The Dominican Republic resort where a Delaware woman claims she was brutally beaten and left for dead has temporarily closed due to low oc...
The Dominican Republic resort where a Delaware woman claims she was brutally beaten and left for dead has temporarily closed due to low occupancy, according to Delaware Online.
Tammy Lawrence-Daley, 51, shared a now-viral Facebook post in May saying she had been attacked while staying at the Majestic Elegance Punta Cana resort in January.
The post, which included gruesome photos of Lawrence-Daley's battered face, described an attack by an unknown man who she said choked her repeatedly, kicked her in the head and dragged her down a flight of stairs. Lawrence-Daley said the assault occurred while she was walking in a rotunda between two of the hotel's buildings.
Now, Majestic Resorts is closing its Punta Cana hotel, saying it has lost thousands of visitors since numerous stories of American tourists dying or being injured while visiting the Dominican Republican began surfacing earlier this year.
Majestic announced the closure in a letter to travel agencies, saying it would shut down on Aug. 15 and reopen on Nov. 7.
"Majestic Resorts is going to offer even more services and more quality than ever before to gain our guests back," the letter read.
Lawrence-Daley's post was one of the earliest tragic stories to emerge from the Dominican Republic this year. Her post did not entirely blame Majestic for the attack, but it did criticize the hotel for not having surveillance cameras or bright lighting in the area where the alleged assault took place. She also took issue with how the resort handled the incident.
"Majestic Elegance didn't offer to reimburse us for our vacation, let alone my current medical bills. Litigation went nowhere. Stories are being squashed," her Facebook post read.
In July, Lawrence-Daley filed a lawsuit against Majestic, suing the resort for $3 million to compensate for "permanent, life-changing injuries." A preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 22 in the Dominican Republic.
Speaking to Delaware Online on Tuesday, Lawrence-Daley said she believes that her story contributed to the hotel's closure.
"We did read that they were closing due to low occupancy, which I believe is due to the viral nature of my posting on Facebook," she told the news site. "People were very upset about how Majestic handled the situation."
However, she also noted that she did not wish for anything negative to come from her post.
"I feel really bad because I wouldn’t want anybody to be out of work or anything like that," she told Delaware Online. "I wouldn’t wish anything bad against the resort."
In June, Dominican authorities raised questions about Lawrence-Daley's story, saying they needed to complete their investigation before making any definitive claims.
"There is a lot of conjecture about the case, a lot of information that doesn't match some of the statements," the country's national police chief spokesman, Col. Frank Durán, said at the time.
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