Recent UT-Austin Grad Found Dead In San Francisco Bay

AUSTIN, TX — A recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin employed by Google has been identified as the woman found dead last week in San Francisco Bay, according to published reports.

The Mercury News in California reported Chuchu Ma, 23, was identified Saturday as the person whose body was pulled from the bay near San Jose, Calif., on Thursday. According to the report, a bicyclist last Thursday reported seeing a body in the water just after 10 a.m., prompting the Santa Clara Sheriff's Office dive team to respond. Just hours after the discovery, the Mountain View Police Department received a report of a missing person matching the description of the lifeless body.

According to the newspaper report, public safety officials have categorized the an "unattended death" pending the results of an autopsy. An unattended death occurs when a person dies and is not found for a prolonged period of time or when a person passes away without friends or family nearby to check on them.

The West Coast newspaper secured a statement from Google spokesperson Gina Scigliano reacting to the young woman's death: “Chuchu was an excellent software engineer in our developer product team. We are devastated to learn of her passing, and our deepest condolences are with her family and friends.”

A profile on LinkedIn indicates Ma graduated from UT’s computer science program just last year. She also was a National Merit Scholar and 2012 valedictorian of her high school in the Houston-area community of Spring, Texas.

>>> Image via Shutterstock