A Staten Island woman became the latest tourist to mysteriously die in the Dominican Republic Monday during a birthday trip to the country.
Leyla Cox, of New Brighton, died on June 10, just one day after celebrating her 53rd birthday, her distraught son told the Staten Island Advance, saying she would still be alive if she didn’t go to the popular island.
William Cox said US Embassy officials told him his mother’s death had been ruled a heart attack following an autopsy, but he said the spate of recent unexplained deaths of US visitors at the popular tourist destination made him suspicious.
“I am overwhelmed and confused and in shock,” he said Thursday. “I have a right to be suspicious.”
“With everything going on in the news right now, we think she’s a casualty of what’s been happening.”
The 25-year-old said his family begged Cox to cancel her planned vacation to the popular tourist destination before she left on June 5. She was due to return on Wednesday.
It is unclear who found Cox or if she died in one of the hotels where six other US tourists have unexpectedly passed away in the past 12 months.
“My family wanted her to not go on this vacation,” Cox said. “I truly believe if my mother was not in the Dominican Republic, she would have been alive right now.”
The woman’s family said they could not afford the cost of their own toxicology report and is following her wishes by cremating her body before returning her ashes to the US.
A neighbor — who was cat sitting for Cox while she vacationed — said he found out about her death on Wednesday.
“She was very friendly with my daughter and really looked out for her,” the neighbor, Matt Holliday, told The Post.
“She was thrilled to be going to the DR for her birthday. It was going to be a celebration. This is beyond sad.”
Cox is the seventh known tourist to have died from a mysterious illness at a Dominican Republic resort — the latest in a string of disturbingly similar fatalities.
While Dominican authorities insist the fatalities are unfortunate and isolated incidents, many of the deaths — and several other severe illnesses — involved healthy, middle-aged adults who had taken a drink from their hotel room minibar before suddenly becoming gravely sick.