Two Kentucky mothers are coming out after being allegedly drugged and raped in the Bahamas on Sunday, after the United States’ travel warning for the popular vacation destination.
Amber Shearer and Dongayla Dobson, longtime friends, said their first kid-free holiday ended with a terrible, broad-daylight assault when they decided to walk to the beach after their Carnival cruise ship docked in the island country.
Now they are warning other ladies. The women were sunbathing on a Grand Bahama beach when a resort employee offered them a two-for-one drink bargain, they told NewsNation’s “Cuomo.”
They agreed and took photos with the exotic drinks, one in a pineapple and the other in a coconut.
However, they quickly realized that the beverages were far stronger than planned.
Dobson told the channel that even their loved ones back home became concerned when the women sent back footage in which they appeared to be heavily intoxicated just 15 minutes after their first sips.
“We sensed there was something awry after only a few [sips] of the second drink. “Something was horribly wrong,” Shearer explained.
When they went to seek for seashells to bring back to their children, a male resort employee offered to show them the finest place to gather shells.
But the next thing Shearer remembered was waking up while being molested by a uniformed male resort employee.
“I came to during the process of my rape,” she told NewsNation, crying down.
Bahamian authorities and other resort employees were able to identify the two individuals accused of the lunchtime assault using security footage.
One of the attackers had only been with the resort for roughly a week, according to Shearer.
Royal Bahamas police detained two men, a 40-year-old from South Bahamia and a 54-year-old from Eight Mile Rock, in connection with the sexual assault, according to a news release.
Police are still investigating, but the ladies claim their charges were not handled correctly and that local officers failed to deliver adequate rape test kits despite their appeals.
Back on the cruise ship, the mothers received the results of their toxicology tests, which revealed that they had a variety of medications in their systems, including benzodiazepines.
They also had nearly no alcohol in their bodies and bruising on their legs, according to Kentucky NBC affiliate Lex18.
“To see the things that showed up on my [toxicology] screen was just traumatizing all over again,” Dobson told me.
Back in Kentucky, the ladies have hired a lawyer to seek justice and are receiving medical attention, including $4,000 in HIV prevention medication, according to local media.
The mothers are also upset with Carnival, which they claim failed to inform them of the US State Department travel advisory for the Bahamas until after their awful assault.
On January 26, little over a week before the alleged rape of two American women, the State Department issued a level 2 advisory.
The alert warns US travelers to “exercise increased caution” when visiting the Bahamas, citing criminality and gang-on-gang violence that resulted in 18 killings in January alone.
Five days before the moms were assaulted, Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis maintained that his country was a “safe” tourist destination.
“The incidents described in the January 2024 US Embassy crime alert do not reflect general safety in The Bahamas, a country of sixteen (16) tourism destinations, and many more islands,” added the official.
Carnival stated that it is collaborating with Bahamian police in their inquiry.
“While ashore in Freeport, Bahamas, on an independent shore excursion, two Carnival Elation guests reported to Bahamian police that they were sexually assaulted at a local beach,” a cruise line representative told The Post.
“Our onboard Care Team assisted the two guests as they sailed back to Jacksonville. The Bahamas police are investigating the matter and Carnival is providing our full cooperation.”