Questions are mounting after a 26-year-old woman died unexpectedly during a Caribbean bachelorette trip hosted by the fiancée of Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton.
Makenzi Kern was pronounced dead on June 8, just two days after celebrating her birthday, according to an online obituary. The obituary said she died while “surrounded by her closest friends on a once in a lifetime trip to St. Barthelemy Island.”
A source familiar with the situation told TMZ that Kern died suddenly due to health complications. According to that source, her family does not suspect foul play and does not believe drugs or alcohol played a role in her death.
Even so, online speculation about what may have happened has spread quickly in the days since her death.
A woman claiming to know Kern’s family also wrote online that the 26-year-old suffered a sudden heart attack, though that account has not been independently confirmed.
Social media rumors have continued to circulate, including unsupported claims linking Kern’s death to the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. No evidence has been publicly presented to substantiate those allegations.
‘Sounds sudden and vaxxy,’ one X account posted.
Laura Miers, an outspoken critic of the COVID vaccines, also wrote that ‘the New Normal really blows.
‘We will be witnessing record premature death for the rest of our natural lives.’
There is no evidence to suggest Kern died as a result of receiving the COVID vaccine.
Makenzi Kern passed away unexpectedly from health complications, a source told TMZ. Her family does not suspect foul play or that her death was caused by drugs or alcohol
Makenzi Kern (right) died while on a bachelorette party trip with her friend Jade Jones (left)
Kern attended Iowa State University with Jones and Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton
The native Iowan was pictured enjoying herself on St Bart’s beaches and aboard a boat in the surrounding waters in photos Haliburton’s fiancée Jade Jones posted online on June 6 – just two days before Kern mysteriously passed away.
Like Haliburton and his fiancée, Kern attended Iowa State, where she was a cheerleading teammate of Jones’. Neither Haliburton nor Jones have commented publicly on last week’s tragedy in St. Barthelemy.
She is now survived by her parents, step parents, sister, step siblings, grandparents and her boyfriend.
‘She loved the water,’ read Kern’s obituary.
‘She talked her mom into going to the pool to go swimming in the middle of a rain storm during their trip to Disneyworld.
‘She was a mama’s girl those early years and could talk her into just about anything.
‘She loved boating with her dad, water skiing, and got to try out a seabob for the first time in St Barths.
‘According to her friends, they had to drag her off because she loved it so much, evidence that she was having an amazing time.’
Jones (center, in white) is pictured on her bachelorette trip with Kern (right)
‘Kenz,’ as she was known, was working as a membership director for a YMCA branch in Nebraska.
Jones posted photos of the trip on June 6, showing herself with eight or so friends around the island.
‘Hopped on a flight to cloud 9,’ Jones wrote on June 6.
Jones and Haliburton have been together for more than seven years, dating back to his time as a rising guard for the Iowa State Cyclones. Haliburton would go on to be drafted by the Sacramento Kings in 2020 and was later traded to the Indian Pacers, whom he led to the 2025 NBA Finals.
Unfortunately, he suffered an Achilles injury during the Finals loss to Oklahoma City and consequently missed the 2025-26 season.
