SF Gay Man's Body Found

Hope turned to tragedy Wednesday when the family of gay missing San Francisco man Dan Ha said that a body found in the bay is believed to be his.

In a statement, Ha's family said that it does not suspect suicide, and one of Ha's family members said no note was found.

According to KCBS, the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office said Wednesday that it is awaiting dental records to identify the body that was found in the bay Tuesday, November 11. Family members said that Ha's personal belongings were found with the body.

Ha, 26, was last seen at 8 p.m. on Halloween, October 31, leaving his apartment at Fourth and Brannan streets in the South of Market neighborhood, according to friends. Those who know him have blanketed the area with fliers bearing his picture and have conducted several search parties.

Alexa Lee, who's known Ha for years, said he'd always been in close contact with his family and was "not the kind of person who would just go somewhere and not tell people where he was."

He was "plugged in" and "disciplined," Lee said.

Mark Ha, 22, one of Ha's brothers, said before the body was found that Ha had never gone missing before.

"We're holding up," Mark Ha, who lives in New York, said Monday. "We're hanging in there."

Mark Ha last spoke with his brother a couple days before he went missing.

"I emailed him on the 29th, and we just checked in" with each other, he said.

"He seemed perfectly normal to me," Mark Ha said. "I didn't realize anything was wrong at all. It was a very typical exchange between us. ... It wasn't a very long conversation."

Steve Liu, 30, one of Ha's roommates, said "from what we've gathered, [Ha] had his wallet and phone with him" when he left, but "he didn't pack anything." Ha's backpack and gym bag were still at the apartment, Liu said. He didn't think Ha has a car.

Mark Ha said one of his brother's roommates told him he'd left his laundry in the machine.

Liu said he'd last talked to Ha sometime around October 29.

"It was a brief interaction, so it wasn't anything beyond normal," Liu, who described Ha as "really nice" and "really caring," said. "According to the other roommates, he's been a little bit more quiet the last couple days, but nothing too out of the ordinary."

As other media outlets have noted, Ha had not gone to work the day he went missing.

"His co-workers said he had a headache on Thursday, so he went home a little bit early," Mark Ha said. "Friday he emailed in saying he was out sick. I don't think it was anything serous. All he did was get some Tylenol from Walgreens."

The flier distributed by friends says Ha "has been known to get dizzy spells where he gets light-headed and has difficulty speaking."

"The headaches that you hear about, from my understanding, come from working extreme hours," Lee said. "He was an extremely hard worker." She said she'd seen him "pulling all-nighters working his butt off."

Liu indicated he wasn't aware of Ha having dizzy spells. Asked about the flier's mention of them, he said, "I don't know what that was so much about."

According to information provided by Lee, Ha's phone was last used not long after he left his apartment. In an email, she said he'd "had an event on his calendar" for Halloween, but he hadn't checked in.

Family and friends are seeking video footage of Ha from local businesses.

"Most places don't have it or they say they're going to get back to us. ... It's been 10 days, and some places don't keep it that long," Mark Ha said.

According to the website http://www.FindDanHa.com, Ha, the second of four children, was born in British Columbia. He graduated high school in Worcester, Massachusetts "at the top his class," and in 2010, he received a degree in computer science from Stanford University. There, he was co-president of his senior class and had been on the founding team for StartX, the university's startup accelerator.

"Dan has always been pretty ambitious," Mark Ha said. He'd always been "very smart, even brilliant. He's been pretty successful at whatever he finds passion in, whatever he puts his mind to."

Lee said, "Dan is a brilliant IOS developer. He's at the top of his field."

Ha had returned to his job at Metromile, a car-related startup, October 15 after leaving the company, Mark Ha said.

"He was planning to join a startup some time in August, but then things didn't work out," Ha said. "... Metromile was very gracious and they took him back after that." He said he didn't "have all the details" of why the startup hadn't worked out for his brother.

Lee said, "When you're that good," there are "tons" of options available. She said Ha, who'd started two companies in StartX, is "a very, very strong engineer who can build a company off his own coding."

His leaving the startup wasn't "anything unusual" and when engineers of his caliber find "something is not working out, they go," she said. "They don't need to stay."

Mark Ha said he didn't think his brother had been depressed.

"Sometimes he's, I guess, down, or not as upbeat as normal," but he "definitely" hadn't been depressed "or anything like that," he said.

Around Christmas 2013, "he might have had a hard time," Ha said. "I wouldn't describe it as depression, just a little bit of toned down Daniel." He said his brother had been living in Los Angeles at the time "and didn't have a stable job."

Mark Ha also said he didn't know of his brother ever using drugs.

Lee said Ha was "dedicated to keeping his body in top shape. He was a very disciplined gym guy. You could tell he worked out."

She added, "He was very health conscious, so the question about drugs, I would never think of that associated with him."

Sergeant Monica MacDonald, a San Francisco Police Department spokeswoman, said Wednesday morning the case is "still an open investigation," and she wasn't aware of any new developments.

Police investigating the case didn't respond to requests for comment.

Anyone with information about Ha may contact the San Francisco Police Department at 415-558-5508. The case number is 140 937 521.

More information is available at http://www.FindDanHa.com or the Find Dan Ha Facebook page.