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Shock, worry and wonder: Inside the Mexican vacation complex where Iowa family died

While the beachy Riviera Maya region of Mexico feels a world away from Iowa, the community finds itself as shocked and saddened as the Sharps' hometown, 1,500 miles away.
Credit: Kevin Hardy/The Register
Tourists spend time on Akumal Beach Tuesday, April 3, 2018, in the small resort town of Akumal, Mexico.

AKUMAL, Mexico — Everything about the expertly manicured Tao Mexico complex here speaks to peace and serenity.

Nearly every structure within the Asian-inspired vacation community is painted in white and trimmed in warm wood grain. Balconies on the modern condominiums open to the lush greens of the tropical jungle.

Infinity pools overlook the stunning fairways of the adjacent resort golf course.

The serene setting belies the tragedy that unfolded here when an Iowa family of four lost their lives last month during what should have been a breezy vacation in an ocean retreat.

Authorities discovered Kevin and Amy Sharp and their children, Sterling, 12, and Adrianna, 7, dead inside a penthouse condominium March 23 at the Tao complex after asphyxiating from inhaling toxic gas.

A local prosecutor pinpointed a faulty water heater as the culprit of the gas leak. Mexican officials have said they suspect no foul play in the case.

Credit: Kevin Hardy/The Register
Tourists spend time on Akumal Beach Tuesday, April 3, 2018, in the small resort town of Akumal, Mexico.

A shared search for answers

In Iowa, relatives of the Sharps continue searching for answers. They have struggled to reconcile their timeline of the family's vacation with the one offered by Mexican authorities.

While the beachy Riviera Maya region of Mexico feels a world away from Iowa, the community here finds itself as shocked and saddened as the Sharps' hometown of Creston, 1,500 miles away.

Expatriates from the United States and Mexican natives alike are still trying to comprehend how such a tragic thing could have occurred in one of the continent's most popular vacation regions.

"Its a very huge deal for all of us," said Marcy Essy, an Iowan who lives on the beach just a kilometer from where the family died. "This is a tourist area. And the people down here are the most caring, sharing people. The staffs, the people that own businesses, this affects all of us a lot."

Credit: Kevin Hardy/The Register
Guests and residents relax in one of the pools at the Tao Mexico complex near Akumal on Monday, April 2. The Sharp family of Creston, Iowa died at this Asian-inspired vacation community last month.  

Essy, who still has a residence in Medora, Iowa, said tourists in Mexico occasionally die in car wrecks along the busy Federal Highway 307. Some drown in the ocean or suffer heart attacks or other life-ending ailments while in the Riviera Maya.

"But to lose a whole family, that is not at all common down here," Essy said. "I do not remember something like that ever happening in the 30-some years we’ve been here."

Essy said the deaths shouldn't scare off potential visitors, who she says generally won't find trouble unless they go looking for it. And she noted that problems with carbon monoxide poisoning are nearly unheard of in an area where residents open windows and sliding glass doors to enjoy the breezy, warm weather.

"This didn’t happen because we're in Mexico," she said. "It could have happened anywhere."

'Mexico is not like the United States'

LuLú Alberts, a retired midwife from Silicon Valley, said she met the Sharps during their stay here.

Her condo sits next to the family pool (the complex also features an adults-only version). Alberts said she enjoys meeting families who rent vacation units from neighbors.

"They were very friendly," she said of the Sharps. "They were on holiday. Everything's wonderful on holiday."

She could not recall exactly which days she saw the family but remembers visiting with them at least two or three times.

One memory remains vividly clear: On March 23, she watched the ambulance pull up to the XI building, where the Sharps were staying.

At first, when word got around about who had died, she couldn't place their names. She didn't recognize who "the Sharps" were, knowing them only as Kevin, Amy, Sterling and Adrianna.

Alberts said she has never felt unsafe in her condominium during her four years here.

"This is a very rare thing," she said.

But she has now joined neighbors who are assembling a bulk order of carbon monoxide detectors. Her unit has not had a detector in her time there.

For now, she's content to wait until the authorities release their full report on how the Sharps were killed. But she doesn't expect answers to come fast.

"Mexico is not like the United States," she said. "You can't get the information overnight."

Credit: Kevin Hardy/The Register
The Q1 condo, where members of the Sharp family from Creston, Iowa, were staying, is seen Monday, April 2, 2018, in the Tao Mexico complex in the beach resort town of Akumal, Mexico.

Inside Mexico's Tao complex

Of all the potential backdrops for a tragedy, locals told the Des Moines Register they never dreamed it would have been at Tao, one of the newest and priciest developments in a region defined by the constant building of condos, hotels and vacation homes.

In company literature, Tao developers promise that their community will "create a connection with yourself and an environment in harmony with nature."

The complex is set within the wider footprint of the massive Grand Bahia Principe Tulum resort, a development so big that trams carry visitors back and forth between hotel buildings, restaurants and activities.

The exclusive Tao community, carved out of the thick jungle, offers access to a private beach club, excursions and activities such as Spanish language lessons and cooking classes. The onsite Tao wellness center includes a saltwater lap pool, resistance channel and a bistro and sushi bar.

Bamboo and palm trees border the intimate walkways that weave between the buildings. Soothing water features drown out the squawking of tropical birds, and lush pink flowers from adelfa bushes spill onto the sidewalks.

Tao offers more than 1,000 condos, premium condos, townhomes and lofts across the region. Prices for condos near Akumal begin at about $270,000, according to the company website.

Credit: Kevin Hardy/The Register
The grand entrance to the Bahia Principe resort near Akumal, Mexico is pictured here.

And security is tight. To visit Tao, drivers must pass through two security outposts, where guards interrogate visitors, record names and photograph license plates.

Yuritzia Campillo, secretary for the homeowners association, wouldn't comment when visited by a Register reporter. She said Mexican laws forbade the company from discussing the Sharps' case or revealing who owns the condo while the investigation is ongoing.

The association previously released a statement saying the unit rented by the Sharp family changed hands in November 2013. Since then, the current owner has been responsible for physically maintaining the unit, the statement said.

Many U.S. and Canadian expats occupy the units in Tao year-round. Others purchase them as investment properties, constantly renting out their homes by the night or week.

Around the complex, many cars are covered for long-term storage as travelers come and go.

'They wouldn't be coming here if it were chaotic'

The Tao complex sits just minutes away from the postcard-like Akumal Beach, where blue-green Caribbean waters and wavy palm trees draw thousands of visitors each day.

As the Creston community laid to rest the Sharp family last weekend, tourists from across Latin America flooded into the Riviera Maya region in celebration of the resurrection.

Holy Week and the week of Easter are some of the busiest on the calendar as Mexicans indulge in school and work vacations.

Many hotels were booked solid, and the Cancun International Airport registered more than 2,200 flights in four days, according to the Yucatan Times.

Yet locals still worried about the lasting effect of the deaths of the Sharp family in their community.

Manuel Jiménez, who operates a tour company near the Akumal Beach, said he's seen business drop 30 percent or 40 percent in recent days as travelers are increasingly wary of traveling to Mexico.

In addition to the deaths in the Riviera Maya, the U.S. State Department made waves in early March by barring U.S. government employees from traveling to the popular resort town of Playa del Carmen after a February explosion on a ferry that links Playa del Carmen with the island town of Cozumel.

And some travelers were already spooked over reports of tainted alcohol at Caribbean resorts.

But Jiménez said would-be visitors should rely on word of mouth, not frightening media reports, when choosing their vacation destinations.

All around his storefront, smiling visitors lugged around snorkeling gear, haggled over souvenir prices and picked up sweet slices of mango and pineapple for a few pesos.

"These families have been coming for years," he said. "They wouldn't be coming here if it were chaotic."

'For me, it's like a mystery'

Still, some travelers are avoiding Mexico altogether, Jiménez said, while others are increasingly choosing to stay tucked away on all-inclusive resorts.

He said the local economy is dependent upon tourism spending. Even businesses that cater exclusively to locals could collapse without the steady revenue stream from outsiders.

“We can’t go eat without the tourism income,” he said. “… I don’t know anything that is not related to tourism here.”

Ismael Cisneros, a Mexico City native who has lived in Playa del Carmen for more than 30 years, said negative events in Mexico tend to earn outsize attention across the continent.

“The media is the problem," he complained.

Cisneros operates a transport company moving travelers up and down the peninsula. He questioned why the accidental asphyxiation deaths were garnering so much attention.

“There’s more people who have been shot in schools in the United States," he said. "We don’t have that in Mexico."

Still, he acknowledged locals and tourists alike have been talking about the story. He's skeptical that authorities will ever fully explain the circumstances of the Sharps' deaths.

“For me, it’s like a mystery," he said. "And you know the police will never tell what really happened."

'This tragedy did serve as a wake-up call'

Relatives of Kevin, Amy, Sterling and Adrianna have contemplated launching a campaign encouraging the use of life-saving carbon monoxide detectors in every home.

In Mexico, too, awareness is spreading as locals look to implement lasting changes.

In the week following the deaths, several area hotel associations held a press conference calling for stricter regulations of vacation rental properties.

Hoteliers told local reporters that such incidents — including the 2017 deaths of Argentinian tourists from a gas explosion in nearby Playa del Carmen — can create a "terrible security image," the Riviera Maya News reported.

Marlo Heresco, editor of the Riviera Maya News, called the accident in the Tao condominium "nothing less than a tragedy." But tragedy often is what it takes for people to pay attention and take action, she said.

She compared the situation to the growing concern in the United States over gun violence, and "government bodies are finally thinking something might need to be changed."

"In saying that, it is similar here," she said, "in that this tragedy did serve as a wake-up call for local government bodies, especially those who have lobbied in the past for more regulations to be placed on private vacation rentals, a majority of which are owned by Americans."

'If it affects the bottom line ... something will be done'

Nan Armstrong, a Texas native who manages beachfront properties in the Akumal Beach, said many property owners and managers have started investing in carbon monoxide and propane detectors for their houses and condos since the deaths.

Many older homes along the coast have outdoor water heaters that are well ventilated, Armstrong said. And newer homes often feature tankless systems designed to safely operate inside a laundry room or utility closet.

"We were just all like, 'Oh my Lord, how horrible. Who would ever even think about that?'" she said. "It just never happened."

In the days following the Sharps' deaths, locals made a run on carbon monoxide devices. They flew off the shelves so fast that the Home Depot in nearby Playa del Carmen was out of stock for several days, Armstrong said.

She's now waiting for shipments of the devices, which can detect dangerous carbon monoxide and propane leaks like the one that killed the Sharps, to install in the 31 units she manages.

Renters, likewise, have begun asking about things like carbon monoxide detectors as they make reservations with booking agents.

"Some of them have already canceled if they’re not installed," she said. "The booking agents are staying on top of it and making sure we are doing this."

Mitch Keenan, a Denver native who owns a real estate business in the nearby Yucatán state, says homeowners face relatively lax regulations on the installation and maintenance of gas lines and appliances.

Regulations are tighter on registered rental businesses. But he expects the government to take some sort of action in the wake of the deaths in Akumal.

"No doubt, if it's going to affect tourism, I guarantee you there’s going to be some kind of official — I hate to say action because action is not necessarily going to happen — but there's certainly going to be some kind of official response," he said. "If it affects the bottom line — read: money — then something will be done."

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