The Iowa family found dead in their vacation rental in Tulum, Mexico, may have been dead for days when authorities discovered the bodies either late Thursday or early Friday.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Amy Marie Sharp, 38; her husband Kevin Wayne Sharp, 41; and their two children, 12-year old Sterling Wayne and Adrianna Marie, 7, were found decomposed in a condominium in Tulum, Mexico, on Friday, two days after they were scheduled to arrived back home to the United States.
A family friend first announced in a Facebook post that the family had been found dead, noting that there were no signs of foul play. Authorities in the U.S. and in Mexico have since confirmed the deaths of the Sharp family.
Paul Ver Meer, the chief of the Creston Police Department, told Fox News that the parents and their two children were found dead in their Tulum vacation rental iin a tourist complex on Thursday night.
“There appears to be no signs of trauma,” Ver Meer told the news station.
The State Attorney’s Office of Quintana Roo, a Mexican state on the Yucatan Peninsula confirmed to the Des Moines Register that the agency is investigating the deaths.
A reporter in Iowa, translating from a Mexican newspaper, said on Twitter that the bodies were severely decomposed.
#BREAKING – Authorities in both #Mexico and #Creston confirm that a family of 4 from #Iowa was found dead in their complex at the #BahíaPríncipe resort in #Tulum – All four bodies are said to have been heavily decomposed. No foul play was evident. @weareiowa5news https://t.co/DTHdevAGUu
— Angelina Salcedo (@ASalcedoNews) March 23, 2018
As CrimeOnline previously reported, relatives told a local newspaper that they had not heard from the family since last Thursday. Amy Sharp’s sister said it was unusual for her to be out of contact and inactive on social media for that long.
There are conflicting reports about when the bodies were found. As noted above, a law enforcement source told Fox News that the bodies were found on Thursday night, but KRMG reports that the family was found during a welfare check on Friday, after Creston Police contacted the U.S. Department of State in response to a missing persons report filed in Creston on Friday morning.
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Quintana Roo state prosecutor’s office said in a tweet that “no signs of violence were found on the bodies or in the room.”
A family friend who posted the news of the Sharp family’s death on Facebook said in response to a question on the post that the cause of death was “potentially” carbon monoxide poisoning, but authorities have not confirmed or even suggested carbon monoxide as the cause.
CrimeOnline will provide further updates when more information is available.
[Feature image: Sharp family/Facebook]
