New Jersey Man Becomes Eighth Person To Die In Dominican Republic While On Vacation

A man from New Jersey is now the eighth person to die while on vacation in the Dominican Republic in the last year.

Joseph Allen, 55, is a native of Avenel, New Jersey who visited the country to celebrate his friend’s birthday. On the morning of June 13, Allen was found dead in his hotel room at Terra Linda in Sousa. The man’s sister, Jamie Reed, told ABC her brother complained to her that it was hot at a pool.

Friends told Reed that Allen “complained about being hot at the pool. He said he was going to his room to take a shower. When his friends came back, he said he wasn’t feeling 100% again, and said he was going to lie down for the night. The next morning his friend said he hadn’t heard from Joe before breakfast, so he knocked on his door, and there was no response.” His friend said he then called the hotel’s front desk for a wellness check. “They found him on the floor,” Reed said. “He had been there for a while. Rigor mortis had set in, and he was cold.”

She described her brother as “for the most part healthy” with no pertinent health issues. Allen reportedly would visit the country quite often. His sister said she didn’t think about the multiple deaths that occurred when her brother decided to go. “We didn’t think anything of it, because he does this all the time,” she said.

The family is looking to have Allen’s body returned to the States; however, it would have to wait for his body to be embalmed. “I just don’t want them to suppress anything, especially with them embalming the body,” Reed said. “We want answers. We’ve reached out to everybody, including Senator (Robert) Menendez to try to get some help from anyone.”