Breathless Punta Cana Resort & Spa

Update: NINTH Deaths Reported in Dominican Republic

Recently there has been disturbing news coming out of the Dominican Republic. With the recent attack of an American woman and the mysterious deaths and illnesses of several American tourists, everyone needs to know the dangers before they plan their next vacation! Below are just some of the reports making headlines.
•Tammy Lawrence-Daley from Wilmington, Delaware, recounted what she described as a vicious 8-hour beating that happened in January at the Majestic Elegance Resort in Punta Cana.
•On May 25, Miranda Schaup-Werner, a 41-year-old from Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, died at the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville Resort which is also in the Dominican Republic. She and her husband were celebrating their ninth wedding anniversary.
•On May 30, Maryland couple Nathaniel Holmes and Cynthia Day were found dead inside their hotel at the Grand Bahia Principe La Romana, an adjacent hotel on the same Bahia Principe property where Schaup-Werner died.
•Elda Shepherd, from Ohio says at around 2a.m. on June 6th, she woke up to a man, who had earlier fixed the hot tub in her room, standing over her as she laid naked in her hotel room at the Breathless Punta Cana Resort and Spa in the Dominican Republic.
The man didn't speak English so he used the translator on his phone to ask her, “Why are you alone, you don’t want company?”
It seems Shepherd’s adrenaline was kicked into gear after this because she jumped up from the bed and he ran from the room. She filed a Police report and was able to pick the man out of a line-up which resulted in her would-be attacker being jailed.
•In April, the bodies of New York City couple Orlando Moore, 40, and Portia Ravenelle, 52, were found after being reported missing for weeks. Dominican authorities confirmed that the couple died in a car crash in Santo Domingo. The car was found at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea, and could not be recovered.
A woman, who was later confirmed to be Ravenelle, was found at the site of the crash near the Las Americas highway in the city of Santo Domingo East. She was in grave condition and without any documents or identification. She was taken to a nearby hospital via ambulance and on April 4th, after six days in intensive care, she died from her injuries.
Police found the body of a man, later confirmed to be Moore, on March 31 in an advanced state of decomposition. He was found about 13 miles from where the vehicle was located.
Both bodies were sent to the National Institute of Forensic Pathology for autopsies and official identification, according to a statement from national police. It was not until the American media raised concerns over the two being missing that the Dominican Officials connected the dots.
•Annette Wedington is searching for answers following the death of her son Terrence Richmond in September 2018. Authorities told Wedington that her son died as a result of an heart attack and accidential fall. She believes he was involved in a stuggle as there were trauma injuries his knuckles. Wedington said, according to the autopsy she obtained from Dominican Republic officials, he also had fluid in his lungs and a cracked skull. He also had bruising on his back like he had been kicked.
According to his mother, Terrance was in good health. She says that "she knows they’re lying" and she just wants closure.
•A Maryland woman is looking for answers following her husband’s death during a 2018 visit to Punta Cana. David Harrison, Dawn McCoy, and their son were vacationing at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, where Dawn said her husband became violently ill and died a short time later. His death was ruled a heart attack and pulmonary edema.
She recalled Harrison waking up from his sleep apparently disoriented and covered in sweat, noting that “all he could do was mumble.” Despite contacting medical staff at the resort, he died a short time later.
•51-year-old Yvette Monique Sport, of Glenside, Pennsylvania, died in June of 2018. According to her death certificate, a heart attack is also listed as the cause. According to family, she had a drink from the mini bar inside her hotel room, went to bed and never woke up.
In addition to the deaths and allegations of assault, more people are coming forward with stories of extreme illnesses while visiting Dominican Republic.
•On June 7, 2019, Awilda Montes, 43, from Brooklyn, New York, grabbed a soda bottle from the minibar at her hotel and took a big sip of what was supposed to be 7up. It was instead bleach. She only swallowed a bit before she spit it out to find she was bleeding from the mouth. She would also suffer vomiting and stomach pains in addition to the chemical burns during her stay at the Bahia Principe Resort Complex. She believes that she was poisoned and she still does not have sensation in her tongue.
•Myroslav Sparavalo, a 58-year-old in New York, said he also experienced a medical scare just over a month ago at the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville. Three days into the trip with his wife, he began feeling sick at dinner. Hours later, he experienced a hypertensive crisis, or a sever increase in blood pressure.
He visited the hotel medical staff, who immediately told him to go to the hospital. He was taken by paramedics to a hospital in Santo Domingo, where he remained in intensive care for 24 hours. There, a doctor noted he had "noisy lungs," typical of a smoker, even though Sparavalo does not smoke. The doctor also noted that he had fluid in his lungs
•A Colorado couple, Kaylynn Knull and her boyfriend, Tom Schwander, began experiencing mysterious symptoms at the Grand Bahia Principe resort in La Romana on their vacation in 2018. The couple asked the resort staff to switch rooms but their health only took a turn for the worse which caused them to immediately book flights home. Once back in the US, the couple visited a doctor who diagnosed them with poisoning from organophosphate, which is a chemical found in insecticide.
•Susie Lauterborn, 38, and her husband, Doug Hand, 40, were also mysteriously sick during a trip to the Grand Bahia Principe in January 2018.
Update: In April 2019, Robert Bell Wallace, 67, of California, suddenly became ill after drinking scotch whiskey at a minibar at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino resort in Punta Cana. He started feeling very sick, he had blood in his urine and stool right afterwards. The U.S. Department of State confirmed it is looking into the man’s death.
No additional Americans need to die or get sick from visiting the Dominican Republic.
PLEASE STAY SAFE AND BEWARE OF THE DANGERS!

Update: 9th Death In Dominican Republic Leyla Cox, 53, died June 102019 in her hotel room, Excellence Resorts in Punta Cana! link bottom

Update: Joseph Allen, 55, of Avenel, New Jersey, found dead in his hotel room at Terra Linda in Sosua on the morning of June 13

Update: Up to 70 people have reported being sick since March! The FBI is now involved!

Links at the end of post! link at bottom

Sources: https://nypost.com/2019/06/10/nearly-70-tourists-to-dominican-republic-reported-illness-since-march/
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/brother-of-shark-tank-star-barbara-corcoran-found-dead-in-dominican-republic-hotel-room-report
https://nypost.com/2019/06/12/tourist-returns-from-nightmare-dominican-republic-trip-just-dont-go/
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/12/732182609/fbi-probing-why-some-u-s-tourists-have-died-mysteriously-in-the-dominican-republ
https://wgntv.com/2019/06/17/another-american-tourist-died-in-her-hotel-room-in-the-dominican-republic/
https://abc7chicago.com/nj-man-is-8th-tourist-to-die-on-vacation-in-dominican-republic/5350197/