The Royal Bahama Police Force said in a Feb 4 statement that they arrested 2 men – ages 54 and 40 – in connection with the alleged sexual assault
What was intended to be an enjoyable, kid-free vacation to the Bahamas turned into a harrowing ordeal of survival for two Kentucky mothers.
Amber Shearer and Dongayla Dobson, lifelong friends, reportedly experienced being drugged and sexually assaulted while stopping on Grand Bahama Island during a Carnival cruise, as reported by various news outlets.
They recounted sipping cocktails obtained from the resort during their stop on Grand Bahama Island and ventured out to the beach in search of seashells for their children, they told LEX 18.
“After the first drink, we had to leave the bar because we felt it hitting us really hard. I felt extremely disoriented,” Dobson told “Good Morning America.” Then, they lost consciousness.
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That was when members of the Freeport resort staff allegedly sexually assaulted the two women, they said on “Good Morning America.”
“I vaguely remember glimpses of his face,” Dobson said. “I don’t remember everything. I remember enough that he was a staff worker, he had a goatee, and he was a local.”
Their toxicology results revealed a mixture of drugs in their systems.
The Royal Bahama Police Force announced in a statement on February 4th that they had arrested two men, aged 54 and 40, in connection with the alleged sexual assault. Their names were not disclosed.
“Active police investigations into this matter are ongoing,” stated the Royal Bahama Police Force.
One of the survivor’s parents mentioned in a GoFundMe post that they were video chatting from the beach the morning of the alleged attack.
“They were having a drink and enjoying themselves, but they seemed off. I thought it was probably just the connection or me,” Frankie King, the organizer of the fundraiser, said in the post.
“Barely an hour later, I received the most horrifying text of my life, ‘Call us now we’ve been drugged and raped.'”
It’s been a long and agonizing wait for their families, as detailed in the GoFundMe post. “A parent’s worst nightmare.”
Eventually, the survivors returned to the United States, where they discovered that the State Department had issued a two-level travel advisory for the Bahamas due to high crime rates.
The State Department warned that “most crime occurs on the islands of New Providence (Nassau) and Grand Bahama (Freeport),” highlighting an increase in violent crimes such as armed robberies and sexual assaults due to gang activity.
“We didn’t know there was a travel advisory until four hours after we were raped,” the women told local news outlet LEX 18, adding that they were never informed of the advisory before the trip.
Two women receiving medical care at home in Kentucky worth thousands of dollars in preventive care, including HIV prevention, reported by LEX 18.
“We want justice for what happened to us. We want to educate others,” said Shearer. “Be safe. Two is not a group. Don’t buy any drinks unless they come in a sealed container, a bottle.”