Washington Post reporter Darran Simon found dead in apartment

The Post announced Simon's passing in a newsroom memo sent to staff on Friday

Apr 10, 2020

Journalist Darran Simon was reportedly found dead inside his apartment on Thursday, according to a newsroom memo sent out to The Washington Post staff.

“To our newsroom colleagues, We are deeply saddened to report that yesterday, Darran Simon was found dead in his apartment,” read the Friday memo obtained by The Washingtonian.

Simon, 43, had just joined the Post’s roster in March to cover government and politics. A D.C. medical examiner’s office said a determination of his cause of death is pending further tests, The Post reported.

Sarah Glover, Simon’s former colleague, mourned his shocking death in a Facebook post on Friday.

“Another unspeakable and unimaginable loss… Saddened to hear of Darran Simon’s passing. Darran was a former Inquirer (South Jersey) colleague,” Glover wrote along with photo Simon.

“Words to describe him: sweet and kind. Gone too soon. May God bless his soul, his family and everyone who loved him. These times we are living in are so uncertain. Live for every moment you are blessed with.”

Prior to the Post, Simon worked at CNN as a senior news writer and online anchor, and held reporting positions at the Miami Herald and the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, according to a Post report announcing Simon’s hire in January.

Simon covered a plethora of frontpage headlines including Kobe Bryant‘s helicopter crash and Trump’s impeachment hearings. He also penned a “series of accountability stories” about school rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina during his time in New Orleans.

“I am drawn to writing about suffering and trauma,” Simon once said, according to the Post, “because I am in awe of the human spirit’s ability to persevere.”

He earned his bachelor’s in history from the University of Rhode Island and his master’s in journalism from Northwestern.

Simon was born in London, and raised in Guyana, New York and New Jersey.