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The family of a public defender who mysteriously died after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Mexico has suggested that authorities are trying to cover up a murder by cremating his body.
Elliot Blair, 33, was celebrating his first wedding anniversary with his wife in the resort town of Rosarito, 20 miles south of the US border, when he fell to his death around 1:15 a.m. Saturday morning. morning.
Shortly after the incident, local news websites reported that the “authorities” considered his death an “unfortunate accident” and that he was drunk at the time.
However, his family have said that he was not intoxicated and, in fact, he was discovered on the floor in the clothes he would have been sleeping in: underwear and a T-shirt.
Blair was staying in a third-floor room at the Las Rocas Hotel with his wife Kim, who is also a public defender, when he fell from the public walkway in front of his room and not from his private balcony.
The couple have stayed in the same room on “multiple occasions” in the past five years, their family said.
It is not clear where his wife was when he fell, but his family said they had been given multiple versions of what happened and that Mexican authorities have not communicated.
The family of 33-year-old Elliot Blair (right), who died mysteriously after falling from a hotel walkway in Mexico, have suggested that authorities are trying to cover up a murder by cremating his body. He is pictured with his wife Kim.
Blair was celebrating his first wedding anniversary with his wife in the resort town of Rosarito when he fell to his death from the third floor of his hotel.
“The family, who has extensive training in criminal law, wholeheartedly believes that, based on their initial investigation, Elliot was the victim of a brutal crime,” the family’s attorney, David Scarsone, wrote in a statement.
According to the family, “Mexican authorities” who were cited in initial news reports have not contacted them directly and the Rosarito Beach Police Department conducted “little or no” investigation.
“No one from the Rosarito Beach Police Department, the district attorney’s office or any other Mexican official has contacted them directly,” the statement read.
According to Scarsone, the only contact the family has had with local authorities was through the coroner’s office, which had not completed a toxicology report until 2 p.m. Monday.
It was also suggested that the undertaker holding Blair’s body has been pushing to have him cremated, thus eliminating the possibility of a proper investigation of the death.
“Yesterday, during a discussion with the undertaker, it was suggested that he be cremated and the family insisted that his body not be cremated in order to carry out a full and independent investigation,” the family said.
At around 1:15 a.m. on January 14, authorities were notified that Blair fell from the balcony of the Hotel Las Rocas in the town of Rosarito, just south of Tijuana and off the Tijuana-Ensenada highway.
Blair was a public defender with the Orange County Public Defender’s office. He and his wife Kim were celebrating one year since their marriage in California in January 2022.
The local news site Patrulla 646 Código Rojo reported that hotel staff informed authorities about the accident and that when police arrived, Blair was lying face down and unconscious. It was said that when paramedics arrived they found him dead.
A Facebook page dedicated to sharing news from the Rosarito area, Rosarito in the News, shared an account of what happened, noting that local authorities were withholding information and citing reports in the Californian newspaper The Orange County Register.
The first suggestion that Blair was murdered appears to have been published by The OC Register on Saturday afternoon. The claim is not attributed, but reporters spoke with Orange County Public Defender Martin Schwarz.
Schwarz told the outlet, “We’ve been in communication with the family and are doing everything we can to support them through this difficult time, including working with local and federal officials to help provide answers.”
A Los Rocas Resort and Spa worker found California Public Defender Elliot Blair sprawled on the ground around 1:15 a.m. Saturday. According to his family, they found him in a T-shirt and underwear.
His family insists he was not drunk when he fell off the catwalk early Saturday morning.
The couple have stayed in that same room at Hotel Las Rocas on “multiple occasions” in the past five years, their family said.
“Here in Rosarito the information was not released,” wrote the author of the Rosarito post in the News.
‘A hotel employee reported the unfortunate event to the authorities, who took it upon themselves to hide the information,’ they wrote in Spanish.
‘Elliot was a loving husband, son and brother. Elliot’s tragic, untimely and suspicious death has left his family and community with a huge hole in their hearts that will never be mended,” Scarsone wrote.