In a shocking incident, two Americans were found lifeless in their hotel room on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. The Baja California Sur Attorney General’s office has identified them as John Heathco, 41, and Abby Lutz, 22.
The scene unfolded at the Hotel Rancho Pescadero, a high-end hotel where room rates can hit $760 per night.
Emergency services were called to the hotel around 9pm on Tuesday, following reports that two guests were unconscious. Despite efforts to save them, both Heathco and Lutz were pronounced dead at the scene. The official statement from the Attorney General’s Office attributed the cause of death to the ingestion of an unknown substance.
However, Lutz’s family suggested another possibility: carbon monoxide poisoning due to improper ventilation in their room. A GoFundMe page set up to help with Lutz’s funeral costs revealed that she and Heathco, who were from Newport Beach, California, had previously sought medical help during their trip for what they believed was food poisoning. A few days later, they were found deceased in their room.
The family’s statement shared on the GoFundMe page expressed their shock and grief, stating that Lutz was due to meet her father for Father’s Day that week. They are now focused on bringing her home to give her a proper farewell. They remembered her as a beautiful soul who will be greatly missed.
According to the Attorney General’s office, the couple had been dead for about 10 or 11 hours when they were discovered in their room, with no indications of violence on their bodies.
The Hotel Rancho Pescadero is a lavish property located between Todos Santos and the resort of Los Cabos. There has been no comment from Hyatt, the parent company, about this incident.
This is not the first incident of its kind in Mexico. In October, three American tourists were found dead in a rented apartment, seemingly due to gas inhalation. Four years earlier, in 2018, a family of four from the United States died in a resort in Tulum due to a gas leak from a water heater.
And in 2010, a gas line explosion at a Playa del Carmen hotel resulted in the deaths of five Canadian tourists and two Mexicans. In these instances, the lack of maintenance and outdated equipment were often blamed as potential causes.