A Maryland couple found dead in their room at Dominican Republic resort died due to respiratory failure, national police for the Caribbean island reported Sunday.
Engaged coupled Nathael Holmes and Cynthia Day had been vacationing in the Dominican Republic since May 25 and were supposed to fly back home last Thursday. (Image courtesy of Facebook / Nathaniel Holmes)
Edward Nathael Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Day, 50, of Prince George’s County died in their room at the Bahia Principle Hotel at the resort of Playa Nueva Romana, located on the country’s southwest coast, according to local paper The Dominican Today. CBS Baltimore reported that an autopsy showed that both Holmes and Day suffered respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, a condition caused by excess fluid in the lungs.
Authorities said there’s no evidence of foul play in the couple’s death, but added that several bottles of blood pressure medication were found inside their hotel room.
“Boat ride of a lifetime!!!” wrote in a Facebook post last Tuesday, sharing photos from the island getaway.
Day and Holmes, who family members said were engaged, had been staying at the vacation resort since May 25, The Dominican Today reported. They were supposed to catch a flight back home on Thursday, but never made it.
Holmes’ sister told NBC4 Washington that she talked to her brother a few days ago, and he told her he “was having a great time.”
The deaths come just a week after a woman from Delaware says she was attacked in an hours-long assault while staying at a resort in Punta Cana earlier this year. The brutal beating, suffered at the hands of a man in a resort uniform, reportedly happened as the woman was headed to get a late-night snack from a lounge at the resort.
In March, New York couple Portia Ravenelle, 52, and her friend, Orlando Moore, 40, were reported missing after they failed to return from their trip to the DR. An investigation concluded the pair perished on their way to the airport after their rental car veered off-road and into the ocean in the early hours of March 27.
