globeandmail.ca
Scientists' deaths are under the microscope
By ALANNA MITCHELL, SIMON COOPER AND CAROLYN ABRAHAM
COMPILED BY ALANNA MITCHELL
Saturday, May 4, 2002
– Page A1
It's a tale only the best
conspiracy theorist
could dream up.
Eleven microbiologists
mysteriously dead over
the span of just five
months. Some of them
world leaders in
developing
weapons-grade
biological plagues.
Others the best in
figuring out how to
stop millions from
dying because of
biological weapons.
Still others, experts in the theory of bioterrorism.
Throw in a few Russian defectors, a few nervy U.S. biotech companies, a
deranged assassin or two, a bit of Elvis, a couple of Satanists, a subtle hint
of espionage, a big whack of imagination, and the plot is complete, if a bit
reminiscent of James Bond.
The first three died in the space of just over a week in November. Benito
Que, 52, was an expert in infectious diseases and cellular biology at the
Miami Medical School. Police originally suspected that he had been beaten
on Nov. 12 in a carjacking in the medical school's parking lot. Strangely
enough, though, his body showed no signs of a beating. Doctors then began
to suspect a stroke.
Just four days after Dr. Que fell unconscious came the mysterious
disappearance of Don Wiley, 57, one of the foremost microbiologists in the
United States. Dr. Wiley, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at
Harvard University, was an expert on how the immune system responds to
viral attacks such as the classic doomsday plagues of HIV, ebola and
influenza.
He had just bought tickets to take his son to Graceland the following day.
Police found his rental car on a bridge outside Memphis, Tenn. His body
was later found in the Mississippi River. Forensic experts said he may have
had a dizzy spell and have fallen off the bridge.
Just five days after that, the world-class microbiologist and high-profile
Russian defector Valdimir Pasechnik, 64, fell dead. The pathologist who did
the autopsy, and who also happened to be associated with Britain's spy
agency, concluded he died of a stroke.
Dr. Pasechnik, who defected to the United Kingdom in 1989, played a huge
role in Russian biowarfare and helped to figure out how to modify cruise
missiles to deliver the agents of mass biological destruction.
The next two deaths came four days apart in December. Robert Schwartz,
57, was stabbed and slashed with what police believe was a sword in his
farmhouse in Leesberg, Va. His daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan
high priestess, and several of her fellow pagans have been charged.
Dr. Schwartz was an expert in DNA sequencing and pathogenic
micro-organisms, who worked at the Center for Innovative Technology in
Herndon, Va.
Four days later, Nguyen Van Set, 44, died at work in Geelong, Australia, in
a laboratory accident. He entered an airlocked storage lab and died from
exposure to nitrogen. Other scientists at the animal diseases facility of the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization had just
come to fame for discovering a virulent strain of mousepox, which could be
modified to affect smallpox.
Then in February, the Russian microbiologist Victor Korshunov, 56, an
expert in intestinal bacteria of children around the world, was bashed over
the head near his home in Moscow. Five days later the British microbiologist
Ian Langford, 40, was found dead in his home near Norwich, England,
naked from the waist down and wedged under a chair. He was an expert in
environmental risks and disease.
Two weeks later, two prominent microbiologists died in San Francisco.
Tanya Holzmayer, 46, a Russian who moved to the U.S. in 1989, focused
on the part of the human molecular structure that could be affected best by
medicine.
She was killed by fellow microbiologist Guyang (Matthew) Huang, 38, who
shot her seven times when she opened the door to a pizza delivery. Then he
shot himself.
The final two deaths came one day after the other in March. David
Wynn-Williams, 55, a respected astrobiologist with the British Antarctic
Survey, who studied the habits of microbes that might survive in outer
space, died in a freak road accident near his home in Cambridge, England.
He was hit by a car while he was jogging.
The following day, Steven Mostow, 63, known as Dr. Flu for his expertise
in treating influenza, and a noted expert in bioterrorism, died when the
airplane he was piloting crashed near Denver.
So what does any of it mean?
"Statistically, what are the chances?" wondered a prominent North
American microbiologist reached last night at an international meeting of
infectious-disease specialists in Chicago.
Janet Shoemaker, director of public and scientific affairs of the American
Society for Microbiology in Washington, D.C., pointed out yesterday that
there are about 20,000 academic researchers in microbiology in the U.S.
Still, not all of these are of the elevated calibre of those recently deceased.
She had a chilling, final thought. When microbiologists die in a lab, there's a
way of taking note of the deaths and adding them up. When they die in
freakish accidents outside the lab, nobody keeps track.
Suspicious deaths
The sudden and suspicious deaths of 11 of the world's leading
microbiologists.
Who they were:
1. Nov. 12, 2001:
Benito Que was said to have been beaten in a Miami parking lot and died
later.
2. Nov. 16, 2001:
Don C. Wiley went missing. Was found Dec. 20. Investigators said he got
dizzy on a Memphis bridge and fell to his death in a river.
3. Nov. 21, 2001:
Vladimir Pasechnik, former high-level Russian microbiologist who defected
in 1989 to the U.K. apparently died from a stroke.
4. Dec. 10, 2001:
Robert M. Schwartz was stabbed to death in Leesberg, Va. Three Satanists
have been arrested.
5. Dec. 14, 2001:
Nguyen Van Set died in an airlock filled with nitrogen in his lab in Geelong,
Australia.
6. Feb. 9, 2002:
Victor Korshunov had his head bashed in near his home in Moscow.
7. Feb. 14, 2002:
Ian Langford was found partially naked and wedged under a chair in
Norwich, England.
8. 9. Feb. 28, 2002:
San Francisco resident Tanya Holzmayer was killed by a microbiologist
colleague, Guyang Huang, who shot her as she took delivery of a pizza and
then apparently shot himself.
10. March 24, 2002:
David Wynn-Williams died in a road accident near his home in Cambridge,
England.
11. March 25, 2002:
Steven Mostow of the Colorado Health Sciences Centre, killed in a plane
he was flying near Denver. |
