A 56-year-old Long Island man in seemingly good health died in the Dominican Republic this week after "drinking something," the sister-in-law of Vittorio Caruso told Fox News.
Caruso, of Glen Cove, is the 10th American tourist to die in the Caribbean nation over the past year.
Caruso, who was the owner of Vittorio's Pizzeria until he sold the business this spring, was staying at the Boca Chica Resort in Santo Domingo when he fell ill on June 17.
"We found out he was brought by ambulance to the hospital in respiratory distress after drinking something," Caruso's sister-in-law, Lisa Maria Caruso, said.
"It is very hard to get a straight story from anyone there," she added, of authorities in the Dominican Republic, according to the Fox News report. "They even wanted to cremate the body. We insisted on having the body sent back here."
A funeral is being arranged for Caruso at Dodge-Thomas Funeral Home in Glen Cove. His neighbors in the North Shore community say he was "a great man from a great family."
The FBI launched an investigation last week into whether any of the American deaths in the Dominican Republic were from drinking tainted or bootleg liquor.
"When you have nine people who died, two of whom are a couple, and they are all otherwise healthy, you've got to believe this is some kind of toxin exposure," Dr. Reynold Panettieri, a pulmonary critical care physician and toxicologist at Rutgers, told a Patch editor before Caruso's death was reported. "Now whether it's an inhaled toxin, or transmitted topically through the skin or ingested such as in a drink ? we just don't know enough yet."
None of the deaths are being officially investigated as connected by police, and not all the deaths occurred at the same hotel.
Three Americans, including a Pennsylvania woman, died at a Bahia Principe resort within days of each other in May. After the news of the deaths made headlines, several more families came forward with stories of similar experiences.
For example, a New York woman said she was sickened after drinking a bottle of soda from the minibar at the Grand Bahia Principe resort in October 2018. Awilda Montes told The New York Post the soda from the minibar fridge tasted like bleach and made her violently ill.
A Denver, Colorado couple who stayed at the same hotel said they became "dangerously ill" during their stay at a Bahia Principe resort. They told told ABC it smelled like paint had been spilled all over the room. A doctor who examined them upon their return said they had likely been sickened due to poisoning by pesticides, the report said.
Montes and the Denver couple survived.
Here's a look at the other American tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic so far:
1. Avenel resident Joseph Allen is the most recently reported American to die in the country. He died June 13 at Terra Linda resort in Sousa. He complained of feeling hot at the pool, went to shower and lay down, and was found deceased in his hotel room the next day.
2. New York resident Leyla Cox died June 10 while visiting the Dominican Republic for a birthday trip, her family told the Staten Island Advance. She was found dead in her hotel room; U.S. Embassy officials told the family it was ruled a heart attack.
3. The family of Glenside, Pa. resident Yvette Monique Sport said she died in 2018 at a Bahia Principe Resort on the Dominican Republic after having a drink from the minibar. Sport's sister Felecia Nieves, in an interview with FOX29, said they were told Sport died from a heart attack. Her obituary simply states she died suddenly on June 23, 2018 while in the Dominican Republic.
4. Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, of Allentown, Pennsylvania died May 25, just hours after arriving at the Grand Bahia Pr?ncipe Hotel. She was found unresponsive in her hotel room and died before making it to the hospital, the hotel said in a statement. She was on a trip to celebrate her anniversary with her husband but collapsed suddenly after having a drink and was later pronounced dead.
5 & 6. Five days later, an engaged Maryland couple was found deceased in their hotel room at the same resort. The couple was identified as Edward Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, of Maryland. The couple, and Schaup-Werner, died of respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, the Dominican Republic National Police told ABC News.
7. Robert Bell Wallace, 67, of California, died in April after drinking from the minibar at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino resort in Punta Cana, Fox News reported. A cause of death has not yet been provided to the family, the report said.
8. Jerry Curran, an Ohio resident, died in January while visiting Dreams Resort in Punta Cana, his daughter told WKYC. Shortly after having dinner and drinks the night of his arrival, Curren fell ill and spent the next couple of days in bed. Three days later he began vomiting and was unresponsive. He had surgery at a local hospital but later died.
9. David Harrison, a Maryland resident, died last year at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino resort, the New York Post reported. Dominican authorities also ruled his death was due to pulmonary edema and a heart attack, the report said.
The U.S. State Department told ABC News that the department hasn't "seen an uptick in the number of U.S. citizen deaths reported to the Department" in the Dominican Republic, which attracts more than 2.7 million American visitors each year.
But the recent deaths have spooked tourists. Flight cancellations to the Dominican Republic have increased 45 percent since the beginning of this month, the Washington Post reported.
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