Is There A Link Between American Tourists' Deaths And Minibars In The Dominican Republic?
What is happening in the Dominican Republic?
If you're like me, then you are FULLY invested in and totally terrified about what is happening in the Dominican Republic with American tourists suddenly dying.
GMA
Within the past year, nine American tourists have died in the Dominican Republic.
The alcohol in the minibar.
Yelp
Three out of nine American tourists who have died in the Dominican Republic in the past year had a drink from their minibar.
Miranda Schaup-Werner, Robert Wallace, and Yvette Monique Sport
Miranda Schaup-Werner, Robert Wallace, and Yvette Monique Sport all had drinks from their minibars and all of them died pretty suddenly after.
Tom Inglesby, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told the New York Times the deaths were consistent with "poisoning."
Twitter: @t_inglesby
BUT we still don't know for sure because we don't have the toxicology records.
Now, I don't know about you, but when I think of a minibar I think of this:
Yelp
But that's not what these minibars look like in some of these resorts.
Yelp
The minibars at these resorts look like this:
Holiday Check
It's a literal bottle of booze with an open spout.
TripAdvisor
Last week, the New York Post posted about bootleg liquor being a possible cause for these deaths.
nypost.com
They asked the Hard Rock Hotel about their alcohol they use and they said they only buy “unopened products from licensed and reputable vendors.”
According to the Post, authorities are looking into if "tainted minibar liquor" is the cause.
Yelp
So what's bootleg/tainted alcohol? Bootleg alcohol is sometimes cut with methanol. Methanol is a chemical in antifreeze and highly toxic for humans.
Antonio Scorza / AFP / Getty Images
BASICALLY, this "bootleg alcohol theory" is just that, a theory. We are still missing a lot of answers in this story.
Yelp