Ashly Robinson died suddenly during a trip overseas with her fiancé, and investigators in Tanzania said Tuesday they are questioning Joe McCann as they wait for autopsy results. Authorities are holding McCann’s passport while they examine what happened to Robinson, who went by Ashlee Jenae online.
Robinson’s death has left her family searching for a timeline that still does not make sense to them. Her father, Harry Robinson, said, “She’s always smiling. She loved being in front of the camera,” and added, “Nothing about it makes sense. It just doesn’t add up.”
Robinson had recently traveled to Zanzibar with McCann, who proposed during the trip, and social media posts from her Instagram account suggest the journey was meant to celebrate her 31st birthday. Her mother, Yolanda Endres, said, “They were in a gorgeous place in Africa and happy,” and, “Everything that we knew was that she was supposed to be happy. She was engaged, she celebrated her birthday thereafter, and then she’s just gone.”
The family says the first sign something was wrong came when McCann called to say Robinson was in the hospital. Endres said McCann told her “something had occurred 11 hours prior to when he was reaching out to me,” and communication then stopped. The next update came from the hotel, which told the family Robinson had died. The family says it has not heard from police or medical officials, and it went to the embassy in Washington on Monday seeking answers but did not get new information.
That silence is at the center of the family’s push for a full investigation, including a review of surveillance video from the resort. Harry Robinson said, “The fiancé did not reach out to us at all. We found out from the hotel,” and later added, “There’s cameras everywhere at a resort and that will match the timeline.” He said, “Just do the investigation and let us know,” while Endres said, “So we need to know. We just need to know. And we need to get her home.”
Authorities previously told local media that McCann was not suspected of wrongdoing, a position that sits uneasily alongside Tuesday’s news conference in Tanzania and the family’s demand for transparency. Harry Robinson said, “It’s under investigation and, like we said, you know, we just want transparency,” and the unanswered question now is whether the autopsy and a review of the resort timeline will explain how a birthday trip to Zanzibar ended with Robinson dead and her family still waiting for the facts.
