FBI Working With Dominicans To Probe US Tourist Deaths

The FBI is assisting authorities in the Dominican Republic in their probe of a string of recent mysterious tourist deaths, CNN reported on Wednesday.

The US Embassy in Santo Domingo, however, said that the results of the investigation, which includes assistance in further toxicology analysis of the deaths, could take up to a month.

World of the probe comes after the revelation that another American tourist has died in the Caribbean nation under mysterious circumstances.

CBS News reported that Joseph Allen, a 55 year-old New Jersey resident in good health who was a frequent visitor to the Dominican Republic, was staying in a report in Sosua last week when he complained about feeling hot at the pool. He went to take a shower and rest for the night and was found dead the next day. 

The New York Post reported last week that what makes the string of U.S. tourist deaths to this point in the Dominican Republic particularly disturbing is that many appear to follow a similar pattern in that they involve healthy, middle-aged adults who had a drink from their hotel room minibar before suddenly becoming gravely sick.

However, officials in the Dominican Republic have called the deaths isolated incidents as they try to reassure foreigners that their country is safe to visit, according to CNN.

The country’s leaders have tried to downplay the deaths, stressing that the Dominican Republic had more than 6 million tourists last year, with 2.2 million of them Americans.

• Ninth U.S. Tourist Dies Mysteriously in Dominican Republic
• Concern Grows As Another US Tourist Dies In Dominican Republic