About a month before the rash of deaths at one Dominican Republic resort, a California man reportedly died after sipping a drink from his room’s minibar at a different resort on the Caribbean island nation.
According to Fox News, Robert B. Wallace, 67, died in April 2019 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana. Wallace became the fourth American to reportedly die at one of the vacation resorts in the Dominican Republic in the past two months. And if you add the woman who died one year ago this month, that brings the total to five since June 2018.
The fact that Fox News reported the U.S. Department of Justice is assisting Dominican Republic officials in the investigations is the first indication that American authorities suspect their deaths were caused by something other than “natural causes.” FBI officials are already on the ground in the D.R.
Rolling out has already reported on the following tragedies:
- In May 2019, Pennsylvania’s Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, was found dead after drinking from the hotel bar at the Bahia Principe resort;
- Five days later, engaged Maryland couple, Edward Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Day, 49, were found dead by hotel employees after missing their check out time at the same resort. It is suspected they also drank from the minibar;
- And one year ago this month, the body of Philadelphia’s Yvette Monique Sport, 51, was reportedly found at this same resort. She had also reportedly sipped from the hotel minibar, went to sleep, and never woke up, according to NBC Philadelphia.
In addition, these are the people who barely escaped with their lives:
- Colorado couple Kaylynn Knull, 29, and her boyfriend Tom Schwander, 33 told CNN they were poisoned and nearly died when they took sips from their hotel room minibar;
- And a Brooklyn, New York, woman, Awilda Montes, 43, told the New York Daily News she feels she escaped with her life after sipping what she what described as bleach from the minibar Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville that caused her to vomit blood. She said she still has no sensation in her tongue after that terrifying experience in October 2018.
In Wallace’s case, he fell violently ill after he drank scotch from the room’s minibar at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana, according to his niece, Chloe Arnold. She said her uncle was in good health when he landed.
“He was fine,” Arnold said of her uncle, according to Fox News. “He and his wife arrived there at around midnight on April 10. On April 11, he had scotch from the minibar. He started feeling very sick, he had blood in his urine and stool right afterward.”
Wallace decided to go to the hospital on April 13 and died the next day.
