Hamilton Journal News

3 Americans die in mysterious circumstan­ces at resort

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Alex Traub

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 went to the hotel after a staff member found one of the travelers, a man, unresponsi­ve in his villa Friday morning, police said in a news release. Officials were then informed that two more people, a man and a woman, had been found unresponsi­ve in another villa.

The man in the first villa was on the ground. In the second villa, the man was slumped against a wall in the bathroom, and the woman was on a bed. All three were pronounced dead by a doctor, police said.

Chester Cooper, tourism minister of the Bahamas, said on Facebook that the cause of the deaths was unknown but that foul play was not suspected. He added that a fourth American, a woman, had been airlifted to a hospital in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas.

The country’s health minister, Dr. Michael Darville, told ABC News that the woman was in stable condition.

The couple in the second villa were found to have suffered convulsion­s, and there were no signs of trauma, police said. On Thursday night, the couple had complained of feeling ill, were treated at a local medical clinic and returned to the resort, police said.

Darville told Eyewitness News Bahamas on Saturday that one or more people had shown signs of vomiting and nausea at the clinic.

Chris Coucheron-Aamot, a guest at the Sandals resort, wrote on Facebook that the cause of the episode “may have been a fault with the a/c in the unit, causing a toxic coolant leak.” Coucheron-Aamot did not immediatel­y reply to a request for comment Sunday.

The identities of the guests were not released, but the man who was found dead in a villa and the hospitaliz­ed person were Vincent and Donnis Chiarella of Birmingham, Alabama, their son Austin Chiarella told ABC News.

The Chiarellas were staying at the resort to celebrate their anniversar­y, Austin Chiarella said, adding that he learned details of the episode in a phone call with his mother Saturday.

On Thursday night, Donnis Chiarella had become sick and visited a clinic but decided she felt fine upon discharge. Chiarella and her husband went to sleep in their villa.

“She woke up, and my dad was laying there on the floor, and she couldn’t move,” Austin Chiarella told ABC. “Her legs and arms was swollen, and she couldn’t move, and she screamed to get someone to come in the door.”

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