American tourists aged 41 and 22 are found dead inside their luxury Hyatt Mexican hotel room amid fears they were poisoned by a gas
- Victims have been named locally as John Heathco, 41, and Abby Lutz, 22
- Cause of death is believed to be ‘intoxication by substance to be determined’
Two American tourists have been found dead in their luxury hotel room in Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Police and paramedics arrived at the Hotel Rancho Pescadero, where rooms cost up to £600 ($760) a night, at around 9pm on Tuesday after receiving reports that a man and women were unconscious.
The pair were pronounced dead at the scene, said police, who stated the suspected cause of death was gas inhalation.
The victims have been identified as John Heathco, 41, and Abby Lutz, 22, according to the Baja California Sur Attorney General’s office.
Lutz is from Newport Beach, California, the AG’s office said. Local police initially said both victims were in their mid-30s.
The couple died at the Hotel Rancho Pescadero, where rooms cost up to £600 ($760) a night
Their cause of death was ‘intoxication by substance to be determined’, the Attorney General’s office said in a statement to ABC on Wednesday.
The man and woman had been dead for about 10 or 11 hours when they were found at the luxury hotel in the seaside community of El Pescadero, according to the AG’s office.
The office said there were no signs of violence on their bodies, and added the local attorney general is currently overseeing the investigation.
The Hotel Rancho Pescadero, a luxury Hyatt hotel, is in the seaside community of El Pescadero, which is located between Todos Santos and the resort of Los Cabos.
Hotel Rancho Pescadero is a luxury hotel and a Hyatt property in a seaside community
Hyatt has been approached for comment.
The tragedy comes after several cases of such deaths in Mexico due to poisoning by carbon monoxide or other gases. Such gases are often produced by improperly vented or leaky water heaters and stoves.
In October, three US citizens were found dead at a rented apartment in Mexico, apparently victims of gas inhalation.
The Mexico City police department said the three were found unresponsive on October 30 in an upscale neighborhood. They had apparently rented the dwelling for a short visit. Post-mortem examinations suggested the two men and one woman died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
In Mexico, proper gas line installations, vents and monitoring devices are often lacking.
In 2018, a gas leak in a water heater caused the deaths of an American couple and their two children in the resort town of Tulum, south of Playa del Carmen.
An inspection revealed that the water heater at the rented condominium was leaking gas. Prosecutors said the gas leak was perhaps caused by a lack of maintenance or the age of the equipment.
In 2010, the explosion of an improperly installed gas line at a hotel in Playa del Carmen killed five Canadian tourists and two Mexicans.
In that case, prosecutors said the gas line, apparently meant to fuel a pool heating unit, was not properly installed or maintained. They said gas leaking from the line may have been ignited in an explosion by a spark from an electric switch or plug.
