Found Deceased Chile - Tom Marsh 60, Uk National, University Professor missing from a research trip, 16 September 2022

[WingsOverTX]

But

Facilities​

Currently, our facilities include two well-implemented libraries (the leisure and the scientific library), two conference rooms, an astronomy lounge, a learning laboratory, a cinema room, a clubhouse, and a gymnasium. Regarding lodging, we have a total of 172 dorms for all the staff, besides 14 hotel rooms, which are mostly used for astronomers and visitors.

Taken from the official La Silla Telescope website:

ESO - About La Silla

ESO is the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere. It operates the La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile and has its headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany.

www.eso.org

There are only 14 hotel rooms for visitors there, so would be housed close-by each other. They're all in same block, a bit like a small motel.

There is a little road that leads to the clubhouse and gymnasium which are a short walk away.

I wonder which observatory/telescope he and the student were using & how close to their rooms. I would also be curious about any hiking trails into the desert close by to where they were staying.

 

[annpats]

I wonder which observatory/telescope he and the student were using & how close to their rooms. I would also be curious about any hiking trails into the desert close by to where they were staying.

It was reported earlier in this thread the Professor does like walking and may have gone on one of the paths around the mountain. He could also have gone exploring off it.
But after dinner, say it was at 6pm, he would have only had 2 hours of daylight left.

Of course it's hard to say how far and in which direction he went, and the landscape is vast, so the Chilean authorities certainly have their work cut out.

Even with drones it can be hard to spot someone in that terrain, as we know from previous cases here at Websleuths. The professor was also wearing a navy jacket too, which wouldn't help the search.

Let's hope he is found soon, although I do think it'll be a recovery and not a rescue.

 

[charminglane]

I am intrigued by the emails Tom had supposedly sent to his wife and also to someone who was working at the site. They are said to be 'confusing', it would be really interesting to hear what his wife made of the email.

Would the emails confirm that Tom was in some sort of confused state? I wonder exactly when these emails were sent, were they mailed before or after Tom was last seen?

Was it Tom that even sent them?
Someone using his devices with auto login?

 

[annpats]

However, in the statement, the young student notes that "I remember that Thursday at about 7:00 PM after dinner we went to our bedrooms where Thomas told me something very strange to me, saying loudly: 'I'M NOT CONTENT WITH WHAT YOU DO, YOU HAVE NO INTEREST IN ASTRONOMY, PHYSICS OR SCIENCE, THAT PISSES ME OFF, IT WAS BY CHANCE, LET'S CONTINUE TOMORROW'.

All this was said to me by Thomas crying, locking himself in his bedroom, and I was terribly surprised", says the student in his statement.

Wow, it sounds like Prof. Thomas is experiencing some sort of mental health crisis...??

After dinner at 7pm, this was said, then he went to his room crying, and by 8pm it would have been dark.

I think he may have gone off by himself at night.

I also suspect the dropped keys may be his way of abandoning them as if he wouldn't need them anymore before he went off.

Either that or he dropped them and couldn't see to pick them up as it was dark, but there would surely be lights on the path between the guesthouse and telescope house?

 

[charminglane]

We don't know if the student's story is true, that Tom was crying.
We don't know if it was Tom sending the emails.
We don't know when they were sent. Or from what device.

 

[WiseOwl]

Wow, it sounds like Prof. Thomas is experiencing some sort of mental health crisis...??

After dinner at 7pm, this was said, then he went to his room crying, and by 8pm it would have been dark.

I think he may have gone off by himself at night.

I also suspect the dropped keys may be his way of abandoning them as if he wouldn't need them anymore before he went off.

Either that or he dropped them and couldn't see to pick them up as it was dark, but there would surely be lights on the path between the guesthouse and telescope house?

This is only the student's version of events.

The police have neither confirmed or denied his story as of yet.

 

[annpats]

This is only the student's version of events.

The police have neither confirmed or denied his story as of yet.

But if course that's all you have with any witness accounts when only 1 other person was involved.

The police said he was free to go back to the UK, and he wasn't arrested, so they must think it's legitimate.

I will take the student's account of what happened at face value. I've no reason to suspect him personally.

MOO.

 

[savagewoman]

But if course that's all you have with any witness accounts when only 1 other person was involved.

The police said he was free to go back to the UK, and he wasn't arrested, so they must think it's legitimate.

I will take the student's account of what happened at face value. I've no reason to suspect him personally.

MOO.

IMO I was trying to put myself in the student's shoes. He was selected for the trip of a lifetime and plan the trip since May. He depended on the professor since he was a student and working his project. I assume the student is passionate about his grad studies... so it would really make me mad if someone accused me of having no passion for something I want do for a career. Also being a young adult being told this and having your professor cry about it would be so strange snd shocking and he probably didn't know how to handle this situation.
It did sound that he told people what happened and that he couldn't find him. I'm not sure what more he could have done.

 

[annpats]

Police confirmed Mr Marsh had travelled to northern Chile accompanied by a student on flights that took them via Paris, Buenos Aires and Santiago....

...and after arriving in Santiago, they then had to get to La Silla.

That's one heck of a convoluted flight routing. A lot of London to Santiago flights have a change in Madrid or Miami.

It's a 1 hour 15 flight from London to Paris, a 13 hour 25 min flight from Paris to Buenos Aires and a 2 hr 30 min flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago.
That's not including time spent at the airports before all the flights.
It's almost 17 hours of FLIGHT time, not including anything else, which would probably add up to nearly 24 hours by the time they landed in Santiago.

Whether they rested at a hotel before going on to La Silla, I don't know.

But the professor is 6ft 3 inches and that's a long time for a tall man to be cramped in a plane seat.

I wonder if he had a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) caused by the long flight?
It's when a blood clot forms and can get stuck inside a deep vein, and cause death.

Or maybe some other medical incident?

Although what he said to the student out of the blue, and how he went crying into his room sound more like a mental affliction.....

MOO.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I will take the student's account of what happened at face value. I've no reason to suspect him personally.

I agree with you; IMO the student is being honest. A medical condition/episode is plausible. This could have been the first time symptoms really showed. A sad and unfair situation for everyone involved, if this is the case.

 

[5W's]

Answered in this post RSBBM:

My question is if Tom was saying these things out of the blue without any merit then why was it not looked into. I suppose to a certain extent I can see the student may have been uncomfortable to say something to Tom's superiors, but still. IMO Tom may have been calmed down if really looked into his confusing statements. I agree emails can be hijacked. But what concerns me is there were three people Tom made confusing statement to so it should have been looked into. IDK maybe his wife thought he was having a bad day and took it in that context. If he was as confused as he appeared to be could he really make it to a number of locaions? And where were these locations and most concerning why is he not at one of them meaning found?

 

[5W's]

The professor didn't appear for breakfast or lunch the next day, so I wonder if he went out for a stroll to clear his head the evening before after dinner.... it would've been light until nearly 8pm there.

I also wonder if the 'confusing emails' could've been a sign of dehydration or something more severe like a TIA or mini-stroke. The flights getting there seemed pretty gruelling.....

I wonder if the argument was just a difference of opinion on research and nothing more than that?

Perhaps more is being made of it than should be? After all, the student was honest and told the police about it.

Actually its quite concerning because Tom disparaged the student competely. IMO Tom could have gently enouraged the student to find out if something was going on with the student instead of speaking the way he did. IMO this is not normal of Tom to behave in such a manner afterall he is a well respected astronomer with many years of doing work like this and he must have come across others in all his years who perhaps were in his opinion not particiapting or fully 100% giving attention to the work at hand. As far as we know he never spoke to them like that, so he must have tried to encourage better or accepted that the person is how they are and let it go or reported it if it was really less than acceptable.

 

[annpats]

Actually its quite concerning because Tom disparaged the student competely. IMO Tom could have gently enouraged the student to find out if something was going on with the student instead of speaking the way he did. IMO this is not normal of Tom to behave in such a manner afterall he is a well respected astronomer with many years of doing work like this and he must have come across others in all his years who perhaps were in his opinion not particiapting or fully 100% giving attention to the work at hand. As far as we know he never spoke to them like that, so he must have tried to encourage better or accepted that the person is how they are and let it go or reported it if it was really less than acceptable.

Yes agree.

Also, the student was a PhD student, and you don't get as far as studying for a doctorate of astrophysics by chance. You'd have to really excel at the sciences, and also be willing to stump up or front huge loans to get you that far into university.

The University of Warwickshire is an excellent British university, and they would only accept people who were serious and who had already studied astrophysics at Bachelor or Masters level.
Also for a doctorate you have to submit a planned outline of research and write original research papers, so I doubt the student wasn't serious enough! It's a very bizarre thing for the professor to say.

The fact the student himself was chosen would indicate what a good academic record he has.

I still do think Professor Tom has some sort of a mental break, and I think the strain of at least 3 flights (one of them alone being over 13 hours!) just 2 days prior may have triggered excess fatigue and/or severe dehydration - which in turn triggered some other stress/mental episode.

MOO.

 

[5W's]

Yes agree.

Also, the student was a PhD student, and you don't get as far as studying for a doctorate of astrophysics by chance. You'd have to really excel at the sciences, and also be willing to stump up or front huge loans to get you that far into university.

The University of Warwickshire is an excellent British university, and they would only accept people who were serious and who had already studied astrophysics at Bachelor or Masters level.
Also for a doctorate you have to submit a planned outline of research and write original research papers, so I doubt the student wasn't serious enough! It's a very bizarre thing for the professor to say.

The fact the student himself was chosen would indicate what a good academic record he has.

I still do think Professor Tom has some sort of a mental break, and I think the strain of at least 3 flights (one of them alone being over 13 hours!) just 2 days prior may have triggered excess fatigue and/or severe dehydration - which in turn triggered some other stress/mental episode.

MOO.

I agree with you fully, its a long haul with that travel time and the the time difference as well. But, how far would he get though if he was exhausted as this. IDK
IMO I don't think he would get far. So they should have found him by now.

 

[Quim The Extraordinaire]

My question is if Tom was saying these things out of the blue without any merit then why was it not looked into. I suppose to a certain extent I can see the student may have been uncomfortable to say something to Tom's superiors, but still. IMO Tom may have been calmed down if really looked into his confusing statements. I agree emails can be hijacked. But what concerns me is there were three people Tom made confusing statement to so it should have been looked into. IDK maybe his wife thought he was having a bad day and took it in that context. If he was as confused as he appeared to be could he really make it to a number of locaions? And where were these locations and most concerning why is he not at one of them meaning found?

There’s a 4-5 hour time difference between La Silla and the UK.

The last time Tom was seen was the night of the 15th at about 7:00 pm when the student says Tom made the distressing statements and then began crying and went to his bedroom. The student did apparently communicate with a friend following the exchange and also reported Tom missing the next evening. Given their last exchange, I can understand that the student waited until Tom didn’t show for their second meal before reporting him missing.

In Post 82, an MSM article states that an observatory worker and Tom’s wife both received “confusing” emails. I don’t see the timing of those emails reported. If he did send them the evening of the 15th, they may have been received by his wife late at night (say midnight) on the morning of the 16th.

Since Tom did not appear for breakfast in La Silla on the 16th, he seems to have disappeared between 7 pm the 15th and breakfast time the 16th. His wife may not have had the chance to look into it, since he may have went missing before she read the email.

Who knows what the schedule of the observatory worker was or how they interpreted the email? They may have assumed Tom would clarify in person, but then Tom went missing.

 

[WingsOverTX]

There’s a 4-5 hour time difference between La Silla and the UK.

The last time Tom was seen was the night of the 15th at about 7:00 pm when the student says Tom made the distressing statements and then began crying and went to his bedroom. The student did apparently communicate with a friend following the exchange and also reported Tom missing the next evening. Given their last exchange, I can understand that the student waited until Tom didn’t show for their second meal before reporting him missing.

In Post 82, an MSM article states that an observatory worker and Tom’s wife both received “confusing” emails. I don’t see the timing of those emails reported. If he did send them the evening of the 15th, they may have been received by his wife late at night (say midnight) on the morning of the 16th.

Since Tom did not appear for breakfast in La Silla on the 16th, he seems to have disappeared between 7 pm the 15th and breakfast time the 16th. His wife may not have had the chance to look into it, since he may have went missing before she read the email.

Who knows what the schedule of the observatory worker was or how they interpreted the email? They may have assumed Tom would clarify in person, but then Tom went missing.

BBM
I think your timeline is spot on. Surely they have some kind of video surveillance that led them to search trails offsite? Too much time has passed to expect him to be found alive, I think. How long will the search continue?

I hope answers will come sooner rather than later. To disappear mysteriously so far from home in such a remote & daunting environment is very concerning. I am not seeing any updates on Facebook, just continued sharing of his daughter's plea for help.

It would be great to hear an update from Tom's family.

 

[WiseOwl]

BBM
I think your timeline is spot on. Surely they have some kind of video surveillance that led them to search trails offsite? Too much time has passed to expect him to be found alive, I think. How long will the search continue?

I hope answers will come sooner rather than later. To disappear mysteriously so far from home in such a remote & daunting environment is very concerning. I am not seeing any updates on Facebook, just continued sharing of his daughter's plea for help.

It would be great to hear an update from Tom's family.

I too am surprised that no video footage of Tom around the site has emerged. Even if he left for a walk when it was dark, surely some CCTV would have picked him up?

He's been missing for over 3 weeks now, extremely worrying that there is no sight or sound of him.

 

[realanastasia]

Tom Marsh has been missing for one month. No signs of progress in the investigation have been reported, as faras I know. My thoughts are with his family, for whom this must be terribly difficult.

Un mes sin Tom Marsh: Los antecedentes de una búsqueda sin éxito en La Silla

El 15 de septiembre el astrónomo tuvo una conversación con el estudiante que lo acompañaba en su viaje a Chile, antes de desaparecer en terrenos del Observatorio La Silla. Despliegue se mantiene para rastrear al zona, incorporando material logístico para mejorar el acceso a sitios importantes.

www.diarioeldia.cl

“In conversation with El Día on Friday afternoon, Colonel Felipe Retamal, commander of No. 21 Coquimbo Regiment, in charge of the deployment carried out by the army on the grounds of La Silla, indicated that "unfortunately, there have been no news regarding the search."

"Yes, work has continued to be recorded and done, in some places appointed by the regional prosecutor, who is guiding the places to be visited with the search," he added.

Retamal confirms that the deployed contingent has been maintained and the work has been reinforced with technical material and other logistical elements, "which allow, for example, the patrol to access some sites or even, if necessary, to spend the night in the field."

The commander maintains that all the tasks have been recorded and documented, in order to be able to limit the site of interest according to the provisions of the persecutor, as well as the analysis of everything that is done daily over an area of approximately 200 square kilometers.

[…]
One of the information, which was investigated by El Día, is that the astronomer had had an argument with the student, who is a witness. This background was expanded by T13, which revealed the content of the statement that the young man gave to the Prosecutor's Office, in which he maintained that Tom Marsh reproached him in strange terms for his alleged disinterest in science, which affected the thesis.

In the same way, it was known from emails, also described as "foreign" that the astronomer allegedly sent to an observatory worker and his wife, Felicity Marsh.

As for the student's statement, the regional prosecutor, Adrián Vega, described the incident with the scientist as "a conversation between professionals," who do not qualify for the Public Prosecutor's Office as a precedent that makes theses of the disappearance presume.”

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I did a search yesterday and found a spanish language article.
Here is the translated version.

tusresiduos.com

We present the latest news

tusresiduos-com.translate.goog

A month without Tom Marsh: the background of a failed search in La Silla | National​

 

[5W's]

I did a search yesterday and found a spanish language article.
Here is the translated version.

tusresiduos.com

We present the latest news

tusresiduos-com.translate.goog

A month without Tom Marsh: the background of a failed search in La Silla | National​

They've searched 200 square km's with no sign of him. I wonder if they'll report what the substances they were testing would be. They had a couple of sites of "hits" that he was there if I read the article correctly as reported by Vega to the media. Tom could not have travelled 200 square km's, obviously by foot. So? If he walked to the town and disappeared there it would be noticed, I'm sure. Afterall this is a world class facility so I'm assuming foriegners come here all the time so the town would be suited to different ethnicities and would have to have amenities that would aid these visitors. I'm thinking a modern town with modern amenities. For him to be unnoticed in the town IDK.