In January, 20-year-old Abbey Conner, a former student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, died during a family vacation at a five-star resort in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Months later, her family is still searching for answers about her mysterious death, ABC News reports.
According to ABC News, Abbey reportedly drowned while swimming in a pool with her 23-year-old brother, Austin Conner, at the Iberostar Paraiso Resort. Austin Conner told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that while at a swim-up bar, he and his sister had celebrated the end of finals with “a couple shots of tequila.”
The Journal Sentinel reports that Abbey and Austin’s mother and stepfather got worried when neither of them showed up for dinner that evening. They learned some time later that the two had been taken to the emergency room, which was 14 miles away from the resort. ABC News reports that the officials from the resort told Abbey and Austin’s mom and stepfather that their kids were unconscious and found facedown in the pool. Austin suffered a concussion, and Abbey had a broken collarbone and was announced brain-dead before she was flown to a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Hotel officials told the Conners that Abbey’s death was an “accidental drowning,” but the family is not satisfied with that answer.Â
Bill Conner, Abby and Austin’s biological father who was not at the resort, told the Journal Sentinel that he thinks the shots his kids took at the pool may have had drugs added to them—and Ginny McGowan, Abbey’s mother, told the Journal Sentinel that even after reaching out for information, the FBI branch in Milwaukee has not helped her in the search for answers about her daughter’s mysterious death.Â
ABC News reports that the U.S. Department of State is aware of Abbey Conner’s death and offers condolences to the family—but the family is not giving up on finding out what actually happened to Abbey at the resort in Mexico.Â