Mexico opens homicide investigation into resort explosion

Mexican authorities have opened what they’re calling a homicide investigation into the hotel explosion that killed five Canadians last weekend, after the families of several Canadian victims filed official complaints.

The explosion on Sunday at the Grand Riviera Princess Hotel, a sprawling complex in the beach-lined resort of Playa del Carmen on the Yucatan Peninsula, killed seven people, including the five Canadians and two Mexicans. The blast tore a hole through one of the resort’s lobbies and injured 18.

Quintana Roo state attorney Francisco Alor said Thursday that three Canadian families have filed homicide complaints with Mexican authorities, while two families have filed injury complaints.

Homicide investigations are routine whenever there are unexplained deaths, Mr. Alor said, adding that the official Canadian complaints put a further obligation on authorities to open a homicide file.

“We’re obligated when there’s an accident that there has to be a homicide investigation,” Mr. Alor said.

Mexican authorities have repeatedly ruled out any sort of attack as the cause of the explosion.

However, the investigation will look at whether the blast was the result of negligence.

Killed were Christopher Charmont, 41 and his nine-year-old son, John, both from Drumheller, Alta.; Malcolm Johnson, 33, from Nanaimo, B.C – who was in Mexico for his wedding; Darlene Ferguson, a 51-year-old grandmother from the Edmonton area; and Elgin Barron, 51, from Guelph, Ont. Two resort employees also died in the blast.

Mr. Alor said Mexican investigators are pursing the theory that there may have been an accumulation of methane gas at the site due to rotting material in waste water, and that the gas ignited, causing the blast.

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