Mexico - Arlington TX Firefighter Elijah Snow, wed anniversary found dead at Cancun resort, Jul 2021

I've been to resorts in the hotel zone probably 30 time


In my experience, the problem with Mexican hotel bar drinks is the opposite of high alcohol content. Booze is a huge profit center, and to maximize it even further, they put as little alcohol in mixed drinks as they can get away with. That's why a lot of hard partiers take shots instead. Lots and lots of shots. Maybe that's what this guy did.

THIS. The all-inclusives push the sugary mixed drinks where the alcohol content is fairly low.
 
A Google search does show news reports in the past 12 months of Methanol poisoning from bad or mislabeled liquor.

It's not clear in all the reports whether the people who were sickened or died were tourists or residents, but a human life is a human life, IMO. I won't differentiate unless tourists are the only ones being harmed.

Here's one report. There are about 100 more that a person can look up if the subject might matter to them or a friend or relative. Mexico: at least 35 people die in mass bad-alcohol poisoning
 
Royalton and Sunset are next to each other however I worked at both hotels and the access to and from the beach are very different. Royalton offers easy access to the beach. The Royal Sunset does not, there is a narrow stairway from the beach to the hotel and there is security at both ends. However the Royal Sunset is much more accessible from the street, Royalton is extremely difficult to enter from the beach.

Both of these resorts have lots of security and are in the middle of the “Hotel Zone” which makes the theory of “kidnapping” even more UNBELIEVABLE! I feel bad for this family and this tragedy- but there is a lot more to this story and people should not be so quick to buy into more negative news about Cancun with NO PROOF!
 
I've been to resorts in the hotel zone probably 30 times.
In my experience, the problem with Mexican hotel bar drinks is the opposite of high alcohol content. Booze is a huge profit center, and to maximize it even further, they put as little alcohol in mixed drinks as they can get away with. That's why a lot of hard partiers take shots instead. Lots and lots of shots. Maybe that's what this guy did.

This is what I'd have thought. Worst margaritas I've ever had are in our local Mexican restaurants, which are almost on every corner. So green, blue or red ( or all three layered) they glow. Full of fillers that I didn't recognize when I tasted them. I went right back to Diet Coke in a bottle.
 
A Google search does show news reports in the past 12 months of Methanol poisoning from bad or mislabeled liquor.

It's not clear in all the reports whether the people who were sickened or died were tourists or residents, but a human life is a human life, IMO. I won't differentiate unless tourists are the only ones being harmed.

Here's one report. There are about 100 more that a person can look up if the subject might matter to them or a friend or relative. Mexico: at least 35 people die in mass bad-alcohol poisoning

WOW! This is a real stretch! I was living in Cancun when this horrible event happened - these people were drinking “Moonshine” that is common among low income people in the interior of Mexico. Cancun is 100’s of miles from where this occurred. There were NO CASES in Cancun and the Royalton is a Canadian Hotel and does not serve Moonshine!!!

Please no more misinformation about Cancun without at least looking at a map.
 
My guess is that we truly will get no more information on this death. Hard for curious types like us who follow cases like these - we want a resolution and often don't get one.

My brother was killed in Acapulco by a bus while riding his motorcycle on leave from the Army. I won't go to Mexico for that reason alone. But I know there is beauty there, and good people. Like there are everywhere.
 
Royalton and Sunset are next to each other however I worked at both hotels and the access to and from the beach are very different. Royalton offers easy access to the beach. The Royal Sunset does not, there is a narrow stairway from the beach to the hotel and there is security at both ends. However the Royal Sunset is much more accessible from the street, Royalton is extremely difficult to enter from the beach.

Both of these resorts have lots of security and are in the middle of the “Hotel Zone” which makes the theory of “kidnapping” even more UNBELIEVABLE! I feel bad for this family and this tragedy- but there is a lot more to this story and people should not be so quick to buy into more negative news about Cancun with NO PROOF!

We haven't done a poll or anything, but sentiment here is very heavily that too much alcohol caused a tragic one- person accident.

I, personally, do not believe a 35 y. o. physically fit fireman would get into a kidnapping situation without sending a few people to the hospital first. He should have been fit as a fiddle and looked like he truly was in the photos with his family.

Besides, not to be rude, but why kidnap him and not the guy who is throwing money around at the strip clubs ( if they have them there) ? He wasn't wealthy as a fireman ( My husband's father and grandfather were firemen in a large midwestern US city and they were not wealthy).
I do not see him as a usual target for a kidnapping for ransom at all. No evidence he was tortured, IMO, because a mechanical asphyxiation death causes a distinctive suffusion of blood in the head and neck and a different pattern where the area of fatal constriction occurred ( the chest and upper abdomen) which is extremely rare to see post- mortem, and I believe would be impossible to duplicate by anyone other than a person who's seen this pattern of blood distribution. It is SO rare, of course, that it might have taken the actual presence of the body in the window to explain the postmortem findings.
 
The Royal Sunset does have some windows on the first floor, however, they are not in the rooms they are in offices. The rooms have balconies with sliding glass doors. However, none of this supports what has been said in the news about a kidnapping and beaten to death!

In addition, if the Law Enforcement really wanted to cover up a crime why would they put the body in the hotel next door? It would be much easier to dump the body at sea and call it a “midnight” swimming accident, the Cancun Hotel Zone is an island which has man-made roadways to connect it to the mainland.
 
Please give your relative a hug from a WSer, OK? I hope things are stable physically, and that he still has that spirit of a hard worker. I know every day is tough in its own way.

I've never even heard of peanut butter flavored booze. I need to go to the liquor store down the road and see what's new and unusual, I guess. They keep the " really unusual and good stuff" behind glass at the checkout counter and I always feel stupid asking to see 4-5 bottles, then putting it back. I gave my husband a large bottle of extremely old single malt Scotch from a rare reserve for his birthday in June, and the cost was out of this world high.
I haven't seen so many presentation certificates, flannel bag or metal boxing for liquor in my life. He did say it was the smoothest Scotch he'd ever had, so maybe it was worth it.
I've had Champagne and wine, my preferred spirits, in France that were so good I REALLY had to watch it. On the flight home, Air France treated First Class passengers with Champagne and French chocolates. I seriously wanted to pause the flight, it was so decadent. I was reclining and relaxing in one of the newer pod sleepers that are 2 to a section and my seatmate was a super handsome true gentleman who kept refilling my ( plastic) flute.
It would have been easy to drink too much, yeah. I didn't, though, so no regrets once I returned home, just sweet memories of a G rated good time on the shopping trip. :)
Oh my goodness. That sounds like my kind of flight!!
 
This has been going around for years, I think. It pops up every 3 years, or so - by which I mean there has to be truth to it and not just an urban legend. We’ve always been told to stick to sealed single-use everything (water, alcohol).

There are poor people in the interior of the country that drink homemade alcohol- This IS NOT served in Canadian owned All Inclusive resorts in Cancun. EXTREMELY different circumstances
 
This is what I'd have thought. Worst margaritas I've ever had are in our local Mexican restaurants, which are almost on every corner. So green, blue or red ( or all three layered) they glow. Full of fillers that I didn't recognize when I tasted them. I went right back to Diet Coke in a bottle.

This is a real tragedy - the terrible quality of drinks at All Inclusive resorts, lots of sugar and ice added.
 
A Google search does show news reports in the past 12 months of Methanol poisoning from bad or mislabeled liquor.

It's not clear in all the reports whether the people who were sickened or died were tourists or residents, but a human life is a human life, IMO. I won't differentiate unless tourists are the only ones being harmed.

Here's one report. There are about 100 more that a person can look up if the subject might matter to them or a friend or relative. Mexico: at least 35 people die in mass bad-alcohol poisoning

Those poisonings were nowhere near Cancun or the hotel zone. There is a huge difference between the hotel zone and even the surrounding local areas. The economy is 100% tourism dependent and for something like that to happen in the hotel zone would be unheard of absent some really huge screw up.

eta: sorry for repeating what others have already said
 
Those poisonings were nowhere near Cancun or the hotel zone. There is a huge difference between the hotel zone and even the surrounding local areas. The economy is 100% tourism dependent and for something like that to happen in the hotel zone would be unheard of absent some really huge screw up.
Thanks, and to @Cancunone as well.
Never having been to Mexico, I didn't know there were distinctions between local areas and the hotel zones.

My husband is the one who brought up "bad booze" to me. It's not something I ever would have considered on my own.
He's lost his unofficial amateur sleuth designation and is now back to aerospace engineering manager at work, and dog herder, jar opener, and heavy package handler at home. I may confiscate his new bottle of rare Scotch for a few months as punishment. ;)
 

From the article:

The Texas firefighter who died at a Cancun resort while celebrating his wedding anniversary last week was found by a gardener who discovered the top half of the 35-year-old's body protruding from a tiny window of a locked employee bathroom, DailyMail.com can reveal.

[...]

DailyMail.com has obtained exclusive photos of the scene of the apparent accident, including the two-square-foot window that remains cordoned off by yellow tape as police continue to investigate the mysterious death.

David Barcenas, general manager of the Sunset Royal Beach Club where Snow died, said he believes there was no crime and that the 35-year-old's death was nothing more than a freak accident involving a drunk man who snuck onto the property from a neighboring resort.

But he still can't explain how the Texan wound up dangling from the window just two feet off the ground, behind an outdoor theater where guests had earlier gathered for a show.

'That's the big question – how did he get there?' Barcenas told DailyMail.com in his first and only interview since last week's mysterious death.

'We don't know how he arrived there. I think he was walking in from the beach. We think he was drunk. I don't know if he was climbing in, went backwards? We have the same questions everyone has.'

'I think it was a tragic accident,' he added. 'But we can't see what the police see. Police have all the real information.'

[...]

45999303-9835453-image-a-50_1627484783348.jpg 45999295-9835453-image-a-19_1627484427751.jpg 46015909-9835453-image-a-28_1627499103570.jpg 46016189-9835453-image-a-29_1627499142975.jpg
 
Apparently, they had outdoor entertainment at the neighboring hotel. That would be a logical reason for him to wander next door in the first place.

When I stayed in that area, only paying customers at a resort were allowed to enjoy their outdoor band or other entertainment but of course others often tried to sneak over to enjoy the music and camaraderie. (We watched all these shenanigans go on from our balcony). I don’t know these particular resorts though.

I could see him simply needing to use the restroom and drunkenly getting caught in a window frame but… only two feet off the ground?! Though the floor on the inside was surely much lower down… That is, if we trust the account of events given.

Good find, EmmieA.
 
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yeah I’m not buying that he would have gotten stuck in that window

Once I saw the window it all made sense in my mind. I could see someone very inebriated try to go through the window. I’ve been around enough drunk people to know sometimes alcohol makes you do things that made zero sense. And the size of the window makes the bruises on his body make sense. I’m not leaning towards foul play at all but hopefully we’ll get more info - namely his blood alcohol level.
 

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