Missing college student in the Dominican Republic from Ashburn

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Om Shanthi. I pray for her soul. My heart hurts for her family and friends. I’m Indian American from a similar background. Her parents looked so shocked. I can only imagine how proud they were of their premed daughter. May they find peace.

Why not just "how proud of their daughter"? Who gives a damn about major, oh right, the "Indian American from a similar background."

She's not American she's an Indian citizen living in the us

Technically. The "Indian American" (or take another country like Dominican American) part is commonly used by those who while they are not American by birth nor did they get naturalized (didn't get US citizenship) but have lived in US most of their lives so will hypnanate because they associate with being American. As in this young woman's case, it was said she came to the US in 2006 and they say she is 20. So she came to US when she was 1 or 2 years old. Not knowing if she ever went back to live in India after she moved to US so they write Indian American.

it is relevant here because India had to take the lead with DR authorities vs US who was just monitoring (until recently) because she is an Indian citizen and not a US citizen. It mattered in this case. I do not have any opinion on whether India has a good diplomatic team (I see no reason why they wouldn't) but people were asking why it too so many days for the US to get involved and it is because the priority/first in line was India.

Through the TJ grapevine, a representative from the Indian embassy met the parents at the airport when they landed after they immediately booked the next flight there.

What parent would not do the same if they were in this situation?


In contrast, at that time, the response from the Americans’ embassy was “let’s just wait and see if she turns up.”

Sorry but this was an unacceptable and unprofessional response here, when clearly someone’s life is in great danger.

And what was the Japanese embassy response? The Italian embassy?
If she is not American, and this did not happen in the US, the US embassy should not be involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please explain about this "lobby alcohol?"

Minibars.

You can easily do a search on the world wide web. Rolling Stone also had something in it after

"In 2019, several American tourists died in the Dominican Republic, and some of these deaths were linked to alcohol consumption from hotel minibars, sparking concerns about the quality and safety of the liquor."

"Authorities have investigated the deaths, with some focusing on the possibility of counterfeit alcohol being the cause."

"The Dominican Republic passed a law in September 2021 to regulate the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages throughout the national territory"

See reddit travel: Dominican Republic alcohol safety

Minibars are not the same as lobby alcohol. Minibars are in most hotels in the US.

[Anonymous]

Her clothing was found on a chaise lounge on the beach. I think with time this will be determined to be an accidental drowning.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Can someone please explain about this "lobby alcohol?"

Bar in the lobby? Sounds like they were hanging out and drinking for hours. It sucks they weren't cut off at any point, but the drinking age in DR is 18 so it was legal.

Ok. Thanks.
Someone several pages back said something about how young adults should be taught to never drink the alcohol in the lobby, or something like that. I've never been to DR or anywhere like that, so I wasn't sure what that was about.

Does the reports says she was also drinking? Didn't read the details as with most mystery news stories. Could that group have finished drinking at the disco (??) and we're out of alcohol and decided to drink alcohol which can be found at the hotel lobby? Maybe no one has reported that and perhaps it doesn't even matter in this story. But was there any foul in that alcohol that was possibly consumed by the young woman (if she drank if there's video of it?)?

I didn’t read any details of the case but I’m going to post in here with random speculation. Nice addition to this post. Perhaps read a news story before you try to enlighten us with your wisdom.

It is common knowledge among travelers to DR not to drink the alcohol in hotel lobby. Why can't that be an area of speculation if it already hasn't been ruled out?

Because all the other young people were fine, and no one forced her to go swimming in the ocean when it was dark and she was intoxicated.

Not everyone gets sick from alcohol from same place. Nor does anyone ( at least it doesn't seem to have been reported) know if other things were consumed or her alcohol was tainted but not others. Were you expecting DR police or resort folks to fess up and ruin their travel industry? Were those two guys strangers to that group of 5 women? How do you know they didn't do something? Nor do you know if she had eaten something earlier that also could have affected any alcohol consumed with before or after. Did she actually go in water? How would that 24yr old guy who said he passed out know if she didn't continue walking on shore but something else happened? There are still many unknown details.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I bet the friends didn't want to get involved because of their questionable us citizenship status

What? The friends in this case could be seen as suspects possibly why they don't want to get involved, or have been instructed not to if they have someone representing them. no one knows what actually happened.

They're not suspects. She is an adult who did adult things alone. It's not cool that they did not stay together but that is not a crime.

Legally an adult but mentally an immature, irresponsible child.

She was just a hard-working kid wanting to let off steam, got caught up in the moment and made a terrible mistake. It's horribly sad. The stories are consistent--group hanging out, then the two decided they wanted to go to the beach. The others didn't, perfectly fine to want to go to bed at 5am after being up all night. The reality is that her friends wouldn't have been able to save her even if they stayed. They were all drunk and it was dark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been to all inclusive in DR before and I have never seen alcohol just left in the lobby for people to freely take (how would you monitor kids not taking it). I have known of people to ask for entire bottles of wine to take with them to the beach and seen that happen, but the concept of lobby alcohol sounds crazy.

Some resorts are adults-only and stock every room with full bottles of booze. That's the appeal of these resorts - pay one price up front and everything (including unlimited alcohol) is taken care of.

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet the friends didn't want to get involved because of their questionable us citizenship status

What? The friends in this case could be seen as suspects possibly why they don't want to get involved, or have been instructed not to if they have someone representing them. no one knows what actually happened.

They're not suspects. She is an adult who did adult things alone. It's not cool that they did not stay together but that is not a crime.

Legally an adult but mentally an immature, irresponsible child.

She was just a hard-working kid wanting to let off steam, got caught up in the moment and made a terrible mistake. It's horribly sad. The stories are consistent--group hanging out, then the two decided they wanted to go to the beach. The others didn't, perfectly fine to want to go to bed at 5am after being up all night. The reality is that her friends wouldn't have been able to save her even if they stayed. They were all drunk and it was dark.

How do you know that, yet? Have you never stayed up or gone to sleep and woken up early to see the sunrise? Does anyone know? did she ever say to her friends she's going to stay behind to watch sunrise? Many unknowns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Her clothing was found on a chaise lounge on the beach. I think with time this will be determined to be an accidental drowning.

Yes. Occam's razor.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I am an intuitive and believe she drown. A very tragic accident.

But why did the boy not try to save her?

Because he was *drunk* and could barely save himself. I think a number of people on this thread don't know, or don't remember, what it's like to be that drunk. Confusion, things spinning, disorientation, cognitive impairment...

I agree with this. They had been up all night drinking and were impaired, and that kind of impairment is very dangerous. Poor decision to enter the ocean at night in the first place, but especially in that condition. Both made the bad decision but he was stronger and lucky enough to survive. But not thinking clearly enough to save her, which was probably impossible anyway. It was dark and would have been over in a matter of just a few minutes. I hope they find her body, for the parents's sake. They can properly begin the grieving process then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Her clothing was found on a chaise lounge on the beach. I think with time this will be determined to be an accidental drowning.

Not an accident because the boy should have done his duty and gone back into the water to save her, but he did not do so.

[Anonymous]

I SUSPECT THE BOY??????? Authorities now saying something doesn’t add up????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her clothing was found on a chaise lounge on the beach. I think with time this will be determined to be an accidental drowning.

Yes. Occam's razor.

+2 Ample resources are being dedicated to the investigation, to rule out any other possibilities. But my guess is that the group's stories all line up and this will be the conclusion in the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her clothing was found on a chaise lounge on the beach. I think with time this will be determined to be an accidental drowning.

Yes. Occam's razor.

+1. And it’s just too hard for the parents too accept this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her clothing was found on a chaise lounge on the beach. I think with time this will be determined to be an accidental drowning.

Not an accident because the boy should have done his duty and gone back into the water to save her, but he did not do so.

Do you understand he was impaired?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I SUSPECT THE BOY??????? Authorities now saying something doesn’t add up????

Link?