Source: Barbara Bonelli / EyeEm / Getty
A New Jersey resident is the latest American tourist to pass away while on vacation in the Dominican Republic, after several mysterious deaths have been reported in the past year.
ABC 7 reports that 55-year-old Joseph Allen was found dead in his hotel room on the morning of June 13. Jamie Reed, the deceased’s sister, told the news outlet that her brother went to D.R. for a birthday celebration. His friends told Reed that he “complained about being hot at the pool. He said he was going to his room to take a shower. When his friends came back, he said he wasn’t feeling 100% again, and said he was going to lie down for the night. The next morning his friend said he hadn’t heard from Joe before breakfast, so he knocked on his door and there was no response.”
After asking hotel staff for assistance, Allen was found on the floor. “He had been there for a while. Rigor mortis had set in, and he was cold,” Reed said. She said her brother wasn’t experiencing health issues prior to his trip, describing him as “for the most part healthy.”
Despite the alarming number of tourist deaths in the country, Reed wasn’t worried about her brother since he frequently visited the tropical destination.”We didn’t think anything of it, because he does this all the time,” she said of her brother’s trip. When speaking of her brother’s passing, as well as the others who have mysteriously died in the country, Reed said “The families need answers,” she said. “We deserve answers…My brother was my best friend. I spoke to him every day. This is killing me.”
Allen is the ninth person within the last year to suddenly pass away in the Dominican Republic.
READ MORE: Complex.com
Article Courtesy of Complex
First Picture Courtesy of Marina Zwoch / EyeEm and Getty Images
Second Picture Courtesy of Barbara Bonelli / EyeEm and Getty Images
The Dominican Republic Has Claimed Another Life with Ninth American Tourist Dead was originally published on wzakcleveland.com
