Loved ones of the two Oklahoma college students who claim they were drugged on a dream vacation to a Cancun resort slammed allegations from Mexican officials that their horror story is made up.
Stephanie Snider dismissed officials’ assertation that Zara Hull and Kaylie Pitze were just too drunk and had clean toxicology reports.
“There was not even a toxicology report done on Zara at the hospital in Mexico. Kaylie was not taken to the hospital and therefore did not have a toxicology test performed either,” Snider, the mother of Hull’s boyfriend, Jake, wrote on Facebook Thursday.
“They also claimed to have reached out to the families. We were not contacted. They even said it didn’t happen in Cancun. They were staying in Cancun, I can assure you. They went on to say other things that are also false,” she continued.
Snider added that the Mexican officials’ response “doesn’t surprise me” as their story could negatively impact the country’s tourism industry.
Hull and Pitze, who both attend Oklahoma Christian University, were staying in Cancun for a four-day trip with their boyfriends when they went to the resort’s pool bar on Aug. 2 and ordered a glass of water.
Soon after, they slumped over in an intoxicated daze, a disturbing photo of the young women sitting in the pool shows. They began experiencing jerking movements and were wheelchaired back to their hotel rooms, unable to walk or speak, their families said.
Hull’s panicked boyfriend, Jake Snider, rushed her to a local hospital where she was placed on a ventilator, given a catheter and put under heavy sedation.
Stephanie Snider suspects that the students may have been targeted for trafficking.
However earlier this week, Raciel López Salazar, the head of the State Attorney General’s office (FGE), said an investigation revealed neither of the students had drugs in their system.
“There was no drug dealing here in Quintana Roo with fentanyl,” he insisted in a statement.
He added that the case has been “exaggerated and classifies it as simple alcohol consumption.”
Local authorities also found that the women were not staying in Cancun as reported, but rather at a hotel in Isla Mujeres — just off the coast of the city. Salazar also claimed their drug tests came back clean.
The State Secretary of Tourism, Bernardo Cueto, called it a “very rare case and a very strange situation that is being investigated.”
He also said he had approached the US Consulate to contact the students’ families but received no response.
Snider said the students’ “story is very real.”
“We refuse to stoop to the level of these accusers and have this argument. We don’t have to,” she added.
Hull and Pitze and back home in Oklahoma feeling better and recovering but “are struggling with emotional issues from not being able to remember what happened to them but yet reaping the side effects,” Snider said.
They still have ongoing issues with “mental clarity and physical stamina” and have suffered from bouts of depression, she said. Even her son is still dealing with the stress of dealing with such an emergency in a foreign country.
“They have such strong support from family and friends and are dealing with these issues as they come,” she said.
