After the United States Embassy in Colombia warned last month of recent suspicious drug-related deaths and possible homicides of Americans visiting the South American country, three U.S. tourists have reportedly died in Medellín within a five-day span.
One of them, a 47-year-old Black man named Dakarai Earl Cobb, had been staying in a room in the city’s Santa Lucía neighborhood but had gone missing for two days, reported Spanish-language website El País on Feb. 7.
As the concerned owners of Cobb’s room checked on him, they opened the door to find him dead, according to the outlet. Authorities said in the hours following the discovery of Cobb’s body on the night of Feb. 5, they realized he was missing several personal items including his credit cards, cellphone and passport, El País reported.
The owner of the room told newspaper El Colombiano, “The man had been there for a month, nothing more, and we rented it because they asked us for a favor because he was coming to stay for about a month, nothing more. The man did not respond further when we left the room and when we found him, the man was dead.”
Forensic investigators are looking into exactly how his death happened, according to the outlet.
Another U.S. tourist, Anthony G. López, 29, was recently found dead in a hotel in Medellín in the city’s Laureles neighborhood.
Manley Mark Conlen, 37, died in the La Aguacatala of Medellín after a fall from the 17th floor of the building where his Airbnb was located, El Colombiano reported.
The deaths follow a startling recent rise in the phenomenon of robberies and overdoses in Colombia, often involving U.S. citizens and, in some cases, including the use of online dating apps, Atlanta Black Star reported last month.
The U.S. Embassy reported eight suspicious deaths of U.S. citizens in Medellín between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 of last year.
Criminals are known to lure victims with dating apps like Tinder and Bumble to…
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