The 19-year-old son of former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki was found dead at the University of California, Berkeley, and his family suspects a drug overdose was the cause.
UC Berkeley freshman Marco Troper was found unresponsive in the Clark Kerr student complex Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
The math student’s grandmother, Esther Wojcicki, suggested he may have succumbed to a drug overdose after confirming his death and identity.
Esther said SF gate: “He ingested a drug and we don’t know what it contained,” he said. “One thing we do know: it was a drug.”
UC Berkeley spokeswoman Janet Gilmore said there were no signs of foul play, but did not say whether Troper died of a drug overdose.
Marco Troper (center), 19-year-old son of former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcickic (left), was found dead at the University of California, Berkeley, on Tuesday.
Troper’s mother, Susan, stepped down from her leadership position last year and moved into an advisory role at Google and Alphabet.
Troper, a freshman at UC Berkeley (pictured), was found unresponsive in the Clark Kerr Student Complex on Tuesday afternoon.
‘The Berkeley Fire Department notified UCPD that they were attempting to take action to save the victim’s life. “UCPD responded and the Berkeley Fire Department pronounced the person deceased,” Gilmore wrote in a statement.
In a heartbreaking social media post, Esther confirmed the identity of the college student who just started the second semester of his freshman year.
‘Tragedy struck my family yesterday. My beloved grandson Marco Troper, 19, passed away yesterday. “Our family is devastated beyond comprehension,” the grieving grandmother wrote.
‘Marco’s life was shortened too much. And we are all devastated, thinking of all the opportunities and life experiences he will lose and that we will miss together,” Esther continued.
Troper was a math major and had a strong community of friends in his Stern Hall dorm and his Zeta Psi fraternity, according to his grandmother.
“At home, he told us endless stories about his life and his friends in Berkeley,” he wrote. ‘
Troper was a math major and had a strong community of friends from his dorm at Stern Hall and his Zeta Psi fraternity, according to his grandmother.
The family is awaiting a toxicology report to determine the cause of death, but his grandmother Esther Wojcicki said it appeared to be an accidental drug overdose.
The grandmother also described Troper as an “all-round athlete”, who enjoyed all types of sports, including boxing, swimming and tennis.
‘He was everything you could have wanted in a son and grandson. He was meant to make a difference, it is heartbreaking.”
The family is awaiting a toxicology report to determine the cause of death, but Esther said it appeared to be an accidental drug overdose.
‘Kids in college, especially freshmen and sophomores, experiment with everything. “I think this was an experiment gone wrong,” she said. Palo Alto Daily Post.
Prior to attending UC Berkeley, Troper graduated from the Menlo School in Atherton, where he took a leading role in the school’s hackathon and tutored numerous students.
The school’s principal, Than Healy, described him as an “avid mathematician and computer scientist” in an email.
“He was incredibly intelligent, curious and creative, often showing up at classes and community events with a bright smile and infectious energy,” Healy wrote.
Troper is also survived by four brothers and his father, Dennis Troper.
Susan, the former CEO of YouTube and one of Google’s longest-serving employees, stepped down from her leadership role last year to focus on family.
Susan (pictured with her husband Dennis Troper) was Google’s inaugural marketing manager in 1999 and took over as CEO of YouTube in 2014.
His mother, the former CEO of YouTube and one of Google’s longest-serving employees, stepped down from her leadership role last year to focus on family.
Susan wrote in a blog post in February of last year: “I have decided to take a step back from my role as head of YouTube and begin a new chapter focused on my family, my health, and my personal passion projects.”
She served as Google’s inaugural marketing manager in 1999 and assumed the role of CEO of YouTube in 2014. After her resignation, she moved into an advisory role at both Google and Alphabet.
Susan has not made any comments regarding Troper’s death.
Esther hopes that the Troper tragedy can help educate people and prevent similar incidents in other families.
“I think the most important thing is that teenagers and college students need to know that today’s drugs are not the same as yesterday’s drugs; they are often laced with fentanyl,” he said.
“So while they think they know what they’re doing, if they were to look at the statistics nationally, they can see that more people are dying from drug overdoses than from the pandemic.”
