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New details emerge about American couple found dead in Mexico resort hotel as family shares woman's final text

Updated on: June 16, 2023 / 8:25 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Autopsies have revealed new information about the two Americans found dead in their luxury hotel in Mexico as the family of one of the victims told CBS News about the last communication they received from her.

Prosecutors in Mexico's Baja California Sur state said Thursday that autopsies suggest Abby Lutz and John Heathco died of "intoxication by an undetermined substance." Local police initially said gas inhalation was suspected as the cause of death.

The state prosecutors' office said the bodies bore no signs of violence. The office did not say what further steps were being taken to determine the exact cause of death.

Prosecutors said the two had been dead for 11 or 12 hours when they were found in their room at Rancho Pescadero, a luxury hotel near the resort of Cabo San Lucas late Tuesday.

Police said Wednesday that paramedics had received a report that the Americans were unconscious in their room. They were dead by the time paramedics arrived.

The Baja California attorney general's office said the two died from inhaling some sort of toxic substance, possibly carbon monoxide.

Lutz's family told CBS News that days before their deaths the couple was treated for what they thought was food poisoning. They spent Sunday night in a Mexican hospital where they were treated for dehydration, her family said. 

On Monday, they were back at their hotel.

"She said, it's the sickest she's ever been," said Lutz's stepsister, Gabby Slate, adding that Monday night was the last time the family heard from her.

"She texted her dad and said, 'good night, love you,' like she always does and that's the last we heard from her," said Lutz's stepmother Racquel Chiappini-Lutz.

According to a GoFundMe set up on behalf of the family, Lutz was supposed to meet up with her dad this week for Father's Day.

Prosecutors said Lutz and Heathco were from Newport Beach, California. The nutritional supplements company LES Labs, based in Covina, California, lists Heathco as its founder.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City was not able to immediately confirm the names or hometowns of the victims due to privacy considerations.

In a statement to CBS News Los Angeles, Henar Gil, the general manager of the Rancho Pescadero, said, "We can confirm there was no evidence of violence related to this situation, and we are not aware of any threat to guests' safety or wellbeing."

There have been several cases of such deaths in Mexico due to poisoning by carbon monoxide or other gases. Proper gas line installations, vents and monitoring devices are often lacking for water heaters and stoves in the country.

In October, three U.S. citizens found dead at a rented apartment in Mexico City were apparently victims of gas inhalation.

In 2018, a gas leak in a water heater killed an American couple and their two children in the resort town of Tulum, south of Playa del Carmen.

In 2010, an explosion traced to an improperly installed gas line at a hotel in Playa del Carmen killed five Canadian tourists and two Mexicans.

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Two Americans found dead in luxury hotel room in Mexico’s Baja California Sur

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Two Americans were found dead in their hotel room at a luxury resort in Baja California Sur, Mexico, according to authorities.

The victims were found around 9 p.m. Tuesday at Hyatt’s Rancho Pescadero, a boutique beachfront hotel in El Pescadero, a popular surf destination between Todos Santos and Cabo San Lucas.

The bodies were found after a housekeeper knocked repeatedly without receiving an answer and heard a shower running, according to an internal police report obtained by The Times. Hotel staffers entered the room and found the body of a woman. In the bathroom, they found the body of a man on the shower floor, the report said.

Paramedics responded to a report of unconscious hotel guests and found the two dead of suspected gas inhalation , the Associated Press reported.

The victims were identified in the police report as John Heathco and Abby Lutz. According to the Baja California Sur attorney general’s office, Heathco was 41 and Lutz, a Newport Beach resident, was 28, ABC News reported .

“We are shocked and saddened to hear about the passing of our beloved Abby,” Lutz’s family said Thursday in a statement. “Abby had an adventurous spirit and a wonderfully kind heart. She loved to travel, see new places, and share her zeal for life with those around her.”

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The family organized a GoFundMe fundraiser to cover the costs of a funeral and transportation of her remains.

On the GoFundMe page, Gabrielle Slate, Lutz’s stepsister, wrote that Lutz and “her boyfriend thought they had food poisoning and went to the hospital to get treatment.”

After a few days, they had been told Lutz and her boyfriend were on the mend, Slate wrote.

“We received a phone call saying that they had passed away peacefully in their hotel room in their sleep,” Slate wrote. “We have been told it was due to improper venting of the resort and could be Carbon monoxide poisoning.”

John Heathco is listed as the founder of LES Labs, a California-based company that makes dietary supplements , on LinkedIn . A website for LES Labs lists a man named John Heathco as the founder.

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A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department confirmed the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Baja California Sur.

“We are closely monitoring local authorities’ investigation into the cause of death,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance. Out of respect for the privacy of the families, we have nothing further to add at this time.”

The Baja California Sur attorney general‘s office said the victims had been dead for about 10 or 11 hours when they were found, ABC reported. There were no signs of foul play on the victims’ bodies. The attorney general‘s office said in a statement to ABC News that the cause of death was “intoxication by substance to be determined.”

Authorities have not confirmed the cause of death with Rancho Pescadero, hotel general manager Henar Gil said in a statement, calling the situation “a terrible tragedy” and adding that “our hearts are with the impacted families and loved ones.”

“The safety and security of our guests and colleagues is always a top priority,” Gil said. “We can confirm there was no evidence of violence related to this situation, and we are not aware of any threat to guests’ safety or well-being.”

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A Hyatt spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about whether rooms at Rancho Pescadero, which start at more than $600 a night, are equipped with carbon monoxide detectors.

Gas leaks from appliances and faulty lines are common across Mexico and have been linked to tourist deaths in the past.

In October, three Americans were found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning at their Airbnb while on vacation in Mexico City.

In March 2022, an explosion caused by a gas leak killed two people and injured 18 in the tourist town of Playa del Carmen. In 2018, a family of four from Iowa was killed by gas poisoning in a condominium in a resort town an hour from Cancun.

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Times staff writer Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.

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Alexandra E. Petri is a former Los Angeles Times staff writer who covered trends and breaking news. She previously covered live news at the New York Times. A two-time reporting fellow with the International Women’s Media Foundation, she graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism and international studies.

Kate Linthicum is a foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times based in Mexico City.

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Two Americans found dead at oceanfront Mexico hotel

There were no signs of violence, police said

This story has been updated.

Two Americans were found dead this week at an oceanfront hotel in Baja California Sur, authorities said.

In a statement posted on Facebook on Thursday, the Mexican state’s attorney general’s office wrote that there were not signs of violence, but that the cause of death was intoxication by an unspecified substance. Forensic experts are working to determine what the toxic substance was.

According to the statement, the two people were found between 10 and 11 hours after they died. Police did not provide their names, but said the tourists who died were a 28-year-old woman and 41-year-old man, both from Newport Beach, Calif.

Rancho Pescadero general manager Henar Gil, where the two people were found, said authorities were still investigating the deaths and confirmed that there was no evidence of violence. The Hyatt property is located in the village of El Pescadero.

“We are not aware of any threat to guests’ safety or wellbeing,” the statement said, adding that the hotel was working closely with the investigators as they try to determine the cause of death.

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The Associated Press reported that paramedics received a report on Tuesday that the guests were unconscious, and that they were dead when the emergency workers arrived. The AP wrote that the suspected cause of death was inhalation of gas.

In a Good Morning America interview on Friday morning, one of the paramedics who responded to the call said that he and his partner felt dizzy when they were at the scene.

“We went out of the room as soon as possible,” said the paramedic, Fernando Valencia. He said he wondered if they would also die.

Family members of the woman identified the couple to CNN as Abby Lutz and John Heathco, names that had been widely reported for a few days.

Lutz’s stepmother, Racquel Lutz, told Good Morning America that Lutz had messaged her father on Monday to say she had gone to the hospital for suspected food poisoning the day before and felt better after spending the night on an I.V. The last text was to her father on Monday night.

“We hadn’t heard from her again,” Lutz said.

In a statement, the State Department confirmed the death of two U.S. citizens in Baja California Sur and said officials are “closely monitoring local authorities’ investigation into the cause of death.”

“We offer our sincerest condolences to the families on their loss,” the statement said.

While police have not yet said what caused the deaths this week, several Americans have died of carbon monoxide poisoning in Mexico and the Bahamas since last year.

Three Americans who were found dead at a vacation rental listed on Airbnb in Mexico City last year died of carbon monoxide poisoning, the Associated Press reported, citing Mexican police.

After three American visitors died and one was sickened at a Sandals resort in the Bahamas — deaths eventually attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning — the company said it would install detectors for the deadly gas at all 16 of its all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean.

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Mexico wants American extradited on charges in tourist death

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico — Mexican prosecutors have filed charges against a U.S. woman suspected of killing another American seen being beaten in a viral video.

Prosecutors in the state of Baja California Sur did not name the suspect in the Oct. 29 death of Shanquella Robinson.

But on Thursday, they said they had approached Mexican federal prosecutors and diplomats to try to get the woman extradited to face charges in Mexico.

Robinson’s death at a resort development in San Jose del Cabo shocked people in both countries. The video raised suspicions that Robinson may have died at the hands of people she was traveling with.

Local prosecutor Antonio López Rodríguez said the case was being treated as a potential homicide and an arrest warrant had been issued for the suspect. The group Robinson was traveling with, however, left Mexico after she was found dead in a rented villa.

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State prosecutor Daniel de la Rosa Anaya said the suspect was also an American, but did not identify her.

News outlets in Charlotte, North Carolina, reported that the people Robinson was traveling with gave differing versions of how she died, but that an autopsy revealed she died of a severe spinal cord or neck injury.

A video apparently taped at the luxury villa in San Jose del Cabo shows one woman, apparently an American, beating another woman identified as Robinson.

The video has been reposted many times on social media sites. In it, a man with an American accent can be heard saying, “Can you at least fight back?” The man did not appear to intervene in the beating.

Four killed near Cancun beach resorts; two suspects detained, Mexican officials say

Mexican officials confirmed Monday they discovered four dead bodies in a hotel area in the popular resort town of Cancun. 

The deaths, ruled homicides, took place on Kukulcán boulevard near the popular Paradisus Cancun and Fiesta Americana resorts , according to the Quintana Roo Attorney General’s office , and come just weeks after the U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a travel advisory for popular spring break tourist destinations in Mexico, including Cancun. 

Mexican officials say they swept the area near the hotel and detained two suspects. 

“The victims are connected with drug dealing activities, ruling out that they might be hotel workers or tourists,” said Quintana Roo security official José de la Peña Ruiz de Chávez .

Last week, an American tourist took a bullet to the leg in a late night shooting by assailants in Puerto Morelos, a small resort town just south of Cancun. The tourist survived, but the motive for the attack was unclear. 

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Quintana Roo officials on Monday offered the public a 1,000,000 Mexican peso, roughly $55,000, reward for information leading to the arrest of a third suspect identified in the Cancun killings as Héctor Elías Flores Aceves, known as “El 15,” a suspected Sinaloa Cartel operative in the area who has in the past been linked by Mexican news reports to other attacks in Cancun. 

Monday’s killings unfolded as many in the country set off on spring break vacation, which typically lands on Holy Week or “Semana Santa” leading up to Easter Sunday. 

Quintana Roo, a tropical state on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, is on the State Department’s “Exercise Increased Caution” list due to “crime and kidnapping” risk.

The State Department has warned Americans not to travel to a handful of other Mexican states, including Tamaulipas, where two Americans were abducted and two were killed last month in the border city of Matamoros. 

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Mexico investigates death of US tourist seen in viral fight video

Cause of death seemed to be severe spinal cord injury, but officials cannot confirm.

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Mexican prosecutors said Thursday they have opened an investigation into the death of a U.S. woman seen being beaten in a video that has gone viral .

Prosecutors in the state of Baja California Sur said in a statement they are investigating the death of a woman they identified only as a foreigner, at a resort development in the town of San Jose del Cabo.

A state official who was not authorized to be quoted by name confirmed the victim was Shanquella Robinson. The official confirmed that the group she had been traveling with had since left Mexico.

A video apparently taped at a luxury villa in San Jose del Cabo shows one woman, apparently an American, beating another woman.

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The video has been reposted many times on social media sites. In it, a man with an American accent can be heard saying "Can you at least fight back?" The man did not appear to intervene in the beating.

Prosecutors said police found Robinson dead at the villa on Oct. 29.

The Charlotte, North Carolina station Queen City News published a report saying Robinson died of a severe spinal cord injury.

In Mexico, a tourist was killed on Oct. 29 who was seen in a viral video being beaten. Prosecutors investigating the death of the woman said she died from a severe spinal cord injury. Pictured: Pharmacies and souvenir shops in the city centre of San Jose del Cabo on the peninsula of Baja California Sur, Mexico. (Marica van der Meer/Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Mexican officials said they could not confirm that was the cause of death, because it was part of an ongoing investigation.

The video raised questions about why nobody intervened in the purported beating, or why people she was traveling with would have beaten her.

In another case in a different part of Baja California Sur, prosecutors said they had arrested three men and one woman in the Oct. 25 disappearance of another American , identified as Rodney Davis, 73.

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Davis was last seen near El Juncalito beach in the township of Loreto, well to the north of San Jose del Cabo.

The three suspects face kidnapping charges. Davis's body was found two days later on a nearby highway.

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4 found dead in hotel area of Mexico’s Cancun beach resort

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities in the Mexican resort of Cancun said Monday they have found four dead bodies in the city’s hotel zone near the beach.

There was no immediate information on the nationalities or identities of the victims. The announcement of the deaths came less that a week after a U.S. tourist was shot in the leg in the nearby town of Puerto Morelos.

Prosecutors originally said three bodies were found Monday in a lot near one of Cancun’s beachside hotels along the Kukulkan Boulevard. They then added that a fourth body was found in the undergrowth on the same lot, brining to four the number of victims.

Prosecutors in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo said two suspects had been detained in the killings. They said the deaths were under investigation, but did not give a cause of death.

Last week in Puerto Morelos, a U.S. tourist was approached by several suspects, and they shot him in the leg. The motive remains under investigation. The wounded man was taken to a hospital in Cancun for treatment, and his injury was judged to be not life-threatening.

The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert earlier this month warning travelers to “exercise increased caution,” especially after dark, at Mexico’s Caribbean beach resorts like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, which have been plagued by drug gang violence in the past.

There have been a series of brazen acts of violence along the Caribbean coast, the crown jewel of Mexico’s tourism industry.

In 2022, two Canadians were killed in Playa del Carmen, apparently because of debts between international drug and weapons trafficking gangs.

In 2021, farther south in the laid-back destination of Tulum, two tourists — one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German — were killed when they apparently were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival drug dealers.

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U.S. Won’t File Charges in Death of American Woman in Mexico

Shanquella Robinson, 25, of Charlotte, N.C., had traveled last fall to Mexico with six friends. A widely circulated video appears to show her being beaten by another woman.

By Eduardo Medina

Federal prosecutors said on Wednesday that they did not have enough evidence to bring charges in connection with the death of an American woman last year near Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in a case that prompted outrage after a video online appeared to show her being beaten by another woman.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina said that its prosecutors and officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation had met recently with the family of the woman, Shanquella Robinson, 25, of Charlotte, N.C., to deliver the news.

Ms. Robinson had been vacationing last fall in Mexico with six friends when she was found unconscious in a living room at an address in San José del Cabo, according to Mexican authorities and statements from her father last year. A death certificate issued by Mexican officials listed the cause of death on Oct. 29 as “severe spinal cord injury and atlas luxation,” or the dislocation of a ring-shaped bone that supports the skull.

A widely circulated video that appeared to show Ms. Robinson being punched in the head and kicked by a woman during that trip prompted suspicions about her death and triggered an F.B.I. investigation. The authorities did not name the assailant in the video.

An autopsy and an investigation by American authorities found that “the available evidence does not support a federal prosecution,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement . The F.B.I. and the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not elaborate on their findings or answer questions emailed on Wednesday afternoon.

“It is important to reassure the public that experienced federal agents and seasoned prosecutors extensively reviewed the available evidence and have concluded that federal charges cannot be pursued,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

It was not immediately clear how the decision by federal prosecutors in the United States to not bring charges would affect the investigation by Mexican authorities into what happened.

The state attorney general’s office of Baja California Sur, in Mexico, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Wednesday.

The announcement by U.S. prosecutors drew condemnation from Ms. Robinson’s family and their lawyer, Sue Ann Robinson, who said in a news conference on Wednesday that while “we’re disappointed — we’re not deterred.”

Ms. Robinson, no relation to the woman who died, said that her team had been in communication with F.B.I. officials and learned from them that, while the Mexican autopsy had listed a spinal cord injury, U.S. officials had not found evidence of such an injury after performing their own autopsy.

F.B.I. officials also told the family’s lawyers that there was swelling detected on Ms. Robinson’s brain, but that the cause of death could still not be determined, according to Sue Ann Robinson.

She added that if Ms. Robinson’s death “had been taken serious from the very beginning” and an autopsy and investigation expedited by U.S. officials, there may not have been discrepancies between the autopsies of both countries.

“Because it was the death of a young, Black, beautiful, brilliant, educated woman who was on vacation,” she said, “justice was delayed.”

The video related to the case appears to show Ms. Robinson in a bedroom, being attacked by a woman as a man stands nearby and says, “Quella, can you at least fight back?”

Ms. Robinson’s father, Bernard Robinson, told The New York Times last year that it was his daughter in that video and said: “She’s not a fighter. She didn’t believe in drama. She wasn’t raised like that.” He did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

The state attorney general’s office in Baja California Sur said last year that it was seeking to extradite a female assailant who was “the likely responsible” person in the case, adding that an investigation had indicated that the death was the result of a “direct attack, not an accident.”

It’s unclear how the findings from the Mexican authorities were factored in to the F.B.I.’s investigation.

Sue Ann Robinson said she had learned from the F.B.I. that its agents interviewed Ms. Robinson’s travel friends and people who had stayed at a house in the Fundadores Beach Club area in San José del Cabo.

The Charlotte Observer reported last year that it had obtained a police report showing that a doctor had attended to Ms. Robinson after someone called for medical help at a vacation home at 2:13 p.m. on Oct. 29.

The doctor was told that Ms. Robinson had “drunk a lot of alcohol” and found her with stable vital signs, but dehydrated, unable to communicate and appearing to be inebriated, the police report stated, according to The Observer.

The report stated that the doctor wanted Ms. Robinson to be taken to a hospital but that her friends insisted she be treated at the home, according to The Observer.

After the doctor tried unsuccessfully to give Ms. Robinson an intravenous line, she began to have a seizure, prompting a friend to call for an ambulance, the police report stated, according to The Observer.

Ms. Robinson was declared dead at 5:57 p.m., the report stated.

Eduardo Medina is a reporter covering breaking news. More about Eduardo Medina

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Three US tourists found dead in Mexico City Airbnb from carbon monoxide

Friends, who were there to celebrate Day of the Dead holiday, died from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning last week, officials say

Three American tourists were found dead last week in a Mexico City Airbnb apartment they were renting after apparent carbon monoxide poisoning, Mexican authorities confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday.

Friends Kandace Florence, Jordan Marshall and Courtez Hall were visiting the Mexican capital to celebrate the Day of the Dead holiday, according to US news site WAVY, based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where Florence and Marshall were from.

The Mexico City attorney general’s office, which opened an investigation into the deaths, said the victims’ bodies were found on 30 October and that studies indicated they died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The victims were staying in La Rosita, a neighborhood in the Mexico City borough of Cuajimalpa and close to the upscale Santa Fe business district.

Airbnb did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a comment to Bloomberg said the deaths were a “terrible tragedy” and that the company was ready to assist with inquiries from authorities.

The tragedy comes as an influx of Americans and other foreigners visit and move to Mexico. Last month, Mexico City’s government signed an agreement with the short-term rental site in what Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum described as an effort to boost the number of “digital nomads” coming to Mexico City.

Gas leaks have caused other deadly incidents involving tourists in Mexico. In March, an explosion caused by a gas leak killed two people and left 18 injured in a restaurant in a beachside tourist town of Playa del Carmen. In 2018, a family of four from Iowa was found dead at their vacation condominium in Akumal, about an hour from Cancún, suffocated from gas.

The US embassy in Mexico City did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Mexico investigates American woman's death as femicide, FBI opens probe

Shanquella Robinson died while vacationing in San Jose del Cabo.

The FBI has opened a probe into the recent death of an American woman vacationing in Mexico, which is also being investigated by Mexican authorities as a femicide .

Shanquella Robinson, 25, of Charlotte, North Carolina, went to San Jose del Cabo, a resort city on the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, with six friends on Oct. 28. They stayed at a rental villa in Fundadores, an exclusive gated community with vacation homes and a private beach club, Robinson's parents told Charlotte ABC affiliate WSOC-TV in a recent interview.

The next day, Robinson's parents got a frantic telephone call from their daughter's friends saying she had died .

"They said she wasn't feeling well, that it was alcohol poisoning," Robinson's mother, Sallamondra Robinson, told WSOC-TV.

MORE: Shanquella Robinson's mom says she didn't believe she died of alcohol poisoning

The Mexican Secretariat of Health's autopsy report and death certificate for Robinson, obtained by ABC News, lists her cause of death as "severe spinal cord injury and atlas luxation" with no mention of alcohol. The document also states that the approximate time between injury and death was 15 minutes, while a box asking whether the death was "accidental or violent" was ticked "yes."

According to the document, which was dated Nov. 4, Robinson was found unconscious in the living room of a residence on Padre Kino Avenue in San Jose del Cabo on the afternoon of Oct. 29.

In recent days, a video -- not verified by ABC News -- has surfaced online purportedly showing a woman attacking Robinson. Speaking to WSOC-TV, Robinson's mother identified the people in the footage as the friends who accompanied her daughter to Mexico and said she believes it was taken during the trip. In the video, someone can be heard asking if Robinson "could at least fight back." It's unclear when and where the video was taken.

"It was never a fight. She didn't fight. They attacked her," Sallamondra Robinson told WSOC-TV. "She did not deserve to be treated like that."

The State Attorney General's Office of Baja California Sur publicly confirmed the results of the autopsy in a statement on Thursday and announced that "an investigation was initiated for femicide," which is a form of gender-based violence.

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The office said it received a call on Oct. 29 at approximately 6:15 p.m. local time from a "public security member" who reported the death of a foreign woman in a room of a house in the Fundadores Beach Club area in San Jose del Cabo. Investigators were sent to the scene and are still collecting "more evidence to achieve the accurate clarification of the events, without ruling out any hypothesis," according to the office.

When asked for comment, Fundadores Beach Club general manager Karla Ponce told ABC News in an email on Thursday that "the group of vacationers related to the case never visited this beach club facilities during their stay" and that the club "has nothing to do with the Villas Management/Operation nor the Development Operation."

"We deeply regret this unfortunate situation and trust it will come to the right closure," Ponce added.

MORE: 3 Americans found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning at Mexico City Airbnb

Shelley Lynch, a spokesperson for the FBI's field office in Charlotte, North Carolina, told ABC News in an email on Friday that the agency has opened an investigation into Robinson's death but would not comment further, citing the ongoing probe.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City told ABC News in an email on Wednesday that its staff "are aware of Shanquella Robinson's death and are providing consular services to her family."

As the mystery deepens and questions remain, Robinson's parents described their late daughter as a hardworking business owner who had a "great heart."

"It's like a nightmare. I can't even sleep," Robinson's father, Bernard Robinson, told WSOC-TV. "I just want some truth because this doesn't add up right."

ABC News' Will Gretsky contributed to this report.

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The success of ballistic missile defences facing their first complex, high-stakes combat scenarios in Israel, the Red Sea and Ukraine will encourage militaries globally to invest in the pricey systems, experts say - and intensify missile arms races.

Taiwan's defence ministry said on Friday it had detected a renewed incursion by Chinese military aircraft across the sensitive Taiwan Strait, as China reported its navy had carried out combat drills with landing craft.

American dies at 5-star resort in Mexico and family wants to know why

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico -- The search for answers is underway after a young American tourist mysteriously died at a luxury resort in Mexico.

Abbey Conner and her brother, Austin, were found unconscious in a hotel swimming pool at the five-star all-inclusive Iberostar Paraiso Resort in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.

Just hours into the Wisconsin family's trip Abbey and her brother were rushed to the hospital where Abbey died days later.

The family said their mom and stepdad left the two at the pool to go upstairs and get ready for dinner. When they didn't show up, they found out they had been taken to the hospital after being found face down in the pool.

Austin had a concussion and a golf ball-sized lump on his head. Abbey suffered a broken collar bone and was brain dead.

Officials said the blood alcohol level for each was around .25, three times the legal limit in their home state of Wisconsin.

Austin told investigators the last thing he remembers was taking a shot with a group by the pool.

Authorities admit there are so many unknowns and a mystery surrounding what happened that a thorough investigation is needed.

Mexican officials have ruled Abbey's death an accidental drowning but the family isn't satisfied.

The resort reportedly told the family there's no surveillance video of the incident.

The State Department told ABC News it is "aware of the case."

Report a typo to the ABC13 staff

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• MYSTERIOUS DEATH
• DEATH INVESTIGATION

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American Couple’s Trip to Cancun Ends in a Horrific Hotel Room Death

The family of Sativa Transue, a 26-year-old American woman from Spokane, Washington who was found dead in her Cancun hotel room while on vacation with her boyfriend, said she looked like she had been “beaten to a bloody pulp” when Mexican authorities discovered her body on Saturday.

“I received a call from the Mexican consulate letting me know my daughter has passed away and that she’s been found dead,” Jayme Bolieu, Sativa’s mother, told The Daily Beast in an interview. “How could my beautiful healthy daughter be gone? In another country? It took my breath away. A part of me died. She was my baby. I had her at 16. We grew up together. She was my life, my reason for living, my best friend.”

Beloved Georgia Teacher Found Dead on Mexico Roadside, Boyfriend Charged

Sativa’s mother and sister are still trying to make sense of what happened that Friday night and Saturday morning. They told The Daily Beast that Sativa had been texting them throughout the trip: “She was enjoying the sunshine and her trip was going okay, but not the best, because they [Sativa and her boyfriend] were fighting,” Mykayla, her 21-year-old sister, told The Daily Beast. On Saturday morning, Jayme had woken up to frantic texts from her daughter’s friends saying they were worried about Sativa after exchanging messages with her the night before.

"Sativa Transue, right."

"Sativa Transue, right."

“Apparently, [Sativa’s boyfriend] was threatening to jump off a four-story balcony,” on Friday, Jayme told The Daily Beast. “Sativa was injured and had to have stitches.”

In a statement to The Daily Beast, a State Department official said: “We can confirm the death of a U.S. citizen, Sativa Transue, in Mexico. We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss. The safety and welfare of U.S. citizens overseas is the highest priority of the Department of State. We are closely monitoring local authorities’ investigation into the cause of death and are providing the family all appropriate consular assistance.”

Local media reports allege that Sativa’s partner has been arrested in connection with the incident, but multiple efforts by The Daily Beast to reach Mexican authorities for comment on the status of the investigation were unsuccessful, and for that reason, The Daily Beast is not releasing the name of the alleged suspect at this time. The boyfriend’s mother and other family members did not respond to efforts to reach them by phone by the time of publication.

On Monday, a Twitter account linked to Cancun law enforcement released a blurred-out mugshot of the alleged suspect wearing what appears to be a hotel bathrobe, saying he had been arrested for the crime of femicide. Responding to news of the arrest, the State Department official told The Daily Beast in an email that “We are aware of reports of an arrest, and are monitoring the investigation closely. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment at this time.”

Jayme told The Daily Beast that her aunt had gone to Mexico as the family’s advocate, saying she couldn’t bear to go through the process herself. It was there where Mexican authorities shared a photo of Sativa’s body with her aunt. “My aunt is down there now and has seen the pictures and said she looked like she was beaten to death,” Jayme said.

Tourists Panic After Armed Gang Opens Fire at Upscale Cancun Resort

According to Jayme and Mykayla, Sativa’s relationship with her boyfriend was troubled. “He was very emotionally abusive. He checked her phone, and we couldn’t text her because it went to her computer and he would check that,” Jayme said.

Public records show that the alleged suspect has been previously arrested for assault in the fourth degree back in 2012. “He would drink so much that she [Sativa] called it like a different personality. She would call it [his] ‘Beast,’” Mykayla told The Daily Beast.

For now, Sativa’s family is still reeling from the shock of the news that rocked their lives over the weekend.

“She was the best person in my entire life. She was kind, generous, outgoing, bubbly. She never met a person who could say a bad word about her,” Mykayla told The Daily Beast. “I don’t know who I am without her... I just feel so lost.”

If you or anyone you know is suffering from domestic violence, please reach out to The Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE (7233).

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Police find alleged tents of missing Australian and American surfers in Mexico

The three foreigners were believed to have been surfing and camping along the baja coast but did not show up at their planned accommodations over the weekend., by associated press • published 3 hours ago • updated 2 hours ago.

Mexican authorities said Thursday they have found tents and questioned three people in the case of two Australians and an American who went missing over the weekend in the Pacific coast state of Baja California.

María Elena Andrade Ramírez , the state’s chief prosecutor, would not say whether the three people questioned were considered possible suspects or witnesses in the case. She said only that some were tied directly to the case, and others indirectly.

But Andrade Ramírez said evidence found along with the abandoned tents was somehow linked to the three. The three foreigners were believed to have been surfing and camping along the Baja coast near the coastal city of Ensenada, but did not show up at their planned accommodations over the weekend.

“A working team (of investigators) is at the site where they were last seen, where tents and other evidence was found that could be linked to these three people we have under investigation,” Andrade Ramírez said. “There is a lot of important information that we can't make public.”

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“We do not know what condition they are in,” she added. While drug cartels are active in the area, she said “all lines of investigation are open at this time. We cannot rule anything out until we find them.”

On Wednesday, the missing Australians' mother, Debra Robinson, posted on a local community Facebook page an appeal for helping in finding her sons, Jake and Callum. Robinson said her son had not been heard from since Saturday April 27. They had booked accommodations in the nearby city of Rosarito, Baja California.

Robinson said one of her sons, Callum, is diabetic. She also mentioned that the American who was with them was named Jack Carter Rhoad, but the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City did not immediately confirm that.

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Andrade Ramírez said her office was in contact with Australian and U.S. officials. But she suggested that the time that had passed might make it harder to find them.

“Unfortunately, it wasn't until the last few days that they were reported missing. So, that meant that important hours or time was lost,” she said.

In 2015, two Australian surfers, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, were killed in western Sinaloa state, across the Gulf of California — also known as the Sea of Cortez— from the Baja peninsula. Authorities say they were victims of highway bandits. Three suspects were arrested in that case.

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