Earthquakes kill former MLB player’s wife and others in Venezuelan hotel collapse

Gorkys Hernández announced on Instagram that his wife Deisy Tovar de Hernández was killed when back-to-back 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck Venezuela this week, collapsing the Hotel Eduards in Macuto where she was staying with other players’ family members.

com reported that Hernández posted the tribute Saturday after the back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes. Deisy, 36, was inside the Hotel Eduards in Macuto, La Guaira, with several family members of La Guaira Delfines players when the team’s game against the Aragua Tigres at Estadio Forum de La Guaira was suspended.

“You are and always will be the queen of my life—the most beautiful, lovely, and precious woman in the world,” Hernández wrote. “You were the one who always found a way to lift me up during hard times; you were and remain the most beautiful woman of my life. ” “Fly high, my princess, my queen; may God hold you in His glory.

Guide me to keep moving forward and to lift up our family,” the post continued. “Love you—rest in peace, my girl. ” Hernández played in MLB from 2008 to 2018 for the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox.

He married Deisy in December 2025. She leaves behind a daughter, Vittoria Vásquez, from a previous relationship. Vásquez posted on Instagram Stories on Friday that screams could still be heard from the Hotel Eduards rubble at 4:00 p.m.

And that heavy machinery was needed to move debris. Local sports broadcaster Raúl Zambrano said on X that rescue teams were still searching for the wife and daughter of former major leaguer and Delfines coach Eliézer Alfonzo.