Mysterious Death of US Woman at Mexico Resort May Be From Tainted Alcohol

Mysterious Death of US Woman at Mexico Resort May Be From Tainted Alcohol
The pool at Iberostar Paraiso Lindo next to Iberostar Paraiso del Mar where Abbey Conner and her family were staying in Janaury when she and her brother were found face down in a pool after having a few drinks. ( Lena Bernatsky/Shutterstock)
NTD Television
7/24/2017
Updated:
7/24/2017

An American woman who died mysteriously at a luxury resort in Mexico may have drunk bootleg liquor that was tainted or drugged, the family’s attorney said.

Abbey Conner, 20, was found next to her brother Austin face-down in a pool in January, at the five-star Iberostar Paraiso del Mar in Playa del Carmen, where she allegedly drowned to death. The woman, from Wisconsin, was on a family vacation with her mother, stepfather, and brother.

The new information could be a lead for authorities to figure out exactly what caused the death of the young woman. Mexican police say Conner drowned accidentally and refused to investigate further, but her family is not convinced with the police’s answers, the Journal Sentinel reports.

Her brother, Austin Conner, recovered later in a hospital, but Conner was declared brain dead and died a few days later at a Florida hospital. Officials said the pair had blood alcohol levels around .25, which is three times the legal limit in Wisconsin.

The attorney hired by the woman’s parents said the resort was serving bad quality alcohol that was mixed with other drinks, according to the Journal Sentinel.

“They serve alcoholic drinks with alcohol of bad quality and in great amounts, mixing different types of drinks,” wrote Florentino Ramirez in a report on Conner’s death.

The liquor may have been “infused with grain alcohol or dangerous concentrations of methanol, cheaper alternatives to producing ethanol,” states an unrelated 2017 Mexican government report on health risks to the public.

A few people at the resort told the Journal Sentinel they had experienced injuries and sickness after their stay, and others reported similar experiences at resorts around the area of Cancun and Playa del Carmen. 

“If it was an accident, where was everybody?” asked Ramirez, according to the Journal Sentinel. “It just doesn’t make sense. There are too many open ends.”

Austin also claimed that he and his sister were not trying to get drunk on the night of her mysterious death. He said the pair drank a few shots of tequila and what Austin thought was a Jägerbomb before blacking out. He woke up in the hospital with a golf ball-sized lump on his forehead.

“I’ve been in college for five years and had my fair share of drinks before,” Austin told the Journal Sentinel. He wouldn’t have put his face down in a  pool to go to sleep, he said. 

The sibling’s father, Bill Conner, believes the alcohol may have been drugged.

“Somebody had to slip them some type of drug,” he said, according to the Sentinel Journal.

From NTD Television

From NTD.tv