Pennsylvania woman died at same Dominican hotel five days before Maryland couple in similar circumstances

A Pennsylvania woman who was vacationing with her husband in the Dominican Republic died suddenly in her room, five days before a couple from Maryland passed away at the same hotel in similar circumstances, Fox News has learned.

The woman, identified by a relative as Miranda Schaup-Werner, a 41-year-old psychotherapist from Allentown, Pa., collapsed on May 25 after having a drink from the mini-bar at the all-inclusive Bahia Principe Hotel in La Romana, her relative told Fox News.

Five days later, engaged couple Edward Nathaniel Holmes and Cynthia Day, were found dead in their room by a resort employee who went in after they failed to check out. They had coincidentally arrived the same day Schaup-Werner passed away.

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday confirmed the death to Fox News, saying: "We can confirm the death of a U.S. citizen in the Dominican Republic. We offer our sincerest condolences to the family for their loss. We are in close contact with local authorities regarding their investigation into the cause of death. We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance."

"The U.S. Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad have no greater responsibility than the protection of U.S. citizens overseas. Out of respect to the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment."

The hotel also confirmed Schaup's death in an emailed statement to Fox News.

"Mrs. Schaup Werner, who was a guest of Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville, was found unresponsive in her room on May 25," the statement said. "Following established protocols, the hotel doctor responded immediately and coordinated her transfer to Hospiten Santo Domingo. Unfortunately, Mrs. Schaup passed away in the room prior."

"In the days that followed, we provided our complete support to Mr. Werner in collaboration with local authorities and the U.S. Embassy. We are deeply saddened by this situation and express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased."

The relatives of all three U.S. citizens are raising questions about the deaths, noting that they occurred suddenly.

In all three cases, Dominican authorities said that an autopsy gave the same apparent cause of death – respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, which is caused by excess fluid in the lungs. The Regional Institute of Forensic Sciences said that, in the case of Holmes and Day, further tests are required.

Officials say the couple arrived at the Bahía Príncipe hotel in La Romana on May 25 and planned to leave May 30, the day they were found after they failed to check out. Police say several bottles of medicines to treat high blood pressure were found on the scene, though the relevance to their simultaneous deaths was not made clear.

The Bahia Principe Hotel's statement to Fox News said that Schaup "had suffered from heart conditions in the past." They said that her husband had mentioned her past heart condition during an interview with Dominican authorities.

“It was very quick,” said Jay McDonald, who is acting as the family spokesman for his brother-in-law, Daniel Werner, Miranda’s husband.

“Daniel and all of us are in a state of disbelief, we are shocked. She was perfectly content, everything seemed fine.”

McDonald said that Schaup had been diagnosed with inflammation around the heart 15 years ago, and sought treatment for it, but that she was cleared medically afterward. He said it seemed the hotel and others were trying to mislead the public about what caused Schaup's death.

Schaup posted photos of her vacation, including of her hotel room, on her Facebook page.

McDonald said that Daniel Werner told him that Schaup and he were in their room, before she had an alcoholic drink, sat down and took a selfie, and then stood up.

At that point, he said his brother-in-law told him, “She started shrieking and she dropped to the floor. He attempted to do CPR, he tried to resuscitate her.”

Werner then reportedly called hotel staff, and paramedics arrived and administered an epinephrine injection, usually used to treat severe allergic reactions.

“At that point, they just declared her dead,” McDonald said, adding that the authorities “did a very cursory [look] into determining the cause of death.”

McDonald said the family was stunned by the news of the death of the Maryland couple at the very same hotel just five days later, and under mysterious circumstances.

“That was beyond coincidence,” he said. “They died five days after, and the cause was determined to be the same, this just puts this whole thing through the stratosphere – something is going on, and we want to know what it is.”

“We also want to know why her death was treated in such a cursory manner.”

McDonald said the family, which he says has been in touch with the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic, wants Schaup's body to be returned to the U.S. They expect the body to be sent back to them this week, he said, perhaps as soon as tomorrow.

"[Daniel] wants his wife's body home," he said, "we want [an investigation] to be done domestically."



https://www.foxnews.com/world/pennsylvania-woman-dominican-hotel-maryland-couple

Something shady is going on on that island......

Brooklyn woman sickened by ‘bleach’ at deadly Dominican resort




A Brooklyn woman says a minibar soda left her violently ill and spewing blood at the same Dominican Republic resort where three American guests recently died — and that she was offered a couple’s massage to keep her mouth shut.

Awilda Montes, 43, told The Post that despite the claims of resort staff, it was no “accident” that she downed a soda that tasted like bleach soon after she and her then-boyfriend checked into a luxury room at the Grand Bahia Principe resort in La Romana back in October 2018.

The Windsor Terrace resident said that soon after checking into her luxury room, she went to a stocked minibar and grabbed a bottle of soda, which she asked her boyfriend to open for her since it was sealed tight.

“When I took a swig of it, I swallowed a tiny bit of it, and when I held it there I realized it was tingling in my mouth and then it started burning,” she said.

“I ran to bathroom sink and spit it out and it was all blood.”

She immediately called to her boyfriend, shouting, “This is bleach, this is bleach.”

“My tongue was bleeding and my mucous was all blood,” Montes said.

The couple called the front desk which sent “a lot of people to diffuse the situation.”

“They were very fast to take the bottle away from me,” she remembered.

They arranged for her to see a hotel medic, who gave her IV fluids. When the couple returned to the room, staffers told her the poisonous soda must have been an “accidental mix-up.”

She later received a message in her room offering her an apology gift — with a price.

“They tried to get me to sign a disclaimer — dinner on the beach, a couples massage, or two free nights’ stay — I absolutely refused to sign it,” Montes said.

At first, Montes said, she bought the hotel’s excuse that the incident was an “accidental mixup” by a housekeeping employee — but now she has doubts.

“Now I’m wondering if it was on purpose, by a disgruntled employee,” who was angry with management or their own situation.

“There are times you’re on vacation and you’re lying out on the beach and you ask workers to bring you something,” Montes said.

“There’s a lot of poor people working in this country, and they’re watching people day in day out who are enjoying their lives and don’t enjoy their own.”

Though she’s grateful to have escaped alive, Montes said she no longer has any taste buds.

The hotel offered to investigate the incident but never followed up to report the outcome, she said.

Montes said the recent deaths at the resort may have been prevented if hotel staff followed through with the probe.

“I want them to know that they could have done something to prevent this because they’ve known this since my incident back in October and they should be held accountable,” Montes said.

A rep for the hotel didn’t immediately respond to comment.

Meanwhile, Montes’ sister has reached out to the family of 41-year-old Miranda Schaup-Werner who authorities said died from a heart attack at the resort on May 25.

An engaged Maryland couple was found dead there five days later. Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, died in their room from pulmonary edema and respiratory failure, according to authorities.




https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost...ned-by-bleach-at-deadly-dominican-resort/amp/

A widow is speaking out on her husband's sudden 2018 death after multiple tourists died in a Dominican Republic resort under similar suspicious conditions.

Dawn McCoy, of Charles County, Md., told WTTG she was preparing to travel to the Caribbean nation on July 14 to commemorate the one year anniversary of her husband David Harrison's passing when she learned that an American couple, Nate Holmes and Cynthia Day, recently died on the island.

"When it came up that they died from the same exact thing as my husband I thought 'No, no.... there's no way two people could die of the same exact thing,'" McCoy told the station.

Holmes, 63, and Day, 49, of Prince George's County, Md., were found dead on May 30 in their room at the Grand Bahia Principe Hotel in La Romana by an employee, after the two missed their scheduled checkout time.

Five days prior, Miranda Schaup-Werner, a 41-year-old Pennsylvania psychotherapist, died at the same resort as Holmes and Day. Schaup, who was traveling with her husband Daniel Werner, allegedly collapsed after having a drink at the all-inclusive resort on May 25 and was unable to be resuscitated.

All three of their deaths were officially attributed to respiratory failure and pulmonary edema — the same cause of death listed for McCoy's husband, although he died at a separate hotel and his autopsy also referenced a heart attack.

McCoy says her husband, who was 45 years old and reportedly in good health when he suddenly died, complained he was feeling ill one night before bed and woke up in distress early in the morning.

"He wasn't able to breathe," she told WUSA. "He wasn't able to talk. He was sweating profusely."

The widow said that after her repeated calls for medical assistance, a doctor took nearly 25 minutes to arrive. By then, it was too late to save her husband.

"I didn't plan on coming back a widow," she said. "I wasn't prepared for what was coming my way."

McCoy, who had to pay $20,000 dollars to get her husband's body home, now says she regrets having his remains cremated as she cannot get a second autopsy.

When asked if she thought her husband could have just died from natural causes, McCoy said, "Honestly, I don't believe so."

Jay McDonald, the spokesman for Miranda Schaup-Werner, echoed McCoy's sentiment in the wake of the most recent deaths at the Grand Bahia Principe.

"That was beyond coincidence," he said. "They died five days after, and the cause was determined to be the same, this just puts this whole thing through the stratosphere – something is going on, and we want to know what it is."

In a Wednesday statement, Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts clarified that the deaths took place at two different hotels on the same property, claiming that "to date, there are no indications of any correlation between these two unfortunate events."

"We disapprove of any speculation and conjecture on the possible causes of death and urge all to respect the families while the investigation is ongoing," the company added.






https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ao...-republic-similar-circumstances-woman-couple/

I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on television, but if these deaths are
not being caused by a serial killer then too much bug spray is most likely the culprit.

No way they can sell this as some random coincidence

Willie99 said:

No way they can sell this as some random coincidence

Click to expand...

No way, something shady is going on here......

In travel sites and forums they black out the crime and negative shit that happens..... literally make all negativity go dark just to protect business dollars.

They do that a lot with Mexico as well as other countries.

The reality is that there are a lot of blacks and gradient blacks in the Dom Rep. That gene does not make for a good individual to work in the service industry or in the health care industry -- you never would want to have a black nurse and so forth. Just a strong general rule.

Just as you don't want your NBA basketball team to be 100% of Vietnamese players.



You can go PC and ignore my advice and end up dead like the folks above and have a Vietnamese NBA team..... or you consider my advise and save yourself a lot of pain and suffering and also have a winning NBA team with just the best black athletes.

Must be losing a lot of business now. Ya think?

California man died in April at Dominican Republic resort after drink from hotel room minibar, family says




A fourth U.S. tourist died after he fell critically and suddenly ill at an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic about a month before three others died in their rooms, Fox News has learned.

Robert Bell Wallace, 67, of California, became ill almost immediately after he had a scotch from the room minibar at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino resort in Punta Cana, his niece, Chloe Arnold, told Fox News on Sunday. He was in the Dominican Republic to attend his stepson’s wedding.

Arnold said her uncle, an avid traveler, had been in relatively good health and just the month before had been skiing in Lake Tahoe.

Arnold said the family has been particularly concerned after having recently learned of the other seemingly mysterious deaths in the Dominican Republic. Miranda Schaup-Werner, a Pennsylvania woman, died almost four weeks later, on May 25, after she had a drink from her minibar at another hotel, the Bahia Principe La Romana.

"He was fine," Arnold said of her uncle, who owned a construction business and whose obituary page was filled with comments about his generosity and compassion. "He and his wife arrived there at around midnight on April 10. On April 11 he had scotch from the minibar. He started feeling very sick, he had blood in his urine and stool right afterward."

She said a hotel doctor had checked Wallace, then decided on April 13 that he needed to be hospitalized. He died April 14. Dominican authorities have yet to give the family a cause of death, Arnold said.

"We have so many questions," she said. "We don't want this to happen to anyone else."

The U.S. State Department, responding to questions about Wallace's death, said in a statement to Fox News: "We can confirm the death of a U.S. citizen in April 2019 in the Dominican Republic. We offer our sincerest condolences to the family for their loss. Out of respect for the family during this difficult time, we do not have additional information to provide."

In recent days, a Maryland widow went public with concerns about the death of her husband, David Harrison, last year at the same Hard Rock resort under similar, sudden circumstances. The two had gone there with their 12-year-old son to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

"My husband was a very fit, very healthy person when he passed away," she told Inside Edition. She said he'd had a physical shortly before the trip and, except for high blood pressure which he kept in check with medication, everything was fine.

"I started seeing all these other people that were dying of the same exact causes, which made me start to second guess. I no longer feel like my husband died of natural causes,' McCoy told local TV station WTOP. "We went down there as a happy family, and we came home a broken family. I came home a widow and my 12-year-old son came home fatherless."

Efforts to get a comment about the deaths of Harrison and Wallace from Hard Rock in Punta Cana were unsuccessful.

On May 30, an engaged couple from Maryland, Edward Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Day, 49, died in their room at the Bahia Principe La Romana. A hotel employee found them unresponsive in their room after they failed to check out.

Dominican authorities have said either preliminary or final autopsies indicated they all died of natural causes, and that they were isolated incidents, but the families said they had doubts. Some have hired lawyers and planned additional autopsies and tests in the United States.

U.S. officials have been restrained in their comments, only confirming deaths when asked. Neither the State Department, Bahia Principe, nor Dominican authorities have responded to repeated questions by Fox News about how many tourists from the U.S. and elsewhere have died in their rooms, or anywhere in resorts, in recent years.

Nearly half of the roughly 5 million tourists who visit the Dominican Republic each year are from the United States, statistics have shown.

While saying little publicly, however, teams of experts and inspectors from several international agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted tests Thursday at the Bahia Principe properties where U.S. tourists died. It was unclear whether they inspected other resorts. The FBI confirmed to Fox News on Friday it was assisting Dominican authorities in investigating the deaths.

The testing and the FBI's involvement marked the first public indications that officials in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic have considered the possibility of something other than natural causes.

Dominican officials said Schaup, Holmes and Day had pulmonary edema, a condition in which the lungs fill with fluid. They said Schaup, 41, who collapsed after having the minibar drink at the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville -- which is adjacent to the sister hotel where Holmes and Day died -- died of a heart attack, though her family said she was healthy.

In recent days, the family of a Pennsylvania woman who was vacationing in the Dominican Republic last year said she died in her room at the Bahia Principe Resort in Punta Cana resort after she had a drink from the minibar. Relatives of Yvette Monique Sport, 51, told Fox 29 Philadelphia she was visiting the popular tourist spot last June, had a drink, later went to bed, and never woke up. Her death certificate said her official cause of death was a heart attack.

“It’s a complete fabrication,” Felecia Nieves, Sport's sister, said, “that you could have as many people and they all have the same cookie-cutter outcome. It’s impossible.”

Nieves said she planned to reach out to other families and press for answers.

“This is about justice for people that we love,” she said. “We’re never going to get them back but we can give them justice.”





https://www.foxnews.com/world/dominican-republic-california-man-hotel-room-minibar

Some fucked up shit. These deaths dont seem coincidental.

I've never stayed at any fancy resort, is it normal for people to be drinking from bottles that have already been opened or are these bottles somehow being resealed?

CoolBreeze22 said:

I've never stayed at any fancy resort, is it normal for people to be drinking from bottles that have already been opened or are these bottles somehow being resealed?

Click to expand...

I thought they would be mini bottles of alcohol and unopened cans of soda, who the hell would drink from an open container in these times?

[h=2]California man died at a Dominican Republic resort after drinking from hotel minibar just weeks before three more Americans died at a luxury property on the other side of the island[/h]

Hot Rocks said:

I thought they would be mini bottles of alcohol and unopened cans of soda, who the hell would drink from an open container in these times?

Click to expand...

I missed the part of a open container

someone is poisoning people down there

I don't drink from the mini bar, I know I will NEVER do that now

Sick people

Kenny B said:

Some fucked up shit. These deaths dont seem coincidental.

Click to expand...

Whats seems to be coincidental is that that are all staying in resorts/hotels. The leading theory I see online is the grounds use of pesticides. (inside and out) and the facilities are refusing to say what they use. Flat out refuse.

Nearly 70 tourists to Dominican Republic reported illness since March





Nearly 70 tourists have reported getting violently ill while vacationing in the Dominican Republic since March, according to a commonly used website that tracks food-borne illness outbreaks.

That’s up from just 10 reported illnesses in the country for all of 2018, according to iwaspoisoned.com. In June alone, 52 tourists reported symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea and fever.

More than 45 of them identified themselves as guests at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana.

“People report food-borne illnesses but it’s possible that they experienced some other type of contamination,” said Patrick Quade, founder of iwaspoisoned.com, adding that he consulted with scientists regarding his findings.

“We started to see unusual activity in April when six people reported being ill on the island, but in June it exploded,” Quade said.

One expert Quade consulted, Lee-Ann Jaykus, a food microbiologist in the department of food science at North Carolina State University, said exposure to an insecticide chemical known as organophosphate could result in severe vomiting and diarrhea, but in dire cases it could cause a cardiac crisis.

The families of at least three people who died at resorts on the island last month were told that their loved ones died from pulmonary edema and respiratory failure.

“It is quite possible that Patrick has picked up something significant” that is not food-related, Jaykus told The Post.

“The safety and wellness of our guests at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana is now, and has always been our highest priority. We are confident that all operational protocols were followed to ensure the safety of our guests,” the company said in a statement. “While we are deeply saddened by these incidents, and our thoughts go out to all of those affected, we, along with the general public, will be monitoring the facts as they unfold surrounding these events.”

Guests staying at other hotels, including Vista Sol Punta Cana Beach, Hotel Riu Palace Punta Cana and Iberostar Bavaro in Punta Cana, also reported illnesses on the website. The vast majority of incidents were in the Punta Cana region and at the Hard Rock property, according to Quade.

The illnesses come on the heels of reports that six people have died — coming down suddenly with mysterious ailments — while staying at luxury resorts on the island since last year.

The FBI is investigating the matter, and some victims claim they were told by medical professionals in the US that their symptoms could be linked to chemicals found in insecticides, according to reports.

One family of four who recently returned from a weeklong vacation at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana booked an all-inclusive package and became violently ill after dining at Toro restaurant on the property.

The family had to stay an extra night at the hotel — an $847-a-night cost — because they were too ill to travel, the mother, who didn’t want to be identified, told The Post.

On their June 1 United Airlines flight home to New York, the passenger next to the mother, an 87-year-old woman who was traveling with her family, said she and another member of her group were hospitalized in the Dominican Republic after eating at the same Hard Rock Hotel eatery.

Meanwhile, travelers headed to the island are getting nervous.

One tourist shared her fears about the reports of deaths and illnesses on the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino’s Punta Cana Facebook page on Sunday.

“Can anyone shed light on this ?? We’re going there this week !! I’m so worried now re thinking my trip there posted.”






https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost...an-republic-reported-illness-since-march/amp/

https://nypost.com/2019/06/11/woman...SKKasoM84Kob-dJiB6E-asJhUZjRIRHUAgRM1-owjUgec

The family of a Pennsylvania bride-to-be who died under similar circumstances as guests at the Grand Bahía Príncipe resort in the Dominican Republic says it’s “impossible” that her sudden death at a hotel owned by the same company isn’t related.
Yvette Monique Sport, of Glenside, Penn., died from a heart attack in June 2018 during a trip with her fiancé to the Bahía Príncipe in Punta Cana, news station WCAU reported.
“There is something … something dirty at the bottom of all of this,” Nieves told news station WTXF. “She was 51 years of age, relatively healthy, no reason for her to go on vacation and just die so suddenly.”
Sport had a drink at the minibar inside her hotel room, took a shower and “wanted to retire for the evening,” according to her sister.
When Sport’s fiancé tried to wake her, he realized she was unresponsive, according to WCAU.
“He tried to nudge her again and there was no sound and then she was gone,” Nieves said.
Sport’s sitation is strikingly similar to the case last month of 41-year-old Miranda Schaup-Werner of Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Schaup-Werner also drank from the minibar in her room at the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville resort. Her family said she succumbed to a heart attack hours later on May 25 in the hotel.
Five days later, an engaged couple from Maryland died during their visit to the same resort, officials said. Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, were found dead in their room from pulmonary edema and respiratory failure.
Nieves said she wants to get in touch with the families of the victims to put pressure on the resort chain to investigate.
“It’s a complete fabrication that you could have as many people and they all have the same cookie cutter outcome. It’s impossible,” Nieves told WCAU.
A rep for the resort didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.