Missing Netflix engineer found dead near Golden Gate Bridge, sheriff's office says

ByABC7 Bay Area Digital Staff KGO logo

Thursday, September 7, 2023

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The body of a missing Netflix engineer was found near the Golden Gate Bridge, the Marin County Sheriff's Office announced on Wednesday.

Authorities said 22-year-old Yohanes Kidane was positively identified by the coroner's office on Aug. 31 more than two weeks after Kidane was reported missing.

Kidane was last seen at the Golden Gate Bridge Visitors Center in San Francisco on Aug. 14 after getting in an Uber in San Jose.

According to the Cornell Daily Sun, Cornell University's newspaper, Kidane's "phone, wallet and backpack were found south of the Golden Gate Bridge near the Welcome Center. His phone location was at the bridge through Monday night."

Kidane was a recent graduate of Cornell University.

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This is photo of missing person Yohanes Kidane being held after a church service in San Francisco, Calif. on Sunday, August 20, 2023.

Authorities say a passing boat discovered a body of an "unconscious and unresponsive person" near the Golden Gate Bridge on Aug. 29.

The sheriff's office said a body was recovered from the water and taken to the Station Golden Gate in Sausalito, California. Paramedics pronounced Kidane deceased without providing any resuscitate aid due to his physiologic condition.

"The remains exhibited signs of advanced decomposition, prolonged exposure to the aquatic environment and appreciable depredation," sheriff's office added.

On September 1, the Marin County's Sheriff's Office Coroner Division said "the cause of death was determined to be from blunt impact injuries with drowning as a significant contributing condition. The mode of death was determined to be suicide."

Kidnane's family has been notified.

SUICIDE PREVENTION: Local resources for those in crisis

Following a service at San Francisco's Third Baptist Church last month his brother, Yosief Kidane, addressed his disappearance, saying "We're not going to stop until we do. We love him a lot. We miss him. We're going to find him."

Kidane is from New York and graduated from Cornell University before moving to the Bay Area. He was hired by Netflix as a software engineer in Los Gatos.

If you or your child needs help right away, call the National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), call 911, or take your child to the nearest crisis center or emergency department.