‘OUR LIGHT’

Remains of Tech CEO Found 18 Months After He Texted 911 and Vanished

Beau Mann, the 39-year-old founder of a digital platform to help people in addiction recovery, was last seen getting into an Uber in California in November 2021.

The remains of a tech founder who disappeared a year and a half ago were found in the courtyard of an abandoned property in Santa Monica, authorities in California said this week.

Beau Mann, 39, was last seen outside a convenience store in Studio City on Nov. 30, 2021. From there, he climbed into an Uber and, less than 10 minutes later, texted 911, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The grassy lot where his body was found was roughly a mile away from where the Uber was supposed to have dropped him off.

Investigators discovered the human remains on April 25, according to a Monday release from the Santa Monica Police Department, having been led to the property by a tipster. The body was positively identified as Mann’s by the Los Angeles County Coroner last Saturday.

A cause of death remains under investigation, police said.

Few details about the case have been released, but a Santa Monica Police spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times that Mann’s death was being looked at as a possible homicide, with investigators circling the “gibberish” text he’d sent to 911 shortly before his vanishing. Several attempts were made by authorities to follow up with Mann, who didn’t respond, the spokesperson said.

The Uber driver has not been deemed a suspect in the case, but investigators were planning to speak to him, according to the spokesperson. An Uber representative told NBC News last year that no incident had been reported to the company.

Mann was the creator and chief executive of an app called Sober Grid, a platform designed to help people in addiction recovery. In recovery himself, Mann wanted to help others maintain their sobriety, according to his fiancé, Jason Abate.

“I don’t want to sound overly dramatic but he’s kind of changed the world,” Abate told NBC News last May, a month before he and Mann had been set to get married.

“Today is a sad day for the Sober Grid community,” the company said in a Facebook post on Monday that memorialized its “beloved founder” and his “bright smile and endless energy and compassion.”

“Simply put—Beau was our light,” the post continued. “After an experience in his early years with drugs and addiction, he turned his focus and passion towards helping others.” It noted that the app had “saved thousands of lives and no doubt, will save thousands more.”

On Monday, Abate told KNBC through tears, “He was just so wonderful. I never felt more love in my entire life than I did when I was with Beau.”

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AJ McDougallBreaking News Reporter

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