A renowned California Institute of Technology (Caltech) scientist who spent decades studying distant planets and other areas of astronomy was shot to death in his home in a rural community outside Los Angeles recently, authorities said.
Carl Grillmire, 67, died Monday of a bullet wound to the torso in Llano, an unincorporated community in the Antelope Valley, according to information from the LA County Medical Examiner’s Office. The county sheriff’s department said the suspect in Grillmeier’s murder has been identified and arrested as 29-year-old Freddie Snyder.
Snyder faces a murder charge in connection with Grillmeier’s death, along with carjacking and robbery charges related to other cases. He was still in custody on Friday.
The Los Angeles Times quoted a Caltech spokesperson as confirming that the university had hired Grillmire as a research scientist. He helped explore the universe as part of Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, a partner for the US space agency NASA, the National Science Foundation and researchers around the world.
Grillmire’s curriculum vitae lists more than four decades of experience in his field, including hundreds of publications, presented papers and abstracts — as well as an Outstanding Scientific Achievement Medal from NASA.
“He was very famous in astronomy and a very famous scientist,” Sergio Fajardo-Acosta, who worked with Grillmire at Caltech for 26 years, told the Times. “His legacy will live on forever.”
Local deputies responded to a 911 call reporting an assault with a deadly weapon at Grillmire’s home just after 6 a.m. Monday, authorities said.
Deputies found Grillmeier shot once on his front porch, they said. Medical officials declared him dead on the spot.
While investigating Grillmire’s murder, deputies reportedly arrested Snyder in connection with a nearby carjacking. According to court records reviewed by the Guardian, authorities charged Snyder with Grillmeier’s murder, the nearby carjacking and the burglary on 28 December.
It was not immediately clear whether Grillmeier was acquainted with Snyder.
Fajardo-Acosta told the Times that Grillmire enjoyed his home in the remoteness of Southern California’s Antelope Valley because it allowed him to easily study the stars at night. He did, as Fajardo-Acosta says, in his own astronomical observatory with various telescopes.
Some reacted to the news of Grillmire’s death, saying he was killed two months after the shooting death of Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Nuno Loureiro in December, which shocked the international science community.
Loureiro and his murder suspect previously attended the same university program in Portugal. Authorities said the suspect died by suicide after shooting two students at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, about 50 miles (80 km) from the suburban Boston home where Loureiro was killed.
