A Long Island pizzeria owner died this week after suddenly becoming ill at a resort in the Dominican Republic, the third American tourist to die in a week in the Caribbean island nation.
Vittorio Caruso, 56, of Glen Cove, went into respiratory distress and died Monday after drinking something at the Boca Chica Resort in Santo Domingo where he was staying, relatives told Fox News.
“This was a complete shock to us, as Vittorio was not a sick person,” Lisa Maria Caruso, the dead man’s sister-in-law, told the news channel.
Caruso is the 11th American tourist to die in the Dominican since last year. The two other U.S. tourists who died this month are Leyla Cox, a 53-year-old hospital MRI technician from Staten Island who was found dead in her hotel room on June 10, and Joseph Allen, 55, from Avenel, N.J., who died in his room on June 13.