The last message a young British woman sent her mom was simple, “I don’t feel well.”
The next day Natalie Jade Seymour, a 22-year-old woman from London, and her friend Abbey Gail Amisola, 27, of Winnipeg, were found dead in their Cambodian hostel bunks. The woman were allegedly suffering from food poisoning and had bought some pills from a local chemist to deal with their illness.
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In online posts paying tribute to Amisola, a family member described her as someone who “filled lights into the room filled with joy, happiness, comfort, and warmth.” Seymour’s mother told the Daily Mail that the two were told by the hostel staff to go get medical help but declined.
“They decided to sleep it off but never woke up again,” she said.
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According to the Sun, the duo had met while traveling and became quick friends. The two were staying at the Monkey Republic Guest House in Cambodia’s Kampot region. In a statement to the Daily Mail, a spokesman for the Monkey Republic hostel said that the case is “in the hands of the police, but there is nothing suspicious about their deaths.”
Cambodia has long been known as a world-class destination for drug tourism and this isn’t the first time that travellers have mysteriously passed away while visiting the south-east Asian country.
In 2015, a British man named Stephen William King, died in his hotel room after complaining of food poisoning. Just last year, award winning New Zealand journalist Christopher Adams ODed in the country. Both deaths were ruled as heart attacks.
In a story published at the time of Adam’s death, Cambodia Expats Online editor Daniel Mackevili told VICE that drugs are available for tourists the minute they touch down and that people die of “heart attacks” in the country weekly.
Mackevili added that, at times, tourists are getting heroin when they think they’re getting cocaine and that rooming houses will allegedly “get rid” of evidence to avoid a fine. A Cambodian local told the Sun that over the counter drug medication in Cambodia can routinely contain opioids.
An official cause of death has yet to be released for Amisola and Seymour but an autopsy has been scheduled.
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