Former New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner and his wife Jessica, who died after getting sick during their family holidays, had not died of food poisoning asphyxiation as previously thought, Costa Rican officials said in an update Tuesday.
Miller Gardner passed away from sleeping Friday morning, according to a statement from the couple. He was 14 years old.
The day after making the original declaration, Gardner choked after eating something and getting sick, Costa Rican authorities say further forensic investigations have ruled out choking as a possible cause of death.
“The cause of the death was pre-excluded as a result of the fact that no abnormalities were observed at the macro level of the respiratory tract during the physical examination,” Juan Pablo Alvarado Garcia with the Costa Rica Judicial Research Agency said Tuesday.
Additionally, different samples have been sent for testing, but the results could take 2-3 months due to the increase in backlog and registered homicides.
Gardner says, “There are so many questions and few answers at this point.”
“Miller is our beloved son and brother, and we still can’t understand our lives without his infectious smile,” Jessica and Brett Gardner said in the release. “He loved soccer, baseball, golf, hunting, fishing, his family and his friends. He lived his life to the fullest every day.”
The Yankees said the organization was “full of sadness.”
“The words feel insignificant and insufficient to try to explain such an unimaginable loss,” the team said in a statement. “Brett wasn’t the only one who literally grew up in this organization for over 17 years, as did his wife Jessica and their two boys, Hunter and Miller.”
Brett Gardner, 41, was drafted by the Yankees in 2005 and spent his entire major league career with the organization. The speedy outfielder hit .256 with 139 Homer, 578 RBI, 274 steel and 73 triples in 14 seasons from 2008-2021.
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