Maryland couple found dead in their hotel room at Dominican Resort died of respiratory failure, police say
The US State Department said that a Maryland couple has been found dead in the Dominican Republic with several bottles of heart medication nearby.
CNN reports that the country's national police has confirmed that the couple died of respiratory failure. A statement from the Dominican Republic National Police said that an autopsy concluded that the couple had respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, a condition caused by excess fluid in the lungs.
50-year-old Cynthia Day and 63-year-old Nathaniel Holmes checked into the Bahía Príncipe Playa Nueva Romana on May 25 and were set to depart on Thursday, the same day that their bodies were discovered in a room, reportedly with no signs of violence.
A hotel worker found them but it wasn't reported whether the bottles were empty. Dominican Republic's National Police found in their investigation that Holmes had called for a hotel doctor on Thursday morning complaining that he fell ill, a local paper reported. But, he reportedly refused medical care when they showed up.
Sonya Jackson, Day's sister, told News4 that the US Embassy had confirmed their death, while Holmes sister said he was "having a great time" when she spoke to him a couple of days ago.
In Facebook images he posted on Tuesday, Holmes said he was having fun, writing in that caption that he'd had the "boat ride of a lifetime!!!"
He also shared images of Day posing with a parrot and a monkey saying, "On the way to Saona Island with my baby." At one point, he also wrote, "Can somebody please load me $250,000 bcuz [sic] I don't want to come home!!!!!"
Holmes' daughter Dajuan Holmes-Hamilton has a lot of questions, she wants to know the facts. "It should have never happened," she told NBC4, adding that he was a grandfather and was also looking forward to visiting her daughter.
The property is located halfway between popular locations Santa Domingo (the capital) and Punta Cana.
The Maryland couple is the second American couple to have died in the Caribbean country since March. In January, a Delaware woman says she was brutally beaten for hours at a resort in Punta Cana. In March, a New York couple was found dead in the country after failing to return home on their scheduled date.
If you have a news scoop or an interesting story for us, please reach out to us at (323) 421-7514