Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) , who was considered one of the brightest young minds in tech activism, hanged himself on Friday night in his Brooklyn apartment. He had been struggling with depression for many years.
There was no apparent suicide note, officials said.
Swartz’s death cast a pall over the tech world and prompted soul-searching questions among policy experts and university officials — not to mention his grieving family and friends.

Swartz’s passing triggered an outpouring of grief from those who knew him well, and the broader technology and Internet community.
Prior to his death, Swartz faced up to 35 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million for the alleged JSTOR downloads. He had pleaded not guilty. His trial was set to begin next month. Several prominent observers, including Lessig, called the potential penalty disproportionate to the alleged crime.

Two days later, on 11 January, Swartz hanged himself with his belt in the Brooklyn apartment he shared with his girlfriend. There was no suicide note. Stinebrickner-Kauffman was the one who found him when she got back from work. He was wearing the same clothes she had seen him in when she left for the office that morning: a V-neck black T-shirt and brown corduroy trousers. He had his coat on. When she called the emergency services, she was screaming so hard that at first they couldn't hear the address.

She says now that it would be too easy to explain away Swartz's suicide by saying he was depressed.

"I've read a lot about depression and it just doesn't sound like Aaron." When she speaks, she chooses her words cautiously. Her face is pale and tense, her eyes tired. Her every gesture seems to carry within it a sadness that is all the more unbearable for being contained.

"He didn't have an absence of joy. He didn't have an absence of human emotion… I think he was in a lot of pain. A lot of it was to do with the case. I don't think he would have killed himself if it weren't for the case, put it that way.

"The thing that I regret is that I didn't know I should be looking for anything… In retrospect, there are clues I could have picked up on and I just didn't know to.

"I think he made a really dumb decision. But I also think I understand how it happened. The biggest problem with the decision is that it's permanent. Other dumb decisions, you can usually recover from. People make mistakes." She breaks off and starts to cry, lowering her head as her shoulders shake. "It hurt me," she says finally, her voice quiet, "but I don't think it was his intention to do so."