# Ashlee Jenae: Black Influencer Found Dead in Zanzibar Hotel — Family Rejects Suicide Ruling, Fiancé's Passport Seized

Ashly Jenae Robinson, a 31-year-old Black lifestyle influencer known online as Ashlee Jenae, was found unresponsive in her luxury hotel villa in Zanzibar, Tanzania on April 9 and pronounced dead at a local hospital hours later. Tanzanian police quickly ruled her death a suicide. Her family is not buying it. A hospital medical report obtained by ABC Philadelphia noted an unidentified mark around Robinson's neck and stated that her fiancé, 45-year-old crypto hedge fund CEO Joe McCann, claimed he "found she hung herself on the door." Robinson's mother, Yolanda Denise Endres, told reporters her daughter "never did anything that would ever lead me to believe that she would do something to harm herself like that." Robinson's father, Harry Robinson, has one demand: "Just let us know what happened. The only thing we want to know is the truth."

Robinson and McCann arrived in Zanzibar on April 4 for what her family described as a "dream trip." She turned 31 on April 5. McCann, the founder and CEO of Miami-based Asymmetric Financial — a crypto investment firm backed by Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon — had proposed to Robinson just two days before her birthday, after one year of dating. She posted the proposal video to Instagram on April 3 for her more than 130,000 followers. By April 8, the dream was over. Robinson called her mother that day and told her she and McCann had gotten into an argument so serious that hotel staff at the Zuri Zanzibar resort intervened and moved them to separate villas. Police told ABC News that other hotel guests had reported a domestic disturbance described as a "romantic conflict." McCann was placed in a villa eight to ten minutes' walking distance from Robinson's room.

What happened next raises hard questions. According to police, Robinson was found unresponsive in her room roughly two to three hours after the couple was separated. But McCann did not contact Robinson's family until 11 hours after the incident. When he finally called Endres, he said only that "Ashly did something to herself" and that she was being taken to the hospital, adding that she was "stable." The hospital then called Endres to confirm her daughter was dead. The family has not heard from McCann since. Robinson's parents told reporters they find his silence "very, very odd."

Zanzibar police have since confiscated McCann's passport pending the results of an autopsy. Deputy Police Commissioner Zuberi Chembela confirmed to ABC News that McCann continues to be questioned and the investigation is ongoing. The Zuri Zanzibar hotel released a statement offering condolences and cooperation but notably did not confirm the account of events given by police — a gap that only deepens the unanswered questions around Robinson's final hours.

Robinson's family released a public statement on April 12 calling her death "suspicious" and rejecting the suicide ruling outright. Her mother told reporters plainly: "She was not just going to be discarded and forgotten about." Her father, Harry Robinson, launched a GoFundMe with a $50,000 goal to cover the mounting costs of travel, funeral arrangements, and navigating a death investigation in a foreign country — expenses no grieving family should have to crowdfund. The family is also considering traveling to Zanzibar to meet directly with local officials handling the case.

The circumstances surrounding Robinson's death follow a pattern that Black communities know too well: a Black woman dies under unclear circumstances, the initial ruling comes fast and with little investigation, and the family is left to fight for answers with limited resources while a man with money and connections faces questioning but no charges. McCann sits at the center of the crypto finance world. Robinson was a content creator from New Jersey. The power imbalance between a 45-year-old hedge fund executive and a 31-year-old influencer — now dead in a foreign country where her family has no jurisdiction, no access, and no leverage — is the kind of structural gap that turns grief into a battle.

What Robinson's family is asking for is not complicated. They want to know if there is security footage from the hotel. They want to know why McCann waited 11 hours to call. They want to know why he told them she was "stable" when she was dying or already dead. They want to know why he stopped talking to them. They want an autopsy conducted with full transparency. They want the truth. Every question they are asking is a question that should have already been answered. Ashly Jenae Robinson was 31 years old, celebrating her birthday, and posting engagement photos to her followers. Four days later she was dead, and the man who was with her is not talking.