Elda Shepherd, of Columbus, Ohio, planned a vacation to the Dominican Republic earlier this month with a couple’s group. She was the only person on the trip without a mate. Shepherd arrived at the ultra-modern Breathless Resort in Punta Cana on Sunday, June 2. Online reviews of the resort are relatively good with a few bad reviews.
According to Shepherd, everything was perfect at the four-and-a-half star resort until that Wednesday when her jacuzzi malfunctioned. After a call to the front desk, a man came up to repair the broken jacuzzi and left after the service was completed.
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Here’s where the situation took a turn for the worse. At 2 a.m. early Thursday morning as Elda Shepherd slept, the repairman allegedly returned her room, entered without permission, and tapped her on the shoulder. She was in bed nude.
Of course, she was startled by the unexpected “visitor.”
Shepherd doesn’t speak Spanish, and the intruder doesn’t speak English, so he used a translator app on his cellphone to ask her: “Why are you alone, you don’t want company?”
She leaped to her feet and told him, “One of us has to die, and I’m going home to my kids.”
She fought him off, and he ran out of the room. Immediately after the frightening incident, Shepherd took to social media via Facebook to give her family and friends an update on what had just occurred. The video quickly went viral, and social media users offered their help from near and far.
She called the front desk of the Breathless Resort about the incident and was told by hotel employees that the police station was only open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. In that instance, Elda Shepherd realized hotel employees had given her contradicting information by claiming that the culprit had been arrested. The police weren’t contacted.
Hotel management reportedly tried to bribe her with $2,000 to get her to stop posting the situation on social media. She didn’t take the money.
Friends and family offered the beleaguered tourist encouragement to stay focused so she could return home safely from the vacation-turned-nightmare. It appeared that the police and hotel were working together not to help Elda Shepherd. Friends, family, and social media viewers who were watching her live videos told Shepherd to contact the U.S. Embassy. It was then she was finally assisted.
Someone from the U.S. Embassy escorted her to the police department in Punta Cana. Shepherd identified the suspect from a lineup, and he was supposedly arrested. She finally made it back stateside from her “vacation” on June 7.
Ironically, this latest incident at a Dominican resort wasn’t given any national attention. Elda Shepherd is a Black woman from Ohio. Although she didn’t die, her situation was indeed a harrowing experience.
