Courtesy of Brett and Jessica Gardner; Courtesy of Subbarayudu Konanki
What Happened to Miller Gardner and Sudiksha Konanki? Inside the Spring Break Tragedies
They were all sick. After going out to dinner on March 20 while vacationing in Costa Rica, retired New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner, 41, his wife Jessica and sons, Hunter, 16, and Miller, 14, began suffering from what appeared to be food poisoning.
A doctor was called to their Arenas Del Mar Beachfront & Rainforest Resort hotel to treat the family with over-the-counter medication to combat their symptoms, which reportedly included stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhea. But the next morning, Miller was dead.
Brett Gardner’s Family Tragedy Explained After Son Miller Died in Costa Rica
As his stunned loved ones pleaded for answers, officials explored multiple theories. Suggestions he died from asphyxiation due to a food allergy or that he’d had an allergic reaction to the medicine he was given the previous night, however, were swiftly ruled out.
Then, on March 31, investigators revealed a breakthrough in the mystery: “High levels of carbon monoxide contamination” were detected in the Gardners’ room, the general director of Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency announced, explaining that a “specialized machine room” adjacent to the World Series champ’s accommodations is the suspected source of the poisonous gas. And though a spokesperson for the resort initially denied that the levels in the room were lethal, the official toxicology report released on April 2 showed that the teen died of carbon monoxide exposure.
The Gardners will continue to mourn. “The void Miller’s passing leaves in the hearts of his family, friends, teammates, teachers, coaches and others will be felt for years,” his March 29 obituary read. “The Gardner family will forever cherish the places they visited, the people they met, the friends they made, and the memories they created together.”
What Happened to Sudiksha Konanki in Punta Cana?
She arrived in the Dominican Republic on March 3 hoping to have some fun with five of her girlfriends during a break from their classes at the University of Pittsburgh. Instead, Sudiksha Konanki vanished without a trace. Her final moments were caught on camera.
Surveillance video shows the 20-year-old and another spring breaker she met on the trip, St. Cloud State University student Joshua Riibe, 22, with their arms around each other as they and a small group of revelers walked to the beach around 4:15 a.m. on March 6 after leaving a disco at Punta Cana’s Riu Republica resort. Everyone else left, while Sudiksha and Joshua waded into the ocean and ended up “talking and kissing a little” in “waist-deep water” — until a wave crashed over them, sweeping them “out to sea,” he told authorities in a March 12 interview obtained by NBC News. Joshua added that he battled rough surf to get them back to shore before passing out on the beach, the New York Post reported.
He believed Sudiksha made it out of the water — but didn’t see her again. He returned to the resort at 9 a.m. thinking “she’d [already] grabbed her things and left.” At first, the case bore a chilling similarity to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005 — and Sudiksha’s distraught parents demanded police probe whether she was the victim of foul play.
Though he was never formally accused or charged with a crime, Joshua was detained for nearly two weeks before he was released on March 17.
On March 28, a judge released his full reasoning for letting the student go, putting an official end to that element of the mystery. Upon learning that Joshua “was not a suspect from the beginning … We are coming to terms with the fact our daughter has drowned,” Sudiksha’s father, Subbarayudu, told reporters as her mother, Sreedevi, sobbed beside him.
In a letter to Dominican authorities, they asked for their daughter to be officially declared dead. “While no declaration can truly ease our grief,” they wrote, “we trust that this step will bring some closure and enable us to honor her memory.”
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