A Canadian tourist was found dead at the resort she was staying at in Mexico while celebrating her 24th birthday with her boyfriend, who has since been detained in connection to her death.
Kiara Agnew had traveled to Mexico’s Caribbean “gold coast” to stay at the Grand Sunset Princess Resort in Playa del Carmen. With her on this adventure was her 26-year-old boyfriend, Ryan Friesen, an ice hockey player for the Dawson Creek Canucks, a junior ice hockey team in Canada.
The couple arrived at the resort on March 2, the Toronto Star reported. Within days, Agnew would be dead, and police in Mexico released a statement saying they took a man in custody after “a lifeless woman was found with possible marks of violence in a hotel located in the Xcalacoco neighbourhood.”
“She has been counting down to this trip,” Agnew’s aunt, Katlyn Levesque, told the Star. “It is shocking. We want to know what happened.”
“She was a beautiful, wonderful person inside and out. It’s unfair that she was robbed of her chance to experience life to the fullest,” she added.
Levesque also said she didn’t want to speculate about what could have happened to her niece.
“We are close in age, we were really close, we grew up together,” she said. “We are still waiting on the autopsy results and it is an ongoing investigation so we do not want to speculate.”
The aunt said Agnew had been looking forward to the trip since Christmas.
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“Kiara loved travelling. She always wanted to see the Mayan ruins. That was part of their all-inclusive trip. She was really excited about it,” she told the Star.
Agnew had been with her boyfriend for a year and a half, and her aunt warned her to be safe before their trip.
“The last thing I said to her was to be safe. You know, don’t wander around alone, be mindful of your surroundings. Then, I never heard from her,” Levesque said.
Friesen, the boyfriend, has been detained in connection with the crime, Canada’s Global Affairs told the outlet.
“Officials are providing consular assistance to the families and are in contact with local authorities,” Spokesperson Charlotte MacLeod told the Star. “No further information could be disclosed due to privacy considerations.”
Levesque also said the family is still waiting for an autopsy to confirm her niece’s cause of death and that the boyfriend’s family had been in touch to offer their condolences.
“I know that they’re hurting too and confused. They want to find out what happened as much as everybody else,” Levesque said.