John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017.
In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.
Boeing said it was saddened to hear of Mr Barnett’s passing. The Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to the BBC on Monday.
It said the 62-year-old had died from a “self-inflicted” wound on 9 March and police were investigating.
At this moment we have no motive for suicide and motive for murder.
But we have actual evidence for suicide (coroner report) and none for murder. But sure your ignorance of what’s going on in his life trumps actual facts.
What if the dude was so stressed out by all of this he just said fuck it, I’m done, and blew his brains out?
I’m not saying I think this is true any more than I think Boeing had him killed. Just providing it as a plausible motive for suicide to show that we really need more information to be revealed from a proper investigation before we attach ourselves to assumptions.