Authorities in Tanzania have announced the cause of death for American influencer Ashlee Jenae, nearly two months after her death made international headlines.
The 31-year-old lifestyle influencer, born Ashly Robinson, was found unresponsive at a luxury hotel in Zanzibar, Tanzania on April 8.
According to local news outlet The Citizen, Robinson’s death has been ruled a suicide. The investigation was led by the Zanzibar Police Force, the outlet said.
The police department’s deputy director of criminal investigations, Zuberi Chembera, held a press conference on Thursday, June 4, and told reporters Robinson had been upset about her “life circumstances” just before she died.
“Through witness statements and analysis of communication devices belonging to the deceased and her fiancé, we established that she had been experiencing mental distress. SMS exchanges showed repeated complaints regarding her life circumstances,” Chembera said.
Related: Body of Influencer Ashlee Jenae Returned to Her Family
Robinson had traveled to East Africa for a dream vacation with her American fiancé, 45-year-old Joe McCann. The two were in Tanzania celebrating Robinson’s 31st birthday.
She posted a video to Instagram on April 4 (Tanzanian time), showing McCann getting down on one knee and proposing. A delighted Robinson jumped into McCann’s arms and showed no signs of distress.
Her parents told CBS News their daughter contacted them on April 8, and said she and McCann had gotten into a heated argument.
Hotel management at the Zuri Zanzibar resort separated the two and moved McCann to a different villa. Robinson was later found unresponsive in her room and taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead on April 9, according to news reports out of Tanzania.
Robinson grew up in Southern New Jersey and her family now lives in Delaware. They spoke with local news station ABC 6 Action News, and said they were told by the hospital that she died from cerebral hypoxia by strangulation and suffocation.
“She’s never done anything that would ever, ever lead me to believe that she would harm herself,” her mother Yolanda Denise Endres told the TV station.
Endres said McCann called the next day and told her “Ashly did something to herself.”
Her parents contacted the U.S. State Department and questioned the handling of the case by Tanzanian officials. Police held onto McCann’s passport, and he was questioned before returning to the U.S.
McCann founded cryptocurrency investment firm Asymmetric Financial. Robinson promoted luxury items and the “soft life” — a life of leisure without requiring hard work — to her more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.
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