Three Americans on vacation in Mexico City were found dead at an Airbnb-listed property that they had rented, according to the U.S. State Department and the property rental platform.
Kandace Florence, 28, Jordan Marshall, 28, and Courtez Hall, 33, traveled together to Mexico in late October. They planned the trip to celebrate Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Authorities discovered their bodies inside their Airbnb apartment rental during a welfare check on Oct. 30, just days before the holiday festivities were set to begin.
They died due to carbon monoxide poisoning at the property, Mexican police said, according to the Associated Press. They were found unresponsive on Oct. 30 at an apartment in the upscale Cuajimalpa district, according to the Spanish newspaper El Pais. The State Department did not release details on the deceased or their cause of death, though it said that U.S. officials were providing appropriate consular assistance.
Mexico City prosecutors did not return a request for comment sent late Wednesday. The families of the deceased couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
In a statement, Airbnb described the incident as a tragedy. The company said it had suspended bookings at the property where the deaths occurred. "Our priority right now is supporting those impacted as the authorities investigate what happened, and we stand ready to assist with their inquiries," it added.
The trio went to Mexico to participate in the festivities marking the Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos. The holiday -- which ran Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 -- has its origins in ancient Aztec Indigenous traditions and commemorates death as an essential element of life.
In the hours before her death, Florence phoned her boyfriend back home in Virginia and told him she was not feeling well, according to WAVY. The call was dropped before she could explain further and he was unable reconnect. Worried, he reached out to the AirBnb host, who arranged for authorities to perform a welfare check.
Florence said that she felt like she had been drugged, according to El Pais, which viewed messages between the couple. "Like I've taken ecstasy, but I haven't," she reportedly wrote. She was also reportedly vomiting and said she was feeling fatigued.
Around the time the three U.S. nationals died, three American siblings vacationing in Mexico also suffered carbon monoxide poisoning, according to a GoFundMe webpage set up by a family friend and local media reports. One of them died. The other two were hospitalized.
Carbon monoxide is an odorless and colorless gas that kills people by slowly depleting them of oxygen. When people breathe in the gas, it prevents red blood cells from carrying sufficient oxygen to critical organs such as the brain and heart. Initial symptoms may include dizziness and vomiting. More than 430 people are accidentally killed by the gas each year in the United States every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Jeong, Robyn Huang and Bryan Pietsch of The Washington Post and by Jessica Schladebeck of New York Daily News (TNS).