Twister Sister Singer Dee Snider’s Daughter Chey, 23, Trapped in Peru: ‘It’s Frightening’
Dee Snider is not going to take it! The Twister Sister frontman’s daughter, Chey, is stranded in Peru due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Dee is ‘seriously frustrated’ that he can’t go save his baby girl.
As the make-up wearin’, head bangin’, heavy metal frontman for Twisted Sister, Dee Snider famously sang, “I Wanna Rock.” Now, more than anything, Dee, 65, wants to be reunited with his 23-year-old daughter, Chey. Dee’s girl is currently stuck in Peru after she traveled alone to attend a weeklong “spiritual retreat” near the northern city of Iquitos. However, five days before she was to return, Peru’s President Martin Vizcarra issued a 15-day border closure to prevent the spread of coronavirus. All flights were grounded, leaving Chey trapped and Dee furious. “I am seriously frustrated — and it’s frightening,” he told Page Six.
“She’s scared,” said Dee, who added that he has been speaking with Chey regularly. “But we are talking to a lot of people, and we are being optimistic. There’s some [reassurance for us] that there are Americans with her in the country, but they are all scared.” Dee’s wife and Chey’s mother, Suzette Snider, 58, shared a picture of her girl online, adding that, “Our daughter is stranded in the Jungles of Peru. With no way of getting out. Our government needs to take action and get our people out.”
Dee, who told Page Six that he reached out to the military and to the U.S. Embassy in Peru for help, also took to social media to raise awareness of Americans stranded overseas. “These are really difficult times for everybody all over the world,” he said in a four-and-a-half-minute Instagram Video. “We’re all struggling at home to make sense of what’s going on and to keep our families and friends safe, to do the right thing. Meanwhile, there are literally thousands of American citizens stuck in foreign countries under quarantine and not being allowed to return home. Thousands. And I know this because my daughter [Cheyenne], is one of over eight hundred stuck in Peru right now.
“There are no flights going out, and they’re not being let out. My daughter Chey is safe at this time, but she’s in a remote part of Peru, there are plenty down there,” he said. “This goes on all over the world, by the way — people who are not in safe situations, who don’t have the finances and the resources to take care of themselves for extended lengths of time. They’re all tourists. They’re all visitors. Most were on vacations, or journeys, or trips, encouraged by foreign countries to come visit. They did, and now they’re locked in. And my daughter, like I said, she is safe, but we’ve got to do better. We’ve got to help our own.”
The U.S. Embassy issued a security alert on Monday (Mar. 16) saying that “American citizens who have not been able to reschedule their flights out of Peru should arrange lodging for the duration of the quarantine period,” per Blabbermouth. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said that the State Department has a “responsibility” to help out stranded Americans. This did little to quell the Twisted Sister singer’s fears.
“I understand that we need to be quarantined,” Dee said in his video. “I understand we need to protect our borders. But we should be able to be quarantined within our own countries. And foreign countries should be going out of their way to help foreigners get out of their countries and back home so they can be with their loved ones during these trying times. And they’re not.”