Watch: Miller Gardner Case: Authorities Update Teen’s Cause of Death After Preliminary Ruling
The Costa Rican hotel where Miller Gardner died has spoken out.
Two days after former Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner and his wife Jessica Gardner announced the sudden death of their 14-year-old son, the Arenas Del Mar Beachfront & Rainforest Resort where the family was vacationing shared their condolences.
“We are deeply saddened by this loss, and our hearts go out to the family during this incredibly difficult time,” a representative for the hotel said in a March 25 statement to People. “The factors that led to this tragic incident are unknown, and we are fully cooperating with authorities as they investigate.”
The resort added, “We remain committed to supporting our guests and staff, prioritizing their well-being and safety, while respecting the privacy of those affected.”
The hotel also denied responsibility for the four Gardner family members falling ill after visiting a nearby restaurant on March 20, hours before Miller’s death.
“The family did not eat at any of Arenas Del Mar’s restaurants for lunch or dinner the previous day,” the resort’s rep continued. “Additionally, on March 14th, we had an inspection by the Health Ministry in which the hotel passed with a 98.5 out of 100.”
After visiting a restaurant off the property, Brett and Jessica—as well as sons Miller and Hunter, 16—returned to the Manuel Antonio resort feeling sick and a hotel medical team gave the Gardner family medicine, Juan Pablo Alvarado Garcia, a spokesperson for Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency (JIA), told NBC News. Miller’s body was found the next morning.
Though Costa Rican authorities revealed March 24 that the teenager’s preliminary cause of death was asphyxiation after he ingested a toxic substance, the agency has since reversed course, according to the spokesperson.
“It was preliminarily ruled out that the cause of death was due to asphyxia,” Alvarado Garcia told NBC News in the statement, “due to the fact that at the time of the inspection of the body, no anomaly was observed at macro level in the respiratory tract.”
As authorities await the results from Miller’s autopsy to determine an official cause of death, they are unsure whether the food, the medicine or an underlying cause may have played a part in Miller’s passing, according to Alvarado Garcia.
“Was it a medicine they gave him that triggered something? Or was it an underlying condition he had that was triggered by what he ate or the medicine they gave him?” he told NBC News. “We won’t know until we know all of the results from the tests.”
Days before, Brett and his wife announced their son’s tragic death in a heart wrenching statement.
“With heavy hearts we are saddened to announce the passing of our youngest son, Miller,” they wrote in March 23 statement shared to the Yankees X (formerly Twitter) account. “Miller was a beloved son and brother and we cannot yet comprehend our life without his infectious smile.”
They continued, “He loved football, baseball, golf, hunting, fishing, his family and his friends. He lived life to the fullest every single day.”
Read on for more details in the case of Miller Gardner’s death.
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Despite Brett Gardner spending his entire MLB career as a member of the New York Yankees, the outfielder and his wife Jessica Clendenin Gardner—who tied the knot in 2007—kept their sons Hunter and Miller largely out of the public eye in South Carolina.
Still, they occasionally stepped out in support of their dad’s career, attending the CCandy Children’s Clothing Line Launch at MLB Fan Cave in New York in 2013.
In a statement announcing his tragic death, Miller’s family described the 14-year-old as having an “infectious smile” and someone who “lived life to the fullest every single day.”
He was similarly remembered by the New York Yankees in a March 2025 statement, who emphasized Miller’s “outgoing and feisty personality.”
Like his dad, Miller was athletic, though in addition to baseball, he also took up football, golf, fishing and hunting. In a TikTok post he shared earlier this year, he emphasized his love for football by sharing photos of himself on the field, adding, “Miss it.”
In a March 2025 statement by the team confirming Miller’s death, the organization—for whom Brett played from 2008 to 2021—remembered the teen for the “spark in his eyes” as well as a “warm and loving nature.”
The team continued in their statement, “It wasn’t just Brett who literally grew up in this organization for more than 17 years—so did his wife, Jessica, and their two boys.”
In a statement shared by Brett’s former team, the outfielder and his family shared that after Miller and others had fallen ill while on vacation, the 14-year-old passed “peacefully in his sleep the morning of Friday, March 21.”
“Miller was a beloved son and brother,” they wrote, “and we cannot yet comprehend our life without his infectious smile.”
And amid their grief, the Gardner family expressed how they are still trying to determine what happened. As they added in their statement, “We have so many questions and so few answers at this point.”
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The day after Brett and Jessica revealed that Miller had died, the U.S. Embassy of Costa Rica told Inside Edition that the family was vacationing in the Central American country for spring break at the time of his death.
The Embassy also confirmed that it was in discussions with the Gardner family about transporting Miller’s body back to the U.S.
One day after Brett and Jessica announced the sudden passing of Miller, Costa Rican officials said the teenager likely died from suffocation after possibly ingesting a toxic substance.
“Preliminarily, apparently the manner of death would be by asphyxia after a possible intoxication after apparently ingesting some food,” an Organismo de Investigación Judicial spokesperson told NBC News in a statement translated from Spanish. “At the moment it is a death under investigation and is awaiting the results of the autopsy, as well as the analysis of the Toxicology Section, to determine the exact cause of death.”
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However, authorities soon ruled out suffocation as his cause of death, because they did not find any obstruction in his airways.
They shared instead that Miller—as well as his parents and sibling—had fallen ill on March 20 after returning to their hotel from a restaurant, agency spokesperson Juan Pablo Alvarado Garcia told NBC News March 25. Hotel medical staffers treated all four family members before Miller’s body was found in his room the next morning.
The investigation is ongoing and pending medical test results.
Two days after the Gardner family announced Miller’s death, the Arenas Del Mar Beachfront & Rainforest Resort where the family was vacationing in Costa Rica shared their condolences.
“We are deeply saddened by this loss, and our hearts go out to the family during this incredibly difficult time,” a representative for the hotel said in a March 25 statement to People. “The factors that led to this tragic incident are unknown, and we are fully cooperating with authorities as they investigate.”
The resort added, “We remain committed to supporting our guests and staff, prioritizing their well-being and safety, while respecting the privacy of those affected.”
The hotel also denied responsibility for the Gardner family getting sick at a nearby restaurant hours before Miller’s death.
“The family did not eat at any of Arenas Del Mar’s restaurants for lunch or dinner the previous day,” the resort’s rep continued. “Additionally, on March 14th, we had an inspection by the Health Ministry in which the hotel passed with a 98.5 out of 100.”
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