(CNN) -- This is all we know for sure:
-- Kari Bowerman, 27, and Cathy
Huynh, 26, were backpacking in Vietnam while on break from their jobs teaching
English in South Korea.
-- On July 30, the friends were
admitted to Khanh Hoa General Hospital in Nha Trang. Both were vomiting, had
difficulty breathing and showed signs of severe dehydration.
-- Huynh was eventually released
from the hospital. She returned later that night to hear the devastating news
-- three hours after being admitted, Bowerman had gone into respiratory failure
and died.
-- Two days later, Huynh was
dead.
What we don't know for sure is
what triggered their deaths.
The travelers' stories are just
the latest in a string of mysterious tourist deaths in Southeast Asia.
Investigators with the World Health Organization suspect poisoning is to blame,
but determining the origin has proven difficult. Meanwhile, friends and family
are desperate for answers.
"It's been a nightmare
trying to get information," Bowerman's sister Jennifer Jaques said.
"No hospital reports. No police report. No nothing. Whatever happened to
her we need to make sure doesn't happen to somebody else."
Not yet determined
Almost immediately, international
media reports began linking the deaths an incident in Thailand in June in which
two Canadian sisters died.
A hotel maid found Noemi and
Audrey Belanger, 25 and 20, in their room on Phi Phi Island more than 12 hours
after they died. The sisters were covered in vomit, according to CBC News.
In February 2011, New Zealand
resident Sarah Carter, 23, died in Chiang Mai, Thailand, after arriving at a
local hospital with low blood pressure, difficulty breathing and dehydration
from vomiting, according to the New Zealand television network TV3.
In the Downtown Inn where Carter
had stayed, the Bangkok Post says three other visitors -- a Thai tour guide and
an elderly British couple -- died between January and May 2011.
Other media reports linked
Bowerman's and Huynh's deaths to the 2009 deaths of Jill St. Onge and Julie
Bergheim, who had similar symptoms in adjacent rooms at the Laleena Guesthouse
on the island of Phi Phi. (The hotel has since changed its name).
Speculation on the cause arose
with each death -- ranging from alcohol poisoning to something the victims ate.
As Bowerman's relatives read
story after story, they realized they weren't the only family frustrated and
confused. The cause of death in every case was eerily similar to the one
written on Kari Bowerman's death report: "not yet determined."
Global citizens
Ashley Bowerman says it was
"heartbreaking" to unzip her sister's backpack. Inside was a big map
of Vietnam, a book about the history of the region and a list of historical
sites she wanted to visit.
Her belongings had been returned
home to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where the girls grew up.
Fundraisers helped offset the
more than $10,000 it cost the family to repatriate her cremated body.
Ashley is still in shock. Kari --
beautiful, adventurous, full-of-life Kari -- is dead. Born just a year and 10
days apart, the sisters talked every day, even when Kari was halfway around the
world.
"She was the funniest person
I know," Ashley said. "She always made me laugh. She never wasted a
day ... every weekend she was doing something exciting."
Both Bowerman and Huynh were
experienced travelers. Bowerman had applied for the teaching abroad program
after graduating from Winona State University in Minnesota. She had already
taught for two years in South Korea when the school asked her to come back for
a second stint.
"Those kids adored
her," Jennifer Jaques said.
Huynh, originally from Hamilton,
Ontario, had vacationed in China, Cuba and the United States, her high school
friend Jetty Ly told CNN.
Both women had been to Vietnam
before and Huynh spoke the language. Among the belongings returned to Huynh's
family was detailed information about the Canadian Embassy and emergency
contact numbers.
"I encouraged her to follow
her dreams, go where her heart wants to go," Jetty said. "I wanted to
live vicariously through her adventures. But not like this."
When Bowerman's friend Jason Von
Seth posted about her death on Facebook, e-mails started flooding in.
A frequent traveler himself, Von
Seth had a large network of international acquaintances whom had never heard about
this series of mysterious deaths and expressed concern.
He launched a Facebook page last
week called Protected Travels. He said he hopes the site will become a
community of global citizens who are eager to educate others on the challenges
facing travelers abroad.
At the top of the Facebook page
is a collection of photos of those who have died in circumstances to similar to
Huynh and Bowerman.
"All these girls, you see
their faces," Jason said. "(They're) all young, 20-somethings that
just wanted to have a life-changing experience."
Seeking answers
In 2011, TV3 traveled to Chiang
Mai, Thailand, to search for evidence in the Sarah Carter case. Show producers
spoke with Dr. Ron McDowall, a United Nations toxic chemical consultant, who
had reviewed Carter's pathology reports and believed she died of pesticide
ingestion.
The swabs collected by TV3 in the
Downtown Inn showed moderate levels of chlorpyrifos, McDowall told CNN in an
email last week.
The chemical is banned for use in
homes and hotels in most countries, McDowall said. Yet it's still legal in
Thailand and Vietnam, he said
According to the Environmental
Protection Agency, chlorpyrifos can cause nausea, dizziness, confusion and, in
high levels, respiratory paralysis and death.
McDowall said the chemical and
was included in the pesticide sprayed in the Downtown Inn. "The level of
(chlorpyrifos) in this product is quite low and should not normally cause a
problem," he said. "However, in my work we have found many sprayer
companies 'top up' the level of (chlorpyrifos) when they are battling bedbugs
in Asia."
Evidence for the insecticide
theory is mounting. Thai police recently announced they found traces of the
insect repellent DEET in the Belanger sisters' bodies, according CBC.
Investigators believe the DEET was added as an ingredient to a popular cocktail
served on the island.
The Downtown Inn was torn down
this summer after the Thailand Disease Control Department concluded three of
the deaths were "probably connected to the use of pesticides,"
according to the Bangkok Post.
The problem is that chemical
poisoning is very hard to verify, McDowall says. Chlorpyrifos' half-life -- or
the amount of time that passes before half of the original amount disappears --
in humans is about one day.
Vietnamese authorities have
released very little information about the cause of death for Bowerman and
Huynh. Investigators might know more when autopsy results come back in a couple
of weeks.
But for the survivors, just
knowing the answer isn't good enough anymore. They are determined to raise
awareness and are searching for the next step, whether that's better education,
tougher insecticide regulation or banning these chemicals outright.
"Cathy could have been alive
today," said Jetty. "I feel like if we can at least let the world
know that this is happening ... maybe when a parent's daughter (or) son tells
them that they are backpacking in South Asia, it will not be the last
goodbye."
Jacque Wilson
Business & Investment Opportunities
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