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Who was Dorian Christian MacDonald? Canadian tourist found mysteriously dead in Dominican Republic
Last week, a 38-year-old Canadian tourist mysteriously died in a resort town, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, CTV reported. A GoFundMe campaign has raised over $33,000 to help repatriate Dorian MacDonald's body to Nova Scotia.(GoFundMe)
Dorian Christian MacDonald, originally from Nova Scotia, had been staying alone at a hotel in the popular resort town of Puerto Plata when he reportedly went for a quiet, late-night walk along the beach around 2 AM on 20 June. Just an hour later, a missing person report was filed. Authorities, including the police and the Civil Defense agency, launched a search. However, they found his body in the water at high tide shortly after 4 a.m.
Officials have ruled the cause of death as an accidental drowning.
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'On June 20th, while vacationing in the DR, Dorian died suddenly in a drowning accident,' his close friend Tara McKenzie wrote on a GoFundMe page launched to help with expenses. 'He was only 38 years old.'
'He wasn't just a friend. He was my brother in every way but blood – and maybe more so than some who share it,' she added. 'He was that person, his presence felt like it would just always be there. And now, somehow, just like that, he's gone.' Second mysterious drowning in Dominican Republic raises alarms after Sudiksha Konanki case
The fundraiser, which has already gathered more than $33,000 of its $40,000 goal, is helping support the costly process of repatriating MacDonald's body to Nova Scotia. 'We don't even get to even begin saying goodbye properly or grieve as we should until then,' McKenzie wrote. 'The process of repatriating someone from another country is a slow, expensive and deeply complicated situation that I wish on no one.'
'Between flights, international paperwork, funeral coordination, preparation of his body and all the red tape, we're looking at a cost of $10,000–$20,000 just to get him back,' she continued. 'And honestly? We just want him out of that cold system and back where he belongs – with us.'
'The department is aware of the death of a Canadian citizen in the Dominican Republic,' a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada told CTV News, adding, 'due to privacy considerations, no further information may be disclosed.'
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MacDonald's death comes just three months after 20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki's case, a University of Pittsburgh student, who vanished from a beach near her resort in Punta Cana. Her body was never recovered. Her family has since accepted the ruling of accidental drowning, but investigators and U.S. authorities have raised doubts about the official narrative.
