Late yesterday, the New York Times reported that David Goldberg, SurveyMonkey CEO and late husband of Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, had been killed after he slipped on a Four Seasons treadmill in Mexico. That’s a strange way to go—but even stranger is that the resort is now denying it.

The Times report cited an anonymous Mexican state prosecutor, who specified the resort where Goldberg died (the Four Seasons Resort in Punta Mita), along with other details:

Mr. Goldberg left his room around 4 p.m. on Friday, collapsed while exercising and died of head trauma and blood loss, said the spokesman. His brother, Robert Goldberg, found him on the floor of a gym at around 7 p.m., with blood around him. The spokesman said it appeared “he fell off the treadmill and cracked his head open.”

But a Reuters article on Goldberg’s death includes a denial from this resort:

The Four Seasons hotel at Punta Mita denied the reports.

The general manager at the Four Seasons said that Goldberg had not been a guest and that the accident had not taken place at the Four Seasons.

An AP report echoes Reuters:

The Four Seasons, however, issued a statement saying the incident did not happen on any of its properties and that David Goldberg was not registered as a guest in any of the resort’s rooms, villas or residences.

It’s of course possible that this chain of super-luxe hotels and resorts wants to distance itself from a high-profile death involving its gym equipment, but to state outright that Goldberg was never even staying there is bizarre. Then again, so is not listing any cause in a high-profile death to begin with.

Update: The Times added this to their article from yesterday:

Correction: May 5, 2015

An earlier version of this article misstated Mr. Goldberg’s location at the time of his death. He was at a private villa near the Four Seasons Resort, not at the Four Seasons itself

Photo: Getty

Contact the author at biddle@gawker.com.
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