Joseph Allen’s relatives claim he was healthy and visited the Dominican Republic frequently. Several of the visitors who died during this year drank from their hotel minibar before they got sick. However, toxicology reports did not show poisons in their system.
The FBI is helping local authorities with toxicology tests. No link has been established between the deaths.
The relatives of Joseph Allen claim he came in Sosua’s Terra Linda Resort to celebrate the birthday of a friend on June 9. His sister told ABC that, on June 12, he had realized he was overheating and told friends. He wanted to have a shower and go to sleep.
He didn’t respond to knocks on his door the next day. When a maid came in, she discovered him on the ground cold and rigid, according to Jamie Reed, his sister. His 23-year-old son, who flew there on Father’s Day to be with him, arrived only to find that he was dead.
His family is presently attempting to repatriate his body to the US where they expect the cause of death will be revealed by a post-mortem examination.
Other deaths
Robert Bell Wallace, 67, from California, died on April 14 after falling ill at Punta Cana’s Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. According to his sister Barbara Corcoran, who appears on Shark Tank TV show, John Corcoran died in his hotel room the same month. His death was attributed to “natural causes.”
Pennsylvania’s 41-year-old Miranda Schaup-Werner died on May 25 after drinking from her hotel minibar, U.S. media report. Her body was found hours after she checked into the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville.
The U.S. State Department confirmed Leyla Cox’s death on June 11. Her son has challenged the formal decision that found a deadly heart attack, pulmonary edema, and respiratory failure had happened.
Too random to be random?
Local officials called the deaths “unrelated and isolated,” as they were attributed to natural causes. The U.S. embassy in Santo Domingo said nothing had yet been found to indicate the cases were connected.
Is it too random to be just a coincidence?
