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22-Year-Old Google Engineer Dies At His Work Terminal (nypost.com) 209

Posted by EditorDavid from the dead-at-22 dept.
"A Google software engineer has been found dead inside the company's Chelsea headquarters," reports the New York Post: A janitor found 22-year-old Scott Krulcik unconscious at his work terminal on the sixth floor of the building on Eighth Avenue near West 16th Street around 9 p.m. on Friday, police sources said. EMS workers tried to perform CPR but to no avail. Krulcik was pronounced dead at the scene.
"Krulcik's Linkedin page says he began working at Google in August," reports long-time Slashdot reader McGruber, adding that "Police sources say that his body did not show any signs of trauma, nor did he have a history of medical conditions or substance abuse problems."
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22-Year-Old Google Engineer Dies At His Work Terminal More

22-Year-Old Google Engineer Dies At His Work Terminal

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  • Probable Cause (Score:5, Funny)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Saturday December 08, 2018 @04:45PM (#57772088)

    Kids, this is why you NEVER go back through source history to look at the first commits for any old project.

    Think end of Radiers Of the Lost Ark.

  • Identifies as evil (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    As long as he/she/they/xe/ze identify as alive, we must treat them that way out of respect for their identify. We cannot tolerate this abuse of the dominant livearchy, despite their claims that no accomplishments were made by the non-life-gifted.

  • The only clue (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08, 2018 @04:49PM (#57772106)

    Police on the scene -- you know what I mean -- noted the letters YTREWQ on his forehead, but they were marked as if they were meant to be looked at in a mirror.

    At least it wasn't Comic Sans, said the world weary detective.

  • Still suspicious (Score:3)

    by DaMattster ( 977781 ) on Saturday December 08, 2018 @04:49PM (#57772112)
    I think an autopsy needs to be ordered. If there are no obvious causes, then further investigation needs to happen.

    • Re:Still suspicious (Score:5, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Saturday December 08, 2018 @05:42PM (#57772368)

      Can I interest you in a jump to conclusions mat? They are great. You can just claim something as suspicious based on an article with only around 200 words, most of which you clearly didn't read otherwise you'd know that the medical examiner is already tasked with determining the cause of death.

    • Re:Still suspicious (Score:4, Insightful)

      by sunking2 ( 521698 ) on Saturday December 08, 2018 @06:14PM (#57772488)

      Autopsies are always done when the cause of death isn't known, suspicious or not. 99% of them are done for purely medical history reasons.

      • No, they are not. Autopsies are done when the family or the coroner requests one. I had a high school friend drop dead at the age of 24. He was not autopsied. His death was not mysterious or suspicious; he had a previously-unknown heart arrhythmia that manifested itself. He wasn’t doing anything unusual at the time. He was just unlucky.
        • How was this "previously-unknown heart arrhythmia" discovered? Healthy young people who drop dead are always autopsied unless they are already diagnosed with a terminally ill disease, and even then, they might be autopsied. For one thing, a healthy young man dropping dead for no reason looks a lot like homicide, so that must be ruled in or out.
          • Maybe in your jurisdiction. Not in mine. Laws vary by state. There was nothing suspicious about his death; he was in publc, his pregnant wife was next to him, and the most likely cause of death was Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.

    • Re: Still suspicious (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Thanks Mr. Internet Detective, what would we do without you?

      Though I think it's more likely that he died of natural causes. Yes, this does happen to people at his age. Brain aneurysm, blood clot, acute cardiac failure, etc. My coworker nearly died of a bifurcated aorta. In many cases, the symptom of these is just tiredness, easily confused with the tiredness most office workers experience later in the day.

      Why this is news? Who the fuck knows.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Google execs found their leaker!

    • Wow, what an insightful comment ; nobody thought of that.

  • Chelsea, New York City (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08, 2018 @04:50PM (#57772120)

    Just putting this out there that they mean Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City.

    For those of us whose first notion was Chelsea in London. You know, on the other side of the big-ish pond.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday December 08, 2018 @04:50PM (#57772122)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Karshi or Ennui? (Score:3)

    by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Saturday December 08, 2018 @04:51PM (#57772126)

    Dead at Desk was always one of my worst nightmares.

    3 or 4 people in my group were hospitalized during a death march project that involved 200+ consultants over the course of less than a year.

    • 200+ Consultants ? That's either or a sign of the apocalypse, or time to find new employment.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
      Depends on what is being displayed on your screen at the time...
    • Dead@Desk is also my nightmare. It comes from one terrible experience. It happened to a guy I knew pretty well. I worked with this guy pretty closely on a night shift with only two other people for a couple of years. We both switched jobs and ended up at the same hellhole company. About a month before I quit, I went to lunch and I saw him with his head down on his desk. That was pretty normal. He was a somewhat heavy guy in his 50's and he would often read or take a ciesta during lunch time. So, I thought n

  • Another case of sudden heart attack death (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I have no idea why it happens so much more frequently these days, but every now and then you get reports of young adults and teens just dropping dead from a heart condition nobody knew they had. [nih.gov] Young athletes regularly get screened for these [dailycamera.com] nowadays, but most people aren't aware of the risk.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Infection, even from a flue, can in rare cases cause heart attacks. My brother had this happen at 25 years old. The worst part was that the ER nurses at the hospital thought he was just some kid OD'ing on drugs so gave him the lowest priority, as someone that young is unlikely to have a "legitimate" heart problem. It took yelling from his CO showing up several minutes later to convince them he wasn't some guy who just stumbled in from an alleyway. Normally, if you were a bit older, and mention having an

      • Re:Another case of sudden heart attack death (Score:5, Insightful)

        by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Saturday December 08, 2018 @05:44PM (#57772380)

        Infection, even from a flue, can in rare cases cause heart attacks. My brother had this happen at 25 years old. The worst part was that the ER nurses at the hospital thought he was just some kid OD'ing on drugs so gave him the lowest priority, as someone that young is unlikely to have a "legitimate" heart problem. It took yelling from his CO showing up several minutes later to convince them he wasn't some guy who just stumbled in from an alleyway. Normally, if you were a bit older, and mention having any sort of chest or heart problem in an ER, you get swarmed by people checking if it is a heart attack.

        That said, I don't know why this is news. There is some chance of people dying at any age from unknown medical conditions or some really bad luck. Unless this is directly related to his work at Google, then it is something that happens at any large company from time to time.

        A few years back a female friend, probably about 26 at time time, had some sort of bad chest infection (not a cold, but probably not life threatening). Either way she went to the doctor and mentioned it was giving her chest pains... 10 minutes later they had her in emergency for an overnight visit.

        It did take her a few weeks to fully recover from the infection, but "chest pains" turned out ot be a magic phrase that escalated things very quickly.

        • Re:Another case of sudden heart attack death (Score:5, Funny)

          by sheramil ( 921315 ) on Saturday December 08, 2018 @06:21PM (#57772520)

          Infection, even from a flue, can in rare cases cause heart attacks.

          Damn straight. Clean those chimneys, folks.

        • It's news for the same reason so many other things are news today. Count up the number of sub-25 y/o people in Google, Tesla, Facebook, Apple, and other companies that people investigate every single iota of information escaping in hopes of finding something to put in the news and multiply that by the accumulated chance of every freak thing you can think of and you get numerous articles like this implying mountains where there aren't even molehills.

          Truthfully, it doesn't even have to relate to a watched ent

    • I have no idea why it happens so much more frequently these days, but every now and then you get reports of young adults and teens just dropping dead from a heart condition nobody knew they had. [nih.gov] Young athletes regularly get screened for these [dailycamera.com] nowadays, but most people aren't aware of the risk.

      I don't think this happens more frequently, it's just that historically people died much more frequently. So even when someone young and seemingly healthy died without a clear explanation it didn't seem much out of the ordinary since young and healthy people were dying on a regular basis.

      This still seems odd as a news item, it's very tragic (and I'm not a fan of all the people trying to make a funny comment) but people do die at work.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by twosat ( 1414337 )

      I remember reading a newspaper report about 30 years ago about the inquest into a teenager's sudden death. It turned out that he had an undetected heart defect. He had had sex with his girlfriend 3 times in about an hour and a half and the effort was too much for his 19 year-old heart.

  • ...said nothing until Wednesday because, as the junior put it, "He still looked more productive than half the people here."

  • sounds like a Japanese salary man story (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Death by overwork. "Karoshi"

  • Seriously? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    A 22-year-old man is DEAD and the asshats on this site are making their usual pathetic jokes?

    This site needs an enema with a power washer.

    • Re: Seriously? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08, 2018 @05:14PM (#57772234)

      He's a white guy, he's expendable

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        So, did he have a red shirt?

    • Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Calydor ( 739835 ) on Saturday December 08, 2018 @08:06PM (#57772786)

      As someone else said, there are 7.7 billion people on the planet and 1.8 billion seconds in a 90 year life span.

      None of us here knew the guy, what are we supposed to do? Go into hysterics because he's dead and it's so TERRIBLE AND THE WORLD HAS ENDED AND NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME EVER AGAIN!

      Do you realize how many people died around the world while I was typing this very post? Do you mourn all of them? And if so, do you then mourn the people who died while you mourned the first group?

      • As someone else said, there are 7.7 billion people on the planet and 1.8 billion seconds in a 90 year life span.

        None of us here knew the guy, what are we supposed to do? Go into hysterics because he's dead and it's so TERRIBLE AND THE WORLD HAS ENDED AND NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME EVER AGAIN!

        Do you realize how many people died around the world while I was typing this very post? Do you mourn all of them? And if so, do you then mourn the people who died while you mourned the first group?

        No one is saying you need to mourn him, I wouldn't expect most people who lack a personal connection to have an emotional response.

        But if you're not mourning there are other possible responses (or non-responses) than insensitive jokes.

        Keep in mind this guy worked at Google, exactly the demographic who reads slashdot. Some of his friends and co-workers might actually be reading this comment section.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Calydor ( 739835 )

          If you go onto the internet and see an article about a guy you knew who died, and you start reading the article and then the comments and you DO NOT EXPECT the internet to be the internet then you shouldn't be on the internet in the first place.

          • If you go onto the internet and see an article about a guy you knew who died, and you start reading the article and then the comments and you DO NOT EXPECT the internet to be the internet then you shouldn't be on the internet in the first place.

            The fact that some people are crappy isn't a justification to be crappy yourself.

    • A 22-year-old man is DEAD and the asshats on this site are making their usual pathetic jokes?

      Hey, lighten up! We have learned to cope using humor but we all know the seriousness of the situation (of which this young man's death is evidence) of being forced to switch from vi to Emacs.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tengoo ( 446300 )

      Man, are you going to be outraged when you see what the rest of the Internets are like...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 )
      Seriously? This is what makes this site different, read the +5 jokes, they're not mocking the guy or his family, they're about bringing a relaxed atmosphere to a dramatic subject. Typical SJW.

  • Could it be... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Karoshi?

  • This is news? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Saturday December 08, 2018 @05:19PM (#57772268)

    Although it is tragic that someone in their 20's drops dead at work.... to me, this is not so rare or interesting. And because it happened at Google, that doesn't really make it "news for nerds." Besides, he has only been at Google for a few months.

    Now, if he were some famous tech person, or if his death was linked to tech work, or computer work, or has a technological link or the situation contained some science or part of some study... perhaps that would be interesting. Right now we know almost NOTHING about why he died. Congenital defect, drug abuse, rare disease, accidentally poisoned, stroke, nothing.

    • Re:This is news? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dsgrntlxmply ( 610492 ) on Saturday December 08, 2018 @11:09PM (#57773362)

      It is interesting because sudden death at age 22 ought to be rare. Recall the recent death of a young woman at University of Maryland from an adenovirus infection, followed by the discovery there of around 30 more cases of adenovirus, some requiring hospitalization. Over the years, clusters of adenovirus and of meningitis have arisen in situations where young people are making a transition into living in close quarters with others: dorms, military training, and how about someone starting work in an expensive urban area? (Silicon Valley Airbnb listings have several dorm-like situations specifically marketed to young technical workers.)

      Aneurysms, cardiac electrical defects, septicemia and valve damage following dental work (prime age for wisdom tooth extraction)... My worst episodes of flu (or perhaps something with flu-like symptoms, like adenovirus) were between ages 18 and 27. At age 18 I was failing to recover from what seemed like flu, then developed high fever that affected my judgment; someone finally noticed and dragged me to the doctor: bacterial pneumonia.

      A colleague of mine some years ago, age mid 30's, was out of work with what began as typical flu. It evolved badly, attacked his heart, and left him with 20% loss of heart function.

      The case is of public interest: a person at an age where serious consequences of undiscovered congenital defects can appear, increased exposure through new living situations, immune system not yet hardened by previous exposures, "it's just the flu", and the idea that one ought to just power through any situation.

      There is an immediate lesson that does not require a medical examiner's findings from one tragic case. If you have someone age 17-28 in your family situation or in your general circumstances, yes this is the physically most capable age where people do amazing things, but it also has special vulnerabilities, including suddenly dropping dead on a basketball court. Keep watch and be aware that, though occurrence is rare, things can go bad quickly for those with undiscovered defects, or who become infected by something especially bad.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It depends on the details. When my roommate started at Google on a Monday, after leaving for work on Wednesday he didn't come home that night or Thursday night. I tried calling him, but his phone was dead so I went by the parking lot early AM on Friday morning, and his car was there. After pounding on the door, I finally got someone to it to go check on him. His entire team had been there since Wednesday morning so he didn't feel like he could leave. I talked him into leaving since he wasn't making sen

    • this is not so rare or interesting

      I could not disagree more. What you have here is something that is quite rare and often almost a meme associated with Japanese working culture. The fact that it happened in the USA puts it statistically in the incredibly rare bucket, the fact that it happened at Google could be dumb luck, but it is nothing if not interesting.

  • I wish there is a way to help solve the mystery .. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Saturday December 08, 2018 @05:20PM (#57772278) Journal
    If only there is a sort of black box like they have in airplanes ...

    Some company that tracks every email, every text, every search and logs them all, making it available for the police to reconstruct the last few events and keystrokes of a dead person .... If only such a company existed they can help the police ....

  • they just GOSUB without RETURN.

  • Looks like itâ(TM)s time for Google to reset their âoeN days without a workplace fatalityâ board.

  • Yeah (Score:2)

    by Greyfox ( 87712 )
    Turns out that dude really couldn't hold his neurotoxin. The rest of the complex has barely slowed down yet. Things should pick up sometime around Bring Your Daughter to Work day.

  • I am sure he gained great face with the company.

  • I've pulled all nighters. Hell even day'n nighters on end, 36 hrs. no sleep, in rooms without windows... somewhere; no matter. At 22 y.o. this young man had his peak of youth vitality and creativity just ahead. So this be one to follow SLASHDOT as a subscription.

    If you don't; you don't care - why you here?

  • It does seem 23 is an appropriate age number for death to occur at, but 22 -> 2 + 2 = 4 = 2^2, so this is the first power of two and he was a programmer. Unless, he really was 23 by ...

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday December 08, 2018 @10:59PM (#57773318)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • They certainly didn't fire the one who leaked James Damore's memo. Instead they retaliated against the man who was trying to help them figure out why they have such a hard time hiring a diverse workplace. That's basically when they jumped the "don't be evil" shark and came down firmly on the side of the Stasi. Informing on your colleagues for punishment is pretty much what the Stasi did. Despite what you might have heard, they relied mostly on turning workers against workers.

  • ... when your try to make sense of Wordpresses application model.

    Poor young fellow.

  • Does using an Android device count as a sign of trauma?

  • When all you eat for years on end are depression meds and adderall, this sort of thing is bound to happen when you suddenly discover working in a cubicle isn't all it's made out to be, and all the effort you put in over the last 22 years is ultimately worth nothing at all.

    Don't be a slave to the machine, people. Wake up.

  • Maybe he hit his limit on Red-Bull or Mountain Dew input and his system simply crashed for good.
    There are people out there that simply shouldn't have them in the first place, but younger folks feel they are immune to the effects.
    Surely the M.E. will do a through examination and come up with an accurate cause of death.
    It just goes to show: When it's your time to go, it's your time.

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