January 6, 2021
Several Fatalities Reported in Puerto Vallarta in Wake of COVID-Unsafe Revelry
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Several fatalities have been reported in Puerto Vallarta in the days after COVID-unsafe New Years revelry by American tourists sparked widespread condemnation in the press and on social media. Among the victims are a gay couple suspected of having died from drug overdoses.
Local Spanish-language news source Debate reports that the couple were found unresponsive in a Zona Romantica condominium at about 10:30 on New Year's Eve. The men - 35-year-old Dustin Terry Childs, 35, and 32-year-old Austin Jordan Hales - were from Salt Lake City. The cause of their deaths has not been definitively ascertained.
Hours later, at about 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 1, another man, identified as Kevin Page, was found dead by first responders near the pool of the Sheraton Buganvilias after reportedly falling from a fifth-story balcony.
A drowning victim was also reported. The unidentified man, said to be 20 - 25 years old, was spotted floating in the water near Conchas Chinas in the Bay of Banderas, the Puerto Vallarta Daily News said. The body was sighted on the afternoon of Jan. 3. Life guards attempted a rescue, but the man was dead when he was brought to shore. Though it was initially thought he might have been a swimmer caught up in a current and carried away from the beach, reports noted that he was fully clothed and may have fallen off a boat.
A number of men had to be rescued from ocean waters on New Year's Eve when a party boat began taking on water and sank as it returned from a bash that included a clothing-optional beach gathering, go-go boys, and a DJ. About 60 revelers were aboard the craft, which belonged to a gay cruise company.
The party was organized by famed gay event organizer Jeffrey Sanker, and had been moved from Puerto Vallarta to a nearby town after being criticized in the gay press and on social media.
The Puerto Vallarta Daily News also called out the event a week before it happened, taking to Facebook to condemn how "foreigners come to our community and throw big parties and leave COVID while causing our businesses to close and people lose their jobs".
The incident was one of a number of controversial New Year's events in which crowds of revelers defied COVID guidelines. In another example of COVID-unsafe revelry that made headlines, a circuit party with 2,000 participants was raided by police and shut down in Rio de Janeiro on New Year's Eve.
