Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Dad demands answers about daughter's Cancun death

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Dad demands answers about daughter's Cancun death · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius x M Triumph
0:09
Speaker 1: Channel one thirty two. He searched for answers after a
0:13
Speaker 1: young American tourist mysteriously died at a luxury resort in Mexico.
0:17
Speaker 1: It was supposed to be a fun family vacation. Abbe
0:19
Speaker 1: Connor and her brother both found unconscious and a hotel
0:22
Speaker 1: swimming pool. Somebody needs to be held responsible for this.
0:25
Speaker 1: Abby and Austin had been swimming at the pool just
0:27
Speaker 1: chest high water. It doesn't make any sense. We're lucky
0:29
Speaker 1: we did lose both of her kids. Austin with a
0:31
Speaker 1: concussion and golf ball size lump on his head, Abbey
0:34
Speaker 1: with a broken collar bone, brain dead. She died in
0:37
Speaker 1: a hospital days later. Mexican officials have ruled this an
0:40
Speaker 1: accidental drowning, but that's not enough for the family. Mexican police,
0:44
Speaker 1: they say, refused to investigate further. She was healthy, but
0:47
Speaker 1: for some reason, she drowned in a pool. You know,
0:51
Speaker 1: all year I look forward to the summer vacation when
0:56
Speaker 1: I can spend time with my nine year old twins
1:00
Speaker 1: and just be with them instead of being on a
1:03
Speaker 1: schedule where I'm racing to get them to school, that
1:07
Speaker 1: I'm racing to work, that I'm racing to pick them up,
1:09
Speaker 1: and it's it's you know, it's a lot to get
1:15
Speaker 1: them everywhere and get me everywhere. And I look forward
1:18
Speaker 1: to that moment when we can just be together. That
1:24
Speaker 1: is what a family had planned. But they're little girl.
1:30
Speaker 1: Abby never made it home. She never made it home.
1:38
Speaker 1: She was found face down in a swimming pool. And
1:42
Speaker 1: I want answers. I'm Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories.
1:49
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us. With me right now
1:53
Speaker 1: is Abby's dad, Bill Connor, also with me, an incredible,
1:58
Speaker 1: incredible reporter Raquel Rutledge from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who
2:03
Speaker 1: has taken a hard, hard look at this and similar cases.
2:08
Speaker 1: To both of you, thank you for being with me.
2:12
Speaker 1: First of all, I want to go to Mr Connor.
2:15
Speaker 1: What happened? Well? I wish we knew. We're trying to
2:21
Speaker 1: trying to find out or get some some type of
2:23
Speaker 1: cooperation from anybody, and we're rounded back in the hotel.
2:31
Speaker 1: The owners of the hotel are cooperating. UM. You would
2:36
Speaker 1: think if a tragedy something like this and their property,
2:40
Speaker 1: the first thing they would do was ask us how
2:43
Speaker 1: they can help I. The funny thing is I was
2:46
Speaker 1: watching g m A and through the the information they
2:52
Speaker 1: provided on the screen, I actually finally received a condolence
2:58
Speaker 1: from Arbor Star or the owner. It's six months later
3:02
Speaker 1: and I don't think Abby's mother has received any condolences,
3:07
Speaker 1: and as well as myself, they've never reached out to us.
3:11
Speaker 1: You saw that on the screen on g M A
3:14
Speaker 1: where they offer their condolences. That's the first dame. What
3:18
Speaker 1: is their name? What is their name? Arbor Star? But
3:24
Speaker 1: what who is that? The owner of the resort, ma'am?
3:28
Speaker 1: What what was the resort name? Pariso del Mar Cancun. Wow.
3:36
Speaker 1: I've been to Cancoun diving many times, and I never
3:42
Speaker 1: really saw the beautiful beaches too much. I was mostly
3:46
Speaker 1: underwater the whole time diving. But the resorts there are
3:49
Speaker 1: five star. I had no idea to Raquel Rutled's Roquelle.
3:56
Speaker 1: What have you learned from your investigative reporting? That's a
3:59
Speaker 1: that's a big question. There's um a lot that we've
4:03
Speaker 1: little pieces that were trying to kind of try to
4:05
Speaker 1: make sense of. I mean, there are we know that um,
4:10
Speaker 1: Abby and her big brother Austin Um were at the
4:14
Speaker 1: bar this one up bar with her um, mom and
4:17
Speaker 1: stepdad and they had just arrived. They hadn't been there
4:20
Speaker 1: very long, um a couple of hours, and um the
4:24
Speaker 1: Jenny and John McGowan were there and they said they were,
4:26
Speaker 1: you know, they were going to head back to their
4:28
Speaker 1: room that each had separate hotel rooms. John and Jenny
4:32
Speaker 1: were upright directly above Austin and Abbey. And they said,
4:36
Speaker 1: you know, we'll meet you back in the lobby at
4:37
Speaker 1: seven o'clock and we'll go for dinner. And that was
4:40
Speaker 1: at five thirty five. It wasn't long and they went
4:43
Speaker 1: back into the lobby at seven o'clock to wait for
4:47
Speaker 1: them for dinner, and and and Austin and Abbey um
4:50
Speaker 1: did not show up. And they waited for a little
4:52
Speaker 1: while and they thought, you know, maybe there's some rock
4:55
Speaker 1: the way you're saying that. I mean, how many times
4:58
Speaker 1: have I walked out the door and said, David and
5:01
Speaker 1: the twins, I'll be back in an hour. I'll see
5:03
Speaker 1: an hour, it might be an hour and a half.
5:06
Speaker 1: And that's what they did, That's what the mom and
5:10
Speaker 1: the step dad did. We'll see you at dinner an
5:12
Speaker 1: hour and a half, okay. And the two were to
5:16
Speaker 1: my understanding, there at the pool side bar. You can
5:20
Speaker 1: order food there, and someone invited them to have a drink,
5:29
Speaker 1: and that is what changed everything, right, Hell yeah, I
5:32
Speaker 1: mean they you know. Austin remembers the last thing he
5:35
Speaker 1: remembers as a group of people being around doing shots
5:37
Speaker 1: and saying, hey, let's everyone do a shot, and so
5:39
Speaker 1: they did a shot collectively, and that's the last thing
5:42
Speaker 1: he remembers. Back to Bill Connor, this is Abbey's dad
5:47
Speaker 1: who is watching g M A and sees reporting on
5:51
Speaker 1: Abby's death, his little girl's death, and it is the
5:55
Speaker 1: first time Arbor Star the morning to Mr Connor has said,
6:01
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, condolences, we wish we could help you. Nothing
6:07
Speaker 1: that's never been communicated to him or to his knowledge,
6:10
Speaker 1: to Abbey's mom. But they used g M A to
6:16
Speaker 1: say that. Okay, that is neither here nor there. Bill,
6:22
Speaker 1: When did you learn that Abby had a severe blow
6:26
Speaker 1: to the head and was found unconscious, face down in
6:31
Speaker 1: the pool. I guess everybody just standing around looking at her.
6:34
Speaker 1: I guess what what did you learn? Well, Abby actually um,
6:40
Speaker 1: Austin had a head injury. But Abby actually ended up
6:45
Speaker 1: um either falling into the pool or just blacking out
6:49
Speaker 1: and and basically I thought she had a I thought
6:53
Speaker 1: she was unconscious or had a blow to her head
6:54
Speaker 1: as well. No, that's that's been the story from day one.
6:58
Speaker 1: But the accurate piece is is that the only thing
7:01
Speaker 1: Abby had was a um like a hairline fracture in
7:05
Speaker 1: her collar bone. And they said that was due to
7:07
Speaker 1: the CPR. Well, really, as Raquel and I know you don't,
7:11
Speaker 1: you don't see do CPR and somebody's collar bone? I mean,
7:14
Speaker 1: just when you said that, I'm like, that's not right,
7:16
Speaker 1: because I have dealt with I mean, I literally can't
7:20
Speaker 1: count the number of people that I have dealt with
7:23
Speaker 1: that had CPR and date, none of them. And I
7:28
Speaker 1: prosecuted for ten years where there's a hundred and fifty
7:31
Speaker 1: knew felonies twice a week, never had a fracture collar
7:35
Speaker 1: bone from CPR. Never, So I don't believe right now,
7:39
Speaker 1: I don't believe that. I'll tell you that right now,
7:41
Speaker 1: she did not get a fracture collar bone from CPR.
7:44
Speaker 1: I don't care what they're saying, right And also, Nancy,
7:47
Speaker 1: if you can believe this. The police department finally put
7:50
Speaker 1: out a police report five months later, and the only people,
7:54
Speaker 1: And the only people they interviewed were the people the
7:58
Speaker 1: security guards that pulled my kids out of the water
8:02
Speaker 1: and provided some assistance. They never interviewed any of this staff, bartenders,
8:08
Speaker 1: people that were on shift that that day, none of
8:11
Speaker 1: the guests or anything else. And those guests are gone.
8:14
Speaker 1: Now you're never gonna be able to recreate who was.
8:19
Speaker 1: You might be able to get a guest list, but
8:21
Speaker 1: you won't know who was at the bar unless you
8:23
Speaker 1: go back through the credit card charges at that time,
8:27
Speaker 1: on that day, at that particular drink. Stand that that
8:33
Speaker 1: could be done will be very time intensive, but it
8:37
Speaker 1: can be done. But let me understand something. So your
8:40
Speaker 1: boy had a blow to the head. The daughter Abby
8:45
Speaker 1: had a fractured collar but I knew she had some injury.
8:48
Speaker 1: Thank you for refreshing my recollection. And they were both
8:54
Speaker 1: face down in the pool as I recall, correct, what's
8:59
Speaker 1: the likelihood of that at Raquel Rutledge Raquel joining me
9:02
Speaker 1: from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I mean, let's just let's
9:06
Speaker 1: just hold on a moment. The likelihood that both of
9:09
Speaker 1: them have a what I consider a severe bodily injury,
9:13
Speaker 1: a fracture collar bone and a blow to the head
9:17
Speaker 1: and they're both faced down at the same time in
9:22
Speaker 1: the same pool, having just been given a drink or
9:26
Speaker 1: had drinks with a group of unknown people there at
9:30
Speaker 1: the bar. Well, I mean, what's the likelihood of that
9:32
Speaker 1: being just a co inkie dink a coincidence? Yeah, I mean,
9:35
Speaker 1: that is that is the question. When the way the
9:38
Speaker 1: police report reads is that um, that she was face down, floating,
9:43
Speaker 1: and that he was unconscious, but he was the minute
9:46
Speaker 1: that they got to pull him, he you know, was flailing.
9:49
Speaker 1: He was flailing somebody. The way the police report reads
9:52
Speaker 1: is that there was a woman, um they said, of
9:54
Speaker 1: Spanish nationality, who alerted the security folks. There was not
9:59
Speaker 1: a lifeguard on duty at the pool. There was a
10:03
Speaker 1: lifeguard that was reportedly down at the beach, but this
10:06
Speaker 1: woman went and alerted the folks in the area, that
10:10
Speaker 1: the hotel staff and said, hey, that looks like there's
10:12
Speaker 1: some people having trouble getting out of the pool. Looks
10:14
Speaker 1: like they're you know, they're That's all it said. Doesn't
10:16
Speaker 1: have any details about that. But so then they report
10:20
Speaker 1: arriving there and finding her down and him down, and
10:23
Speaker 1: then pulling her first and then pulling he was still
10:27
Speaker 1: sort of in the process of unconscious flailing. And that
10:31
Speaker 1: is the question that when people say what we've heard
10:34
Speaker 1: a lot from the resort and everybody else who's who
10:36
Speaker 1: heard this story, is very easy to dismiss initially to say, oh,
10:40
Speaker 1: kids are drinking, they're drunk, they're drunk, they're drunk. But
10:43
Speaker 1: what always gets me is two people and this has happened.
10:46
Speaker 1: So what I've found subsequently to this is that there
10:49
Speaker 1: are a number of couples. I mean, I've gotten dozens
10:51
Speaker 1: now of reports from people. Many of them are couples
10:55
Speaker 1: of different sizes, different petite women, women with her husband
11:00
Speaker 1: who is you know, six three and two twenty, and
11:02
Speaker 1: they black out at the exact same time and they
11:05
Speaker 1: come to you know, hours later, around the same time.
11:08
Speaker 1: So it is not that that That's what really doesn't
11:11
Speaker 1: make a lot of sense when people say, oh, they're
11:13
Speaker 1: dehydrated and the heat got them, and you know, it's
11:16
Speaker 1: easy to drink too much and they just don't recognize
11:19
Speaker 1: how much they're drinking. That part sticks with me is
11:21
Speaker 1: not making a lot of sense when you have couples
11:23
Speaker 1: when this, when you have this happening in pairs right now,
11:26
Speaker 1: what are your findings. What are you learning about these
11:30
Speaker 1: resorts in Mexico. Well, I mean that's one of the
11:33
Speaker 1: themes I'm looking for as I hear from dozens of people,
11:36
Speaker 1: I'm looking for commonalities and things that I you know,
11:40
Speaker 1: the things that are common that I do repeatedly here
11:42
Speaker 1: is that UM, the hotel staff doesn't seem to make
11:45
Speaker 1: a deal out of doesn't seem to respond, not just
11:48
Speaker 1: at Eyeberrow Star, but the other I've heard from people
11:51
Speaker 1: that have been at Secrets in Grand Oasis and different
11:55
Speaker 1: hotel chains in the region of Cancoon, Amply Adull Carmen,
11:59
Speaker 1: which is just south of the which is um where
12:01
Speaker 1: Abbey and Austin were. I heard from them and they
12:04
Speaker 1: say that that they don't seem they just the common
12:07
Speaker 1: thread is that they say, oh, these people are just drunk,
12:10
Speaker 1: leave them alone. They're fine, they're drunk or they're drunk,
12:13
Speaker 1: but they need to go to the hospital. And there's
12:15
Speaker 1: a push to get people to the hospital and UM
12:19
Speaker 1: as we know that. Well, what I learned is that
12:21
Speaker 1: the hospital is has a contract with a Barrow Star.
12:25
Speaker 1: In this particular case, they there their clinic is inside
12:29
Speaker 1: a Barrow Star and it is the same UM a
12:32
Speaker 1: hospital that they were were also taken to. So the
12:35
Speaker 1: doctor works for the for the resort in the hospital,
12:38
Speaker 1: and so it's sort of there there. You know, that
12:41
Speaker 1: relationship is something we're exploring, a symbiotic relationship, and you
12:46
Speaker 1: don't want that in connection to a potential homicide. I
12:52
Speaker 1: just say that when you've got both of them, the
12:54
Speaker 1: boy and the girl in the water drowning after having
13:00
Speaker 1: these drinks at the pool, the parents hadn't been gone,
13:05
Speaker 1: you know, forty minutes. If that that is not a coincidence,
13:10
Speaker 1: that is simply not a coincidence. I want to thank
13:14
Speaker 1: both of you for being with us. Bill Connor, this
13:18
Speaker 1: is Abby's dad, along with Raquel Rutledger from the Milwaukee
13:22
Speaker 1: Journal Sentinel, who is investigating this. And I can't tell you,
13:26
Speaker 1: Mr Connor, how much we've been thinking about you and
13:29
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15:02
Speaker 1: Thank you. I want to go straight back right now
15:05
Speaker 1: to Bill Connor and Raquel Rutledge. Bill, when did you
15:10
Speaker 1: first learn what had happened to Abby? I got a
15:13
Speaker 1: phone call from my son Um. He was in the
15:16
Speaker 1: hospital and the my phone rang and he obviously it
15:21
Speaker 1: was pretty emotional, and um, I believe it was like
15:26
Speaker 1: on a Saturday or Sunday morning, and Austin told me
15:30
Speaker 1: what happened. Obviously I was a little beside myself a
15:34
Speaker 1: little bit. And what did he say? What were his words?
15:37
Speaker 1: I know you can remember, Um he said, Dad, Um,
15:41
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you something that's going to be pretty
15:43
Speaker 1: hard to hear. And he just said that told me
15:48
Speaker 1: about him an Abbey and being at the bar and
15:54
Speaker 1: the last thing he remembers, and he woke up in
15:56
Speaker 1: the hospital and and then he just told me that
15:58
Speaker 1: Abbey's on life support. So when they pulled her out
16:03
Speaker 1: of the pool, obviously Abby was dead. She was already gone.
16:08
Speaker 1: But Austin was lucky enough that they pulled him out
16:12
Speaker 1: in time and he fully recovered, obviously, But um, Abby
16:17
Speaker 1: Abbey was on life support, and obviously we're hoping that
16:23
Speaker 1: putting her in a coma might bring her back. But
16:26
Speaker 1: once I got down to Fort Lauderdale where they med
16:28
Speaker 1: flighted her into, obviously I knew the situation at that
16:33
Speaker 1: point that she wasn't coming back. So that was that
16:37
Speaker 1: was a tough week. But I'll tell you the with
16:40
Speaker 1: our bike ride in the organ donation awareness I'll tell you, Nancy,
16:43
Speaker 1: that's for some odd reason, knowing she helped for other
16:47
Speaker 1: people live somehow that took the sting out of it.
16:50
Speaker 1: That her life wasn't senseless the way that she left,
16:55
Speaker 1: but she was able to help somebody else and need
16:58
Speaker 1: And I know that my it sound odd, but it
17:02
Speaker 1: was something in which we Abby was helping somebody live
17:07
Speaker 1: or live a better life. That's been Uh, that's what
17:11
Speaker 1: I've been taking the positive out of this and and
17:14
Speaker 1: moving forward with it. Bill. When you say she helped
17:17
Speaker 1: for people, what do you mean? What? What? What are
17:21
Speaker 1: you talking about? Well? Uh, on my bike bike trip
17:26
Speaker 1: from Madison, Wisconsin to Fort Lauderdale, and that's a bicycle,
17:29
Speaker 1: not a motorcycle. I actually met Abbey's heart recipient north
17:35
Speaker 1: of Baton Rouge on Father's Day. That in itself was
17:40
Speaker 1: something was two fathers were able to celebrate Father's Day
17:47
Speaker 1: la month. Jack Jr. Is my daughter's heart recipient and
17:50
Speaker 1: his new name now is Abby Jack. And I was
17:56
Speaker 1: able to hear Abbey's heartbeat inside of Jack. And so
18:01
Speaker 1: Jack's father and family were there and they will be
18:04
Speaker 1: able to they were able to celebrate Father's Day because
18:09
Speaker 1: Abby Jack is alive. And I was there too spend
18:13
Speaker 1: time with my daughter because that's her heart beating inside
18:17
Speaker 1: of Abby Jack. And so I was able to spend
18:21
Speaker 1: some time with Abbey as well. But she donated her heart,
18:25
Speaker 1: her kidneys, pancreas in her liver, they didn't have any
18:30
Speaker 1: matches for her other organs, and but her lungs. They
18:35
Speaker 1: didn't get all the water out of her lungs or
18:37
Speaker 1: we would have been able to use them as well.
18:40
Speaker 1: She was a donor when she got her driver's license
18:42
Speaker 1: when she was sixteen. So her and I in Austin
18:46
Speaker 1: our organ donors. And she made that decision on her own.
18:50
Speaker 1: And that's typical because she's always been the one that
18:53
Speaker 1: want to help people in need. Bill Connor, Abby's dad bicycle?
18:58
Speaker 1: What would that be? How far is that it ended
19:01
Speaker 1: up being around? I'm just imagining that moment. Give you
19:07
Speaker 1: a grieving father, here's your little girl's heart beating and
19:13
Speaker 1: someone else's chest. I mean, what went through your mind? Well, um,
19:18
Speaker 1: it was a bittersweet moment. I mean, obviously I'd rather
19:21
Speaker 1: have my daughter, but at the same time, you know,
19:25
Speaker 1: all that means Uh, that Abby Jack wouldn't be here,
19:31
Speaker 1: and that means somebody else would be suffering. So yeah,
19:36
Speaker 1: it was. It was an out of body experience. I
19:40
Speaker 1: have watched a video of you and your bike uniform.
19:45
Speaker 1: Believe it or not, I actually raced bicycles at one time.
19:48
Speaker 1: It seems like another life ago, and you were listening
19:53
Speaker 1: to the heartbeat with a stethoscope. You're holding a stethoscope
20:00
Speaker 1: up to Abby Jack's chest and listening. Do you remember
20:04
Speaker 1: that moment when you heard that heartbeat? And that was
20:10
Speaker 1: for me? Was She's alive? To Roquel Rutledge from the
20:16
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I can't thank you enough for what
20:19
Speaker 1: you're doing, Raquel, investigating this. What do you really believe happened?
20:26
Speaker 1: From what you know now? You know, it's just too
20:28
Speaker 1: it's too hard to say at this point. There's just
20:31
Speaker 1: so much more to learn and to find out. And
20:35
Speaker 1: I'm not slowing down on trying to figure out what
20:37
Speaker 1: that what what actually did happen and what is happening
20:39
Speaker 1: what's continuing to happen to other people that are traveling there.
20:43
Speaker 1: So um, I'm not I'm not you know, like I said,
20:46
Speaker 1: I'm not slowing down until still trying to find out.
20:48
Speaker 1: I don't know, Raquel, before we forget or we don't
20:52
Speaker 1: get it out, can you explain that report that you
20:55
Speaker 1: published about the adulterated hall in that and again it's
21:02
Speaker 1: not your report, but it's a report that you you
21:04
Speaker 1: were able to find sure. I mean, one of the
21:07
Speaker 1: things I have learned in doing this research is that
21:09
Speaker 1: there the amount of alcohol, the consumption of alcohol in Mexico,
21:17
Speaker 1: of it is produced illegally, so it's not regulated, and
21:21
Speaker 1: you know there is in the Mexican government acknowledges that.
21:24
Speaker 1: The other this is a report from the tax administration
21:29
Speaker 1: in Mexico, so that is an avenue to to look at,
21:32
Speaker 1: is what sort of um alcohol is being served. So
21:37
Speaker 1: that's just one more area that needs exploring. What is
21:40
Speaker 1: your word of warning, Raquale? I know you're headed straight
21:44
Speaker 1: out to work. What is your word of warning to travelers?
21:47
Speaker 1: I wish somebody had told me this before I went
21:49
Speaker 1: to King Koun. I was just, you know, fat, dumb
21:52
Speaker 1: and happy going. I had no idea what was going
21:55
Speaker 1: on around me. Yeah. Well, it's funny you say that
21:57
Speaker 1: because I feel I mean, if I say this is
22:00
Speaker 1: you know, if you said, well, be careful and watch
22:02
Speaker 1: what you do. I mean one of the women that
22:03
Speaker 1: I interviewed that was UM that she and her husband
22:07
Speaker 1: UM had a couple of drinks and blacked out. Um,
22:10
Speaker 1: and we're out for a number of hours and she
22:12
Speaker 1: was assaulted and he broke up. He woke up with
22:14
Speaker 1: a broken hand. Um. You know, she said, we did.
22:17
Speaker 1: We traveled to Mexico regularly, We take precautions, were careful,
22:21
Speaker 1: we don't wear jewelry, we pay attention to what we're doing.
22:23
Speaker 1: We we go to this resort because this is this
22:26
Speaker 1: is what we thought was the safest place, the safest
22:28
Speaker 1: way to enjoy Mexico. And so I mean when you
22:31
Speaker 1: say word of word of advice for travelers, I mean
22:34
Speaker 1: I feel like I would sound um just that wouldn't
22:37
Speaker 1: make any sense for me to say be careful, because
22:39
Speaker 1: in some cases, I don't. I don't know if you're
22:41
Speaker 1: going to be you know, at a place that you
22:44
Speaker 1: expect to be safe, and that I don't know if
22:47
Speaker 1: there is a way, I don't know what how you
22:49
Speaker 1: could prevent something that we would not drink. You wouldn't
22:51
Speaker 1: go to an all inclusive that offered drinks. I mean,
22:53
Speaker 1: you can't realistically watch everything that you're drinking. I mean,
22:57
Speaker 1: it's just I don't think it's possible. And mean, even
23:00
Speaker 1: if you had a beer, if you had a beer
23:02
Speaker 1: that hadn't been wait a minute, can't what about taking
23:05
Speaker 1: watching when they make the drink. I mean, I guess
23:07
Speaker 1: they could pour um, diluted or or poison into a
23:14
Speaker 1: a a recognized campaigner another bottle. But yeah, and if
23:19
Speaker 1: they're getting if they are getting adulterated alcohol, it may
23:22
Speaker 1: look to be you wouldn't be able to recognize it necessarily.
23:25
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any way that I could sit
23:27
Speaker 1: there and tell you, even if I'm looking at directly
23:29
Speaker 1: at it. Yeah, good point. Rockuel Rutledge follow her at
23:34
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Thank you, rock Hill, thank you so much,
23:39
Speaker 1: and we'll continue reading. Thank you, Nancy. Bill. If you
23:43
Speaker 1: don't mind, Bill, can I ask you a couple more questions?
23:46
Speaker 1: Could you explain to me? I guess it's just also
23:51
Speaker 1: difficult for me to take in and see. I don't
23:54
Speaker 1: see it as as innocently as they had a drink
23:58
Speaker 1: with a group that they met at the pool and
24:01
Speaker 1: then suddenly to completely healthy young people. Your daughter and
24:07
Speaker 1: son are found and they were both faced down in
24:11
Speaker 1: the pool. Yes, your son was flailing and he managed
24:14
Speaker 1: to live. One has a blow to the head, your son.
24:17
Speaker 1: One has a fractured collar bone, and nothing unusual happened.
24:23
Speaker 1: That to me, that is not a coincidence. That is
24:27
Speaker 1: foul play. I mean, if one of them had ended
24:32
Speaker 1: up in the pool, I could say, well, you know,
24:35
Speaker 1: they could have hit their head when they felt if
24:37
Speaker 1: they fell into the pool, or if there's a diving board,
24:40
Speaker 1: that could have happened. But two of them with injuries
24:45
Speaker 1: like a fractured collar bone and a blow to the head,
24:48
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just statistically practically impossible. And add to
24:53
Speaker 1: the fact that your son has no recollection from the
24:58
Speaker 1: time he was had taken the offered the drink until
25:02
Speaker 1: he woke up in the hospital. Well, that seems that's
25:06
Speaker 1: not normal. It seems to be the process though, so
25:09
Speaker 1: from the adulterated alcohol and uh whatever mixture they're putting
25:15
Speaker 1: into the bottles um, that's the norm. That's that's the
25:20
Speaker 1: way this happens, and nobody has a recollection of where,
25:26
Speaker 1: what and who and if you can believe this, Nancy,
25:30
Speaker 1: you've got a five star resort. They're one of the
25:33
Speaker 1: world's largest resort owners and they have no security footage.
25:40
Speaker 1: That's the statement they made the g m A. They
25:43
Speaker 1: have no security footage of their pools or their property,
25:49
Speaker 1: is what they're telling us. You know, Bill Conner is
25:52
Speaker 1: with me. Abby's dad. Abby and her brother were found
25:57
Speaker 1: face down in a swimming pool at a five star resort,
26:02
Speaker 1: and now we are learning that the owner says, there's
26:06
Speaker 1: no security footage. Are you kidding me? I mean you
26:10
Speaker 1: can get that with your cable company at home, and
26:13
Speaker 1: you can look at it on your tail on your
26:15
Speaker 1: cell phone, all right, And a five story sort says
26:18
Speaker 1: they don't have security footage of the pool. Really and
26:22
Speaker 1: a bar It's hard for me to believe that. And
26:27
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a coincidence that too gorgeous young
26:31
Speaker 1: people with their family, with their mom and stepdad there
26:36
Speaker 1: at the pool, the mom and step and I say okay,
26:38
Speaker 1: I'll see an hour and a half in the lobby
26:40
Speaker 1: for dinner. Okay, They're like fine, and they're perfectly fine.
26:43
Speaker 1: Then an hour and a half later they're both faced
26:47
Speaker 1: down of the pool with a fracture collar bone and
26:48
Speaker 1: blow to the head, and the daughter, Abbey is drowned.
26:56
Speaker 1: It's not a coincidence. So explain to me Bill out
27:00
Speaker 1: what investigation is being performed now, Well, the police aren't
27:05
Speaker 1: helping UM. Twenty four hours after the incident, my son
27:11
Speaker 1: Austin in their step. Then John went to the police
27:14
Speaker 1: department and the police told them there's no reason to
27:17
Speaker 1: file a report. It was an accident. They hadn't talked
27:20
Speaker 1: to anybody at the hotel, They hadn't do that. They
27:24
Speaker 1: have hadn't done any um investigation or anything. And so
27:33
Speaker 1: we UM, you know, we knew what we were up against.
27:36
Speaker 1: And obviously since then, the amount of people that we've
27:40
Speaker 1: talked to, UM, it's a tough hole. It's not it's
27:45
Speaker 1: a you know, and I want to make sure that
27:47
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not saying it's everybody in Mexico. I
27:52
Speaker 1: don't think. I don't think the Americans are the only
27:55
Speaker 1: ones that they target. I think this has been this
27:58
Speaker 1: has been happening for a long time. This is just
28:01
Speaker 1: something when this incident happens in the travelers that go
28:06
Speaker 1: back to where they live outside of Mexico. The difficulty
28:10
Speaker 1: with the judicial system, that dificulty with getting any cooperation
28:16
Speaker 1: just leads people to give up and I'm not gonna
28:20
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna let this go. And it's just a
28:22
Speaker 1: part of Abby and I. With what the work we
28:26
Speaker 1: did for organ donation awareness, this is our second cause.
28:30
Speaker 1: We need to shed some light on this because it's
28:32
Speaker 1: been going on for too long and everybody goes home,
28:36
Speaker 1: it stays local. This is something that this This isn't
28:40
Speaker 1: just this hotel. It's happening everywhere, and this kind of
28:45
Speaker 1: stuff happens in the United States, but the judicial system
28:48
Speaker 1: behind it. In the United States, at least you get
28:51
Speaker 1: some you get some um justification. But down in Mexico,
28:57
Speaker 1: you like you need to know people, you need to
29:01
Speaker 1: you can't. You can't trust or go through the normal
29:05
Speaker 1: judicial system. It doesn't it doesn't work. You know. When
29:08
Speaker 1: I first learned about that bill as when um, I
29:12
Speaker 1: mean I tried cases and put bad guys away for
29:16
Speaker 1: ten years and then covered cases for longer than that.
29:20
Speaker 1: But when I spoke to the parents of Natalie Holloway
29:25
Speaker 1: and I heard what they went through to try and
29:29
Speaker 1: deal with the police in Aruba to try to help
29:31
Speaker 1: find their daughter, I was just knocked out. I mean,
29:35
Speaker 1: I have been dealing mostly with cases within the US
29:39
Speaker 1: but when you're trying to deal with a whole different police,
29:43
Speaker 1: law enforcement system and judiciary. Oh, I mean, it's like
29:48
Speaker 1: you set foot down at the airport and you look
29:52
Speaker 1: out and you're like, now, what do I do? Have
29:55
Speaker 1: you been down there? Now? I won't go to on there.
30:00
Speaker 1: It's father. Being on the grounds where my daughter died
30:04
Speaker 1: wouldn't be a good thing for me. You know that's
30:06
Speaker 1: interesting that you say that, Bill, because people have asked
30:09
Speaker 1: me a million times, have you gone back to the
30:12
Speaker 1: scene where your fiancee was murdered. I just looked at
30:15
Speaker 1: him like no, And I haven't read the trial transcript
30:20
Speaker 1: and I didn't read the appeal because that would throw
30:24
Speaker 1: me into a depression, a fit. I can't even tell
30:28
Speaker 1: you if I had to relive all that, I just
30:33
Speaker 1: I can't be that person from my twins, I won't
30:37
Speaker 1: be able to put one ft in front of the other.
30:39
Speaker 1: People don't get it when you say no, I haven't
30:42
Speaker 1: gone back to the pool where she died. Of course
30:46
Speaker 1: you haven't. Well that hospital, Um my bike ride ended
30:51
Speaker 1: at the hospital in Fort Lauderdale that took care of
30:55
Speaker 1: my daughter, and so God bless him. What hospital? That
31:00
Speaker 1: Broward Medical Center? M I'm very familiar with it. It's
31:06
Speaker 1: an awesome place. Yeah, we uh. I even went up
31:09
Speaker 1: to the ICU and visited where they had her, where
31:14
Speaker 1: they had Abigail, and I spent a week with her
31:18
Speaker 1: prior to obviously saying our goodbyes, and I was able
31:23
Speaker 1: to meet the doctors and give him you know, just
31:29
Speaker 1: it was good to see him again. And obviously it's
31:32
Speaker 1: a part of healing. And and at the same time
31:37
Speaker 1: it was a catch twenty two because you know that
31:40
Speaker 1: ride finished and then now this is in my crosshairs.
31:45
Speaker 1: This is something in which you know, this isn't just
31:48
Speaker 1: about Abbey. Um, this isn't just about us. This is
31:52
Speaker 1: about the other people as well that have lost people
31:55
Speaker 1: in the same manner and have gotten no justice. And
31:59
Speaker 1: so we are carrying the torch not only for us,
32:06
Speaker 1: but all still for all the other people that have
32:09
Speaker 1: have gotten no answers and obviously just went home and
32:15
Speaker 1: and just threw their hands up and gave up. We're
32:17
Speaker 1: we're here to to shine a bright light on this
32:21
Speaker 1: and it needs it needs some attention, and it needs
32:23
Speaker 1: to stop, you know, both of them. Also, I've I've
32:27
Speaker 1: read we're very strong swimmers. Is that true. Oh yeah,
32:32
Speaker 1: they grew up in a lake. They know how to swim.
32:34
Speaker 1: And and if you think about it, my son six
32:36
Speaker 1: two three, my daughters five eight, five nine, and they're
32:41
Speaker 1: on a waist deep, not even a chest deep pool,
32:45
Speaker 1: and they drove it wasn't even chest deep that they're
32:49
Speaker 1: they're in a pool side bar. Oh my stars. I
32:53
Speaker 1: was just at a place with the twins where the pool,
32:57
Speaker 1: nowhere in the pool was over five eat nowhere in
33:01
Speaker 1: the pool was over five feet. I don't know what
33:04
Speaker 1: the minimum was, but I mean, they're in a poolside bar.
33:08
Speaker 1: Their reports said that my kids were three times the
33:10
Speaker 1: legal limit in Wisconsin, and of course, being there less
33:14
Speaker 1: than two hours, there's no way either one of them
33:17
Speaker 1: could ingest that much alcohol. There's no way. And so
33:22
Speaker 1: the only thing that makes sense is the alcohol. There
33:27
Speaker 1: had to be something in that, and it's either white
33:30
Speaker 1: lightning or methanol. It's what they say that they do.
33:34
Speaker 1: And so they pour out half the bottle, they pour
33:37
Speaker 1: in their concoction, and then obviously they serve it. And
33:41
Speaker 1: that's when Raquel was talking about people that had one
33:46
Speaker 1: or two drinks or three drinks and then all of
33:49
Speaker 1: a sudden you either become violently ill or you blackout.
33:54
Speaker 1: That's exactly what happened. Now when they got to the
34:00
Speaker 1: adulterated alcohol along there less than two hours stay. I
34:04
Speaker 1: don't know, but both of my kids, like you were saying,
34:09
Speaker 1: for both of them to be faced down in a
34:12
Speaker 1: pool or something absolutely wrong, especially poll that they could
34:16
Speaker 1: stand up in the whole thing. There was no deep end.
34:21
Speaker 1: And let's say, let's give them the benefit of the doubt.
34:24
Speaker 1: Let's give the hotel the benefit of the doubt. Okay,
34:27
Speaker 1: they were, well, guess what, you're responsible for your patrons,
34:31
Speaker 1: and you overserved my kids. I just don't believe that
34:35
Speaker 1: they could get to that point. And that amount of
34:39
Speaker 1: time the mom left them was only a way probably
34:43
Speaker 1: was not even away from them thirty forty minutes before
34:46
Speaker 1: this happened, because she was only she's supposed to meet
34:48
Speaker 1: them in an hour an hour and a half max.
34:52
Speaker 1: So all this has happened in less than an hour.
34:56
Speaker 1: I don't I don't see it. I just don't see it.
35:00
Speaker 1: So we were saying, you're not getting anywhere with law
35:04
Speaker 1: enforcement in Kancu. What do you mean by that, Well,
35:07
Speaker 1: it's not the law enforcement, it's the hotel. The hotel, Okay,
35:11
Speaker 1: all right, yeah, but excuse my language, but I don't
35:15
Speaker 1: I don't give a crap about the police anymore. They're there,
35:18
Speaker 1: local there. They they're better off to do what they're
35:21
Speaker 1: supposed to do. I mean, um, but the hotel in itself, um,
35:27
Speaker 1: they they wouldn't let the the lawyer on their property.
35:33
Speaker 1: They didn't reach out to help. They didn't come on.
35:36
Speaker 1: I mean, the normal thing would be is I'm sorry
35:38
Speaker 1: for the you know, we want to help. Man. They
35:41
Speaker 1: sure reached out to g m A though, you know,
35:43
Speaker 1: to try to reach a couple of million Americans who
35:46
Speaker 1: were watching g m A every morning. Take a listen
35:49
Speaker 1: to ABC's Good Morning America. Was that the Ibero start
35:53
Speaker 1: by resort and Pliadel Carman, where Abby Corner was found
35:56
Speaker 1: floating in a pool and her brother got a concussion.
35:59
Speaker 1: He does remember what happened, and there were reportedly no cameras,
36:03
Speaker 1: But this morning their family questioning if tainted alcohol at
36:06
Speaker 1: the resort could have contributed to the tragedy, and now
36:09
Speaker 1: other American families are coming forward. I thought I was dying,
36:13
Speaker 1: Jamie and Rick. Valerie stayed at another resort in the
36:16
Speaker 1: couple telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. They both blocked out
36:20
Speaker 1: after a few drinks from the resort's beach Ballum. I
36:23
Speaker 1: thought I was dying because I couldn't get out of
36:25
Speaker 1: whatever state of mind I was in, and you just
36:27
Speaker 1: you couldn't wake up. Um. I remember thinking, how are
36:30
Speaker 1: my six kids gonna find out, you know, and what's
36:33
Speaker 1: going to happen to them? They say the hotel ignored
36:36
Speaker 1: their complaints. They thought they were drugged. My hands broken,
36:40
Speaker 1: and She's just like, oh no, no, no, that doesn't
36:42
Speaker 1: happen here were We've never had any anything like that.
36:45
Speaker 1: Guan responding to Avie Connor's death, the Ibero Stars parent company,
36:49
Speaker 1: telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, we only purchased sealed bottles
36:53
Speaker 1: that satisfy all standards required by the designated regulatory authorities.
36:57
Speaker 1: We are deeply sad and by this incident and reiterate
37:00
Speaker 1: our deepest sympathies and condolences to the family. I believe
37:03
Speaker 1: the resorts are trying to hide the fact that the
37:06
Speaker 1: dangers exist. More in, Webster created the website Mexico Vacation
37:10
Speaker 1: awareness about the potential risks when traveling to these resorts.
37:14
Speaker 1: After her two year old son Nolan's unconscious body was
37:17
Speaker 1: pulled from a waist deep resort pool, and he later died.
37:20
Speaker 1: She says the nurse tried to help her son, but
37:22
Speaker 1: the hotel doctor pulled him away, saying he was just drunk,
37:26
Speaker 1: which Webster denies. All the cases that I've received on
37:31
Speaker 1: my website, the resorts are quick to blame the guests.
37:35
Speaker 1: I promised. I'm not stopping until something changes. Webster says
37:39
Speaker 1: she started the website around the same time. Trip Advisor,
37:42
Speaker 1: a travel site used by nearly four hundred million visitors
37:45
Speaker 1: each month, refused to publish her reviews, saying it did
37:49
Speaker 1: not meet requirements. Trip Advisor telling ABC News our guideline
37:53
Speaker 1: state that every review must be based on a first
37:56
Speaker 1: hand experience and relevant to other travelers. It's important that
37:59
Speaker 1: anyone who suspects foul play or a legal activity contact
38:03
Speaker 1: the local authorities. The valeries this morning say no review
38:07
Speaker 1: will convince them to return to Mexico. There is physical
38:12
Speaker 1: and emotional consequences that will not a be able to
38:15
Speaker 1: leave us, and we should tell you. The State Department's
38:18
Speaker 1: latest travel notice on travel to Mexico makes no mention
38:22
Speaker 1: of concern for vacationers at all inclusive resorts. Meanwhile, the
38:25
Speaker 1: family of Aby Connor told us overnight many people have
38:28
Speaker 1: reached out to them with their own stories that their
38:30
Speaker 1: greatest hope is that together they will finally get answers
38:34
Speaker 1: and help keep us from happening again, which would hope.
38:36
Speaker 1: So okay, Gio, thanks very much. So your theory is
38:40
Speaker 1: from what I'm understanding, that is bootleg booze. Well that
38:45
Speaker 1: the hotel you think may have poisoned her with cheap
38:49
Speaker 1: homemade alcohol, alcohol that they substitute at the bars. I
38:54
Speaker 1: guess is a money saving measure, but why well, they
38:58
Speaker 1: make more money. And like Raquel said, that seems to
39:01
Speaker 1: be you know, the open door here, and that's what
39:06
Speaker 1: she's gonna she's gonna keep digging in. And it's just
39:10
Speaker 1: a part of again, Um, it's it's it's the only
39:15
Speaker 1: trail that that right now that we're we're following, and
39:19
Speaker 1: it's a part of that's the part that it seems
39:22
Speaker 1: that it seems to be obvious because Raquel as well
39:25
Speaker 1: as myself for receiving messages from people all over the world,
39:30
Speaker 1: and you know, in their experiences, there's so many people
39:32
Speaker 1: out here that are embarrassed to come forward. Because the
39:37
Speaker 1: same thing happened to them. I mean you, I mean,
39:41
Speaker 1: it's just it's something seems it seems to be the norm.
39:47
Speaker 1: Uh Arbor Star put a statement out that they buy
39:51
Speaker 1: their liquor from the normal distributors um and they have
39:57
Speaker 1: sealed bottles, so all right, that's normal. So what's going
40:02
Speaker 1: on is hat it has to be on the premises.
40:06
Speaker 1: And the other thing is which bothers me. I've got
40:09
Speaker 1: twenty bucks that says the corporates. The corporate office in
40:13
Speaker 1: Spain had no idea about Abigail may Connor drowning in
40:18
Speaker 1: their pool until five months later, until Raquel showed up
40:23
Speaker 1: on their doorstep. I think you may be right about that.
40:25
Speaker 1: They don't even know what's going on in their in
40:27
Speaker 1: their their facility. No, I think that's very, very incriminating.
40:32
Speaker 1: Is that your son, Austin, who had the forehead injury
40:35
Speaker 1: and the severe concussion. The last thing he remembers, he
40:39
Speaker 1: doesn't remember getting into the pool. He doesn't remember falling
40:42
Speaker 1: into the pool. The last thing he remembers before waking
40:46
Speaker 1: up in an ambulance is being invited to have one
40:50
Speaker 1: shot of Jager Master mixed with Red Bull by a
40:54
Speaker 1: group of guys at the bar. One drink. He was
40:59
Speaker 1: invited to have the drink. That's the last thing he remembers.
41:03
Speaker 1: That's not right. He does not remember having the drink.
41:08
Speaker 1: He does not remember walking to the pool. Nothing. The
41:12
Speaker 1: next thing he remembers, he's in the ambulance. So where
41:17
Speaker 1: do we go from here? Well, what we do is
41:19
Speaker 1: we keep shining the light on this. Uh, thank god,
41:23
Speaker 1: we've got raquel um forty three per cent of alcohol
41:29
Speaker 1: consumed in Mexico is produced illegally. I think Roquel mentioned
41:33
Speaker 1: that forty three percent from the Mexico Tax Administration Service.
41:39
Speaker 1: That's nearly half the alcohol in Mexico that is illegal,
41:45
Speaker 1: isn't that Yes? And then you know teens scrubbed in sunshine,
41:53
Speaker 1: or people on family vacations go down and allegedly get
41:58
Speaker 1: this moon shine and your daughter ends up dead. Tell
42:06
Speaker 1: me what keeps you going? When you wake up in
42:08
Speaker 1: the morning, will you put your feet on the floor.
42:11
Speaker 1: Tell me, Bill Connor, what keeps you going? Well, Babby
42:15
Speaker 1: and I are are gonna and her mother and our
42:19
Speaker 1: family are going to find out what happened. And that's
42:23
Speaker 1: gonna obviously shine a light on what has happened to
42:26
Speaker 1: other people besides us. There's a lot of people that
42:29
Speaker 1: have been lucky enough to walk away from this. But
42:32
Speaker 1: there's too many of us, are too many of people
42:35
Speaker 1: of the people that have died, and we need to
42:39
Speaker 1: keep cracking the door. We need to keep pushing back, um,
42:44
Speaker 1: because I can tell you the way she died, she
42:47
Speaker 1: didn't get a choice to do it. And so what
42:50
Speaker 1: we need to do is to focus in finding this
42:53
Speaker 1: answer and exposing the people that need to be exposed.
42:58
Speaker 1: Have them judicial Lee uh taken care of So, Bill,
43:03
Speaker 1: what is your message to our listeners today on serious
43:06
Speaker 1: ex m Well, my messages you know what? Um. Again,
43:10
Speaker 1: we're not saying everybody in Mexico does this. All I'm
43:15
Speaker 1: saying is what happened to my daughter. What seems to
43:19
Speaker 1: be the crack in the door. And when Mexico puts
43:24
Speaker 1: out a report that there's resorts and bars with of
43:28
Speaker 1: them with adulterated alcohol. No matter where you go, you
43:34
Speaker 1: never go there alone. Whatever you do, you do not
43:39
Speaker 1: go there alone. You need to take care of each other.
43:43
Speaker 1: You need to watch out for what's going on, and
43:46
Speaker 1: you need to be careful. Since Abby's drowning, do you
43:53
Speaker 1: believe you have felt her presence at all with you, Oh, Nancy,
43:58
Speaker 1: on my bike ride, my hair standing up right now.
44:02
Speaker 1: I know Abby's with me, the signs on my bike
44:06
Speaker 1: ride and with animals, and it's it's something I can't explain,
44:13
Speaker 1: but she was with me. I didn't worry about one
44:16
Speaker 1: one thing on my ride. I knew she was taking
44:18
Speaker 1: care of me. I knew I was going to get here.
44:21
Speaker 1: She was going to make sure that I got here.
44:23
Speaker 1: Because we have more work to do, and so our
44:27
Speaker 1: cause is to save other lives, not only through organ donation,
44:32
Speaker 1: but also through this incident in Mexico. We're gonna find
44:38
Speaker 1: out who and what it's going to be exposed. We're
44:42
Speaker 1: going to get to the bottom of it. I believe
44:44
Speaker 1: Abby's I know Abby's got our back, and we're gonna
44:49
Speaker 1: save other lives. That's what we're here for. Bill Connor,
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Speaker 1: just God bless you was all I can say. God
44:56
Speaker 1: bless you, Aunt Abbey, and we're behind you too. Anything
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Speaker 1: we can do to help you in your cause, please
45:05
Speaker 1: call on us. Bill. Thank you, Nancy Grace signing off,
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Speaker 1: goodbye friends,