Man from New Jersey is 8th tourist to die while on vacation in Dominican Republic

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AVENEL, New Jersey -- A State Department official confirms the death of another American tourist in the Dominican Republic last week, the eighth to die while on vacation in that country since last year.


Joseph Allen, 55, of Avenel, New Jersey, was found dead in his hotel room at Terra Linda in Sosua on the morning of June 13, his sister confirmed to ABC.


In a phone interview, Jamie Reed told ABC her brother was vacationing with friends to celebrate a friend's birthday.


Friends told Reed that Allen "complained about being hot at the pool. He said he was going to his room to take a shower. When his friends came back, he said he wasn't feeling 100% again, and said he was going to lie down for the night. The next morning his friend said he hadn't heard from Joe before breakfast, so he knocked on his door and there was no response."


That's when the friend said he called down to the hotel front desk for a wellness check.


"They found him on the floor," Reed said. "He had been there for a while. Rigor mortis had set in, and he was cold."


She described her brother as "for the most part healthy" with no pertinent health issues.


Allen was a frequent tourist to the area, visiting multiple times a year. His sister says she didn't think much about his trip, despite the recent deaths.


"We didn't think anything of it, because he does this all the time," she said.


Reed says Allen's son, Amir Allen, was en route at the time of his death to spend Father's Day with his dad. He landed to news of his father's death.


Joseph Allen's body was identified by passport.


Allen's family wants his body sent back to the United States as soon as possible, but she was told by the funeral home they have to embalm his body after the autopsy.


"I just don't want them to suppress anything, especially with them embalming the body," Reed said. "We want answers. We've reached out to everybody, including Senator (Robert) Menendez to try to get some help from anyone."


She described resistance, though.


"Our hands are tied," she said. "My brother's Muslim. So many things are supposed to take place. We can't even give him a proper burial."


Reed says she is speaking out because she doesn't want this to happen to any other family.


"The families need answers," she said. "We deserve answers...My brother was my best friend. I spoke to him every day. This is killing me."
 

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<header style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; caret-color: rgb(29, 34, 40); color: rgb(29, 34, 40); font-family: YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">[h=1]47 Jimmy Buffett Fans Get Violently Sick On Group Trip to Dominican Republic[/h]</header> People<time class="caas-attr-meta-time" datetime="2019-06-17T16:35:55.000Z" style="font-weight: 400; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.923em;">June 17, 2019, 11:35 AM CDT</time>

Adding to the rising numbers of people who have either fallen ill or died while visiting Dominican Republic hotels and resorts, a group of Oklahoma-based Jimmy Buffet fans allegedly grew violently sick while visiting the Dominican Republic’s Hotel Riu Palace Macao on an April group trip to Punta Cana.
Dana Flowers, a member of the Central Oklahoma Parrothead Association (who also serves as the group’s travel agent), tells PEOPLE that 47 of the 114 people on the the trip got sick, with many unable to leave their rooms. He said some are still not feeling “normal” two months later.
“We went [to Hotel Riu Palace Macao] for the week — some longer, some shorter,” he tells PEOPLE. “We were enjoying the beach and the pool, and about 3 or 4 days into the trip we started hearing about people getting sick. They were getting diarrhea, vomiting, dizziness, headaches.”

Flowers says the group initially chalked the mystery ailment up to food poisoning, but their symptoms began to worsen. Flowers, who was among those affected by the illness, claims he lost 14 pounds over the course of 19 days. “It was some of the worst sick I’ve ever been, and I don’t normally ever get sick,” he says.
Flowers claims that everyone who grew ill in his group either swam in one specific pool or drank at the swim-up bar. When members of the group sought treatment from the on-site doctor, Flowers claims, ”Most of them got an IV, then were prescribed a medicine for parasites. [They] didn’t do any testing, they just automatically gave them medicine for parasites.”
He says after returning home from the trip, two members of his group tested positive for salmonella.
 

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stayed at the Riu palace in punta cana 9 years ago and by far the worst all inclusive resort experience ive had. went with about 25 good friends and if we hadnt had the group to enjoy ourselves we would have hated the entire experience.
 

Conservatives, Patriots & Huskies return to glory
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Something is wrong on that island, and they're going to suffer financially as a result
 
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Cyanide has to be the reason, they can't detect it after 2 hours in a body looks like a heart attack.
 
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it's either someone that works at the liquor distributor or Multiple people that work at the different Resorts
because those places aren't easy to get into. You just can't walk off the street and into these places
 

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It's getting ridiculous, tourism will totally die for many years even if they figure out what's going on right now. The damage is done. A poor country just lost a major source of income.

My eldest stepdaughter went there for a week with a girlfriend ( about 12 years ago ), they hated it and paid extra to come home after 2 days.
 

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I guess this now qualifies as one of Mr. Trump's shithole countries
 

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<header style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; caret-color: rgb(29, 34, 40); color: rgb(29, 34, 40); font-family: YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">[h=1]Recent high school graduates become ill during senior trip to Dominican Republic[/h]</header> Hope Schreiber
Yahoo Lifestyle<time class="caas-attr-meta-time" datetime="2019-06-18T08:51:35.000Z" style="font-weight: 400; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.923em;">June 18, 2019, 3:51 AM CDT</time>

<figure class="caas-figure" style="margin: 0px -20px 1em; width: auto;">
741ea920-916d-11e9-babf-e237ff5330c2

<figcaption class="caption-collapse" data-id="m-0" style="margin: 5px 20px; color: rgb(118, 125, 132); font-size: 1em;">Students became ill after eating at a Japanese restaurant at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in the Dominican Republic. (Photo: Instagram)</figcaption></figure>A group of recent Deer Creek High School graduates, and some of their parents, traveled from Oklahoma to the Dominican Republic for their senior trip, only to become violently ill on their second day.
Liz McLaughlin, a parent, says that 40 graduates flew on Saturday June 8, and by the following Tuesday Tuesday night, some had become ill after eating at a Japanese restaurant at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Her daughter, Libby, was one of the students affected, according to KOTV
 

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Wild how all these vacationers are traveling to the DR in the first place. Must be cheap as hell to get there and have fun, because I certainly haven’t heard of it being a popular destination
 

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Wild how all these vacationers are traveling to the DR in the first place. Must be cheap as hell to get there and have fun, because I certainly haven’t heard of it being a popular destination

Been reading about Punta Cana as a good destination for years.
 

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