A Michigan couple has been detained for weeks in Mexico after what their attorney described as a disagreement over their timeshare in Cancun.

Christy Akeo, 60, and her husband Paul Akeo, 58, residents of Spring Arbor, Michigan, have been detained in a Cancun prison for over three weeks after heading there on vacation earlier this month, their daughter and lawyer revealed to Fox News Digital.

“She’s without any essentials. You don’t even have access to toilet paper in these facilities. So, it’s an extremely frightening situation, from what she described,” Lindsey Lemke Hull, Christy Akeo’s daughter, shared with Fox News Digital regarding her mother’s condition. “I believe she tries to withhold some details from my brother and me during our conversations, probably to protect us. … We fear for her safety… and Paul’s, because the uncertainty of what might happen to them at any moment is terrifying.”

Aerial panoramic view of Cancun hotels along a beach. (iStock)

Their daughter, Lemke Hull, a two-time national gymnastics champion who played a role in unveiling former Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse, declined to pay the amount for their release as per her parents’ wishes.

The Palace Company also offered to pay the Akeos a nominal sum in exchange for an agreement that they would not publish negative social media posts about Palace Elite Resorts, according to a copy of the proposed agreement shared with Fox News Digital. 

The proposed non-disparagement agreement states that the Akeos “shall refrain from making or publishing, in writing or verbally … any disparaging, derogatory, or negative comments about PALACE ELITE RESORTS, S.A. DE C.V., together with its ownership … in or on websites, interviews, press releases, news releases, media releases, press statements or video releases, articles, commentaries, written, audio or visual (e.g., YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads, or the like, advertising or marketing materials, blogs, chat-rooms, etc.).”

Aerial view of an almost empty beach in Cancun, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, on March 28, 2020. (ELIZABETH RUIZ/AFP via Getty Images)

In 2023, Christy joined the “Palace Resorts Members – Disappointed & Frustrated – Discuss & Take Action,” which had about 8,000 users, in which Palace members discuss their grievances with the resort company. Christy then became a moderator of the group.

The non-disparagement agreement, which the Akeos did not sign, requests that the Akeos each “expressly acknowledge that the Disparaging Statements have damaged, and continue to damage, Palace Elite causing damages in excess of SEVEN MILLION U.S. Dollars ($7,000,000.00).”

An INTERPOL Red Notice was issued to facilitate the couple’s arrest. A Mexico judge has ruled that the case will proceed to trial, according to both the Akeos and the Palace Company. The Akeos will remain in custody until then.