Another U.S. Citizen has died while visiting the Dominic Republic, the U.S. State Department has confirmed to TIME. It is the latest in a string of deaths that the FBI is helping investigate. At fifty-three, Leyla Cox was found lifeless in her resort room on June 11, even staying at the Excellence Resort in Punta Cana. “I am crushed and pressured and in surprise,” William Cox, 25, Leyla’s son, told the Staten Island Advance. “Her birthday was June nine, and she or he passed away on June 10.” The announcement comes as more families come ahead with tales of a circle of relatives who died at some stage in life on the Caribbean island. The State Department confirmed that the FBI became presenting technical assistance with the toxicology reports. Still, it stated said that investigations had no longer discovered any connections between the deaths of 41-yr-old Miranda Schaupp-Werner on May 25 and the May 30 deaths of Ann Day, 49, and Nathaniel Edward Holmes, sixty-three––all of whom stayed at Bahia Principe Hotel and Resorts in San Pedro de Macorís.
On Sunday, the family of California native Robert Wallace, 67, informed Fox News that he had died after visiting the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Resort in Punta Cana. His niece Chloe Arnold informed Fox that on April 11, Wallace fell ill after having a Scotch from his hotel room’s minibar. After being checked with the aid of a hotel medical doctor on April thirteen, Wallace was dispatched to the hospital wh, where he died on April 14. Arnold described her uncle as an avid vacationer with inappropriate health. His obituary says he surpassed “suddenly while visiting the Dominican Republic.”
Arnold instructed Fox that Dominican authorities have not yet confirmed her uncle’s cause of demise. “We have so many questions,” she said. “We don’t want this to show up to everybody else.” When asked about Wallace’s dying, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to TIME that a U.S. Citizen died in April inside the Dominican Republic and provided the circle of relatives their “sincerest condolences.” Despite the tragic headlines, motel officers and safety experts caution travelers not to hurry to conclusions. The connections, they say, aren’t right now, and safety specialists mainly say that the use of a is not any more dangerous than it became before.
“It’s now not an excessively dangerous place,” former CIA agent and modern-day Regional Security Director of International SOS Matthew Bradley tells TIME. “I could nevertheless not forget the Dominican Republic, which is a safe vicinity to go.” According to the State Department, in the final year, 13 U.S. Citizens died while journeying to the Dominican Republic. The number became 17 in 2017—more than 2.7 million U.S. Travelers visited the island in 2017, making the island the fourth most popular travel destination for Americans.
But for those tens of millions of tourists with journeys booked, police and motel officers are asking the public to await conclusions from investigations before making assumptions — and denying there may be something nefarious at play. High-profile incidents regarding American vacationers In the last year, there have been multiple excessive-profile instances of American tourists’ demise or significant injuries while staying in the Dominican Republic. Schaub-Werner, who came from Pennsylvania, died after she became observed unresponsive by resort staff in her Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville resort inn room. According to the inn positioned in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican authorities concluded she had suffered a heart attack. In a statement, Bahia Principe said her husband, who Schaub-Werner turned into traveling with, showed she had a record of heart situations.
Five days later, Day and Holmes, a couple from Maryland, had been each discovered unresponsive in their rooms by a resort body of workers the day they had been scheduled to test out. Bahia Principe showed the couple changed into staying at the Grand Bahia Principe La Romana, less than a mile from sister lodge Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville, in which Schaub-Wener stayed. According to Bahia Principe, there were no symptoms of violence. The case of Holmes and Day continues to be under investigation, and waiting for the results of the toxicology check. “To date, there are no indications of any correlation between these two unfortunate incidents,” the lodge’s declaration examines. “We disapprove of any hypothesis and conjecture at the viable causes of demise and urge all to respect the households even as the investigation is ongoing.”
