A family conflict that had already stretched through divorce proceedings, custody disagreements and competing allegations of abuse ended in tragedy on September 26, 2026, when Jonathan McKinsey, the 40-year-old director of engineering for New York Times Games, was found fatally shot in the parking lot of Dublin Sports Grounds in Dublin, California.
Police said McKinsey had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Witnesses helped officers locate two suspects within minutes: McKinsey’s parents-in-law, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77. They were arrested in connection with the killing. Investigators had not publicly announced a motive as of September 29. CBS News
But as investigators work to establish exactly what happened, another piece of McKinsey’s story has resurfaced — a simple message his father reportedly left for him less than three weeks before his death.
Its final words were about Jonathan’s wife and children.
A Career Built Around Technology and Teaching
Long before his name appeared in crime headlines, McKinsey had built an extensive career in technology.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Georgia Tech and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. His career included positions at Oracle, Coursera, UKG and Splunk before he joined The New York Times in January 2023. He eventually became director of engineering for New York Times Games. San Francisco Chronicle
Education remained important to him as well. According to his professional profile, McKinsey taught and managed computer-science courses part-time at Berkeley and Georgia Tech. San Francisco Chronicle
Away from work, he was also a father of three.
One older LinkedIn post offered a glimpse into how deeply family intersected with the way he viewed the world. After the 2021 Atlanta-area spa shootings, McKinsey wrote about race in America and revealed that he and his wife had recently welcomed a daughter.
He recalled watching people of different backgrounds rush to help when his newborn daughter was not breathing, using the frightening experience as part of a broader message about overcoming racial divisions. ondoho.com
His Final Year Was Far More Complicated
Behind those family memories, however, McKinsey’s final year involved a deeply contentious marital and legal dispute.
McKinsey and his estranged wife, Candice Jang, were divorcing and disputing custody of their children. Court records reviewed by multiple news organizations show that both made serious allegations against the other. ABC News
Jang obtained a domestic-violence protection order in October 2025 after McKinsey was accused of striking one of their children. Prosecutors charged McKinsey with two misdemeanor counts of child abuse. He pleaded not guilty, and the criminal case had not been resolved when he died. San Francisco Chronicle
McKinsey, meanwhile, filed his own restraining-order request and denied the allegations against him. He accused Jang and her parents of years of mistreatment, including abuse connected to his identity as a transgender man. Jang denied his allegations in court filings. San Francisco Chronicle
Those accusations remain allegations, and authorities have not established publicly that the divorce, custody dispute, McKinsey’s gender identity, or any of the competing abuse claims motivated his killing. ABC News
One of His Last Photos Now Looks Different
On September 8 — just 18 days before he was killed — a Facebook account bearing McKinsey’s name reportedly changed its profile picture.
The photograph showed him smiling.
Underneath it appeared a message identified in reports as coming from his father, William Finney II.
It began simply, with a father hoping his son was doing well and would find time to visit. He told Jonathan that his parents loved him and missed him.
Then came the line that now stands out:
“Hope everything goes well with you and Candice and the kids.”
The complete message was affectionate rather than ominous when it was written. But less than three weeks later, McKinsey was dead. ondoho.com
A Saturday Afternoon Ends in Gunfire
Shortly after 3 p.m. on September 26, a police sergeant traveling near Dublin Sports Grounds noticed a person lying in the parking lot just as emergency dispatchers began receiving 911 calls.
The victim was McKinsey.
Witness Assad Razawi told the San Francisco Chronicle that he heard several gunshots and saw McKinsey fall. He then saw a man and woman he believed were involved walking away from the scene. San Francisco Chronicle
Police subsequently arrested Zhang and Chen nearby.
Authorities initially arrested the pair on suspicion of murder and other offenses, and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office was reviewing the investigation. San Francisco Chronicle
The circumstances made the location particularly unsettling: Dublin Sports Grounds is a community park containing playing fields and a playground, and the shooting occurred during the afternoon. San Francisco Chronicle
The Children Left in the Middle
Perhaps the most difficult element of the story is that three children were already at the center of the family’s unresolved custody dispute.
Court records portray an exceptionally complicated situation, with allegations coming from both parents. McKinsey faced criminal allegations that he denied, while he in turn accused his estranged wife and her parents of abusive behavior. Us
None of those unresolved disputes should be treated as an established explanation for his killing.
Police had not publicly identified a motive, and McKinsey’s estranged wife had not been charged in connection with his death in the latest reporting reviewed for this article. ABC News
That uncertainty is important because the legal proceedings that might have tested some of the allegations will now never unfold in quite the way they otherwise would have.
A Father’s Words Become a Final Family Memory
There is something painfully ordinary about the message McKinsey’s father left beneath his photograph.
There was no prediction of what was coming. No dramatic farewell.
Just parents saying they loved and missed their son, asking him to visit when he had time and hoping that things would work out for him, Candice and the children.
Eighteen days later, Jonathan McKinsey was dead.
Now the investigation into his killing continues, while his three children and extended family face the aftermath of a tragedy layered on top of an already difficult family history.
And among the rare photos and personal posts that have resurfaced since his death, that final exchange between a father and his son may be one of the most haunting — precisely because, when it was written, it was simply a parent hoping his family would somehow be okay. ondoho.com
