Abbey Conner passed out in a pool after consuming a “poisonous” drink. The girl was later taken off life support, according to civil complaint.
A Wisconsin family have filed a lawsuit against a Mexican resort and its U.S. booking website, stating that tainted alcohol led to the death of their 20-year-old daughter.
According to the lawsuitAbbey Connor’s Mom claims that she consumed a “tainted, substandard, poisonous” drink before she was found face down in the shallow end of a pool at Hotel Iberostar Paraiso del Mar in Playa del Carmen on January 7, 2017.
Connor, who was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, was taken off life-support systems at a Florida hospital 5 days later.
“Over at least the past two years and possibly longer, defendants … knew that alcoholic beverages being served at the at Hotel Iberostar Paraiso del Mar were tainted, substandard, poisonous and unfit for human consumption,” according to the family’s lawsuit.
“Abbey Conner unknowingly consumed tainted alcohol at the Hotel Iberostar Paraiso del Mar.”
A rep for Visit US in Miami said that the company hadn’t seen the lawsuit and could not comment. A hotel official told reporters that no one with authority to discuss the lawsuit was immediately available to speak on Thursday.
The hotel had a “lack of adequate measures to prevent tainted alcohol from entering the hotel’s premises through the hotel’s supply chain,” says the family.
The civil complaint cited 2017 raids by Mexican authorities which seized tens of thousands of gallons of tainted alcohol that had been circulating at popular resorts.
“In the wake of these raids, Mexican authorities suspended operations of” the lobby bar at the Iberostar, according to the lawsuit.
The family also claim there were no lifeguards on duty by the pool when Conner passed out and the hotel has yet to allow their investigators access to the property.
“Abbey’s plight was reasonably foreseeable and the defendants … had the opportunity to protect her,” says the civil action.