At Bahamas resort, Tennessee couple died of carbon monoxide

Three Americans who were found dead under mysterious circumstances at a resort in the Bahamas in May died of carbon monoxide poisoning, authorities said.

“At this juncture of the investigation, we can officially confirm that all three of the victims died as a result of asphyxiation due to carbon monoxide poisoning,” the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a statement Tuesday.

The deaths had stumped investigators who were summoned to the Sandals resort on Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas on May 6 after a staff member found one of the tourists, a man, unresponsive in his villa, the police said.

The authorities were then told that two more people, a man and a woman, had been found unresponsive in another villa. A doctor pronounced all three of them dead, the police said. A fourth American, a woman, was airlifted to a hospital in Florida and survived.

Officials said they did not suspect foul play. At least two of the victims had suffered convulsions but did not show signs of trauma, police said at the time.

The Bahamian authorities ordered autopsies on the victims and sent samples from the villas to a laboratory in Philadelphia to determine if “any contaminants are present,” Commissioner Paul A. Rolle of the Royal Bahamas Police Force said at the time.

The woman who survived, Donnis Chiarella, 65, was flown to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital in Miami in fair condition, Jennifer Guerrieri, a spokesperson for the hospital, said last month. Chiarella was released May 13.

The victims were identified as Chiarella’s husband, Vincent Paul Chiarella, 64, of Florida, and a couple from Tennessee: Michael Phillips, 68, and his wife, Robbie Phillips, 65. They had been found unresponsive in two villas, police said at the time.

Authorities did not say what the source of the carbon monoxide was, saying the matter was the subject of an “active investigation.”

In a statement Wednesday, a spokeswoman for Sandals Resorts said the company had “fully supported the investigation into this event to ensure we are doing everything possible to learn from it.”

The deaths, she said, were “an isolated incident.”