25-year-old Sun Danyong committed suicide last week after a fourth-generation iPhone prototype that he was responsible for turned up missing.

A recent engineering graduate, Sun had landed a job handling product communications for the electronics manufacturing company, Foxconn in Shenzhen. He was charged with shipping iPhone prototypes from Foxconn to Apple.

According to reports coming out of China, Sun got 16 prototypes from the assembly line at a local Foxconn factory on July 9th. At some point over the course of the next few days, he discovered that one of the phones was missing and suspected that it was left at the factory. However, he was unable to find it. On Monday, July 13, Sun reported the missing phone to his boss, and then on Wednesday three Foxconn employees illegally searched his apartment. They have also been accused of detaining and physically abusing Sun during the investigation, but this has not yet been substantiated. Surveillance videos in Sun's apartment building showed that on Thursday just after 3am, he jumped out of a window in his apartment building to his death.

Foxconn, which is based out of Taiwan with factories throughout Asia, makes Apple's iPhones and iPods, as well as numerous other hardware devices for other international technology companies.

Every move Apple makes is documented in the press and online on various websites. There are entire blogs dedicated to following the latest Apple rumors and speculation. Because of the way Apple works - relying on the element of surprise to build up excitement for product launches - there is immense pressure on its business partners to help it maintain secrecy. Until now, the missing phone has been merely speculation on gadget sites.

A leak of the next generation of the iPhone could irreparably harm Foxconn's business relationship with Apple. So it is understandable why the company would go to great lengths to prevent such a leak from happening, although it is unfortunate that they had to resort to the alleged illegal searches and other tactics used, which resulted in the death of one of its workers.