Can You Solve this Real Life Mystery?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What a mystery! Have you all been riveted and horrified by what’s going on in the Dominican Republic? 

I will admit, many many years ago, I did a story pitch for a Charlotte McNally book where the murders were caused by poisoned food from hotel mini bars. It was such a dumb idea, I finally decided, so far-fetched  and outrageous, that I discarded it.

And now they’re wondering if that’s what happened! It's so terrifying, and so incredibly sad.


So what do you think happened? Any ideas? 

(From Wikipedia, I learned: Christopher Columbus landed on the island on December 5, 1492, which the native Taíno people had inhabited since the 7th century. The colony of Santo Domingo became the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, the oldest continuously inhabited city, and the first seat of the Spanish colonial rule in the New World.) 

And  equally terrifying, who would want to kill Big Papi ?  And now there is a groundswell of disbelief in the reports that it was not David Ortiz that was targeted to be shot in the bar. I mean, first of all, who would want to kill him? He's an internationally beloved hero.  And though the authorities there are  now saying it was a mistaken identity, there’s a lot of cynicism about that here in Boston.

So what are your theories, reds? 

HALLIE EPHRON: All the DR tourist deaths — 11 in the past year — certainly sound suspicious. I wonder what an actuary would say the odds are. Is this a spike, or just something that we usually don’t bother to count?

And the David Ortiz shooting... If I were writing a book about a beloved and super-wealthy baseball icon being targeted in a Caribbean nation, I know I’d give him a secret. Something that he’s covering up. But in the real world that sounds like ‘blame the victim.’ Still, I have trouble imagining that it was a case of mistaken identity.  Everyone knows Big Papi.

RHYS BOWEN: I know one thing; I wouldn’t be planning a trip to the DR right now. Eleven in one year does seem a lot, but without knowing whether they were all the same kind of people I couldn’t come up with a theory. If they were tainted drugs or alcohol then that might be a good explanation. But someone with a grudge against tourists—spiking drinks? Surely pathology would reveal that. And didn’t they say that Big Papi was a case of mistaken identity? I doubt we’ll ever know. The authorities there will keep things hushed up

JENN McKINLAY: Ah, Big Papi! We took that pretty hard in this house. I'm glad he's going to be okay, although his recovery looks to be a long one. Yes, 11 mysterious deaths in an exotic location is definitely a plot in the making. I'll just speculate from my armchair in the desert, thanks.


JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: David Ortiz - i got nothin'. I can't imagine anyone who would want him dead, although it looks now like it was a (botched) paid hit, so who knows - maybe someone stands to benefit financially if he dies.

As for the tourist deaths, I did a little sleuthing, checking out the ages and pictures of the decedents. The majority of them were in their fifties and sixties, and had the typical American build. (Not shaming - I'm a good thirty pounds over where my doctor wants me to be.) But I can easily imagine a number of tourists, overweight and perhaps usually sedentary, going on vacation where they're eating more than they're used to, drinking more than they're used to, exerting themselves more than they're used to, in an environment where the average June temperature is 87 degrees and it's "oppressively muggy" almost every day, according to Weather Spark.

It's certainly thrilling in that can't look-away-from-an-accident way to speculate there might be infectious diseases or poisoners, but my bet is on a lot of undiagnosed cardiac disease and hypertension.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Maybe because I've been reading a lot about infectious disease lately, I'm wondering if the deaths in the DR could be caused by something viral or bacterial, or maybe something as yet unidentified--remember Legionnaire's Disease? 11 deaths out of the 2.7 million tourists who visit every year is probably not statistically significant, but I would be uneasy just the same.

And David Ortiz--that is certainly a plot for a mystery. I'm just glad he will recover.

HANK: Yeah, I keep wondering if it's statistically significant, but SOMETHING is going on--are there deaths at other resorts that we don't hear about?   But these are people who were seemingly otherwise healthy--and of all ages. 

What are you thinking about this, Reds and readers? (Or is it even in the news where you live?) Have you ever heard of such a thing? What crossed your mind when you heard about it?


Thanks to Toasterb at the English language Wikipedia project, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2264058 . for the David Ortiz photo.