Terril Johnson, a 77-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran, drove six hours from Los Angeles this spring to see his gymnast granddaughter graduate from San Jose State University, but a lawsuit by his family claims he died in a San Jose hotel, “effectively boiled alive” in a hot shower.

“He died the night before the graduation,” said his son Terril Johnson II, of Riverside. Johnson had been “ecstatic” at the prospect of seeing his granddaughter Trinity Johnson receive her management degree, his son said.

The elder Johnson’s grandson, Deshun Johnson, found him lying partially submerged and unresponsive in the bathtub of the shower at the Fairfield Inn & Suites beside Mineta San Jose International Airport on May 22, with superheated water still running, according to the lawsuit filed last week

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