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The families of the three Americans who died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in a Mexico Airbnb have announced their plans to sue the rental company.
On Wednesday (November 30), family members of Jordan Marshall, 28; Kandace Florence, 28; and Courtez Hall, 33, spoke out for the first time in an exclusive interview with NBC News since the trio's death during a trip to Mexico City to celebrate the Day of the Dead.
The victim's families said they would be filing a lawsuit against Airbnb, alleging that their deaths were easily preventable. Freida Florence, Kandace's mother, said functioning carbon monoxide detectors should be a requirement for all Airbnb units.
"I cannot process in my mind why my daughter is not here today," she said. "There is no excuse. There is no excuse. It cost $30. If I had known, I would have bought it for her."
The lawsuit will seek to make Airbnb have working carbon monoxide detectors in all of its properties across the globe. Airbnb already regulates guns and parties, so a policy on carbon monoxide alarms should be implemented to keep customers safe, the families' attorney, L. Chris Stewart, said.
Stewart noted that the company has been sued over the issue before and was aware of the problem.
"These are the three examples of what parents want their children to be. We lost a 12th-grade teacher, a seventh-grade teacher, an entrepreneur who built a company from nothing. That's what we want. These people were helping the next generation," the attorney said.
A spokesperson for Airbnb said in a statement, “This is a terrible tragedy, and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones as they grieve such an unimaginable loss. Our priority right now is supporting those impacted as the authorities investigate what happened, and we stand ready to assist with their inquiries however we can.”
Airbnb noted that it has given smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to more than 200,000 hosts through a global detector program run by the company. All hosts are encouraged to confirm they have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, Airbnb said.
Jennifer Marshall, Jordan's mother, believes Airbnb has to do more.
"We can never get our babies back. But we really want to ensure that no other family has to deal with this," she said. "The way that we lost our children, I mean, it's devastating. You go from grief to rage, because this could have so easily been avoided.
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