Resort's 'Catastrophic Failure' Blamed for US Trio's Deaths

Three Boston-area friends who died on a birthday getaway in Belize are now at the center of a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the resort where they died. The families of Wafae El-Arar, 26; Kaoutar Naqqad, 23; and Imane Mallah, 24, have sued the Royal Kahal Beach Resort and others in federal court in Massachusetts, alleging the women's February 2025 carbon monoxide deaths were entirely avoidable, per NBC News. The complaint alleges the trio were poisoned when they turned on a shower and a hot water heater "began venting high concentrations of carbon monoxide directly into the suite."

The suit accuses the hotel, its developers, and the makers and installers of its hot water heaters of negligence, product liability, and wrongful death, among other claims. It states the resort initially hired a "well-regarded" contractor to install the water heaters but, due to budget issues, replaced him with an untrained handyman who didn't know how to install a gas converter kit on each unit, per MassLive. Attorney Louis J. Muggeo, representing the families, says the resort failed to take "appropriate remedial measures" despite earlier guest reports of symptoms consistent with carbon monoxide exposure. The resort replied to those earlier reports by saying it had installed carbon monoxide detectors in all rooms, but there was no working detector in the women's suite, the suit claims.

The women are believed to have died on the evening of Feb. 20, "having suffered excruciating conscious pain and no doubt realizing they were dying," according to the suit. Their bodies were found two days later. An investigation cited the heater as the source of the gas, the lawsuit says. After the deaths, the hotel reportedly replaced the heaters with electric units. Alleging a "catastrophic failure of safety systems," including a lack of investigation into prior complaints, improper heater installation, and failure to warn guests of dangerous conditions, the families are seeking a jury trial to determine damages. The resort hasn't publicly commented.