LAKE GENEVA, WI (WTAQ) - Relatives of a Lake Geneva woman who died in Vietnam a month-and-a-half ago are being stonewalled in their efforts to learn what happened.

27-year-old Kari Bowerman and her 26-year-old friend Cathy Huynh of Hamilton Ontario got sick and died shortly after they arrived in Vietnam for a vacation in late July.

Their relatives and friends told the Rochester Post-Bulletin in Minnesota that they’ve tried to get answers from Vietnamese officials or the U.S. Consulate there.

Carrie Meiners, who was Bowerman’s best friend at Winona State University in Minnesota, said it’s been two months and they’ve heard nothing. So she has convinced relatives and friends from 12 states to write letters to congressional representatives and others to find out why Bowerman and Huynh died.

U.S. Senate Democrat Al Franken of Minnesota said he’s troubled by the deaths, and he’ll do what he can to get answers.

Friends and relatives are guessing the two were killed by some type of insecticide poisoning. They were English teachers in South Korea, and they went to Vietnam during a school break.