Tensions are high in the Costa Rican town where Miller Gardner died…
As we’ve been following, New York Yankees vet Brett Gardner and his wife Jessica announced over the weekend their 14-year-old son tragically died during their vacation. The whole family fell ill while staying at the Arenas Del Mar Beachfront and Rainforest Resort in Manuel Antonio. The family of four, which also includes Miller’s 16-year-old brother Hunter, reportedly ate at a restaurant nearby their resort last Thursday. Later that evening, they all came down with severe symptoms, like vomiting, diarrhea, and more — possibly indicative of food poisoning. A resort doctor prescribed them medication to ease their symptoms, but Miller never got better. The teen sadly never woke up the next day.
Investigators preliminarily believed the teen died of asphyxiation, but later ruled that out after no blockages were found in his respiratory tract. So, suspicions of food poisoning became the next focus of the investigation, with samples from the restaurant they dined at the night before Miller’s death being taken away for analysis. And it’s left local employees on edge…
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On Wednesday, a bartender from the resort town the Gardner family was staying in spoke to the New York Post about the devastating death — and what it potentially means for staff members who handled the family’s food:
“It’s a hard topic. Everyone is worried because someone — a chef or someone who made the food — could go to jail.”
On Wednesday, Juan Pablo Alvarado Garcia of Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency told DailyMail.com that a prosecution could be a possibility if food is in fact found to have been a factor in Miller’s death.
The bartender added:
“People are talking about it. Everyone in town is nervous.”
Truly such an unimaginably difficult situation all around… Multiple restaurants have since attempted to distance themselves from the situation. The resort the Gardners were staying at assured TMZ on Tuesday that the family did not eat lunch or dinner at their facilities the day before Miller’s death. Le Papillon Restaurant at nearby Hotel La Mariposa also came forward confirming the family DID eat at their restaurant the Tuesday before Miller’s death, but that any insinuation they were a factor is “entirely false and unfounded.”
We’ll just have to away those food sample results to know for sure…
Our hearts remain with the Gardners as they await more answers. Rest in peace, Miller.
[Images via New York Yankees/X]
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