At least 6 tourists from the United States have died in the Dominican Republic in the last year.
Most recently, a Pennsylvania woman died just days before a Maryland couple was found dead in their room at the same resort.
Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, was celebrating her ninth wedding anniversary with her husband at the Bahia Principe Hotel in La Romana when she collapsed in their hotel room. Schaup-Werner had a drink from the minibar before she collapsed.
Five days after her death, Maryland couple Edward Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, were found dead in their room by hotel employees after they failed to check out. Autopsies on the couple concluded they had respiratory failure and an abnormal buildup of fluid in the lungs.
The deaths prompted a California man’s family to speak out after he died after drinking scotch from the minibar at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Robert Wallace, 67, was visiting the Caribbean country in April for his stepson’s wedding when he became sick.
Yvette Monique Sport, a 51-year-old Pennsylvania woman, also died at a Bahia Principe resort last year. Her sister said she had a drink from the minibar in her hotel room and never woke up after going to bed.
“There is something … something dirty at the bottom of all of this,” Sport’s sister Felecia Nieves said. “She was 51 years of age, relatively healthy, no reason for her to go on vacation and just die so suddenly.”
Maryland resident Dawn McCoy said her husband, David Harrison, died in 2018 of a pulmonary edema and a heart attack during a visit to the island.
Officials from the country insist it is safe and estimate about 2 million Americans visit every year.
