David Thorne, a 32-year-old Irish backpacker, died of a suspected drug overdose on Easter Sunday while sitting by the pool at a hostel in Medellin, Colombia, reports local tabloid Q’hubo.
According to an eye-witness account posted on a Lonely Planet travel forum, the man was sitting by the pool at 8 AM on Sunday at the Pitstop hostel in Poblado with “other partiers,” when he suddenly “fell out of his chair by the pool and started having a seizure, an apparent drug overdose.”
An ambulance was called, and Thorne was pronounced dead in hospital. The cause of death had not been established when Q’hubo published its story on Monday.
The eye-witness account describes the hostel as “slow” and “inept” in their response to the incident, and says that staff “did nothing to help.”
Q’hubo reports that in the man’s room were found “many pills and anti-depressants” and a quantity of marijuana.
According to Q’hubo, Thorne had been staying at the Pitstop hostel since February 13, and while resident there he generally slept during the day and went out at night.
He told other guests that he was an artist, had travelled through Argentina and Ecuador, and was planning to visit Panama.
An Irish local newspaper reports that Thorne was from County Longford, and that his family were informed of the death earlier in the week.
There are as yet no details of when his remains will be returned to Ireland.
No-one from the Pitstop’s management was available for comment when contacted by Colombia Reports.
Q’hubo comments that Thorne’s death follows that of an Italian who died “in strange circumstances” last week at a hotel in Medellin.
Ivano Montabani Ivanov, aged 55, was found dead in a hotel on Tuesday in the Estadio district of Medellin. No sign of foul play was found, but there were various bottles of “liquor and medication” in the room.
