Woman who was allegedly assaulted at DR resort says witness can corroborate account

A Delaware woman who claimed that she was brutally assaulted at a Dominican Republic resort earlier this year said recently that a witness can confirm her account.

Speaking on CBS's "Dr. Phil" last Friday, Tammy Lawrence-Daley, 51, of Wilmington, recounted how an unidentified man approached her after she stepped out of the Majestic Elegance in Punta Cana to grab a snack. The man, who was allegedly wearing a uniform with the hotel's logo on it, reportedly grabbed Lawrence-Daley and pulled her into a maintenance room before repeatedly beating and strangling her.

Lawrence-Daley first shared her account on Facebook in May, drawing hundred of thousands of reactions and gaining nationwide attention at a time when the Dominican Republic was also dealing with a spate of mysterious deaths related to alcohol consumption.

"I was unconscious multiple times during this savage attack, so I have no idea what else was done to me during that time," she recalled at the time. "Somehow I survived. Again, I won't go into all of the hell that I went through being basically 'buried' in that hell hole for so many hours."

The Delaware woman reportedly spent five days at a hospital and was told that Majestic Elegance would not claim any responsibility for the attack. Last week on the show, she mentioned a witness for the first time, which the Delaware News Journal later confirmed the existence of through court documents.

According to those documents, the witness said she saw two maintenance workers standing next to an open maintenance closet around 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, the night Lawrence-Daley said the attack occurred.

"As I walked past the two men, I felt afraid, so I just glanced up with a smile," the witness was quoted as saying. "I got blank stares from both of them."

The witness said she heard about a bloodied person being treated the next day but didn't realize that it could have been connected to the encounter from the night before.

According to the News Journal, Lawrence-Daley's legal team now believes that the woman's statement further strengthens their client's lawsuit against the Majestic Elegance, which has since temporarily shut down due to low occupancy. Earlier this year, both the hotel and Dominican authorities had pointed out holes in Lawrence-Daley's account.

"There is a lot of conjecture about the case, a lot of information that doesn't match some of the statements," the country's national police chief spokesman Col. Frank Durán said earlier this year. "We have to wait for the investigation to end."

Last week, however, Lawrence-Daley remained firm on her story.

"My head is constantly on a swivel, looking around trying to see who is around me, who might come after me," she tearfully told Dr. Phil. "I also struggle with guilt, shame. When he was strangling me, I gave up. I stopped fighting. It almost cost me my life and my children would have had to grow up without a mother."