Year After Brutal Attack On Trip, Man's Brother Dies: 'Unbearable'

SPRINGS, NY — One year after the brother of a Long Island man was drugged, robbed and left for dead while on vacation in Colombia — and then, miraculously flew home to those who loved him— his heartbroken family has broken the sad news that he has died.

Springs resident and Bridgehampton teacher Tom House — who is once again organizing the 3rd Annual Hamptons Pride Parade in East Hampton, which takes place on June 1 — has been carrying the heavy weight of grief.

On May 3, House wrote on Facebook about his family's unthinkable loss: "We're so sorry to tell you that my brother John House's year-long struggle ended this morning. He'd been in and out of hospitals these last two months with deep pneumonia, never having quite recovered his strength after the terrible crime that almost took his life in Colombia last May. The past weeks especially were so taxing that he finally told doctors and my niece, who has done so much for both John and my mom, that he wanted to stop life support. My mom honored that request last evening, and we were with him while he was moved to hospice. Though he was unconscious, we left his rock and roll playing all night. 'Shine on, you crazy diamond.'"

And on May 5, House added: "If I ever struggle for words, I know these are some of the best last ones to say. 'Kind and Generous' by Natalie Merchant was the last song I played for John when I went to help our mom view him yesterday before his cremation. What an awful sentence to write. I left last, kissed his forehead, and said 'thank you' with the end of the song. However much he worked and fought these past almost two years since our sister Deb passed away, he did it for our mother."

House then thanked all who'd rallied beside him not just last year after his brother's attack but in the months since — and in the days since he lost his last sibling.

"The outpouring below will take weeks for us to process, but it is so lovely and appreciated; please know how much. Dear brother John, friends, and family, thank you, thank you. You've been so kind and generous."

John, House said, was his last living sibling. "I'm the only one left now of four. Myself and my mom. I don't know how she bears it."

His mission, he said, has helped to carry him through. "Organizing the parade, which is so life affirming, is helping me hang on in a time of almost unbearable tragedy and sadness for my mom and myself."

The East End community rejoiced with him when his brother was able to fly home last year to the United States, House said — it was a miracle beyond words. "I feel as though I've witnessed a resurrection," he said at the time.

The nightmare began on Mother's Day, 2023: House's brother John, then 69, who had gone on a vacation to Colombia, was found drugged, robbed, and barely alive in his hotel room.

John, who had been on vacation in Medellin, was found by a hotel worker who raced him to a local hospital. The hotel worker was the first in a sea of good Samaritans who stepped forward to lift House up during the darkest of days as he scrambled to find a way to Colombia, to be by his brother's side.

Although John had remained unconscious and on the ventilator for the first week — House continued to play music for him and speak to him during that entire time – suddenly, his eyes began to open while House was talking with their mother, who lives in Florida, on speaker.

"I have a small Bluetooth speaker here in the room, and I've been playing some of the music I know he loves — those of you who know John, know of his passion for classic rock. If he can hear, that will be a solace to him, for sure," he said last year.

Complicating the effects of the powerful drugs he was given, John was also found to have pneumonia and arrhythmia.

Last year, John's eyes were open for a bit when House arrived. "They are still partly open at times. He blinked his eyes in response to some questions. I played one of his faves, 'Shine on You Crazy Diamond', and I think he was trying to sing along to it," he wrote.

House said his brother normally lived in Florida, where he has been caring for their mother since their sister's death from endometrial cancer a year before.

"He was going on vacation, he needed a break — and then this happened," House said. His brother arrived in Colombia on the Thursday before Mother's Day — and the drugging and robbery happened on Mother's Day itself.

"He was meeting a friend," House said. "My mom didn't hear from him all day on Mother's Day and then we found out he was in the hospital."

Describing the horrifying details, House said that to the best of their knowledge, someone put a very high dose of benzodiazepines in his drink, three times the normal dose.

"It was enough to make him unconscious so he could be robbed of everything he had. He was found in his hotel room unconscious; luckily, the hotel staff knew he was supposed to check out and fly home, so they checked on him."

What followed was an experience rife with confusion and terror. Suddenly, House and his niece began receiving messages from John's phone, asking for money. At first, he said, they thought he'd lost his phone. But then came a message on What's App in Spanish, saying John was "in very bad shape, and unconscious, in the clinic."

House contacted the friend his brother had been slated to meet and said, "You need to go to the clinic and see if this is true." The texts demanding money, up to $4,500, were continuing and confusing, House said.

But when the friend arrived at the hospital, House learned that his brother had been admitted. The frustration over the communication barrier mounted; finally an international patient coordinator was able to explain what had happened.

At the time, House was fearful not just for his brother but for their mother, then about to be 89 in Florida. "There's just the three of us left in my family now," he said last year. "We used to be six, now we are three." Besides the loss of their sister last year, they lost a brother years ago and their father, in 2020.

And now, only two remain. House also lost his beloved cat Jake of 15 years just two weeks before his brother. "I had my heart broken twice, very hard, in a very short time. It's my hardest struggle yet, trying to come back from this."