It should have been a wonderful celebration. A honeymoon in a Mexican resort for a young Carleton Place couple.  Instead, a 24-year-old woman is dead, her husband is in hospital and another Canadian couple injured after the balcony at their resort broke apart.

A Mexican newspaper snapped a photo of the missing glass on the third floor balcony where Shannon and Paul Guy had been standing Wednesday evening, with the other couple. They had arrived at the resort just the previous day.

"They were on the balcony,” explains Darlene Guy, Paul’s mother, from her home in Carleton Place, “and the other couple asked Paul to take a picture of the three of them and they backed up. (The balcony railing) collapsed and they all fell.”

24-year-old Shannon was killed and the other couple was taken to hospital.  Paul, who did not fall, is in the ICU in a Mexican hospital, though his family cannot find out why.

Paul’s sister, who is also named Shannon, says “they were getting ready to go out for dinner and it's normal to take pictures on a balcony, these are normal things that people do on their honeymoons.” 

The couple, who has two little girls, was married in August. Paul Guy researched the Oasis Tulum resort in the Mayan Riviera but his family was still concerned about them going to Mexico.

"We were warning, don't leave the resort,” says Shannon Guy, “try to stay on the resort and be safe.  They were so excited.”

Paul and Shannon left their two little girls, a 7 month old baby and a three year old, in the care of his parents in Carleton Place. 

Sister Shannon says "her three year old is already saying that she misses her mom and we can't say anything until Paul comes home and we know how he wants to handle it.”

Both Paul and Shannon's family are struggling with calls to Mexico to understand what happened. In a telephone interview, Shannon’s mother Cathy Harker said, “I’m still in shock and disbelief and I just wish I could see my baby.”

Shannon was on maternity leave from her job at the Sinders Bridal House in Carleton Place. She had worn one of the dresses for her wedding.

"It’s such a nightmare,” says owner Gabriella Stern-Young, “and one in a million tragedy.  Wrong place, wrong time, all those things. Unheard of.” 

That same Mexican newspaper though says a woman from Colombia died two years ago at the same resort when the glass on her third floor balcony collapsed. No one at the resort would agree to talk to CTV Ottawa today.

In the meantime, two families grieve and wait for answers.

“I can’t believe it,” says Darlene Guy, “I want my son back.”

There is something even more tragic about this story. Paul's father left early Friday morning for Mexico to bring Paul and Shannon back.  He is dying of terminal cancer.  The couple got married early so he could make it to their wedding. 

Canadian Foreign Affairs has passed on its “sympathies for the family and friends of the Canadian who passed away and the two other Canadians who were injured.”  Consular officials in Mexico are in contact with local authorities to gather more information and are providing assistance to those affected.

Shannon’s workplace, Sinders Bridal House, is in the early planning stages of a memorial for Shannon and a fundraiser for her children.