Jerold Haas was a genius computer programmer on the verge of making it rich at a crypto startup.
Then he vanished. 1/ wired.trib.al/nHjEDtz
Then he vanished. 1/ wired.trib.al/nHjEDtz
Haas disappeared at the height of a meteoric rise. A heavy drug user in his youth, he seesawed between professional highs and personal lows. He was homeless just months before joining the crypto company Tessr.
Haas was self-destructive, but gifted 2/ wired.trib.al/nHjEDtz
Haas was self-destructive, but gifted 2/ wired.trib.al/nHjEDtz
Tessr was a last-ditch effort for Haas to achieve the wealth and respect he’d missed out on during his 20s and 30s. But as the company’s payday neared, his paranoia grew 3/ wired.trib.al/nHjEDtz
The day he disappeared, he asked a friend to drive him south with no specific destination. When the driver stopped for gas and went in to buy snacks, he came out to find Haas was gone 4/ wired.trib.al/nHjEDtz
📸: Hana Mendel
📸: Hana Mendel
But Haas didn’t vanish alone. He had a backpack with hard drives containing critical software he’d written for Tessr.
The future of the company was literally in his hands 5/ wired.trib.al/nHjEDtz
📸: Hana Mendel
The future of the company was literally in his hands 5/ wired.trib.al/nHjEDtz
📸: Hana Mendel
Two months later, Haas’ body was found near a soybean field. The backpack, though, was still missing, and theories about his death began to swirl 6/ wired.trib.al/nHjEDtz
What happened to Jerold Haas? 7/ wired.trib.al/nHjEDtz
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