A self proclaimed 5-star ocean front hotel on Costa Rica’s northern Pacific was the scene of an unusual death in October, and the details are only getting stranger.

Shortly after 42-year-old Shawn Edmonds was handcuffed by security guards at the Riu Guanacaste hotel after an apparent argument with hotel staff, the Kitchener, Ontario, Canada father fainted while sitting in a chair and was pronounced dead by emergency medical technicians after they arrived at the scene.

What has the man’s family and Canadian authorities pressing for further investigation is the fact that, according to Shirley Hewitt, Edmonds’ mother, who was interviewed by the Toronto Sun,
“They took his heart and brain out [in Costa Rica]. They put [part of] his heart back in, but they did not put his brain back.
The Mata Palo beach resort has not responded to questions about the incident, and Costa Rican investigative police are still looking into the case.
“I have to lay him to rest and I know he’s not whole. I know I have to live with that, but that’s going to haunt me,” continued Hewitt in an interview with Global News.
Hewitt said the official word she received from Costa Rica was that Edmonds died from a heart attack.

But she said the explanation doesn’t jibe, since her son has never had a heart problem, and in addition, his body when returned to Canada, in addition to missing his brain and half of his heart, was badly bruised and appeared to have a broken nose.

A second autopsy is being conducted in Canada to try to determine more about the bizarre death.

Edmonds was a father of two girls and was visiting Costa Rica for a friend’s wedding.