A Bahamas resort where two Kentucky mothers claim they were drugged and raped by two employees said that the women’s account of what happened does not match its security footage.
Amber Shearer and Dongayla Dobson said they were assaulted in broad daylight by staffers at Pirate’s Cove while relaxing on the beach while their carnival cruise ship docked on the Grand Island in the Bahamas.
The longtime friends said they were offered a drink special from an employee, but after just 15 minutes began to feel incredibly intoxicated.
They were ushered by a staff member into a secluded area to look for shells — and then Shearer says she came to while she was being raped by a man in a uniform.
The pair, covered in cuts and bruises, reported the sexual assault to Royal Bahamas police, who later arrested two men — a 40-year-old of South Bahamia and a 54-year-old of Eight Mile Rock.
Police said the investigation remains ongoing — but Pirate’s Cove claims that surveillance footage reveals that the two women’s accounts don’t add up.
“Upon further review of the surveillance videos, the allegations made onsite, and in subsequent social media posts and news stories, conflict with what the time-stamped surveillance videos contain,” Pirate’s Cove beach resort said in a statement without divulging further, The Daily Mail reported.
Pirate’s Cove also confirmed that the two employees have been fired, saying that whatever conduct they engaged in on tape “indicates that at a minimum, they violated our zero-tolerance policy.”
Carnival Cruise confirmed to the Post on Wednesday that two guests aboard the Carnival Elation reported the sexual assault, which occurred while on “an independent shore excursion.”
“Our onboard Care Team provided support for the two guests as they sailed back to Jacksonville,” the cruise company said.
Dobson and Shears remembered being on the beach and almost immediately feeling as if something besides alcohol was in their cocktails.
“Less than a few [sips] into the second drink, we knew something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong,” Shearer told NewsNation’s “Cuomo.” Even their loved ones were concerned after speaking with them on video, she said.
She recalled waking up in horror. “I came to in the process of my rape,” she said through sobs.
They said they don’t believe their allegations were properly handled and cops did not administer rape test kits at their request.
Back on the cruise ship, the moms received the results of their toxicology tests — which showed they had a plethora of drugs in their systems, including benzodiazepines. They had notably minimal alcohol in their bodies and bruising on their legs.
Just five days before their vacation, Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis insisted that the country was a “safe” destination for tourists.
The U.S. embassy in the Bahamas released a security warning and travel advisory last month saying that the island nation is currently unsafe for tourists amidst 18 murders — “primarily” motivated by gang violence — in January alone.
The State Department issued a level 2 advisory on Jan. 26, just over a week before the two American women were allegedly raped.
Dobson and Shears, who had never left the country before, say Carnival should have warned them about the dangers in the Bahamas.
“We had no idea what was going on in the Bahamas, none whatsoever,” Dobson told the station. “We were targeted from the moment we were spotted.”
The women’s attorney, Nicholas Gerson, told NewsNation Carnival has “a legal duty to warn about dangerous conditions they should have known about.”
“Carnival actually markets this particular excursion on their website, they actually profit from the excursion,” he added. “So Carnival should have warned our clients, the warning shouldn’t have come from the State Department.”
Carnival said it is cooperating with authorities’ investigation.
