Having been to a couple of all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean, it’s easy to understand the appeal. Warm weather when more northern climates are frosted over is just one of the attractions. Sticking your feet into white sand beaches with a cocktail at your side is about as good as it gets, right?
That’s exactly what one woman signed up for, but what she got has her warning other women to not let their guards down just because they’re in a tropical paradise.
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Note: this story contains graphic images that some readers may find upsetting.
Like so many others, the Majestic Elegance all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana bills itself as a slice of paradise.
This Dominican resort has consistently high ratings on various trip review platforms, so Tammy Lawrence-Daley and her husband thought they’d found a gem of a spot for a getaway with some friends. But it didn’t take long for their slice of paradise to turn downright hellish.
Tammy took to Facebook recently to recount the horrors she suffered when she was brutally attacked at the resort and left for dead.
In her post, Tammy explained that it took her a long time of recovery, both physically and emotionally, to be able to recount her experience.
At the end of January, she, her husband, and another couple headed to Majestic Elegance and, on their second day there, they were having a wonderful time. That night they partied it up at a theater show and afterwards, Tammy was hungry.
She tried calling down for some room service but was told that they were no longer serving food, so she decided to run down to the lounge for a snack.
She ended up at the lounge at the next building over and thought maybe should could get some good pics of the moon on the water if she headed down to the beach. She didn’t make it there.
“As I went through the rotunda between buildings, I noticed there wasn’t anyone in the hallway. Not majorly odd, but still eerily quiet. I took about 10 or so steps just swinging my wristlet back and forth, not a care in the world. That’s when I heard it. Heavy footsteps… one, two, three, four, then they sped up, and then before I could react I was plowed into from behind and immediately immobilized. His arms wrapped around me and he started pulling me immediately into an unlocked maintenance room.”
Tammy didn’t go into all the details of her attack, but said that she “fought with everything I had at that moment.”
“He was too strong. The next 8 hours brought me pain and fear. I was strangled multiple times to unconsciousness. My lifeless body was drug down concrete stairs to an underground waste water area. I was kicked in the head, I was beaten with a club. And then strangled again for the kill; at which time he disposed of my body into an area I refer to as the ‘hole’. I was unconscious multiple times during this savage attack, so I have no idea what else was done to me during that time. Somehow I survived.”
Meanwhile, Tammy’s husband and friends were looking for her.
They went to the front desk three times before security agreed to look for her, assuming Tammy had passed out drunk somewhere, which her husband said would be very much out of character for her.
Tammy did her best to get herself to safety when consciousness would allow. The attacker, who Tammy says wore a shirt with the resort’s logo on it, left her with her phone, but with her eyes swollen shut, she couldn’t see anything, and she couldn’t get the voice commands to help either without service.
She was finally found the next morning when people woke up and started moving around, and her cries for help could be heard.
She spent the next five days in a medical clinic being treated for her injuries. She’s still healing, both from the physical wounds and the anxiety she new feels around hallways and people approaching her. Even coming home was difficult for her.
“How do you explain to your kids you were almost killed by some random stranger and that ‘Mommy is coming home, but I don’t look like myself’? How do you look into your parents eyes as they gaze upon your battered face telling them, ‘I’m okay, I’ll be okay’.”
Tammy wanted to emphasize that she’s had no justice from this ordeal, either.
“Majestic Elegance claims no responsibility for the attack since I couldn’t identify the attacker,” she wrote. “Police did find evidence of the blood smeared mop handle and a maintenance hat in the area I was found, but this means nothing in these countries.
“These attacks are happening too frequently and the criminals are NOT being prosecuted even though evidence is found. Victims are not being compensated for medical or pain and suffering, and the resorts are not held liable. Majestic Elegance didn’t offer to reimburse us for our vacation, let alone my current medical bills. Litigation went nowhere. Stories are being squashed.”
And mainly, she just wants other women out there to be safe.
“This man thought he killed me, but he failed,” she wrote. “He is still out there, a predator, waiting for his next victim. Only the next woman may not be so fortunate. Please, please do not walk alone…When you are in unfamiliar places, or even in familiar places, please remember…be smart, be safe.”
h/t People
