The examiner’s office released a statement Thursday, confirming Vandergrift’s death, but it offered no further comment, including the cause of death. Vandergrift was 55.
The San Francisco chief medical examiner will conduct an official investigation into Vandergrift’s death, according to the examiner’s office. There was “no evidence of foul play,” the San Francisco Police Department said in a statement.
San Francisco police originally reported Vandergrift missing on Feb. 24, with his last known whereabouts at his residence in the city’s South of Market neighborhood at 10 p.m. the previous day.
Vandergrift, known as JV, co-hosted “The JV Show” morning program with his wife, model Natasha Yi, on the KYLD Wild 94.9 FM radio station in the Bay Area. The duo owned a production company in which they wrote, produced and edited short films, commercials, music videos and a YouTube series, according to the show’s bio on the radio station website.
The station confirmed Vandergrift’s death on Twitter.
“We are devastated to know now that JV is gone,” the station’s statement said. “Please keep his wife Natasha, his family, and close friends in your thoughts and prayers.”
On March 1, Yi issued a message to their morning show fans on social media, saying that she did not suspect foul play in her husband’s disappearance.
“I have been in so much pain and fear and I know all of you have been so scared and concerned for JV as well,” she wrote on the station’s Twitter account.
“I want to let you know that personal information has recently been discovered that leads us to believe JV will not be coming back. I tell you this with incredible pain and sadness in my heart,” she added.
On Sept. 22, Vandergrift shared a Facebook post entitled “Lyme & Suicide” and chronicled his struggles with the bacterial disease. He referred to battling Lyme disease as a “daily torture” and said that he had multiple infections.
“The physical symptoms are brutal, however once these microbes cross the blood-brain barrier, what it does to the brain cannot really be put into words,” Vandergrift wrote.
Vandergrift, who grew up in Fremont, fell in love with radio as a junior at Fremont High School and dreamed about hosting his own show, according to his bio on Wild 94.9.