Clues sought in death of young Google engineer

"We hope people who love Chuchu will find comfort in visiting her profile to remember and celebrate her life."

That was the sad message posted on the Facebook page of Chuchu (Sarah) Ma after the 23-year-old woman's naked body was discovered in San Francisco Bay near the Bay Trail in Sunnyvale, California on Dec 7. Ma was a software engineer at Google.

A passing bicyclist noticed Ma's body while riding on the trail, according to Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety Officer Shawn Ahearn, KTVU reported.

Ma had been reported missing by her boyfriend on the same day that her body was discovered.

"We don't know if anyone witnessed it or not or what occurred, so when we do an investigation like this, we look at all possibilities," Ahearn told ABC-7 in San Francisco.

"We're talking to family, we're talking to friends, we're talking to acquaintances; we're trying to get a picture of what was occurring up to that point and beforehand," he said.

The trail alongside where Ma was found runs between Mountain View, where Google is based, and Sunnyvale, where Yahoo is headquartered and where Ma formerly worked.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Dive Team recovered Ma's body. The county coroner's office was conducting an autopsy and has not yet released a cause of death. Toxicology tests also were performed, and those results could take several weeks.

"Chu Chu 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 Google spokesperson said.

Ma's Facebook page is a testament to a happy Chinese-American woman who had more than 900 friends on Facebook.

A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where she had a 3.96 grade-point average in computer science, Ma interned at Yahoo before leaving for Google in 2015.

Ma was 2012 valedictorian at Klein Collins High School Class outside Houston and was one of five students picked among 2,500 distinguished students to be awarded a National Merit scholarship, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety has asked anyone with information to contact the detective unit at (408) 730-7110.

williamhennelly@chinadailyusa.com