“Tourism Minister Francisco Javier Garcia told Fox News on Thursday that he’s seen the final reports for all nine victims whose deaths had been covered in the news of late, and said there is nothing in those reports to suggest anything mysterious or nefarious,” Llorente wrote.
She also quoted Garcia as saying, “The deaths occurred due to previous health conditions of the deceased, as the autopsies performed have shown.”
However, the families of Chris Palmer, a 41-year-old Army veteran from in April 2018, and Barbara Diane Maser-Mitchell, a 69-year-old who died in 2016, who told Fox News of the two deaths, who expressed skepticism towards the explanation that they died of natural causes.
These latest deaths are part of a trend, as nine American tourists have reportedly died suddenly in the Dominican Republic since June 2018.
One former girlfriend of Palmer, who remained close with him, told Fox that when she found out he died she even wondered if he had been drugged or poisoned.
And an associate of Maser-Mitchell claimed, “She was an LPN (licensed practical nurse), she knew the symptoms of a heart attack, she would have known. She didn’t present symptoms of a heart attack.”
These latest deaths are part of a trend, as nine American tourists have reportedly died suddenly in the Dominican Republic since June 2018.
U.S. officials, according to Llorente, have claimed that the deaths are not linked. Llorente wrote, “The relatives of most of the nine U.S. tourists — whose deaths occurred under seemingly similar circumstances –have raised doubts about the accounts they’ve been given by Dominican authorities, and several have expressed exasperation over the U.S. State Department, which they felt was taking too passive a role.”
In response to these deaths, U.S. Congressman Frank Pallone has asked the State Department and FBI to look into this issue.
Yesterday, I wrote to @StateDept & @FBI to ensure that grieving families receive timely updates after the deaths of nine Americans, including one victim from my District. @StateDept should reassess its Travel Advisory to the country. https://t.co/sNwbmMPyUt
— Rep. Frank Pallone (@FrankPallone) June 20, 2019
However, according to Jessica Montevago of TravelMarketReport, the State Department will not be issuing a travel advisory warning at this time.
“The State Department pointed to the fact that an average of 2.7 million Americans travel to the Dominican Republic every year. While the overwhelming majority travel without incident, the State Department is working actively with the Dominican authorities to ensure that U.S. citizens are safe and feel safe while in the Dominican Republic,” she wrote.
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