15-07-2025
Parents speak from beyond the grave after they died alongside child in paradise beach resort
A grieving daughter has revealed details of her last conversations with her mother, who was found dead inside a Colombia resort hotel room with her youngest sibling and her stepfather.
The body of Maryeli Canro's mother, Viviana Canro, was found on the floor by her grandfather, Orlando Canro, while her four-year-old brother, Kevin Martínez, and his father, Tito Martínez, were discovered on the bed of room 404 at the Toné Blue Hotel in San Andrés last Friday.
Maryeli, 25, told Noticias Caracol that she remained behind in Bogotá to look after her mother's hair salon while she enjoyed the trip to celebrate Father's Day and her grandmother's birthday.
Maryeli, the oldest of Viviana's three children, recalled placing a video call via WhatsApp around 8:30 pm last Thursday.
'The three of them snuggled up in bed. Ready to rest,' Maryeli recalled. '[They were] calm and happy in their room. They were all happy.'
However, Maryeli had to end the call because she had to tend to a customer and thought about calling them again at around 10:30pm.
'I checked my mom's last connection [on WhatsApp] and it was at 8:30,' she remembered. 'And I said, 'No, it's already very late. They must be resting because they're going to get up early tomorrow.'
Maryeli confirmed the family, including her grandparents, checked in at the Toné Blue Hotel last Wednesday and not the Portobelo Hotel, where it was initially reported that her loved were spending their vacation.
Viviana, Maryeli explained, was extremely upset over what she said were the hotel room's rotting conditions.
'We arrived at the Toné (hotel). We just arrived, yes. That hotel is really, really moisty. But you could see how moist it is, it smells really, really bad,' Viviana said in an WhatsApp audio message that Maryeli shared with Noticias Caracol.
Viviana complained that the room did not have any 'toilet paper' available and regretted she had booked her parents room in the same property.
'They don't have bathrooms; they don't have towels. Oh, no, I felt sorry for them. I felt bad for my parents. No, I don't know what to do,' she said.
In another audio message, Viviana told Maryeli that she had asked a female staff member about being moved into a different room.
'Yes, I said to the girl, "Can you change the room?" But then she answered me all rudely, "But not today, maybe tomorrow,"' Viviana said.
'Everything has changed so much, the rooms are dirty, they don't clean them,' the late mother wrote in a message that her daughter shared with Noticias Caracol. 'It's ugly, it smells bad.'
Orlando told the outlet that he too complained about his room's condition to his daughter.
'I went down to tell her: ''My love, that room is horrible. It's so filthy, dirty, no towels, no toilet paper, nothing,"' he said.
He recalled Viviana telling him, ''Oh, Daddy, I didn't like this hotel. That room smells awful.''
'I don't know, it had a kind of weird smell, like mold,' Orlando said. 'We let it go unnoticed, and look at the consequences.'
Maryeli revealed that her little brother Kevin was already feeling ill prior to arriving at the hotel from the airport and that he was still vomiting the following day.
Initial reports from the medical examiner's office found that all three victims died from poisoning.
Orlando visited the medical examiner's office and said he was informed that Kevin had 'nothing unusual in his stomach, that it was clean … and that his liver was clean.'
He is still awaiting for results from an autopsy for his daughter and son-in-law.
San Andrés Police Department colonel James Totena told Blue Radio that foul play had been ruled out and that they are waiting for the results of the autopsies.
'The poisoning could be airborne or ingested,' Totena said. 'Since there are no signs of violence, this is the most reasonable hypothesis for now, but the exact cause will be determined by the Medical Examiner.'
