The family of a New Jersey-based influencer is searching for answers surrounding the woman’s recent death in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
Ashly Robinson, who posted on Instagram under the name Ashlee Jenae, died in the African country while celebrating her 31st birthday with her fiancé, Joseph McCann. She was 31.
Police told Tanzanian news outlet Mwananchi that Robinson died Friday and believe it was a suicide, The Cut reported.
Robinson’s mother, Yolanda Denise Endres, however, told ABC Philadelphia affiliate WPVI that her daughter has “never done anything that would ever ever lead me to believe that she would do something to harm herself like that. She was happy.”
Endres said the trip to Africa was supposed to mark the start of “the next chapter” of her daughter’s life.
Robinson posted a video to Instagram on April 3 showing McCann proposing to her at the Zuri Zanzibar resort, but Endres said her daughter called on April 8, saying she and McCann had been moved to separate rooms after an argument.
On April 9, Endres got another call, but it was from McCann, not her daughter.
“He told me that Ashly did something to herself and she was being taken to the hospital, and he told me she was stable,” Endres said. “I said, ‘What happened?’ and he told me, “It had been 11 hours prior.”
According to The Cut, Robinson’s Instagram comments have been flooded with her followers accusing McCann of killing her. “But as of Tuesday, police said McCann is not suspected of any wrongdoing.” His passport has been confiscated in the meantime.
A hospital medical report obtained by ABC Philadelphia noted an unidentified mark around Robinson’s neck and said that McCann “found she hung herself on the door.”
“Robinson was later taken to a second hospital, which listed her cause of death as cerebral hypoxia by strangulation and suffocation,” according to the outlet.
Endres said the family is going to continue pressing the Tanzanian government for more information and have requested surveillance footage from the resort.
“She was loved. She was not just going to be discarded and forgotten about,” Endres said.
JS reached out to Robinson’s family but did not immediately hear back.
