It’s seemingly business as usual for one crypto CEO after he told authorities his fiancé committed suicide on a luxury vacation in Africa.
Ashly Robinson, 31, also known as “Ashlee Jenae,” was found dead last week while on a luxury vacation in Tanzania with her boyfriend of one year, Joe McCann, founder of Asymmetric Financial.
Robinson’s family told WPVI that McCann proposed to her two days before she was found dead.
“She was starting the next chapter of her life. She called us to FaceTime us to share with us her travel and her vacation,” her mother, Yolanda Denise Endres, told WPVI.
Photos from the trip, still visible in tributes across social media, show Robinson glowing, freshly engaged. She was living what she called her “soft life” dream at the upscale Serval Wildlife Resort, where rooms run $950 a night according to the facility’s website.
According to reports from the Tanzanian authorities shared by McCann himself online, Robinson hung herself.
The next day, Endres told WPVI she received a call from McCann.
“He told me that Ashly did something to herself and she was being taken to the hospital, and he told me she was stable,” Endres said. “I said what happened, and he told me it had been 11 hours prior.”
Hours later, the hotel where the couple was staying notified the family that Robinson had died.
WPVI reports that the hospital medical record says Robinson had an unidentified mark around her neck. The report states, “according to her husband, he found she hung herself on the door.”
“Sometimes Joe went back to the room with security, and that’s how they found her,” her father, Harry Robinson, told WPVI.
Robinson’s official cause of death was listed as cerebral hypoxia by strangulation and suffocation.
“She’s never done anything that would ever ever lead me to believe that she would do something to harm herself like that. She was happy,” Endres said.
Back in 2013, Robinson took to social media to speak against suicide.
Endres said that before her passing, their daughter called and let them know she was in an argument with her fiancé, and they were moved into separate rooms as a result.
“We need justice for my friend Ashlee Jenae, who was found dead in her hotel in Tanzania, and her fiancé Joe McCann claims she hung herself,” Savannah Britt, a friend of Robinson, wrote on X. “Anyone who knows Ash knows she would NEVER commit suicide. We need answers now!”
“Hanging yourself on vacation is the least believable thing ever,” @MaraLandria replied.
Since Robinson’s death, McCann has been reposting different investment updates. He made 17 posts on X on April 5, Robinson’s birthday. It appears McCann has never posted anything of her on his page.
We reached out to McCann for a statement, but have not heard back.
The family told WPVI they have contacted police, the consulate, and the embassy, but have not received any additional information beyond confirmation that the death remains under investigation.
“She was loved. She was not just going to be discarded and forgotten about,” Endres said.
The family also told WPVI they are considering traveling to Zanzibar to seek answers.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, help is available. You can call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the U.S., to connect with trained counselors 24/7. You are not alone, and support is free and confidential.
