NJ Man Is 9th American To Mysteriously Die In Dominican Republic

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — An Avenel man is now the ninth American tourist to mysteriously die while visiting the Dominican Republic, the State Department has confirmed.

Joseph Allen, 55, of Avenel, was found dead in his hotel room at Terra Linda resort in the town of Sosua last Thursday, June 13, a State Department spokesman confirmed to 6ABC News.

While Allen is the ninth American to die in the Dominican Republic since last year, he was not staying at the same resort where multiple other Americans have died, several of them after drinking from the hotel minibar. Those people died at the Bahia Principe resort; the FBI is currently investigating whether they drank tainted or bootleg liquor, according to reports. There are also no reports of the Avenel man drinking from the minibar where he stayed.

Allen was visiting the island nation to celebrate a friend’s birthday, according to Essence magazine. Essence reported that Allen said he felt like he had a fever last Wednesday night while at the resort.

His sister, Jamie Reed, told ABC that friends said Allen "complained about being hot at the pool. He said he was going to his room to take a shower. When his friends came back, he said he wasn't feeling 100% again, and said he was going to lie down for the night. The next morning his friend said he hadn't heard from Joe before breakfast, so he knocked on his door and there was no response."

The friend called down to the front desk, who opened his hotel door.

"They found him on the floor," Reed said. "He had been there for a while. Rigor mortis had set in, and he was cold."

She described her brother as "for the most part healthy" with no major health issues.

Allen said his brother visited the DR multiple times a year, and neither he nor she were worried about this recent trip, despite the deaths.

"We didn't think anything of it, because he does this all the time," she told 6ABC.

The tourist death toll in the Dominican Republic is now up to nine people. But none of the deaths are being officially investigated as connected by police, and not all the deaths occurred at the same hotel.

The FBI is investigating if counterfeit alcohol is behind some of the deaths, according to the New York Post. The FBI will take blood samples back to its research center in Virginia, the report said.

There is a growing awareness of homemade or bootleg liquor being served in developing countries; homemade alcohol can have deadly methanol added to it inside of ethanol to make the booze manufacturing process cheaper and quicker. The FBI is also looking into where the Bahia Principe sourced their alcohol from.

The investigation began after three Americans, including a Pennsylvania woman, died at a Bahia Principe resort within days of each other in May. After the news of the deaths made headlines, several more families came forward with stories of similar experiences.

For example, a New York woman said she was sickened after drinking a bottle of soda from the minibar at the Grand Bahia Principe resort in October 2018. Awilda Montes told The New York Post the soda from the minibar fridge tasted like bleach and made her violently ill.

A Denver, Colorado couple who stayed at the same hotel said they became "dangerously ill" during their stay at a Bahia Principe resort. They told told ABC it smelled like paint had been spilled all over the room. A doctor who examined them upon their return said they had likely been sickened due to poisoning by pesticides, the report said.

Montes and the Denver couple survived.

Here's a look at the nine American tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic so far:

1. Avenel resident Joseph Allen is the most recently reported American to die in the country. He died June 13 at Terra Linda resort in Sousa. He complained of feeling hot at the pool, went to shower and lay down, and was found deceased in his hotel room the next day.

2. New York resident Leyla Cox died June 10 while visiting the Dominican Republic for a birthday trip, her family told the Staten Island Advance. She was found dead in her hotel room; U.S. Embassy officials told the family it was ruled a heart attack.

3. The family of Glenside, Pa. resident Yvette Monique Sport said she died in 2018 at a Bahia Principe Resort on the Dominican Republic after having a drink from the minibar. Sport's sister Felecia Nieves, in an interview with FOX29, said they were told Sport died from a heart attack. Her obituary simply states she died suddenly on June 23, 2018 while in the Dominican Republic.

4. Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, of Allentown, Pennsylvania died May 25, just hours after arriving at the Grand Bahia Príncipe Hotel. She was found unresponsive in her hotel room and died before making it to the hospital, the hotel said in a statement. She was on a trip to celebrate her anniversary with her husband but collapsed suddenly after having a drink and was later pronounced dead.

5 & 6. Five days later, an engaged Maryland couple was found deceased in their hotel room at the same resort. The couple was identified as Edward Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, of Maryland. The couple, and Schaup-Werner, died of respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, the Dominican Republic National Police told ABC News.

7. Robert Bell Wallace, 67, of California, died in April after drinking from the minibar at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino resort in Punta Cana, Fox News reported. A cause of death has not yet been provided to the family, the report said.

8. Jerry Curran, an Ohio resident, died in January while visiting Dreams Resort in Punta Cana, his daughter told WKYC. Shortly after having dinner and drinks the night of his arrival, Curren fell ill and spent the next couple of days in bed. Three days later he began vomiting and was unresponsive. He had surgery at a local hospital but later died.

9. David Harrison, a Maryland resident, died last year at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino resort, the New York Post reported. Dominican authorities also ruled his death was due to pulmonary edema and a heart attack, the report said.

The brother of a star on TVs "Shark Tank" also died recently in a resort area, but the family has said they believe he died of natural causes. Read more: 'Shark Tank' Star Confirms NJ Brother Died In Dominican Republic

Meanwhile, the family of this Avenel man, like so many Americans, just wants some answers.

“I care about getting to the bottom of what’s happening with these deaths [in the DR] including my brother’s," Allen's brother, Jason Allen told Essence. “If it's bootleg alcohol or I read people talking about pesticides being used where they shouldn't be, I don’t know what the hell it is, but I don’t want people to feel like what we’re feeling."

Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts is advertised as a "sweet and cozy" getaway with access to world-class golf courses. In its statement, the resort says it holds "some of the most prestigious certifications in the tourism industry" and accommodates 700,000 guests annually.