Cause of Death of Three American Women in Belize Confirmed

Belizean authorities have confirmed the cause of death of three American women at a resort in San Pedro. Executive Director of the Belize National Forensic Science Service, Gian Cho, confirmed that Kaoutar Naqqad, Imane Mallah, and Wafae El-Arar died of acute pulmonary edema. According to Sho, authorities are still investigating what led to that cause. Carbon monoxide has been ruled out because fire officials conducted two separate tests that yielded no results. Sho says that investigators are now working to confirm whether controlled substances were at the scene.

 

Gian Cho, Executive Director, B.N.F.S.S.

“The autopsies of the three women were conducted on Monday, twenty-fourth February so we did the three autopsies, starting in the morning and continuing one after the other. We had our three  medical examiners be present during the autopsy. The lead examiner concluded the cause of that, the terminal cause of that to be acute pulmonary edema and the antecedent causes, we would call them or due to, is still pending investigation. So acute pulmonary edema was determined by the medical examiner to have been because of that for all three victims. And what led to acute preliminary edema is what is pending investigation.  That term simply means that we need to do further testing on samples taken from the bodies during autopsy. So, as part of the standard process for the postmortem examination, samples are taken not only of blood, but also vitreous humor, some tissue samples, stomach contents as well and so to be able to provide the laboratory testing for the medical examiner to get that information as to what may have led to acute pulmonary edema.  Further testing involves three different sections or scopes if you will.  That we will start this week is to try to identify what types of controlled substances or drugs, if any, were in some of the samples taken from the scene. These were from different items that would’ve been collected from the hotel room to see if there were any controlled substances found in those.”