Dominican Republic deaths: One victim foamed 'something green' from his mouth, another felt 'hot and sick', reveal families
As further details continue to emerge about tourists who mysteriously fell ill in the Dominican Republic, it has now come to light that an Arizona man foamed "something green" from his mouth after his death and a New Jersey resident reported feeling "hot and sick" before he died last week at the popular holiday destination.
62-year-old Mark Hulburt Sr. was found dead at a hotel in Punta Cana by his wife last June. His son, Mark Hulburt Jr., said "it was something that came way out of left field,” the New York Post reports.
In a conversation with AZ Family, Hulburt Jr. said: “She woke up, and he didn’t. She told me that as she found him that he had something green coming from his mouth.”
While the official cause of death was found to be a heart attack, Hulburt Sr.'s family suspects "something else" is responsible—especially after a slew of reports of other tourists mysteriously dying in similar conditions.
“Having known then what I know now I would have fought tooth and nail to have his remains brought back here and had his autopsy done here in America,” Hulburt Jr. said.
It was unclear where Hulburt Sr. was staying at in Punta Cana when he died.
According to Hulburt Sr.'s family, he was perfectly healthy before the trip. “It was not something that any of us thought was going to happen,” Hulburt Jr. grimaced.
That said, the other two deaths reported in Punta Cana were also American tourists.
Last week, 55-year-old Joseph Allen from New Jersey suddenly died after feeling hot and sick. Speaking to ABC News, his sister Jamie Reed revealed she was the one who found his lifeless body Thursday morning.
On Monday, Allen's family released a statement saying they were also suspicious if he was “the victim of a wrongful death" during his stay at the Terra Linda Resort in Sosúa.
However, at least two tourists were recently reported to have died in or nearby the resort town.
On May 25, 41-year-old Miranda Schaup Wener died from a heart attack after having a drink from the minibar at the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville, located 70 miles from Punta Cana.
Just weeks later, 53-year-old Leyla Cox from Staten Island also died from a heart attack on her way to the beach oasis.
Now, relatives have requested her body be returned to the US for a proper autopsy after toxicology machines in the Dominican Republic were reportedly broken when they attempted the procedure at first.
Her son Will Cox, 25, told Fox News he has been in daily contact with the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo and added that Dominican officials have stonewalled as he has tried to learn more about the circumstances of his mother’s death.
He said he did not speak directly to Dominican authorities, but rather communicated with embassy officials who were relaying information from the authorities.
“They put me against a wall,” Will said, referring to Dominican authorities. “The Dominicans said that I had to sign papers giving them permission to take her to a funeral home, and if I didn’t do that in four hours, they were going to consider her a 'Jane Doe.' They said I had to give them permission to cremate her or embalm her, or I would never get my mother back.”
Yet another case was that of 45-year-old David Harrison who died of an alleged heart attack while he was on vacation with his wife Dawn McCoy and son David Jr. at the Hard Rock Hotel in July last year. His widow has now called his death into question given the recent deaths of other Americans.
McCoy was trying to understand how she could repatriate her husband's body back to US soil, but officials kept trying to convince her to cremate him in DR itself.
“They kept trying to get me to cremate my husband. They kept telling me that it would be considerably cheaper to cremate him,” McCoy told People. “I want to say they asked me probably three or four times before they sent him home. I was like, ‘No, no, no. Send him home. I want to make sure it’s him that’s coming home.’”
These claims have sparked suspicions among those affected by the deaths, thereby calling for a full-scale investigation into the grim spate of tragedies at the tourist destination.
In the past month, several other tourist fatalities have been reported. The families of the victims have repeatedly asked for their cases to be re-examined after disturbing claims in recent reports.
“Some seemingly quite healthy people seem to be having heart attacks out of the blue,” Hulburt Jr. said. “Seeing everybody else that has passed, it’s brought up a lot of the same feelings. It’s been like a scab picked over and over again, all these people with the same causes all dying needlessly.”