Report: Three women from Revere died of carbon monoxide poisoning in Belize
On Wednesday, the Belize National Forensic Science Service announced the findings of a toxicology report that took about three weeks to complete, according to Channel 5 Belize.
The three women, described as lifelong friends were found dead in their hotel room at the resort in February.
The families of Kaoutar Naqqad, 23, Wafae El-Arar, 26, and Imane Mallah, 26, have urged authorities in Belize and the United States to do an investigation to find the truth about what happened.
In light of this recent development, a spokesperson for the three families said they are not commenting at this time.
Belize authorities said there were no signs of foul play. Prior to today's finding there had been speculation the women may have suffered overdoses, with a news outlet in Belize reporting that gummies and alcohol were found in the room.
The women were young professionals in the medical field and part of a tight-knit community, officials said.
GoFundMe pages have been set up on behalf of each of the three families linked to the tragedy.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
ICE spared him from deportation to Venezuela. He donated a kidney to save his ailing brother in the Chicago area
The minutes dragged into hours on Wednesday night as Jose Gregorio Gonzalez tossed and turned through the night. At 5 a.m. the next day, he was scheduled to donate his kidney to his younger brother, Alfredo Pacheco, who was also restless. By 2 a.m. the two couldn't stay in bed any longer and began to get ready for a day that they thought would never come. ',' Gonzalez said. 'It's a miracle, because all odds were against us.' His mind raced back to the nights he spent locked inside an immigration detention center earlier this year, convinced he would soon be deported, while his younger brother pleaded with ICE officials to let him stay. Gonzalez was Pacheco's only hope to keep living after being diagnosed with terminal renal failure. When doctors told Pacheco he needed a kidney transplant, Pacheco stepped up. ',' Gonzalez said in Spanish. 'I didn't think about it twice.' But in March, just shy of a few weeks to begin the process for the transplant, Gonzalez was suddenly arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside their home in Cicero. Without him, Pacheco's condition would continue to deteriorate, putting him on an endless waiting list to get a transplant due to his immigration status. And doctors warned that time was running out. Gonzalez knew it: If he was deported, his brother would die. On Thursday, the brothers were admitted to the University of Illinois Hospital, where the transplant surgery was successfully performed. Hospital officials confirmed that both Pacheco and Gonzalez were recovering well. After mounting pressure from advocates and elected officials, ICE granted Gonzalez a temporary humanitarian parole so that they could proceed with the transplant, an unexpected move at a time when the agency is ramping up enforcement. Unlike in past administrations, immigration experts say agents today have less discretion over individual cases and are under pressure to meet deportation quotas, leaving little room for compassion. Though Gonzalez must return to Venezuela by March — after he's recovered from surgery — he says he's deeply grateful to the agent who, as he put it, 'touched his heart' and gave him the chance to save his brother's life. ',' Gonzalez said, smiling, his voice quiet and weak. 'Everything is possible if you have faith.' Even through the surgery, Gonzalez wore the ankle monitor that ICE activated when he was released from the Clay County Jail in southwest Indiana. The brothers now face a long and perhaps complicated road to recovery. The two have limited funds from the few hours of work that Pacheco was able to put in after dialysis over the last few months. Gonzalez was still waiting for the work permit that ICE officials promised. They were able to pay for rent and Pacheco's health insurance for a few months thanks to a fundraiser organized by his neighbors in the town of Cicero and a page on a GoFundMe page still open. But the money is running out quickly. Pacheco said he is worried the two won't be able to rest or take care of themselves properly after the surgery, potentially offsetting the success of the organ transplant and putting their lives on line once again. 'I have to be honest, we were so focused on making sure that I could get the transplant that we didn't consider much of the rest,' Pacheco said. 'We only have each other and cousins here. The rest of our family is in Venezuela.' Their cousin Cristalyn Gonzalez, 38, said her husband took some days off work to take care of their two kids so that she can help the brothers while they're at the hospital. 'I want them to feel supported somehow,' she said. 'We never thought that we would go through something like in the country we thought was going to provide us with opportunities to make a better life for us and our children.' Pacheco was the first one of the brothers to make his way in 2022. Like many other Venezuelan migrants, he made the trek to the United States hoping to get asylum from political and socioeconomic turmoil in Venezuela, where he served as part of the military during his youth. By January 2024, Pacheco was suddenly diagnosed with end-stage renal disease not long after arriving in the Chicago area from the southern border. 'My world completely fell apart,' Pacheco said, who at first refused to tell his family back in Venezuela. 'They were counting on me to help out over there.' Gonzalez was already at the southern border when he learned of his younger brother's brother's prognosis. Though agents had denied him entry the first time, he tried to enter again a second time, knowing that he would be his brother's lifeline. That's when Gonzalez was detained for the first time at a Texas facility awaiting deportation, but since there were no deportation flights to Venezuela, he was released to join Pacheco in Chicago under immigration supervision in March 2024. 'That was the first miracle,' Pacheco said. 'I know God was on our side.' Due to the previous order of removal, unlike Pacheco, Gonzalez cannot apply for asylum or any other kind of immigration relief. ICE officials had no comment, citing confidentiality rules. The oldest of six and having lost two younger siblings to accidents over the last few years in Venezuela, Gonzalez felt it was a blessing to be by Pacheco's side even if it was only for a few months to donate his kidney. Until ICE took him once again in March of 2025, just shy of a month of starting the process to donate the kidney — as confirmed by UIC hospital officials — and days before his parole ended. 'It has been a difficult, painful and frustrating experience,' Pacheco said. 'The American Dream doesn't exist. It's a lie. But at least there are good people in Chicago.' Despite his illness and uncertainty, getting dialysis every other day for four hours in the early morning, Pacheco worked delivering packages for Amazon. He used most of the money to pay for rent and food, and the rest, he said, he would send to his wife and children in Venezuela. 'They think everything is going OK here in Chicago, and that one day I will be back healthy and with enough money to start anew,' Pacheco said. Pacheco's children, a girl, 17, and twin boys, 9, still don't know that their father has a terminal illness. They also didn't know that we underwent lifesaving surgery on Thursday morning. They do know however, that their father and their uncle are hoping to return to Venezuela sometime soon, when 'things are much better,' he said. 'I now pray that my body responds well and that I have the strength to undergo the recovery,' Pacheco said. The recovery process is not an easy one, said Hilda Burgos, a longtime community activist who was key to the movement that helped to establish and pass legislation in Illinois in 2014 that expanded access to organ transplants, specifically kidney transplants, and the drugs needed to maintain the transplants, for immigrants with an irregular status in the country. 'Undocumented people, 'illegal people,' as many like to call us, were allowed to donate our organs to save people's lives including us citizen, but if we needed one, we couldn't get one. We couldn't even get in line to get one,' Burgos said. 'These two brothers are a testament to great work that the community has done to advocate for each other. We are not talking about policies here, it is people's lives.' Burgos' passion to advocate for those undocumented people in need of transplants began after her son was initially denied a kidney transplant he needed to continue living when he was 18-year-old in 2009. After mourning pressure, he got the surgery, but it was also then when she became aware of the 'unfair system.' Shortly after, she joined a delegation of faith leaders and medical leaders representing a group of ailing people in need of lifesaving transplants in Chicago. The group, led by the late Rev. Jose Landaverde performed hunger strikes outside the city's major hospitals, marched from Little Village to UIC and then to Northwestern. And they even conducted a funeral march for one woman who had died after not receiving a liver transplant. 'The fight for transplants was not an easy one,' Landaverde told the Tribune in 2014. While the 2014 law represented a significant step, its initial impact was limited due to several factors. In response, the Illinois Transplant Fund, a nonprofit organization, was established in 2015 to provide financial assistance, primarily covering health insurance premiums for eligible individuals, including undocumented immigrants, needing transplants and their aftercare. Over the last 10 years, ITF has supported hundreds of patients through the transplant process, including Pacheco. 'Senate Bill 741 was a simple, compassionate measure that has saved the lives of those many of us may never meet,' said Rep. Lisa Hernandez, D-Cicero, 'It's in situations like Alfredo's and Jose's that we see the urgent need for our fiscal, health and education policy to not single out, but bring in, our neighbors without permanent legal status and those on society's margins.' Hernandez was one of the many elected officials leaders who rallied in support of the Venezuelan brothers, with more than 1,700 other people signing a petition requesting that ICE release Gonzalez. Most recently, in 2021, Illinois passed a new bill directing the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services to cover post-transplant care for noncitizen kidney transplant recipients. A spokesperson for HFS said that despite the most recent changes, including the dismantling of coverage for noncitizen adults 42 to 65 years old, 'noncitizens who are not eligible for comprehensive medical benefits who have End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) may be eligible for certain dialysis, kidney transplantation, and post kidney transplantation services.' Immigration advocates say the brothers' case underscores the human cost of detention policies and the importance of considering humanitarian exceptions. 'We celebrate not just a successful surgery, but the triumph of love and community over fear and cruelty,' said Erendira Rendón, vice president of immigrant justice at the Resurrection Project, which provided Gonzalez with legal and community support for his release. 'The fact that this feels like such an incredible victory speaks to how cruel our immigration system has become. Across the country, families are being torn apart as parents, caregivers, coaches and partners are detained indiscriminately and jailed indefinitely in overcrowded facilities that put their mental and physical health at risk.' As the Venezuelan brothers recover side by side in a small hospital room, the physical pain is a reminder that their journey is far from over. Though the transplant was a hard-won victory, their lives remain defined by uncertainty, limited resources, fragile immigration status and the looming deadline for Gonzalez's return to Venezuela in March. And yet, for the first time in months, they can finally rest. ',' Pacheco said. 'We leave our life in God's hands.' Their pain, once rooted in fear and desperation, is now part of a story of survival made possible not by policy, they said, but by people. A community of strangers in the Chicago area rallied around them, Pacheco said, offering the kind of support they never expected to find in a foreign country.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
13-year-old boy wakes up from coma
ST. FRANCOIS COUNTY, Mo. – Cody Trenkle, a 13-year-old boy rescued in a ravine after days without food or water, has awakened from his coma. Trenkle's mother, Stephanie Neely, who has not left his side since his recovery, shared the news with FOX 2. According to Neely, Cody is awake and is making slow progress in the right direction. Cody—who was rescued on July 30 following his disappearance while he was heading to a friend's house on his skateboard—suffered brain bleeding, severe head trauma, pneumonia, a leg injury and other infections from being in the water for a long period. FOX 2 previously reported that there's no specific time frame for when Cody will be able to leave the hospital, but since then, a GoFundMe page was created to support the 13-year-old's recovery. The GoFundMe can be found here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Mass. woman raises money on GoFundMe after bat flies into her mouth, prompting $21K medical bill
A Massachusetts woman who recently lost her job and was left with a $21,000 medical bill after a bat flew into her mouth during a trip to Arizona has set up a GoFundMe to support herself. Westford resident Erica Kahn previously worked as a biomedical engineer, she wrote in her fundraiser campaign's description. She lost her job last summer and thought she would have a new job in a few months. Kahn signed up for new coverage, but she did not know it had a 30-day waiting period, WCVB-TV reported. 'Since I was fun-employed, I traveled to Horseshoe Bend in Arizona, where my dad and I took some long exposure photos of the beautiful landscape at night,' Kahn wrote on GoFundMe. While she was taking photos, she saw bats flying nearby, The Arizona Republic reported. One flew into her mouth. 'As I was screaming, part of the bat unfortunately went in my mouth (fun fact, they taste earthy and a little sweet!),' Kahn wrote on GoFundMe. Kahn's father, who works as a doctor, told her to go to the emergency room for rabies shots, she wrote. Kahn had lost her $650-per-month COBRA plan 11 days earlier. So while she was in the emergency room, she tried to sign up through Innovative Partners Her claims were denied and she received her three shots and four rabies vaccine doses from other hospitals, Kahn wrote. The medical bills totaled $20,749.29. 'It's mentally pretty stressful to think about that sum of money,' Kahn told Republic. Kahn set up the GoFundMe with a goal of donating half of the proceeds to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to 'help provide healthcare to families in need,' she wrote. Her goal is to receive $12,000. 'I wish our healthcare system wasn't so broken in the United States,' she continued. 'I believe life-saving medical care is a fundamental human right and it's depressing that Americans can only turn to GoFundMe instead of a federally protected safety net. I made a mistake by choosing not to pay for COBRA, but the cost of these seven shots is pretty extreme. Also, I still believe that bats are an important part of our ecosystem and I feel no ill will toward them! Protect the bats!' The campaign has received 29 donations, including eight $50 donations. 'As Michael Scott said in 'The Office,' 'Myth: three Americans every year die from rabies. Fact: four Americans every year die from rabies,'' Kahn wrote at the end of her campaign. More health-related stories Mass. beach closures: These are the beaches closed on Tuesday, Aug. 5 Worcester health and human services commissioner to retire after 10 years Mass. beach closures: Almost 40 beaches closed on Monday, Aug. 4 Read the original article on MassLive. Solve the daily Crossword
