_{Wafae El Arar; Imane Mallah; Kaoutar Naqqad. Photo: GoFundMe (3)}

by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Wed. Mar. 26, 2025

An autopsy report has confirmed that the three American women who were found dead in a shared hotel room at the Royal Kahal Beach Resort in San Pedro Town were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning.

_{Royal Kahal Beach Resort}

The young women: 26-year-old Wafae El-Arar, 24-year-old Imane Mallah, and 23-year-old Kaoutar Naqqad – had arrived in Belize on Thursday, February 20, and were expected to leave on Sunday, February 23.

The hotel’s surveillance camera showed the women entering their room after 8:00 p.m., and it would be the last time they were seen alive. During the time that elapsed between their entry and the discovery of their bodies, no one entered their room.

A hotel maid arrived at the women’s room the following day to conduct her routine duties, but after not getting a response after knocking at the door, she left. The employee returned on Saturday, and once again, there was no answer from within the women’s room. This prompted her to inform the hotel manager, who got a master key, opened the door, and discovered the shocking scene.

Initial results of a postmortem indicated that the women had died from acute pulmonary edema, which is a buildup of liquid in the lungs. However, after several weeks of waiting for the results of the toxicology report on samples that were sent abroad for testing, Gian Cho, Executive Director for the National Forensics Science Service (NFSS), confirmed to local reporters on Wednesday, March 26, that the results showed that the women had died due to inhalation of carbon monoxide in the room.

“We did our screening for all commonly encountered drugs, illicit drugs, pharmaceutical medications. We also screened for carbon monoxide as well as volatile gases. We screened for things like ethane, propane, butane, ethane; we also screened for pesticides, because we wanted to cover all the bases and try to rule out as many underlying intoxicants or poisons or drugs as possible. The results indicate that the blood samples that we sent, as well as the tissue samples, did not reveal any illicit drugs in the bodies of the three women. So, no illegal drugs, no illicit drugs. The results revealed that the three victims all had fatal exposure to carbon monoxide. So, carbon monoxide is being revealed as the contributing or the underlying exposure that led to the acute pulmonary edema, which was the final cause of death,” outlined Cho.

In the preliminary phases of the investigation, the theory of possible carbon monoxide poisoning had been prematurely ruled out after no traces of carbon monoxide were observable during tests that were done in the room. However, when reports surfaced that previous occupants in the room had detected carbon monoxide which was produced by a malfunctioning water heater that uses gas to operate, the heater, which had not been in operation when the first tests were done, was turned on before a second round of tests was conducted. Those test results have not yet been received; but in the meantime, the autopsy report on the victims has been received, and confirmed that the three women were all victims of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams said, “… we have always been focused on the fact that we want to await the results from the National Forensic Services they sent abroad. We believe that that would have been a more accurate and conclusive finding. So, we would have preferred to use that as the official release to indicate a cause of death. From what I was made to understand, the heater in the room is operated with gas. If the heater is left on, the gas escapes into the room. So, I would want to think that when they had gone to do the test following the discovery, the heater was off; and so, if it were off, then there would be no exposure to carbon monoxide; and leaving it on for about three to four hours to see if the room would develop that level of carbon monoxide that would be fatal, they did other tests in [that] room, and the other rooms as well. That was the only room [having] the defect.”

Williams went on to explain, “[Some] persons who stayed at the room indicated that they had used their carbon monoxide tester and had detected carbon monoxide in one of the rooms. That prompted us to do another round of testing for carbon monoxide. [It] was done by the Department of Environment and Fire, and we are still awaiting the results they did the second time. So, we have not received that in writing from them.”

The autopsy report, however, revealed that the women had carbon monoxide saturation levels higher than 60% (40% is considered fatal), with one of the women having saturation levels above 80%.

“We’re talking about the blood won’t be able to carry oxygen anymore to the brain [or] tissues that need it, because carbon monoxide has replaced oxygen on those hemoglobin molecules.  Let’s say, 50% of your blood cells that should be carrying oxygen are now filled instead with carbon monoxide. So, your bodies won’t be receiving oxygen, which it needs to function to survive, for the brain to work. So, you would experience those effects on consciousness; eventually, in this case, the lungs would start filling up with fluid [shortly],” Cho explained.

It had been mentioned in previous reports that the women were found with bottles of alcohol and THC gummies on the floor of the room, but Cho also confirmed that there were no illegal drugs inside the women’s bodies, only carbon monoxide.

Commissioner Williams noted that although it would initially appear that there are no laws that would confer criminal culpability to any person for the deaths of the women due to carbon monoxide poisoning, the case will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecution for review to determine whether the hotel can be held liable.

The hotel’s operations have been suspended until the establishment has passed an upcoming inspection to be conducted by the Ministry of Health and Belize Tourism Board.