Mexican resort where 2 O.C. residents died ignored gas leak problems, employee says
A current and former employee at a luxury hotel in Mexico where two Americans were found dead this week said managers of the resort ignored repeated signs of a possible gas leak and disabled carbon monoxide detectors to stop their alarms from disturbing guests.
Ricardo Carbajal, a former night manager at Rancho Pescadero, a $600-a-night beachfront boutique hotel owned by Hyatt, said carbon monoxide detectors sounded frequently over a period of about three months late last year, likely because of leaks in a system that delivers gas to fire pits on the outdoor patios of each room.
In January, Carbajal said, after repeated complaints from guests about the loud alarms, hotel managers disabled the detectors.
“They knew there were problems with gas leaks,” said Carbajal, who stopped working at the resort in March after a dispute over pay. “Everyone was aware of the alarms and that the detectors were off.”
Two current employees who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their jobs also said that hotel managers ignored complaints about the strong smell of gas from both guests and employees.
“Housekeepers reported gas leaks, security reported gas leaks, maintenance workers reported gas leaks,” said one of the employees. The employee said that a few days before the guests were found dead, a housekeeper cleaning their room fell ill because of suspected gas poisoning, the employee said.
The bodies of John Heathco and Abby Lutz, both of Orange County, were discovered Tuesday night inside their room at Rancho Pescadero, which reopened after extensive renovations about a year ago in the sleepy beach community of El Pescadero, an hour north of Cabo San Lucas.
The two Americans, including a woman from Newport Beach, are believed to have died of gas inhalation at a resort in El Pescadero, according to authorities.
Autopsies suggest the two died of “intoxication by an undetermined substance,” prosecutors in Mexico’s Baja California Sur state told the Associated Press.
Local police initially reported that gas inhalation was suspected as the cause of death.
Hyatt officials previously said they do not believe the deaths were related to problems with the hotel infrastructure or a gas leak. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding disabled carbon monoxide alarms at the resort.
But new accounts from two paramedics who responded to the deaths lend credence to the theory that gas poisoning was likely to blame.
Fernando Valencia Sotelo and Grisel Valencia Sotelo, firefighters who are also siblings, arrived at the hotel late Tuesday after staff discovered the bodies of Heathco and Lutz.
The two firefighters immediately fell ill upon entering the couple’s hotel room, according to a GoFundMe account established to raise money for their medical care. They received treatment at a hospital and were released Friday.
Three Americans died in an Airbnb in Mexico City of carbon monoxide poisoning. One woman called her boyfriend saying she felt sick.
In a Friday interview with “Good Morning America,” Lutz’s stepmother, Racquel Lutz, said the young woman had told her family Monday evening that she had spent the previous night in the hospital because she felt sick and thought she had food poisoning. Lutz said she had been given fluids intravenously and was feeling better.
“She texted [her father] Monday night to say goodnight, love you, and then we hadn’t heard from her again,” Racquel Lutz said.
In a statement through a spokesperson, her family described Abby Lutz as “a light to everyone around her” who was known for her smile and laugh and for “making everyone feel special.”
“It is our hope that more information will come to light to explain what happened to Abby, and why,” the statement said. “This information will help us gain closure, and may prevent this type of incident from happening in the future. We don’t wish for anyone else to go through this tragedy.”
The Lutz family was traveling to Mexico to “to bring Abby home,” and was not available for further comment, the spokesperson said.
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