♪ i'm talking to you ♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, tainted alcohol? a sister and brother on a family vacation at a five-star resort in mexico found floating face down in the pool. >> the bartender pours out a line of shots, and lights went out. >> only one survives. now the grieving family raising questions. >> to this day i still don't think it was an accident. >> the hotel denying wrongdoing, and a new government warning for american travelers. plus transgender reversal. president trump's surprise tweets sparking outrage as he bans transgender soldiers from the military. >> they've been on a path to finally being accepted and then the rug is pulled out from underneath them. >> leaving thousands of current service members in limbo. what was behind the sudden policy change?

and selfie jailbreak. dramatic new video showing step-by-step instructions. three inmates escaping from a maximum security wing. >> we had a duffel bag and a backpack full of stuff. >> where are they now? but first the "nightline" 5. number 1 in just 60 seconds.

good evening. thanks for joining us. tonight the u.s. government warning americans about allegations of tainted alcohol while traveling in mexico. as one family suspects, that could have been behind their daughter's death. here's abc's gio benitez. >> you protect your child from so much since they're born, and you know, it happens in an instant. >> reporter: ginny mcgowan never imagined she would need to protect her children here on vacation at a five-star resort in mexico. >> we're in so much pain and shock and disbelief. >> reporter: but then the unimaginable happened. just hours after the family arrived, 20-year-old abbey conner and her 23-year-old brother austin were found floating face down in a pool. austin recovered, but abbey slipped into a coma and later died. abbey's family now speaking out for the first time. >> how excited about mexico were you? >> probably the most excited person was abbey.

>> reporter: the wisconsin family booked their january vacation at iberostar paraisopao resort in playa del carmen. >> we said you guys need to meet us in the lobby at 7:30. >> reporter: abbey and her brother austin stayed around. >> we swam around for a little bit and decided let's celebrate with a drink. the bartender pours out a line of shots. i take one and everyone else does. and the last thing i remember was just like we are right now sitting here talking and lights went out and i woke up in the ambulance. >> reporter: ginny and her husband ux john, austin and abbey's stepfather, had been waiting for the kids in the hotel lobby. >> it was getting close to 8:00. i'm starting to get worried. i said i just -- i need to call their room because i can't contact them any other way to find out where they are. and then she went and got the general manager and quickly brought me to john, explained that there had been an accident. >> reporter: the family says a guest found abbey and austin

floating face down in the waist-deep pool. they were then rushed to the hospital. when ginny and john arrived, they found austin unconscious with a golf ball-sized lump on his head and abbey on a ventilator. >> austin was sedated. there was blood on the floor in austin's room. >> abbey really needed to get to an icu. >> reporter: by sunday it became clear that abbey needed to be moved from an icu in mexico to a higher-level trauma hospital in florida. >> when did you realize that nothing could be done? >> there's a whole protocol. tests that need to be run. >> on thursday they ran those tests, and it was thursday. >> that she was pronounced -- >> around noon. >> reporter: abbey conner passed away on thursday january 12th. mexican officials ruled that her death was an accidental drowning. that day their blood alcohol level was reported to be a .25, three times the legal limit in their home state. austin says he can't remember how many shots they had. >> is it at all possible that this was an accident and that there was just too much alcohol,

that you just drank too much? >> it is a possibility. but every time i think about it, one thought that sticks in my head every time is how if we're in a group of people do two people at the same exact time just pass out in the pool and no one sees it? >> reporter: the conner family is now questioning if abbey's death was more than an accident and if austin and his sister could have been served adulterated alcohol, a toxic mix of cheap indwreents that could include grain alcohol or methanol. >> did you think it was just an accident? >> no. to this day i still don't think it was an accident. like i said, i've had alcohol before in my life, and i was fine. i know my limit. >> reporter: mexican officials say they've seized 1.4 million gallons of tainted alcohol from mexican businesses including resorts, clubs, bars, warehouses, and manufacturers in the past seven years. this video is one of the largest seizures in 2015. 260,000 gallons taken from a warehouse in just one day.

but the iberostar resort denies sevening tainted alcohol, telling abc news, "we only purchase sealed bottles that satisfy all standards required by the designated regulatory authorities. we are deeply saddened by this incident." the mexican health ministry tells abc it has no memories of any adulterated or seized alcohol from iberostar resorts. but just today following our report on "good morning america" the u.s. state department added a warning about tainted alcohol to its page about travel to mexico, stating there have been allegations that consumption of tainted or substandard alcohol has resulted in illness or blacking out. if you choose to drink alcohol, it is important to do so in moderation and to stop and seek medical attention if you begin to feel ill. the family has hired an attorney and is suing the resort. >> it doesn't make sense. you have a standard duty of care to your guests. and to find two of them floating in a pool, it doesn't make sense. >> reporter: the hotel insists

they did everything they could for abbey and austin saying in a statement to abc news, "from the moment in which the guests were found iberostar personnel acted with urgency following established protocols. the hotel's on-site doctor, security personnel, and paramedics immediately responded. iberostar takes this matter very seriously and has always remained cooperative." abbey and austin are not the first people to report having suddenly blacked out after a few drinks during visits to resorts in mexico. >> i thought i was dying. because i couldn't get out of whatever state of mind i was in. you couldn't wake up. i remember thinking how are my six kids going to find out? you know, and what's going to happen to them? >> reporter: jamie and rick mallory told the "milwaukee journal sentinel" their vacation to playa del carmen almost turned deadly when they say they both blacked out after a few drinks at another resort's beach bar. >> the next thing that i remember is my husband screaming. i could hear him scream but i couldn't see him. >> i believe the resorts are

trying to hide the fact that the dangers exist. >> reporter: maureen webster created the website mexico vacation awareness about the potential risk when traveling to these resorts after her 22-year-old son nolan's unconscious body was pulled from a waist-deep resort pool and he later died. she says a nurse tried to help her son but the hotel doctor pulled him away saying he was just drunk, which webster denies. >> all the cases that i've received on my website, the resorts are quick to blame the guests. so i'm not stopping until something changes. >> you're starting to hear now from other families who have had issues at mexican resorts. >> yes. many people. >> what are they saying? >> similar incidents. incidents of blacking out. incidents of waking up with injuries. similar incidents of being required to carry cash to take care of your bills before they even know what the extent of their injuries and treatments are. >> reporter: abbey conner's family telling us they had to pay almost $40,000 in cash in

total to get medical treatment that abbey and austin desperately needed. >> we ended up using credit cards, calling family, securing it. >> reporter: for now a terrible mystery without a resolution. but abbey's family says their suit is not about the money. they say they want other families to know the potential hidden dangers of a vacation in the sun. >> i wish i could have done something. and i to this day regret it. it will haunt me forever. >> reporter: for "nightline" i'm gio benitez in piwaukee, wisconsin. up next, president trump's surprise reversal of policy. reaction to his banning all transgender americans from the military. and later, dramatic video shot by inmates showing their jailbreak. step by step.

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president trump announcing a major policy change via twitter today, barring transgender individuals from serving in the military in any capacity. the unexpected move sending folks on both sides of the aisle scrambling, leaving many to ask what comes next. >> they've been so brave and courageous, those that are publicly out right now. they've been on a path to finally being accepted. and then the rug is pulled out from underneath them. >> elena kupic served in the navy as an intelligence officer but waited until years after she was out of the military before coming out as a trans woman. >> one of the reasons that held me back for so long was fear of losing my job. >> reporter: that fear now hanging over thousands of transgender military service

members. after a surprising policy reversal from their commander in chief issued today in a trio of tweets. "please be advised that the united states government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the u.s. military." adding "the military cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail." >> the message that's being sent today is potentially chilling, that maybe it's okay to marginalize our community again and start eroding some of the gains that we've made. >> they woke up this morning and had their lives, their livelihood, their dignity and identity thrown into complete chaos and with no answers. >> i remember thinking to myself, did i just get fired in a tweet? >> reporter: trans men and women like trish king, willing to risk their lives for their country, now risking their careers to speak out. >> when i came out to my subordinates, what i found was people who weren't concerned with my gender, what they were

concerned with is my history of service. >> reporter: the latest presidential tweetstorm seemed to blindside his own pentagon, which promptly referred all inquiries back to the white house, where there were plenty of questions. >> what happens to transgender service members now? are they immediately thrown out of the military? >> that's something that the department of defense and the white house will have to work together as implementation takes place and is done so lawfully. >> reporter: political observers say there are some within the president's base who will applaud the move. >> do we need to spend any of our precious tax dollars on these surgeries when we have soldiers that are having trouble getti inting body armor and bul? >> for the social conservatives in the conservative populace base this is a stand of principle that they will applaud because it reinforces their beliefs in, quote unquote, traditional marriage. but for the president's more socially liberal or libertarian-minded supporters with regarding campaign promises to be very pro lgbtq, it can't

be read as anything other than a complete contradiction and a slap in the face. >> reporter: even lawmakers in his own party seem to be caught off guard. >> i don't know what the policy proposal is. i don't know why he decided what he did. but i think the right way to do this is have a hearing so you can hear from both sides. >> reporter: senator john mccain a war hero now chair of the armed services committee saying there is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military regardless of their gender identity. it's the latest salvo for a president who made history by mentioning the community in his gop acceptance speech. >> as your president i will do everything in my power to protect our lgbtq citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. believe me.

>> reporter: last year the obama administration effectively lifted a ban on transgender people serving openly in the military, a landmark victory for thousands serving their country. one of them, air force staff sergeant logan ireland, profiled in a "new york times" documentary while he was serving in kandahar, afghanistan. >> there's not a lot of people that know that i'm transgender. it's very much on a need to know basis. >> reporter: today responding to the president staff sergeant ireland said, "i would like to see them try to kick me out of my military. i would challenge them. you're not going to deny me my right to serve my country when i am fully qualified and able and willing to give my life." just a month ago president trump's own defense secretary jim mattis put a six-month delay on new openly trans recruits. then less than two weeks ago the house tried to issue its own ban on transgender people in the military but got voted down. 24 republicans, including eight veterans voted no on the amendment.

>> some courageous republicans i think stepped up and learned about the issues and didn't just follow the party lines there. >> reporter: today the congresswoman who spearheaded the amendment, vicky hartsler, stood by the ban. >> we can't afford to have $1.5 billion over the next ten years go to sex reassignment surgeries. >> reporter: but those numbers are in dispute. a 2016 study by the rand corporation commissioned by the defense department estimated that providing care for gender transition would cost a lot less. a traction of 1% of health care costs for active duty service members. in fact, according to the "military times," the armed services spends ten times as much on erectile dysfunction medicines each year. the struggle for transgender rights in the military was elevated by chelsea manning, an army soldier who transitioned behind bars while serving time for spilling classified information. i sat down with her for her first tv interview after she was released from a men's military

prison last month. >> so your despair was not with the 35-year prison sentence. it was -- >> much more immediate. >> it had more to do with your needing to be chelsea. >> yeah. i'd never done that. i'd never been able to be who i was. >> reporter: at first the military denied manning's request for hmedical treatment for her gender transition. >> what would you say to those who feel that taxpayers shouldn't be paying for hormone treatments? >> well, you know, it's -- health care is something that prisoners have a right to. and trans health care is necessary. >> in what way is trans health care necessary medical care? >> it literally keeps me alive. it keeps me from feeling like i'm in the wrong body. i get these horrible -- i used to get these horrible feelings like i just want to rip my body apart. it's really, really awful. >> reporter: manning eventually became the first person to receive hormone therapy in a

military prison, and her sentence was commuted earlier this year by president obama. [ cheers and applause ] but the later policy shift has trans advocates renewing their vow to fight. >> the lgbt community is clear and united in the fact that this type of blanket targeting of any segment of our community is absolutely impermissible, illegal, and is not going to go unchallenged. >> it seems so sad to me, that we've got to fight so people can volunteer to serve this country. it doesn't make any sense. these are people who are willing to put their lives on the line for this country. up next, a not so great escape caught on camera. three inmates record how they broke out of jail. (dog) mmm. this new beneful grain free is so healthy... oh! farm-raised chicken! mmm...that's some really good chicken. i don't think i've ever tasted chicken like this. what!? here come the accents. blueberries and pumpkin. wow. that was my favorite bite so far.

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and finally tonight, spoiler alert. inmates videotaping their own escape from jail.

abc's kina whitworth shows us how they did it. >> reporter: the orange county escape that gripped the nation last year now seen from a new point of view. the inmates themselves. >> you scared the hell out of people. >> reporter: three men documenting their every move on a contraband cell phone as they escape from the maximum security wing. the video part of the orange county sheriff's ongoing investigation. >> we had a duffel bag and a backpack full of stuff. >> reporter: watch as hossain nayeri, the alleged mastermind of the escape, lifts up a sawed-off bunk-bed. underneath there's a metal screen which has already been cut open. he disappears into the vent, stopping to give the camera a thumbs up. authorities say the fugitives cut and moved aside that barbed wire, then anchored their ropes to the wall right there and rappelled down the building. in a video released by an attorney affiliated with the case shows the trio some 400 miles away in santa cruz. >> johnny here for the first

time. >> reporter: during their eight days on the run. >> showed up to san francisco. >> reporter: looking like tourists, posting photos at popular san francisco hot spots. >> just -- >> reporter: even taking pictures with the cab driver authorities say they kidnapped and threatened to kill. all three are back in jail and facing new charges for the daring escape. for "nightline" i'm kayna whitworth in los angeles. >> and yet mastermind may be a generous description. thanks for watching abc news. and as always, we're online at abcnews.com and our "nightline" facebook page. good night, america. [ intense music playing ] ] it's here, but it's going by fast.

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