Carbon Monoxide is Responsible for Deaths of 3 American Visitors

A toxicology report has confirmed that carbon monoxide poisoning caused the deaths of three American women found in their hotel room at the Royal Kahal Beach Resort in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye. The tragic discovery of Kaoutar Naqqad, Imane Mallah, and Wafae El Ararwas was made on February 22. Since then, investigators have been working hard to determine what happened. The women were on vacation from Massachusetts. After the shocking discovery, their families demanded answers from local authorities, including the Belize Police Department. Earlier today, the results were shared with their loved ones, revealing the silent killer that claimed their lives.

 

Gian Cho, Director, National Forensics Science Service

“So we received the toxicology results for the deaths of the three US nationals from the hotel in San Pedro.  We received those results today.  The testing took, I believe, about three weeks, more or less, from the time the laboratory received the samples.  And the results came back today which we shared with the medical examiners because they will need the toxicology results so as to update the cause of death.  If you recall, the cause of death was written as acute pulmonary edema due to pending toxicology and histology. So the medical examiner has received the report so they can revise or update the cause of death.  The police department’s case officer has received it as well and before we scheduled this interview, we also made sure that the family received the toxicology results as well through the US Embassy which has been acting as the liaison.  And we did a comprehensive toxicology screening which is why it took a bit longer than the two weeks that we were anticipating that it would take.  As the commissioner mentioned to you previously, when we requested the toxicology analysis, we asked them to expedite the testing and because we asked for several different tests to be done it’s not uncommon for sometimes the results to take longer than the time that the lab gives.  So we were screening for all commonly encountered illicit drugs, pharmaceutical medications, we also screened for carbon monoxide, as well as volatile gases.”