YOU NEED TO KNOW
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The bodies of Alain Noël, 56, and Christine Sauvé, 55, of Quebec, were found by their son at the couple’s vacation home in the Dominican Republic on December 26.
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Her brother tells PEOPLE that the couple had not been feeling well before their deaths and appeared “exhausted” when they last spoke the day after.
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“It’s a big loss,” he says
A married couple from Canada were found dead while vacationing in the Dominican Republic last month. As family members wait for answers about what happened, they are talking about the couple’s last moments.
Christine Sauvé, 55, and Alain Noël, 56, both of Quebec, were found dead by their son in their vacation home located in the El Indio Village residential complex in Villa Riva on Friday, December 26, her brother, Gilles Sauvé Jr., confirms to PEOPLE.
Autopsies have already been carried out and Gilles says the family have been told they can expect initial results later this week, but that a final report could take up to 4 months.
With no definitive answers yet, there was much speculation in the local press, including questions about whether the couple had been murdered or died by suicide. But, Gilles believes that “that is not true.”
Christine and Alain have been married for more than 30 years and have raised two children – Jonathan, 30, and Sabrina, 28 – Gilles says, describing the couple as good people with many friends.
“Alain was a big man but a really big teddy bear. And Christine was amazing,” says her brother. “She liked to do a lot of things for the family.”
Christine and Alain arrived in the Dominican Republic — where they got a house they planned to live in after they retired — along with their son Jonathan on December 14 for the start of a month-long vacation.
While he was overseas, Gilles says Christine started experiencing dizziness and had a fall, which led her to go to hospital on December 25, where she had blood work done. When she went home later that day, she was given no prescription for her symptoms, but was told to come back the next day for some scans.
Gilles says that Alain also experienced a bit of dizziness, but he was so worried about his wife’s health that he didn’t end up mentioning it to the doctors.
After returning from the hospital, the couple FaceTimed their family back in Canada. Gilles says the two appeared to be “a little exhausted,” but did not report feeling dizzy at the time.
During the conversation, Christine mentioned that she has no idea what caused the dizziness. She wondered if it might have something to do with her ongoing health issues — they both had high blood pressure and diabetes — though she couldn’t say for sure.
“It wasn’t clear,” says Gilles. “There was nothing really clear about it.”
In addition, both mentioned that they had a bit of a “stomach problem,” but they didn’t think they had eaten any food that upset them.
Mostly, they were “very tired and exhausted,” but otherwise fine during the call, according to Gilles.
“Alain showed me his house outside because he did some new things in the garden and turned on the lights and,” he says, while adding that his sister was also “looking and talking” well.
The next morning, when Jonathan woke up around 9:30 in the morning, he noticed that his parents hadn’t woken up yet, which was strange because Alain, who worked in the family’s construction business, was usually an early riser.
Gilles says that Jonathan removed it at that time, thinking that they had fallen asleep because they were so tired the night before. However, when they still hadn’t woken up an hour later, he entered their room and found them unresponsive in bed.
The first thing Jonathan did, says Gilles, was to call his sister Sabrina and tell her that their parents were not breathing. Sabrina then told her brother to call the manager-owner of the resort, who proceeded to contact the local authorities.
“Everyone came and did what they had to do and searched the house,” says Gilles.
Gilles and Sabrina arrived in the Dominican Republic about a day and a half later to be with Jonathan and help communicate with the Dominican authorities, which was difficult due to the language barrier.
Canadian officials reached out to the family four days later to give them the phone number of the funeral home, which they had already reached out to.
Global Affairs Canada previously confirmed their deaths to Global News, saying they were in contact with local authorities “to gather more information” amid the ongoing investigation, but could not release more information due to privacy considerations.
Neither the Dominican National Police, the National Institute of Forensic Sciences, the Office of the Attorney General in the Dominican Republic nor Global Affairs Canada responded to PEOPLE’s request for additional comment.
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More than a week after the tragedy, Gilles says the family is doing well, but the deaths of their loved ones have been difficult to process.
“It’s a big loss,” he says, noting that losing them both at the same time made everything more difficult, especially for their children.
As for how he wants Alain and Christine to be remembered, her brother says it is for their legacy of kindness.
Sharing an example, Gilles says that when his wife died of leukemia a year and a half ago, his sister stepped in to help take care of his daughter, who also works in the family business. Now, after his sister’s death, he says he will do everything he can to be there for her children.
Gilles adds, “I have two children, but now I have four children because I will take care of them.”
Read the original article on People