OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji was shot a second time by a bullet that was missed by the autopsy that ruled his death a suicide, his parents claim.

The tech prodigy, 26, was found dead on November 26 only a month after revealing the company’s dubious methods of training ChatGPT. 

Balaji was found next to his bathroom door with a gunshot wound to the head and blood all over part of his apartment in San Francisco’s Mint Hill neighborhood.

His parents, Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy, insist he couldn’t have killed himself, and paid for their own autopsy, toxicology, and other tests.

They are yet to release the entire reports, but revealed bombshell new evidence they claimed would help prove he was murdered to keep him quiet.

CT scans of his head were sent for analysis to two radiologists who knew little of the case and hadn’t seen any of the other evidence. 

Balaji’s parents claimed both saw evidence of two gunshots to the young man’s head, neither of them immediately fatal.

‘A second bullet probably entered through the mouth, no clear entry wound seen but it is lodged in the back of the throat at the skull base/clivus,’ Dr Daniel Cousin at Radsurity in Weston, Florida, wrote in his report.

Suchir Balaji, 26, was found in his apartment in San Francisco on November 26 with a gunshot to the head and his death ruled a suicide

Photos obtained by DailyMail.com show blood was pooled next to the bathroom door where his head lay, but also splattered around the bathroom far from the body

‘This bone stopped it and it did not cause any damage likely, perhaps it traveled through the air passage of the mouth to the back of the throat without causing problems.’

Ramarao said the second autopsy revealed injuries to her son’s tongue that couldn’t have been caused by the gunshot to his forehead, which travelled at an odd downwards angle, missed his brain, and lodged in the back of his neck.

‘The tongue shows extensive laceration and discoloration over the margins, with a centralized, nearly oval-shaped defect at the distal,’ the report read.

Ramarao also claimed Balaji had a broken cheekbone along with the previously claimed injury to the side of his head, both of which weren’t listed on the medical examiner’s report.

A graphic photo from the scene showed him lying diagonally across the floor with his head in the corner of the bathroom door, where the biggest blood patch was found.

It also showed Balaji had blood on his knee, which his parents believe was from yet another injury, and ‘obviously it’s an assault’.

‘Why there is there bleeding and a wound on his knee? Why there is there a head injury? Why ripped tongue?’ Ramarao said.

‘Why is he spitting blood outside the bathroom where the crime occurred? Why [was a] date rape drug found in the body?

Balaji’s parents claimed radiologists saw evidence of two gunshots to the young man’s head, neither of them immediately fatal. This is from the report of Dr Daniel Cousin at Radsurity in Weston, Florida

Another image from the report showing where Dr Cousin believed a bullet was stopped by a bone at the back of his throat, at the best of the skull, circled in green

The path of the bullet that went through Balaji’s forehead at an odd downward angle, missed his brain, and lodged in his neck (blue arrow)

‘Why [does the] autopsy report not account for the wounds? Why [doesn’t the] autopsy report include metal object in the skull that was not removed?

‘How can someone sedated shoot themselves in a weird downward angle? Why is his cheekbone broken? 

‘All these questions are not answering the cause of death [of suicide] as made by authorities.’

Ramarao also revealed clumps of what initially appeared to be synthetic hair, such as from a wig, found in the pool of blood next to his body was Balaji’s own hair.

His parents now believe it was ripped out during a struggle before he was murdered.

The gun used to shoot Balaji, a 9mm Glock pistol he bought on January 4, 2024, didn’t have any blood on it, Ramarao claimed, speculating someone may have put the gun in his hand and fired it.

The medical examiner’s report found Balaji had a blood alcohol level of 0.178, which his parents said was out of character for him, as he never drank to excess.

He also had between 67,000 nanograms per milliliter and 54,000 ng/ml of GHB, a common ‘date rape’ drug, in his system.

Balaji’s parents also revealed evidence they claimed showed their son wasn’t suicidal, because he was receiving job offers and planning to speak at academic events.

A recruiter from Jane Street contacted him on LinkedIn to discuss an open job for a machine leaning expert with a $850,000 to $2 million salary.

Another exchange of messages asked Balaji if he was interested in speaking to two classes of University of California, Berkley, students on November 18.

‘Shoot, unfortunately I’m out of town on vacation 11/16-11/23. If there’s another date that works for you, I’m up for it,’ he replied.

Balaji’s parents also revealed evidence they claimed showed their son wasn’t suicidal, because he was receiving job offers and planning to speak at academic events

The final footage of Balaji alive showed him appear relaxed as he strolled to the door to collect his last meal from a DoorDash delivery about 7.30pm on November 22.

He emerged from the elevators of his apartment building, hungry and with a spring in his step, turned toward the front door and disappeared around a corner, returning 15 seconds later clutching a brown paper bag.

Inside was a box of take-out rice, meat, and vegetables – the scraps of which were found sitting on his desk when his body was found days later.

Balaji dressed casually in jeans, sneakers, and a zip-up sweater, strolled back to the elevator, pumping tunes through the wireless earbuds planted firmly in his ears.

Balaji spoke to his father, Balaji Ramamurthy, from 7.12pm until a few minutes before he arrived home.

He told him him he was getting dinner and they discussed his recent holiday, and tentative plans to meet in January.

Earlier CCTV footage showed Balaji arriving home from his birthday holiday with friends to Catalina Island, off the coast of Los Angeles, at 1.33pm.

His luggage, a large canvas bag, hung from a strap slung over his left shoulder and he was wearing a black jacket, blue jeans, and black shoes.

The last image of Suchir Balaji alive as he pressed the elevator call button in the lobby on the day he died, his other hand clutching a bag containing his last meal. His parents say the camera in the elevator itself had been disabled

His last meal, a half-eaten ready-meal with brown rice still in the plastic tray, sits on his cluttered desk with a fork and a restaurant receipt

Like the final video just six hours later, he was walking towards the elevators in the lobby of his apartment building.

‘Does he look stressed?’ Ramarao asked, rhetorically.

Balaji’s exact time of death remains unknown, but police and the medical examiner said he likely died on the night of November 22. 

His body was not found until four days later when a welfare check was requested by his worried parents.  

Ramarao added that security cameras in the elevator, building garage, and neighbors were not working.

‘His murder conspiracy was executed over long term planning and watching Suchir,’ she claimed.

Despite the family’s pleas, the San Francisco Chief Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the police suicide ruling with the release of Balaji’s autopsy report last month.

The report included some shocking new findings including that Balaji was drunk and had multiple drugs including GHP in his system when he shot himself.  

Ramarao posted another CCTV image of Balaji arriving home from his birthday holiday, six hours earlier at 1.33pm, carrying his luggage over his shoulder

The report also noted the only way into Balaji’s fourth-floor apartment number #404 was via his front door. 

‘The apartment windows are stories above the shared courtyard and street and are equipped with devices that restrict the window opening to approximately four inches,’ it read. 

‘There was no evidence of forced entry to the unit or disturbance within the unit.’

Security camera footage and key fob records also showed that no one else entered the apartment during the time he could have died.

Balaji’s parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy (pictured with him) insist he was murdered and have spent more than $100,000 trying to prove it

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott wrote a joint letter with the ME’s office to Balaji’s parents, accompanying the report, further explaining the ruling.

‘These facts, taken together, support that Mr Balaji was alone at the time of the incident,’ it read.

‘The SFPD found no evidence or information to establish that Mr Balaji died of means other than a suicide by self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.’ 

Scott wrote that his investigation, along with that of the ME’s office, found ‘there is insufficient evidence to find Mr Balaji’s death was the result of homicide’.

‘We realize that this information is difficult to receive, and we extend our sincere condolences to the Balaji family,’ he added. 

‘We hope that this response may help bring some amount of closure to his grieving parents, friends and family.’

Police now consider the case closed and will only reopen the criminal investigation if there is a basis for a chargeable offense and the statute of limitations has not expired.

The autopsy report appeared to confirm one of Balaji’s parents’ claims: That the gunshot wound would not have instantly killed their son.

Instead, the bullet entered through his forehead at a downward angle and missed his brain entirely, before lodging in the back of his neck.

The autopsy report noted the bullet passed through his facial bones, skull sinuses, cervical vertebra C1, and cervicomedullary junction of the spinal cord.

Balaji had just returned from a holiday to Los Angeles with some friends, who were former colleagues or worked in tech, for his birthday a day earlier

His apartment sits frozen in time – never cleaned, and touched as little as possible since police left it on November 26

Balaji’s parents argued he would have been alive for some time after he was shot and bled to death on his floor.

However, the autopsy found a medulla/high cervical spinal cord injury and a fracture of the C1 vertebra, both of which cause death if not immediately treated.

A toxicology report found Balaji had a blood alcohol level of 0.178 and amphetamine, norephedrine/norpseudoephedrine, and GHP were present in his blood.

The report concluded Balaji was an otherwise healthy young man and was wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans, a black belt, black underwear and black socks.

Balaji’s parents claimed there was a blunt force injury to their son’s head, indicating a struggle before he was murdered, but no such injury was recorded in the autopsy.

The autopsy report also examined the gun found next to Balaji’s body, a Glock pistol that he bought on January 4, 2024, with one spent casing in the chamber.

The report noted that police found gunshot residue on both of Balaji’s hands, and his DNA on the gun. The bullet was confirmed to have been fired by that gun.

Medical examiners did not find soot and unburned gunpowder particles on the skin around the wound, which ‘may be obscured by changes of postmortem decomposition’.

Recent searches for brain anatomy including ‘Total Gray Matter Volume’ and ‘White Matter’ were found on Balaji’s desktop computer.

Balaji lived in this high-end building on Buchanan Street in San Francisco’s Mint Hill neighborhood

Blood both inside the bathroom, and pooled on the floor outside the door where his head was found

The report noted that the deadbolt was engaged on Balaji’s door and entry was made by the building manager. Paramedics pronounced him dead at 1.20pm.

‘Our counsel and we disagree with their decision. There are tons of inconsistencies in their decision,’ Ramarao said of the autopsy’s conclusion.

‘Underlying assumptions are not supporting the facts in reports. We continue our investigation.’

Ramarao referenced two tufts of synthetic hair found next to Balaji’s body, one of the unexplained factors she has long claimed point to foul play.

‘We have sent the hair found in apartment for testing. We are fighting for justice and [will] not back up,’ she said.

She insisted police wrote ‘inaccurate information in autopsy and police report’ when they concluded no one else could have entered his apartment.

‘They have never retrieved CCTV footage from [the] leasing office,’ she said.

Ramarao also pointed to a report revealing that none of Balaji’s neighbors were contacted by police or the medical examiner’s office during their investigation.

Their lawyer, Kevin Rooney, who is suing the city of San Francisco for the full police incident report, added that the family would continue its own probe.

The bachelor pad is relatively orderly through the entrance and lounge area, but rapidly changes as you get closer to where he died

The kitchen table, strewn with clutter, some of which spilled onto the floor along with pieces of chocolate

Rooney said they would take up the SFPD offer to request bodycam footage and ‘any other information’ they sought, as the investigation was closed.

‘We intend to do so forthwith, because, while we appreciate receiving some of the information Suchir’s parents have asked for since his death, we believe the investigation is far from complete,’ he said.

‘We disagree both with the conclusions the city has reached and with some of the underlying assertions and assumptions upon which those are based.’ 

Balaji’s parents hired Joseph Cohen, former chief forensic pathologist of Riverside County, California, to conduct a second autopsy in December, but are yet to reveal the report. 

A lawsuit filed by Balaji’s parents, demanding the city release the police incident report and other case files to them, listed some of the results.

‘Significantly, Dr Cohen also noted a contusion to the back of Suchir’s head,’ the lawsuit detailed.

But it did not reveal the second report’s findings on whether Balaji took his own life, or if it determined another manner of death.

Photos obtained by the Daily Mail show blood was pooled next to the bathroom door where his head lay, but also splattered around the bathroom far from the body.

Lying on the bloodstains were one of Balaji’s wireless earbuds and two mysterious tufts of what appeared to be synthetic hair, like from a wig.

Inside the bathroom were drops of blood across the tiles, on the cabinet next to the sink, and on the cabinet handle, on the other side of the room

Also on the floor was a knocked over trash bin and a plastic floss pick

The stock layout of Balaji’s apartment with the bathroom where he was found on the left

His home, in a high-end building on Buchanan Street, was also ransacked, ‘like someone was searching for something’.

‘After seeing there is so much blood everywhere, I don’t know how they think it’s a suicide, it doesn’t look close,’ his father, Ramamurthy, told the Daily Mail.

His apartment sits frozen in time – never cleaned, and touched as little as possible since police left it on November 26.

The family are also yet to hold a proper funeral or bury his body, instead raising $85,000 to pay lawyers, investigators, and forensic experts to prove he was murdered.

One of these experts was Professor Dinesh Rao, who wrote a preliminary report on the scene obtained by Daily Mail.

The report includes dozens of photos showing the condition of Balaji’s one-bedroom apartment, along with earlier images taken by his family.

Rao wrote that the disturbed scenes were ‘more likely seen in homicidal death scene and rarely observed in alleged suicidal cases’. 

Splattered blood extended up the door and the doorframe about 18 inches, dripping down to the floor, and a splash extended just past the threshold on the bathroom tiles

Blood drops inside the bathroom looking inside from the door

A splash of lighter blood next to a red shopping bag that was stuck to the biggest blood pool

Blood on the other side of the doorframe to the vast majority of the blood splatter, as seen from inside the bathroom

Balaji’s parents theorize their son was attacked from behind while he was listening to music and cleaning his teeth, and his head smashed into the wall or cabinet.

After fighting back, he was pulled up onto his knees or sitting down, and shot in the head. As the wound wasn’t fatal, he survived for some minutes and got out of the bathroom before dying from blood loss.

‘A 10-minute struggle, probably,’ his father claimed.

His parents believe the apartment was ransacked because the killer was looking for a storage device that had damning evidence on it.

Balaji never expected to become a lightning rod for those wary of the emerging power of artificial intelligence – or his boss, OpenAI founder Sam Altman.

He joined the company in November 2020, having previously spent four months interning there two years while studying at UC Berkley.

But from as early as 2022 he began to question the work he was doing, training GPT-4 – the engine behind ChatGPT – with reams of data from the internet.

Balaji had justified his work by treating it like a research project, but after it was launched in late 2022 and sold commercially, he began to rethink this.

Balaji worked for OpenAI founder Sam Altman until last August, when he quit and and wrote his findings in a detailed essay on his personal website, then spoke to the New York Times

 Ramarao berated him for speaking out by himself instead of joining forces with other whistleblowers, and for posing for photos so everyone knew what he looked like

Balaji (center) with friends. His parents said he had a very active social life

He came to the conclusion that OpenAI was grossly violating copyright laws to such an extent that it was not only illegal, but unsustainable for the internet itself.

Eventually he quit last August and wrote his findings in a detailed essay on his personal website, then spoke to the New York Times.

Balaji’s NYT interview was published on October 23, shocking his parents and even his friends – none of whom he told in advance.

Balaji told his mother not to worry – he wasn’t giving away confidential secrets, just expressing his opinion on the work, and he had enough money from his OpenAI stock.

‘He said he wasn’t looking for another job, he said he was planning to found a startup,’ his mother said.

Then a week before his death, the NYT named him as a ‘custodian witness’ in its copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft.

His mother believes that implied he had more damaging information up his sleeve, and was targeted for it.

It also appeared Balaji wasn’t finished going public. 

Days after his death, his phone rang and his parents picked it up.

On the other end was an Associated Press reporter who didn’t know Balaji was dead, and was calling to schedule an interview he agreed to do.

‘Maybe he had some new information to share with AP and somebody doesn’t want that liability, so they targeted him,’ Ramamurthy said.

Balaji’s parents have three main reasons they believe he couldn’t have killed himself – the crime scene, the timing of his death after going public, and that he had too much to life for

A second autopsy was done in early December at the cost of thousands of dollars, and Ramarao insisted it called the suicide explanation into question

‘This doesn’t seem like a suicide,’ Elon Musk, arch-nemesis of Sam Altman, wrote when reposting one of Ramarao’s tweets, and also shared other articles and posts about the case

Balaji’s parents have three main reasons they believe he couldn’t have killed himself: the crime scene, the timing of his death after going public, and that he had too much to live for.

‘There’s no depression, he didn’t have a suicide note or anything, he was financially stable, he has a good friends circle, going around having a good time,’ his father said.

Conspiracy theories about Balaji’s death started almost immediately after it became public in news reports on December 13.

Social media provocateurs and true crime buffs quickly began sharing and debating the story, declaring that the AI industry had him killed.

The online avalanche became so intense that it reached the attention of Altman’s arch-nemesis Elon Musk.

‘This doesn’t seem like a suicide,’ he wrote when reposting one of Ramarao’s tweets, and also shared other articles and posts about the case with comments like ‘hmm’ and ‘concerning’.

Musk has had a longstanding feud with OpenAI and Altman since they refused his offer to buy them out in 2018.