died at resorts in Punta Cana. The two deaths would bring the number up to 9: Representative, D-New Jersey, Adriano Espaillat will be travelling to the Dominican Republic next month to meet with government officials. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Representative Frank Pallone, D-New Jersey, in a letter dated June 19 wrote: