Skip to main content

FBI investigating deaths of Prince George’s couple in Dominican Republic

Related Stories

The FBI will assist in the toxicology analysis of the bodies of a Prince George’s County, Maryland, couple who died in the Dominican Republic last month.

The bodies of Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Day 50, arrived in the United States Tuesday, NBC Washington reported. Their families are planning for a second autopsy.

“The safety and security of U.S. citizens that live in, work in, and visit the Dominican Republic remains our highest priority,” said U.S. Ambassador Robin Bernstein in a June 11 statement. “These incidents are tragic and we offer our deepest condolences to those personally impacted.”

The FBI said that the results of the toxicology analysis may take up to 30 days.

The couple was found dead on May 30 at the Bahia Principe Hotel La Romana after they missed their scheduled check out.

Edward Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, missed their scheduled check out time at the Bahia Principe Hotel in La Romana. (Courtesy CNN)

The resort released a statement from the country’s attorney general’s preliminary report, saying that the couple had pulmonary edema and respiratory failure, along with other health conditions.

Five days before the Maryland couple was found, Pennsylvania woman Miranda Schaup-Werner was found dead at another Bahia Principe Resort hotel. The hotel said in a statement that, according to forensic results done by Dominican Republic authorities, she died of a heart attack.

Charles County, Maryland, woman, Dawn McCoy, whose husband died at a hotel in the Dominican Republic in 2018, said that she wishes a second autopsy had been done on American soil.

WTOP’s Jennifer Ortiz contributed to this report. 

Fentanyl seizures plummet as Trump administration shifts focus to immigration

WASHINGTON — Fentanyl seizures decreased by 39% during the first year of the second Trump administration after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shifted the Department of Homeland Security’s criminal investigations arm to conducting immigration enforcement, according to a report government investigators published Friday.  Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a subagency of DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reported an “all hands-on deck” environment toward immigration enforcement began in January 2025, according to the DHS Office of Inspector General report. “With ICE dedicating more staff hours to immigration investigations, staffing hours for fentanyl investigations declined,” the report said. The report found that the hours dedicated to fentanyl investigations for fiscal 2025 declined by more than 250,000 hours, or 31%, compared to fiscal 2024.
Read Next Story