Remains of tech developer known for guiding addicts toward sobriety discovered 18 months after he disappeared

The remains of a tech guru who developed an app to help addicts "maintain their path to sobriety" have been found nearly a year and a half after he was last seen alive.

On November 29, 2021, 39-year-old Beau Mann appeared to be in good spirits. He had just returned to Los Angeles after spending Thanksgiving with family in Texas and called his self-described "fiancé," Jason Abate, to wish him goodnight. "He told me he loved me, and he wanted to adopt children with me," Abate, who lives in Michigan, said. "That was the last message I ever got from him."

The following day, Mann's behavior seemed unusual. His car needed repair, so Mann took an Uber, which dropped him off at a 7-Eleven just after 2 p.m. A half-hour later, an Uber dropped him off at an address on Berkeley Street in Santa Monica, California. During one of those Uber rides, Mann sent a text message to 911. The contents of that message are unknown, but LAPD later confirmed that "several attempts were made to contact [him] via that correspondence" without any success. Mann was never seen or heard from again.

On April 25, 2023, skeletal remains were discovered "in the courtyard of an abandoned property" on Santa Monica Boulevard, just a few blocks from where Mann was last seen, a police report said. A couple weeks later, with the help of dental records, the LA County coroner was able to positively identify the remains as belonging to Mann.

While Abate is grateful for some closure, he said this discovery has given him more questions than answers. "Beau, how can you be gone, how do all of these memories exist so vividly and you’re gone?" Abate's Facebook post read in part. "Can someone please explain to me how this is possible. I need someone to help me understand this."

Sergeant Erika Aklufi of the Santa Monica Police Department claimed that foul play is not suspected in this case. However, loved ones have their doubts. In 2015, after reportedly recovering from substance abuse, Mann founded Sober Grid, an app designed to establish "an online sober community" which could provide addicts with "easy access to private support at any time and at any stage of the recovery journey."

"I don’t want to sound overly dramatic, but he’s kind of changed the world," Abate once said about Mann.

Loved ones have had time to inspect the area where Mann's remains were found, and some now suspect that Mann's desire to help may have led him to follow the wrong person to an unsafe location. "Shame on LAPD & SMDP for never looking here!" one Santa Monica resident wrote on Facebook. "They make it sound so pleasant, a grassy area. No! This is a drug den and the city knows and does nothing."

Abate has expressed similar concerns and had previously pointed the finger at the Ubers that Mann took the day he went missing. Officer Jill Calhoun of the LAPD, who initially investigated Mann's missing person's case, claimed that Uber had been thoroughly investigated but that foul play was still not suspected. "I just hope he didn't suffer," Abate said through sobs.

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