Woman says husband died in Dominican Republic last year under similar circumstances as woman, couple

A widow is speaking out on her husband's sudden 2018 death after multiple tourists died in a Dominican Republic resort under similar suspicious conditions.

Dawn McCoy, of Charles County, Md., told WTTG she was preparing to travel to the Caribbean nation on July 14 to commemorate the one year anniversary of her husband David Harrison's passing when she learned that an American couple, Nate Holmes and Cynthia Day, recently died on the island.

"When it came up that they died from the same exact thing as my husband I thought 'No, no.... there's no way two people could die of the same exact thing,'" McCoy told the station.

Holmes, 63, and Day, 49, of Prince George's County, Md., were found dead on May 30 in their room at the Grand Bahia Principe Hotel in La Romana by an employee, after the two missed their scheduled checkout time.

Five days prior, Miranda Schaup-Werner, a 41-year-old Pennsylvania psychotherapist, died at the same resort as Holmes and Day. Schaup, who was traveling with her husband Daniel Werner, allegedly collapsed after having a drink at the all-inclusive resort on May 25 and was unable to be resuscitated.

All three of their deaths were officially attributed to respiratory failure and pulmonary edema — the same cause of death listed for McCoy's husband, although he died at a separate hotel and his autopsy also referenced a heart attack.

McCoy says her husband, who was 45 years old and reportedly in good health when he suddenly died, complained he was feeling ill one night before bed and woke up in distress early in the morning.

"He wasn't able to breathe," she told WUSA. "He wasn't able to talk. He was sweating profusely."

The widow said that after her repeated calls for medical assistance, a doctor took nearly 25 minutes to arrive. By then, it was too late to save her husband.

"I didn't plan on coming back a widow," she said. "I wasn't prepared for what was coming my way."

McCoy, who had to pay $20,000 dollars to get her husband's body home, now says she regrets having his remains cremated as she cannot get a second autopsy.

When asked if she thought her husband could have just died from natural causes, McCoy said, "Honestly, I don't believe so."

Jay McDonald, the spokesman for Miranda Schaup-Werner, echoed McCoy's sentiment in the wake of the most recent deaths at the Grand Bahia Principe.

"That was beyond coincidence," he said. "They died five days after, and the cause was determined to be the same, this just puts this whole thing through the stratosphere – something is going on, and we want to know what it is."

In a Wednesday statement, Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts clarified that the deaths took place at two different hotels on the same property, claiming that "to date, there are no indications of any correlation between these two unfortunate events."

"We disapprove of any speculation and conjecture on the possible causes of death and urge all to respect the families while the investigation is ongoing," the company added.