CANBERRA – Canberra has launched an investigation into a tourist body returned from Bali without heart, after 23-year-old Byron Haddow’s remains were repatriated to Australia missing the vital organ. The case has raised questions over how his body was handled in Indonesia.

The Queensland man was found dead in the swimming pool of a villa during his Bali holiday earlier this year. His body was repatriated about four weeks later, and a second autopsy in Australia revealed that the Australian tourist’s body was missing its heart.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Tuesday (Sept. 23) that consular support was being provided to Haddow’s family but declined further comment due to privacy obligations.

His mother, Chantal, told Channel Nine that officials had only called to ask if she knew the heart was still in Bali. “I feel like something is not right. I think something happened to him before he was in the swimming pool,” she said.

Senior Australian officials in Bali and Jakarta have raised the case with the Indonesian government. The Australian Consulate-General in Bali also conveyed the family’s concerns to the hospital where the first autopsy was carried out.

However, forensic doctor Nola Margaret Gunawan, who conducted the initial autopsy, denied any error. “For forensic purposes, his heart was examined and left when the body was repatriated. I have provided the autopsy results and explanation to the family, and they accepted it,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald on Monday (Sept. 22).