Brandenn Bremmer taught himself to read at 18 months and was composing complex music by age 13.
On March 16, 2005, he shot himself in the head at his family home in southwest Nebraska.
Brandenn had completed high school at age 10 and was taking classes at Colorado State University, where he'd been studying since age 11.
He had an IQ of 178 and was home-schooled through high school, completing his junior and senior years in seven months.
The Brilliant Young Musician
In 2004, Brandenn composed his debut album 'Elements' and toured Nebraska and Colorado to promote it.
David Wohl, one of his professors at Colorado State, remembered Brandenn as an unpretentious young man with an easy smile.
"He wasn't just talented, he was just a really nice young man," Wohl told CBS News.
Signs of Struggle
Despite his achievements, Brandenn had been struggling with depression that was becoming constant.
In emails to a peer, he wrote "I don't know why I'm so depressed, before it was just every now and then... But now it's constant and it's just, 'What's the point of living anymore?'"
His sister and girlfriend later mentioned phone conversations where Brandenn admitted to pervasive boredom and listlessness.
Final Act of Generosity
Professor David Wohl said he was shocked to learn of Brandenn's apparent suicide.
After his death, Brandenn's kidneys went to two people, his liver to a 22-month old and his heart to an 11-year-old boy.
The only records of his final state of mind remain in those emails to distant peers, where depression was the single revealing factor before a 14-year-old prodigy decided he had seen enough.