Law&Crime Sidebar - College Students Accuse Cancun Resort of Spiking Drinks After Getting Violently Sick

Episode Date: August 11, 2024

Two Oklahoma women, Zara Hull and Kaylie Pitzer, were on a dream vacation with their boyfriends in Cancun, when both became violently ill after they say they drank water from the hotel bar. Zara was hospitalized after she started having convulsions. Family back home in Oklahoma say they had to pay the Mexican hospital thousands of dollars just to treat Zara, then even more to have her released and flown back to the US. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber discusses the scary situation with trial attorney David Ring.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/lctakeover to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Two Oklahoma college students were on their dream vacation in Cancun, but the trip turned into a nightmare the day after they arrived at a Mexican resort. At least one of the women ended up in the hospital dangerously ill and they were rushed back to the united states so what on earth happened were they drugged is this something every vacationer needs to be on the lookout for i'm going to discuss it all with trial attorney david ring welcome to sidebar presented by law and crime i'm jesse weber all right let's talk about zara hall and kaley pitzer these are two women in their

20s college students landed in kankoon last thursday for vacation included several couples, supposed to be a good time. According to their families, the two went to the resort's pool on Friday when they had a few drinks, or they were supposed to have a few drinks. Now, according to Stephanie Snyder, the mother of Zara's boyfriend, she's been updating concerned friends and family members about what has happened because she says, and the reporting indicates, that the girls requested simply a glass of water, and after that, it's a blank. The victims and their families have not publicly revealed the name of the resort where all

this happened, but we want to figure out what is going on exactly because there are a lot of different layers about how these two girls got so sick from seemingly just taking, getting water from the resort bar. Hey, everybody, I want to quickly thank Upside for sponsoring today's Law and Crime YouTube Takeover. So Upside is a free app that gets you cashback on gas and groceries. And every time I pump gas now, I can use Upside. I mean, why not get cash back when you fill up your tank, right?

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That's promo code LC takeover for an extra 25 cents back on your first gallon of gas. So I want to bring in right now a trial attorney David Ring to talk more about this. David, so good to see you. Thanks so much for coming on. Before we even get into the specifics of this case, traveling abroad, if something happens to you, what are your legal rights? It gets a little complicated, right? I imagine it depends upon where you travel to and you're subject to that law's jurisdiction, right?

Oh, boy, it gets incredibly complicated and then can be very dangerous and very worrisome. I mean, all you have to is look at this case. You know, you're in Mexico. You're a place that has entirely different rules and policies. And let's face it, there's some corrupt parts of that of Mexico that you have to deal with if you're unfortunate. And you can find yourself in a real dilemma like these two young women did. Well, let's get into it. So according to Snyder, Zara, along with her friend,

were given a drug while they were in the resort in Cancun this past Friday. It was in their drinks. Both girls passed out at the exact same time. Zara started having what the resort doctor called a seizure and said she needed to be taken to the hospital. Kaylee told Oklahoma News outlet K-O-C-O that she woke up the next morning at the resort and she was in a lot of pain, she was nauseous, she couldn't move, and her friend Zara was in a Mexican hospital allegedly heavily sedated, even intubated with a tube down her. throat. According to Snyder, the hospital demanded a $10,000 deposit just to treat Zara at all

and then allegedly wanted more money the next day. Let's just start there, David. What are your thoughts and concerns as we listen to those allegations? Well, look, let's let's assume we are so many questions. I have so many questions that are not answered. But let's assume the absolute worst here. Let's assume based on those facts he gave us that something very sinister is going on. I mean, there are documented cases in Mexico where a hotel staff has spiked a drink of a guest and they've done it intentionally. And why would they do that? Because guests get sent to one of these local private hospitals where they extort money out of the patient. And they say, you're going to pay us $10,000 to be treated. You're going to pay us another 50 to be treated and let go. And then they kick

back the money to the hotel employee who actually spiked the drink. There are documented cases of that. So if we're looking at the most sinister thing that happened down there, that's a possibility, but we don't know. We don't know. And look, we also don't know 100% if the girls were drinking anything before the water. We don't entirely know what's going on here. But again, these are very serious allegations. And I want to continue on with what Snyder posted on social media. It says, We contacted the U.S. Embassy and were told they couldn't do anything to help us as long as she was in the hospital. So they gave us contacts of people to help with transporting her out of the hospital and medical flight people to contact. But before we could get them to release her, the hospital demanded more money, $12,500 more.

The medical flight company also had to be paid $28,000 before we could get that process going. We tried to say that they had to release her, and I was told she would not be released until, we paid. We were told the amount would just continue to go up until they were paid. She arrived at the hospital in Dallas very late Saturday night. My son was able to obtain a partial list of some of the meds that were given to her in the Mexico hospital, and the doctor said that nothing they gave her was helping her. It was just meds to keep her very sedated. So now Zara's body has to basically go through detox, get all these drugs out. The seizures were not really seizures. They were reactions from being drugged.

goes on to state Kaylee the other friend who was also drug thankfully did not end up in the hospital but she had a very difficult time for the 24 hours after the incident it's been three days now and she still doesn't feel back to herself neither of the girls have any memory of what happened after they took that last drink which happened to have been a glass of water we think it was whatever was put in that glass of water that did it now of course we're also talking about Mexico we know their water's not the cleanest but this is so unusual and to be clear right David, these are allegations. We don't know exactly what's going on. But my question to you is, what are their legal rights? What could they do right now? You know what, Jesse? The scary thing is

they don't have many legal rights. I mean, it's Mexico. And so they're just lucky to be back here in the United States getting the right health treatment that they're getting to get them healthy again. But the scary part is they're in this hospital in Mexico and they're almost being held hostage there until they get until they pay and the hospital apparently again allegations we don't know if it's true but if it's true it's the hospital's just feeding them meds and keeping them sedated just to keep them sedated and to ring up the bills you know this this kind of sounds like what i was talking about earlier this is kind of an extortion plot where the bills get rung up to $50,000 they demand payment they won't release them until they're paid and and you know that that's a scary

thing. They have no redress against this hospital in Mexico, nothing. You can't file a lawsuit? In Mexico? Good luck. You know, I mean, look, I have clients come to me frequently. I'm in California. A lot of bad things happen down in Mexico. And they come to you and they say, hey, I want to file a lawsuit in Mexico. Good luck. They just have a different system of justice. They do not have a civil justice system like we do. They don't even have a criminal justice system like we do. So unless it's a U.S.-based company down there that you can kind of sue here in the States because they do business here, even that's a tough, you know, that's a tough one too, but you can do it. Well, that's a good question, right? I don't know what resort they stayed at, but let's say

it was an American-owned operation that has hotels and all across the world, then that could be a different situation, right? Absolutely. So let's say you're talking with some American corporation and they and they target tourists here in america to go to cancun and you make the reservations here okay now now you can bring a lawsuit here against that company and you know you have a viable company but but let's think about is an american corporation are they going to engage in that type of conduct in mexico i i don't well no but but if they're out if they're uh you know i don't even know if it's a franchise in the hotel business but if they have an They have a hotel located in one of these areas, and their employees are doing something.

They don't have to, the corporate doesn't have to know about it or a rubber stamp. They could still be held liable for what their outlet did. Totally agree with you. You're absolutely right. But again, the bottom line, though, is truly, in Mexico, wow, good luck, bring in a lawsuit. Let me ask you this. Can they retain an attorney here in the States to be a representative for them in Mexico? if they wanted a criminal investigation to be, to be conducted, or is that, am I totally off about that?

No, you're not totally off. You can have a representative here who's trying to deal with the Mexican authorities to get things done. And again, we've heard all the horror stories of how that system of justice works there. And in other foreign countries as well, you know, there's only so much information you can pry out of local officials. And some of them might be great to deal with. And other ones, you're just going to get stonewalled and get very little information and get very little justice. Now, doctors, they reportedly believe that Zara and Kaley, that they may have both ingested synthetic fentanyl. But to be very clear about this, this hasn't been confirmed.

We don't know it for sure. This has just been put in an allegation that's come forth during the course of the story. Now, Snyder ended her update on Tuesday by saying, quote, something must be done to stop these things from happening. It's every parent's nightmare. Closing my eyes at night and thinking of what could have happened is unbearable. Please don't let them go on these trips. There is a real problem happening with young people, especially girls, being drugged, unknowingly,

trafficking and extortion of money. Hug your babies and even your not such babies anymore. Tight tonight and pray this never happens to your family. Snyder's continued to post updates about Zara on her Facebook page, sharing photos of her progress, and on Wednesday, Zara was able to get out of bed and walk for the first time since returning to the United States. Snyder said she's eating solid food, starting to get back to her spunky self again. Today was spent getting stronger, taking in fluids to get more hydrated.

Her vision is still improving, not seeing double anymore, but still working on focusing. She hasn't had a single convulsive event now in 24 hours, which is the longest she's gone without having one. Praying that was the last one. She will have to continue with physical therapy even after she's discharged, but at this rate, she's going to be back in action in no time. Snyder says the hospital in Mexico allegedly ran a battery of tests, including toxicology, but the family has been unable to get their hands on any of it. Zara herself told Oklahoma News 6 that when I got to America,

my mom had them check my body for any incisions to make sure I had all my organs. If they didn't pay the money, I was going to be out on the street dead. That was going to be the end of the story. Now, according to Snyder, the families have spent more than $60,000 on medical bills and travel expenses in the last week. There was a GoFundMe that was raising money to help cover costs as a family works to figure out what exactly happened here.

David, I mean, you kind of laid it out that there's not much recourse for them, but it's just upsetting to see. And, you know, the idea, she makes a good point. And you talked about, too, that there are real issues of date rape and sex trafficking and drugging. Is there anything that these families can do

to petition the U.S. government for help? I'll tell you that's all those things you just discussed, that's a real problem in Mexico. And I'm sure in other places as well, but in Mexico you hear about it all the time and you hear about young girls going down there and drinking and it could be tainted alcohol. It could be a situation like we have here

where someone spikes their drink with some sort of drug and their motives are really bad, you know, to knock them unconscious and rape them or to do something like this, send them to the hospital. So how do you prevent this from happening? You know, I mean, you gotta be so careful when you go to a foreign country like Mexico. And a lot of people will say

they won't even drink hard alcohol down there. They'll drink a bottled beer and they make sure the beer is open in front of them. Or they'll drink, you know, a bottled water, whatever it is, and they make sure it's open in front of them. And I think a lot of the problems come from the alcohol consumption and spike drinks and that sort of thing. Look, is this something that happens all the time?

No, but it happens. And we've seen it right here. And so you just got to be on your toes down there. You cannot, you got to realize you're in a foreign country and you don't have much redress if something bad happens. Yeah, as we saw, there was a lot of things in the news recently about people bringing bullets to a foreign country and things like that. And so it's a scary thing.

And I'll tell you, Zarin Kelly, they say they hope their stories, will just be a warning to other people to do research before taking a vacation, understand what the laws are there, look up the hotels, and to be as careful and vigilant as possible while you're there. And as Kelly told local news, this could happen to anyone. So while we're still trying to piece together the circumstances of this, trying to understand what happened to these two young women, we'll continue to follow it and see what happens.

But David Ring, appreciate your perspective, sir. Thank you so much. All right, thank you. All right, everybody. Scary situation. Thank you so much for joining us here on Sidebar. As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber.

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