Missing Iowa Family Of 4 Found Dead In Vacation Condo In Mexico

CRESTON, IA — All four members of a Creston, Iowa, family vacationing in Mexico were found dead in their rented condominium Thursday, a day after they failed to show up at a St. Louis, Missouri, airport. There was no foul play, authorities said, but autopsies are pending to determine how they died.

Family member Ashil Peterson confirmed the deaths of the family — Kevin Wayne Sharp, 41, his wife, Amy Marie, 38, and their children Sterling Wayne, 12, and Adrianna Marie, 7 — in a Facebook post. It updated an urgent post earlier that they were missing.

The preliminary report that foul play has been ruled out in the Sharps’ deaths adds more mystery about what tragically ended the family’s late-winter vacation in an area where the State Department has warned tourists are vulnerable.

The main theory is that the Sharps were overcome by gas fumes due to a leak, Union County, Iowa, county official Mark Williams told People. The autopsies to confirm the cause of death will be performed in Mexico.

The last contact family members had with the Sharps was on March 15, when they said they'd arrived safely at the condo in Tulum, Mexico. Missing persons reports were filed through the U.S. Embassy in Mexico after the Sharps didn’t get off the 6 p.m. flight in St. Louis or show up as expected Thursday at a Southwest Community College basketball game in Darien, Illinois.

“We are extremely worried and hope they are found soon or can contact their family,” Peterson wrote on the post.

Pings to the Sharps’ cellphones showed they were still in Mexico, but there was “no movement on their phones,” Peterson wrote.

Their social media accounts were also idle, which family members said was unusual.

“There’s been no Facebook posts and that’s not like them,” Renee Hoyt, Amy Sharp’s sister, told the Creston News-Advertiser. “They’re always posting pictures when they’re on vacation.”

They disappeared amid heightened concern for U.S. tourists in Mexico, especially to Quintana Roo state, where Tulum is located. An advisory from the State Department updated this month said Americans traveling to that area should “exercise increased caution due to crime.”

“According to Government of Mexico statistics, the state experienced an increase in homicide rates compared to the same period in 2016. While most of these homicides appeared to be targeted, criminal organization assassinations, turf battles between criminal groups have resulted in violent crime in areas frequented by U.S. citizens,” the advisory said.

Below is Peterson's Facebook post:

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