Caltech Scientist Found Fatally Shot at Antelope Valley Home

[Carl Grillmair. Courtesy of Caltech]

A research scientist at the California Institute of Technology who spent decades studying the structure of the Milky Way was shot and killed Monday morning at his home in the Antelope Valley, authorities said.

Carl Grillmair, 67, worked at Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center in Pasadena, where his research using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope focused on galactic structure, dark matter, and stellar populations. Deputies found him on the front porch of his Llano home with a gunshot wound to the torso shortly after 6 a.m. Monday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner identified Grillmair on Tuesday and ruled his death a homicide.

The shooting was reported at approximately 6:10 a.m. on the 30700 block of 165th Street East in Llano, a rural desert community in unincorporated Los Angeles County. Deputies from the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station responded to a 911 call reporting an assault with a deadly weapon, the sheriff’s department said.

While investigating the shooting, deputies also responded to a carjacking call in the same area, according to an LASD statement. The suspect, 29-year-old Freddy Snyder, was initially detained and later arrested on suspicion of murder, carjacking and burglary, according to the sheriff’s department, City News Service reported. He was also charged with first-degree burglary related to a separate Dec. 28 incident, according to court records. Snyder was being held on $2 million bail. It is unclear what relation, if any, Snyder had with Grillmair.

Authorities have not disclosed what may have led to the killing. The LASD Homicide Bureau is investigating.

Caltech confirmed Grillmair’s identity Thursday.

“Thank you for your condolences — yes, we can confirm that Carl was employed by Caltech,” Robert Perkins, the institution’s senior media relations manager, said.

Grillmair was known in the astronomy community for discovering stellar streams — faint trails of stars left behind by disrupted star clusters and dwarf galaxies — research that advanced understanding of how the Milky Way formed and evolved, according to colleagues and his institutional biography. His work also contributed to identifying water signatures on planets outside the solar system, colleagues said.

A fellow scientist, Sergio Fajardo-Acosta, called Grillmair a mentor and close friend. “He was a great friend and will be missed dearly,” Fajardo-Acosta told KTLA, adding that Grillmair “takes knowledge with him that will be irreplaceable.”

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the LASD Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tips can be submitted through Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or at lacrimestoppers.org.