Maryland man visiting Mexico for a wedding mysteriously found dead

The search for answers is underway after a Maryland man visiting Mexico for a destination wedding was mysteriously found dead at a popular resort in Cancun. 

A week after the death, the family of Chez Johnson, 31, said his body still has not been sent to the United States. 

Yulanda Williams, Johnson's mother, told WJZ on Wednesday the last time she spoke with her son was before he left on Jan. 15 for a co-worker's destination wedding. 

The next day, she said she received a call from a family friend stating that he had been found dead. 

"I got a call around 12-1 o'clock that Chez had died, that he had fallen off a balcony in Mexico," Yulanda Williams said.

Williams describes her son as a "character" who loved fashion, traveling, and his family. He was looking to further his education after graduating from Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) two years ago.

"He was my partner in crime," Williams said. "He went to every function I ever wanted to go to. He was pescatarian. We always seemed to be eating seafood."

Now, Williams is demanding for the official police and autopsy report from Mexican authorities and wants answers as to how her son died less than a month after his 31st birthday. 

"They just would not talk to me"

Williams shared Johnson's last known location with WJZ. He was at the all-inclusive Riu Caribe hotel in Cancun, Mexico, for his co-worker's wedding.

The only way Willaims got any information regarding her son's death was by FaceTiming a family friend who was also on the trip.

"The young lady Tierra, who is my uncle's daughter, had confirmed it," Williams said. "So I needed her to call me, so she FaceTimed me, and I wanted to see Chez's body. But they wouldn't let me see. So, she had to confirm that it was him."

Williams said, "Tierra was telling them, 'This is his mom. You know, this is his mom. Y'all have to talk to her,' and they just would not talk to me."

"He is a gay male so it's no telling how they treat people over there," said Shantia Smith, Johnson's sister-in-law. 

"Who was the last person to see him?"

Nearly a week after the incident, Williams says no local law enforcement agency in Mexico has yet to reach out to her directly about the circumstances surrounding her son's death. She only knows what friends on the trip have been told. 

The only video and pictures she had received are of the now empty stairwell and balcony the alleged incident happened. 

"They said he had no defensive wounds on him, his body was the impact on his body from the fall," Williams said. "He told me it wasn't from him falling down the steps. It was from him falling from a height. They first told me that his leg was broken. Then they told the young lady, Tierra, told me that his ankle was broken. So, like, what is it? So that's why I was like, 'I need to get the police report, because it's conflicting stories.'"

Williams said, "She said they were like big boulders about 'this big,' like eight of them when they showed her. And she said when she went back, everything was gone and everything was cleaned up." 

Williams continued, "Cameras didn't point into the stairwell. They pointed outside. When she asked about the camera,  I asked 'Well, do they have audio? No audio.'"

"We called the police station, we were on hold, they hung up," Smith said. "We called again and said they do not speak English and they hung up. The hotel has not answered the phone." 

Smith and Williams also expressed difficulty working with a funeral director in Cancun. 

"They changed the price twice, because at first it was like 174,000 pesos," Smith said. "Then we had our funeral home here contact them. She said that she would discount it to like $7,000. But then, when she found out that we had an insurance policy that can cover some of the expenses, she took the price back up."

Smith added, "Y'all dangling him in front of us, like, 'hey, look, you can have this property when you pay the money, we'll send the property.' It's the same thing."

"I am in mommy mode trying to get things done, I am on the phone all day, trying to, you know, try to maneuver some things," Williams said. "So, it's heartbreaking. And my family is really suffering because Chez was loved by my family and so many people." 

WJZ reached out to the U.S. Consulate General Merida and received an automated voicemail and email. 

Riu Resorts has yet to respond to our inquiries.

"Maybe somebody can investigate this place, I know it is all inclusive but you have, it has to, it has to be a limit," Williams said. "He was my youngest, my youngest son. I just needed confirmation. I don't want them there, I really want him home. So that I can put him in his resting place. That's what I want." 

Johnson's sister-in-law said as of Thursday morning, the family has set up an online fundraiser and they are working with the Mexican embassy on a potential investigation. But still a lot of questions remain, including how they're going to get his body home. 

Other recent reports of deaths in Cancun

In 2024, a 12-year-old boy was killed after gunmen on jet skis opened fire at a beach in Cancun, authorities said, marking another incident of deadly violence at a Mexican resort in recent years.

Mexican prosecutors said in a statement, that the gunmen were targeting a rival drug dealer on the beach and fled after the barrage of bullets. 

The boy, a local resident, was apparently lying on a lounge chair on the beach with his family when he was hit by stray bullets. The boy was taken to a local hospital where he later died, according to authorities. 

In February 2024, three people were shot dead by gunmen – one who arrived and fled aboard a boat – in Acapulco.

In 2022, two Canadians were killed in Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun, apparently because of debts between international drug and weapons trafficking gangs.

In 2021, further south in Tulum, two tourists — one a California travel blogger born in India and a German national — were killed when they apparently were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival drug dea.

The U.S. State Department has issued a Level 2 travel alert in Quintana Roo, the state where Cancun is located. The alert warns travelers to "exercise increased caution" in Mexico due to terrorism, crime, and kidnapping.

Online, the advisory summary notifies tourists of the violent crimes that can take place, and can include homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery.