The 19-year-old son of Susan Wojcicki, the former CEO of YouTube and one of the first employees of Google, was found dead in his dorm room at the University of California, Berkeley on Tuesday.
Marco Troper, a freshman math major and a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity, was discovered unresponsive by the Berkeley Fire Department, who pronounced him dead at the scene.
The cause of death is still under investigation, but his grandmother, Esther Wojcicki, said he died from a suspected drug overdose when speaking to SF Gate.
“He ingested a drug, and we don’t know what was in it..One thing we do know, it was a drug.”
She confirmed the death of her grandson in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
“Tragedy hit my family yesterday. My beloved grandson Marco Troper, age 19 passed away yesterday.”
She described him as “the most kind, loving, smart, fun and beautiful human being” and said the family was “devastated beyond comprehension”. She also expressed her desire to prevent similar tragedies from happening to other families.
Marco Troper was in his second semester at UC Berkeley, where he was pursuing his passion for math. He was the son of Susan Wojcicki and David Troper, who have five children together.
