Remains found in San Francisco Bay last month have been identified as those of a 22-year-old Netflix software engineer who died by suicide, police said Wednesday.
A boater found Yohanes Stefanos Kidane's remains northeast of the Golden Gate Bridge just after 11:40 a.m. Aug. 29, the Marin County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.
The Coast Guard recovered the remains, and paramedics pronounced Kidane dead soon after, according to police, who said his identity was initially unknown because the remains "exhibited signs of advanced decomposition, prolonged exposure to the aquatic environment and appreciable depredation."
Authorities formally identified Kidane two days later, on Aug. 31, and notified his family, the sheriff's office said. A forensic postmortem examination conducted Sept. 1 by the sheriff’s coroner division determined that Kidane died by suicide.
Kidane lived in San Jose and was originally from Webster, New York, a town about 90 miles northeast of Buffalo, said police, who added that he most recently worked as a Netflix engineer.
Family members told NBC Bay Area that Kidane recently graduated from Cornell University and had moved to the Bay Area to start the new job at Netflix.
Kidane graduated from Cornell this year with a degree in computer science, said Joel Malina, the vice president for university relations.
"We are devastated by the tragic nature of his passing, and we encourage all who knew him on campus to seek help as they struggle with this loss," Malina said in a statement. "Our deepest condolences go to Yohanes’ family and friends."
A Netflix spokesperson said in a statement: “We are saddened by the loss of a young and brilliant coworker. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies go out to Yohanes’ family and friends.”
A GoFundMe fundraiser that had been set up to support the search for Kidane said that he was last seen leaving his apartment Aug. 14 and entering a ride-share vehicle at 7:15 p.m. and that his belongings were found near the Golden Gate Bridge visitors center the next day.
The GoFundMe page also said Kidane had "a strange encounter" with an Uber driver two days before he was last seen, when the driver "was insistent on taking him through Oakland," leading Kidane to cancel the ride and share his hesitancy about taking ride-shares alone.
Roger Fielding, the chief deputy of the coroner division, said that the details in the GoFundMe were "not deemed relevant to our death investigation" and that investigators did not find any "evidence of a criminal nature or suspicious circumstances" related to Kidane's death.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.