Lexie York flight attendant attacked at Grand Bahia Principe resort in Tulum leaving her with lost vision. Mexico City local man, Ricardo S.P. arrested.
A Canadian flight attendant has told of being savagely beaten while vacationing at a Mexican resort — in an attack that required her receiving no less than 9 hours of facial reconstruction surgery.
Alexandra ‘Lexie’ York, 29, was assaulted inside her hotel room Nov. 10 on her first night at the Grand Bahia Principe resort in Tulum, the CBC reports.
Earlier in the evening, the Ottawa, Ontario woman was hanging out with strangers — a group of two couples — in the luxury hotel’s restaurant, Mexico News Daily reported.
She eventually went back to her room in the early morning hours, only to hear a knock at her door shortly after where she was confronted by one of the men from the group. The man upon forcing his way into York’s room, proceeded to mercilessly beat her CBC reported.
‘That’s when he started strangling me,’ York said. ‘I ended up on the bed. He was pushing me down into the bed, squeezing my throat.’
York alleges the man repeatedly beating her head and face until she lost consciousness.
When she awoke, she was on the floor beside her bed and had lost vision in both eyes.
York managed to escape the room to get help and was brought to a hospital in Playa del Carmen. The flight attendant is now recovering at a hospital in Cancun after undergoing facial reconstructive procedures.
‘She had nine hours of plastic surgery,’ her brother Mathew York told CBC. ‘She has nerve damage in her face. The swelling is kind of going down now, but at the time it was quite bad.’
What led to Canadian flight attendant being attacked?
Following her operation, York told of having double vision in one eye, while failing to regain her sight in the other.
Nevertheless the abused woman says she’s staying positive about her recovery process.
‘I’m hoping I can go home in about a week,’ she told the CBC.
It remains unclear if York is at risk of losing some or part of her eyesight.
The alleged perpetrator, who was identified as Ricardo S.P., a 34-year-old chauffeur from Mexico City, was arrested in connection with the attack, per a statement from the Quintana Roo attorney general’s office. The office said the arrested man had been staying at the resort with his wife at the time of the alleged attack.
Bahia Principe hotels issued a statement in response to the assault, saying the incident was ‘upsetting.’
‘As soon as the hotel was informed of the incident, staff immediately activated our internal security protocol, including providing urgent medical assistance and alerting the local authorities,’ the statement obtained by CBC said. ‘We wish Ms. York a speedy recovery and hope that the authorities get to the bottom of this incident as soon as possible.’
It remains unclear why the alleged perpetrator viciously attacked the Canadian flight attendant.
A Gofundme fundraiser for the savaged woman as of Thursday EST early evening had raised, $53,471 raised of a $30,000 goal.