American Woman’s Boyfriend Found Dead in Mexico City, Airbnb Shares Chilling Final Messages: ‘I’m Shaking’
The boyfriend of an American who died in an Airbnb in Mexico Citywhere she was on vacation with friends to celebrate the day of the dead, confided in their last conversation.
Victor Day, 30, started receiving text messages from his girlfriend, Kandace Florence, 28, early Sunday morning around 2 a.m., he told PEOPLE in an interview on Wednesday.
“Everything was fine. She just said they were out, they were drinking, everything was fine,” he said.
Day said he saw on his girlfriend’s Instagram Stories that she went out to what appeared to be a rooftop bar with fellow travelers Jordan Marshall, 28, and Courtez Hall, 33. They seemed to be drinking wine, surrounded by plants like the Mexico City skyline. shone in the background.
A few hours later, the three friends from Virginia Beach were found dead of suspected gas poisoning in an Airbnb they had rented in the La Rosita neighborhood of the Mexican capital.
courtesy of Victor Day
Mexico City authorities told a Spanish-language newspaper El País they have opened an investigation into the incident and believe the American visitors died of “carbon monoxide poisoning”.
An Airbnb representative did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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In a text message sent about two hours after indicating that everything was fine, Day told PEOPLE that Florence said she was “tired” and feeling very emotional.
“I write to him, ‘What’s wrong?’ and she said, “I’m not well. I want to go home,'” Day said. “And I’m writing to him, ‘You don’t appreciate that. What’s wrong? She says, “I feel drugged. And I say, ‘Where’s Jordan? Are you home or out?'”
Florence said she had just returned to the Airbnb, Day continued. Although she told him she hadn’t taken any drugs, she said that due to the symptoms she was experiencing, “I feel like I took Molly,” a reference to the ecstasy.
“I’m literally in pain,” Florence said, according to Day. “I’m like, shaking.”
Day asked if it was possible someone slipped something in her drink while she was out with Marshall and Hall, warning her, “If you haven’t been watching your drink the whole time, you’ve maybe been drugged.”
“His last message to me was, ‘I wasn’t complacent,'” Day said of the message he received at 4:47 a.m.
“Three minutes later, she FaceTimes me,” he continued. “And that’s when I can clearly see she’s throwing up. She’s crying. I mean her whole face was wet, crying or vomiting or maybe she splashed water on her face.”
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Day said the conversation continued before dozing off for “probably about five to ten minutes.” When he woke up, their phones were still connected.
Courtesy of the Marshall family Kandace Florence, left, and Jordan Marshall in costume during Day of the Dead festivities
“But now the phone screen is black like she put the phone down or the phone fell. But the side of the camera is facing the ground,” he told PEOPLE. “So I can’t see anything. But I heard something going on in the background and I put the phone to my ear, and it sounds like she’s throwing up or throwing up sharply, or both.”
Day said he remembered thinking, “It’ll be fine.” He thought that if she had been drugged, throwing up and then sleeping would help.
“She’ll go to sleep. She’ll wake up the next morning and she’ll tell me everything that could have happened,” he recalled thinking. “And so, for me, that’s what gnaws at me. Because knowing that I could have helped a little more, knowing that at that point I probably could have called the police. I could have do something but instead I fell asleep.”
Courtesy of the Marshall family Jordan Marshall and Kandace Florence in Italy
The next morning, Day contacted Florence via text message. “How are you feeling? Are you all right?” he wrote. “About 30, 45 minutes has passed, I’m not getting anything. And I started to think, I was like, well, looks like she’s had a night. She’s probably overslept. “
After another hour passed, he said he was getting worried. “Something was definitely wrong,” he remembers thinking.
“And then that’s when it clicked,” Day added. Florence had shown him the Airbnb listing a month before his trip with Marshall and Hall, so he used it to contact the host.
“Something is seriously wrong. I need someone to check the apartment,” he said, writing to the host via the site. “And we go back and forth for a little while and finally she’s like, okay, she’s sending her security into the apartment.”
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Day said 10 minutes later the host responded, “saying they found the three of them in the apartment unresponsive, with no vital signs” and that emergency services were contacted.
On Monday morning, Day heard from the host again. “She tells me they’ve all been declared dead,” he said.
“I refused to believe they were dead. It felt so surreal, it didn’t seem real,” he said. “And so I started asking him, I was like, ‘Did the police do something? Did you, did you try in Mexico to save their lives? And she assured me. She was like, ‘Oh, sure. Of course, they tried. And unfortunately, it’s too late. They all succeeded.'”
Facebook (LR) Jordan Marshall, Kandace Florence and Courtez Hall
Day said he was sure the Airbnb listing said the rental had carbon monoxide detectors, but wondered if they weren’t working.
Florence, who would have turned 29 on Thursday, was supposed to be in DC to celebrate her birthday with him, according to Day, who now plans to visit Virginia Beach to be with others who loved her.
“It’s tough,” he said. “But I know Kandace is looking down and trying to give me strength.”
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Florence owned a company called Glo through itwho makes candles with inspiring messages.
The Make(HER) collective — a group of local women creators and business owners from the Hampton Roads area — is now looking for donations via GoFundMe to establish the Kandace Florence Memorial Scholarship and help Florence’s family with funeral expenses.
“We can’t imagine our community without her, and we know the world has great things in store for her,” the band said. “But not because she received it – because she worked tirelessly for it. While prioritizing self-love, rest, fun and family.”
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