Three Americans died under mysterious circumstances and another was hospitalized Friday while they were staying at the Sandals Resort on Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas, authorities said.
Bahamian police arrived at the hotel after an employee found one of the tourists, a man, unresponsive in his villa on Friday morning, police said in a statement. New information posted. Officials were later informed that two more people, a man and a woman, had been found in another mansion.
The man in the first mansion was above ground. In the second villa, the man lies against the wall in the bathroom, and the woman lies on the bed. Police said all three were dead.
Chester Cooper, tourism minister of the Bahamas, say on Facebook that the cause of the deaths is not known, but that foul play is not suspected. He added that a fourth American, a woman, was airlifted to a hospital in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas.
The country’s Minister of Health, Dr. Michael Darville, told ABC News that the woman was in stable condition.
The couple in the second villa suffered convulsions and showed no signs of trauma, police said. Police said that on Thursday night, the couple complained of feeling ill, were treated at a local medical clinic and returned to the resort.
Dr. Darville told Eyewitness News Bahamas on Saturday that one or more people had shown signs of vomiting and nausea at the clinic.
The identities of the guests were not disclosed. Mr. Cooper said on Facebook On Sunday, the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the Department of Health, the Department of Tourism and officials from the US Embassy coordinated to officially identify the victims.
Chris Coucheron-Aamot, a guest at the Sandals resort, Written on Facebook that the cause of the problem “could be a failure of the a/cs in the device, causing a toxic coolant leak.” Mr Coucheron-Aamot did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
The man was found dead in a mansion and hospitalized were Vincent and Donnis Chiarella of Birmingham, Ala., their son Austin Chiarella told ABC News.
Austin Chiarella said Chiarellas stayed at the resort to celebrate their wedding anniversary and added that he learned the details of the episode during a phone call with his mother on Saturday.
On Thursday night, Ms. Chiarella became ill and went to a clinic but she decided she felt fine when she was discharged. Chiarella and her husband had come to sleep in their villa.
Austin Chiarella told ABC: “She woke up and my dad was lying there on the floor, and she couldn’t move. “Her legs and arms were swollen and she couldn’t move and she was screaming to get someone in the door.”
Dr Darville said investigators included environmental scientists to make sure there were no public health problems but it did not seem necessary to set up what he called a “makeshift facility” and ” small hospital” as the episode seems isolated. .
He added that officials had “some idea” about the underlying cause but did not provide further details, except that he was awaiting the results of toxicology and blood tests.
American and Bahamian officials did not respond to requests for comment.
In one declareSandals confirmed that the three guests had died and said their staff had followed procedures by notifying medical staff and local authorities as soon as possible. It does not describe the episode in more detail.
Sandals is based in the Caribbean and operates 16 resorts across the Caribbean, according to website.
