After being reported as missing, an engaged couple from Maryland was found dead at a resort in the Dominican Republic.
Hotel staff members discovered Edward Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Day, 49, unresponsive in their hotel room when they missed their scheduled checkout. The couple was staying at the Bahia Principe hotel at the resort Playa Nueva Romana in the coastal city of La Romana.
Day’s sister, Sonya Jackson, told Washington D.C.’s News4 that the U.S. Embassy had confirmed the couple was found dead in the resort. They had been staying in the Dominican Republic since May 25 and were supposed to fly back home on Thursday, May 30. Holmes’ sister said that she spoke with her brother days before the incident and that he told her he “was having a great time.”
The Dominican Republic National Police released a statement with autopsy results that concluded that the couple had respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, a condition caused by excessive fluid in the lungs. No signs of violence were reported, but police confirmed that various medications to treat high blood pressure were found in the room.
Bahia Principe Hotels responded to the incident, saying, “We are deeply saddened by the incident at one of our hotels in La Romana, Dominican Republic, and want to express our deepest condolences to their family and friends.”
The U.S. State Department raised the threat level in the Dominican Republic in April, urging travelers to exercise increased caution due to high violent crime rates. Resorts are often recommended over urban areas, but there has been a worrying amount of American travelers dying or being harmed on the island this year.
In January, a Delaware woman said she was brutally beaten for hours at a resort in Punta Cana. In April, a Black couple from New York was found dead in an apparent car crash after failing to return home as expected.