The tragic headlines involving U.S. tourists are causing Americans to reconsider their plans to the Dominican Republic.
A Maryland couple, Edward Nathanial Holmes and Cynthia Ann Day, were found unresponsive in their room by staff at the Bahia Principe hotel at the resort Playa Nueva Romana after the two did not check out at their expected time.
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Officials said that Holmes, 63, and Day, 49, died of respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, a buildup of fluid in the lungs.
This is the second Black couple found dead in the Dominican Republican in a matter of months.
Back in April, a New York couple that went missing was found in their rental car after it plunged into the Caribbean Sea on their way to the airport.
The official cause of death had not been determined, according to USA Today.
Two days before the news of the Maryland couple’s death, Tammy Lawrence Daley of Wilmington, Delaware said she was nearly beaten to death back in January while vacationing in Punta Cana’s Majestic Elegance Resort.
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Lawrence, 51, claims that someone wearing a hotel uniform dragged her into a basement maintenance room.
“There is a lot of conjecture about the case, a lot of information that doesn’t match some of the statement,” police spokesman Col. Frank Duran told CBS News. “We have to wait for the investigation to end.”
The State Department issued a travel advisory for the Dominican Republic back in April due to crime.
“Violent crime, including armed robbery, homicide and sexual assault is a concern throughout the Dominican Republic,” the advisory said. “The wide availability of weapons, the use and trade of illicit drugs, and a weak criminal justice system contribute to the high level of criminality on the broader scale.”