Nova Scotia couple found dead in Mexico

A Canadian couple who had travelled to Mexico to attend their daughter’s wedding has been found dead at a hotel near the resort city of Playa de Carmen.

A family member said Charles Mackenzie and his wife, Dorothy Mackenzie, both from Baddeck, N.S., were found dead on Monday.

Charles Mackenzie’s brother-in-law Douglas Hastings said family members currently in Mexico for the wedding were dealing with their deaths.

“I know that they’re more concerned about the remains and cremation and things like that. I don’t really know about the wedding,” said Hastings, whose wife was also in Mexico.

An official from the prosecutor’s office in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo said the couple’s bodies were found in a whirlpool spa and showed no signs of violence.

The official, who wouldn’t give her name as she wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the case, said autopsies have indicated that Charles Mackenzie died of a heart attack and his wife died of asphyxia by submersion.

She said the deaths appeared to be accidental and linked, suggesting the man’s heart attack may have somehow caused the woman to drown.

A spokesman for the Playacar Palace hotel, where the couple was staying, said the deaths are still under investigation.

David Rubeo dismissed earlier media reports that suggested the couple had been electrocuted in the hot tub of their room.

“The room was perfectly fine. All the equipment was working perfectly,” he told The Canadian Press. “What the family mentioned was a heart attack.”

Rubeo said the couple’s family was still staying at the hotel and was being assisted by hotel staff.

“We are treating them as our own family,” he said, noting that staff were helping the Canadians deal with local authorities.

“All the group is very calm, in the best way they can be.”

A spokesman with the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed the deaths of two Canadians and said consular officials were helping the couple’s family and friends.

“Canadian consular officials in Playa del Carmen, Mexico are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information,” said Francois Lasalle.