Phillip A. Galczynski Jr. was 35 when he died on December 5, 2010, at Barnes-Jewish Medical Center in St. Louis. A St. Louis native living in Herculaneum, he worked as a tile installer and was survived by children, brothers, and grandparents; family members were with him when he died.

Official listings in Missouri crime databases later classified his death as Death by Force or Murder, but contemporaneous accounts available do not describe the specific events—such as a shooting or assault—that led to his hospitalization and death. No arrests or suspects have been publicly reported, and there is no documented trial or conviction connected to his death in the materials reviewed.