Sudden disappearance of Deep River scientist mystifies colleagues

The Canadian Press ^ | February 21, 2010 | Canada East Interactive Staff

[hennie pennie]

TORONTO - There are still no leads in the case of an eastern Ontario scientist who disappeared without a trace last month, leaving his colleagues mystified. Lachlan Cranswick hasn't been seen since Jan. 18, when he left work at the National Research Council's Canadian Neutron Beam Centre in Chalk River, northwest of Ottawa.

His nearby Deep River house was reportedly left unlocked and his car was in the garage. His wallet, keys and passport have all been accounted for......

[Fred Nerks]

yes, it’s possible, sad to say.

[Fred Nerks]

It may not be the same Mariam Abedi, but that’s an Iranian name.

Have you seen this?

http://lachlan.bluehaze.com.au/cranswick_clan/index.html

[hennie pennie]

At WS, they inferred that there are high level investigations going on - by agencies which do not report to the press; however, I think that it is absolutely shameful how NO reportage was done in JANUARY, when it occurred, it's just nuts -- UNLESS those "higher" investigators are aware of precised where Lachlan is.

I'm unsure how much of this thread you've read, or followed, or whatever -- but can you imagine that noone has been able to locate the names of the colleges & universities he attended?

Isn't that absolutely the most peculiar thing you've ever heard?? A genius nuclear scientist, eminent in crystallography, but no one can find where he got his doctorate. Why wouldn't something like that be readily accessible online???

He has a HUGE personal website, but apparently nothing about any alumni organizations.

Well, who knows, maybe on Jan.18th, he decided to don a wig and take a vacation in Dubai....... LOL

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks, I have no theories except that too many of these disappearances go past coincidence.

[hennie pennie]

Yes, I'm familiar with that; there's also a facebook page entiled, something like, "So You're a Cranswick!"

But that genealogical stuff is ancient history, names/dates of the living aren't supposed to be in online genalogies as it super simplifies identity theft.

He only identitfies his two brothers - Noel and Rupert.

Did you check out his brother's website - I believe there's a link to info about his wife, Miriam ---- I want to continue researching BEFORE I spend any time reading any of that, but you might want to check it out.

The most famous Abedi I found on the Internet was a very rich Pakistani who founded the bank BCCI.

I don't understand the Canadian press -- they didn't care about this man gone missing, it's just appalling.

I wonder why Australia - FINALLY - is mentioning it in the press????? It's only been over SIX weeks.

[hennie pennie]

Hi Grampa Dave,

I'm with you, I have no idea what to think, and yes there are way too many of these disappearances and/or deaths among our most highly educated scientific professionals.

Does not make sense.

I hope Cranswick is still alive and that he is found quickly, and safely, in good health.

I think it is absolutely SCANDALOUS that the Canadian press ignored this story, I simply came across it when I posted this thread, and belatedly realized that Cindy had posted one about an hour before me.

When Natalee Holloway disappeared that's ALL the news was for HALF A YEAR.

Here's a genius, at the top of his career -- and NOTHING.

It's just appalling.

[hennie pennie]

http://noelc.tripod.com/

[hennie pennie]

There is a long thread at websleuths about this case, and one of the participants lives in Deep River, Ontario and has been able to fill in a few details not available in the press.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/printthread.php?t=95134&pp=25&page=12

The above link is to page 12.

[Fred Nerks]

Married 18 years, perfectly normal looking family. No clues there.

[hennie pennie]

I'd like to know where and when all his living relatives were born, where they attended colleges/universities, where/when they met their mates, where they are living now, where they lived in the past, and what kinds of foreign travel they enjoy.

Also, I'm curious to learn precisely who is the Edward Cranswick -- the one who is so angry about Pine Gap in Australia which I've seen him refer to as a major outpost of the CIA, and why does he feel so comfortable speaking publically about his displeasure? How many people currently incarnate feel that comfortable ranting publically about the CIA??

how come Lachlan had mentioned to his coworkers that he was taking time off -- and we still don't know SPECIFICALLY how many days of vacation he told them he was taking?? Presumably he planned to arrive home before Jan.23 for the Curling Tournament, but who knows? Maybe he planned to call from his vacation destination and then inform them he'd not be attending the tournament? Maybe he had no travel plans? Why did he choose to take a few days off during the coldest part of the coldest month of the year?

Over at WS this morning a poster remarked that maybe LC was spirited away to protect him -- as opposed to a kidnapping. That certainly appears to be a logical possibility.

Why have the Canadians stated that LC's disappearance is in no way connected with serial rapist/murderer Russell Williams, when the posters at WS very quickly determined that Russell Williams' bio-dad and stepfather both were nuclear scientists at Chalk River, and at some point RW lived in Deep River?????

How about those Chinese scientists whom he publically condemned for a fraudulent journal article, just weeks before his sudden disappearance - what about those blokes?

Why haven't any classmates of his stepped forward asking where their friend is? Why does no alumni association claim this genius for their own????

Perhaps the curling club member who posited that LC may have fallen down, struck his head, became totally disoriented and gone out on the ice was correct??

WHY is his brother Rupert so angry about that extensive search of the surrounding unpopulated forested area, declaring vehementally that LC would NEVER go out & about at night in the winter ----- when obviously Lachlan Cranswick actually, (apparently unbeknownst to his brother,) did so, and did so quite frequently???? Someone at WS picked up on that discrepancy, that his brother swore that LC would NEVER venture out on a winter's night.

Hmmmmmmm. Did he have a "drop box" somewhere, hidden away in the dense woods??? Is that why he always had a GPS with him, along with 2 flashlights and his fanny pack? Or was it because there were multiple one-use-only dropboxes, with locations changed and identified to LC only by coded GPS coordinates? What a great plot for a spy thriller, hey?

Who is Zhi Quan and why are there webpages for him entitled something like, "U.S. Court documents" (OR something) and Rupert Cransford's name appears, along with many dozens of other names? Long long lists of names...

How is reknown artist David specifically related to him, or are they "relatives-by-surname," only?

Why did LC have a massive enormous website and yet no mention of his degrees, nor where he earned them, nor any mention of any alumni association?

I wonder if he ever registered at a "classmates.com" which covers Australia?

And I really wonder why the Australian press didn't pick up on this story long before it became the topic of numerous online chatboards?????

How come LC doesn't seem to have a conventional blog anywhere? What was his userid on Ebay - WHAT were his purchases on Ebay-USA, Ebay-Canada, Ebay-UK, Ebay-Australia???

Too many questions...... and I wonder if the press was told to intentionally ignore this story, because the government knows precisely what is occurring?? What about all those connections between AECL and the Pakistani nuclear scientists who were Khan's associates???

Did you know that there is an article here posted at FR stating Chalk River has approximately 23 kilograms of Bomb Grade plutonium that it's been sitting on?

Well, this is all too complex & confusing and definitely waaaaaaaay "...above my pay grade," LOLOL

And finally, W.H.E.R.E. is the Nancy Grace Celebrity who will give this disappearance the coverage & publicity it deserves? WHY does that Steve Quayle list of Dead Scientists continue to grow and grow and grow?????

[hennie pennie]

>>> "The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing assistance to Canadian authorities." <<<<

,a href=http://www.websleuths.com/forums/printthread.php?t=95134&pp=25&page=13> http://www.websleuths.com/forums/printthread.php?t=95134&pp=25&page=13

I'm curious if this might be the Australian equivalent of what we here in the USA call our State Department??

Thanks.

[hennie pennie]

Ooops.

That would be:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/printthread.php?t=95134&pp=25&page=13

Also, another note -- quite a few posters at WS notice that online articles' CONTENT changes; and yesterday I cut & paste and saved one of the AU articles, and this morning they'd added on a couple paragraphs about the nuclear reactor being shut down for repairs and that LC had vacation time accumulated which he had to use up --- never mentioned in any previous articles anywhere.

Anyway, it seems that the news sites are changing the original stories ALL the time, and evidentally they sometimes even REMOVE info from the original story.

So must we PRINT OUT every worthy article we come across now???

[hennie pennie]

Lachlan Cranswick's Amazon.com Profile

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A5M7S5GIAMLIF

[hennie pennie]

He was graduated from Monash University.

This article seems much more accurate than earlier ones which depicted him as inordinantly shy and who only talked about things that really interested him --- this article points out that he was the Curling Club BARTENDER -- so perhaps that glass in his hand in one of the photographs is not Pepsicola, but instead is an exotic ale.

Here his friends mention he has a great sense of humor.

Here's a few excerpts from the latest article in the Australian press:

4:59AM Tuesday Mar 02, 2010
The Vanishing Man: scientist leaves no clues
MEGAN LEVY
March 2, 2010

http://www.smh.com.au/world/the-vanishing-man-scientist-leaves-no-clues-20100301-pdjp.html?autostart=1

.......Just as baffled are his family and former colleagues in Melbourne, who described the Monash University graduate as a and sociable man with a cheeky sense of humour.

Mr Cranswick's brother Rupert, 45, spent two weeks in Canada searching for him , and is convinced he was involved in an accident.

''As soon as I got there I saw that it's a really wild remote area, you have wolves and coyotes across the river, and as the river is frozen they can come over from Quebec,'' he said.

Mr Cranswick moved to Canada seven years ago after stints working at universities in London and New York. He worked as a crystallographer, determining the arrangement of atoms in solids, at the Canadian Neutron Beam Centre located in the nuclear facility.

''He was as happy as Larry there, he didn't want to leave the joint,'' his brother said.

In his spare time, Mr Cranswick was the barman and vice-president of the Deep River Curling and Squash Club, and was praised by his fellow club members for stocking the largest selection of beer in the club's history.

......A former CSIRO colleague, Ian Madsen, said Mr Cranswick had a strong social conscience, and had used his own resources to develop and distribute CD-based software for crystallography for people in Third World nations that did not have internet access.

[hennie pennie]

He started work on a post doc in 1998 at Daresbury Laboratory, (AKA Daresbury Synchroton Laboratory)

Newsletter 27 - 1998
Society of Crytallographers in Australia (sca37)

E X C E R P T :

....In January, Lachlan Cranswick (L.Cranswick@dl.ac.uk) took up a one to three year Post Doctoral Fellowship position at the Daresbury Laboratory, home of Britain's X-ray synchrotron. This position involves working as the secretary of the continuing CCP14 (Collaborative Computation Project Number 14) for Single Crystal and Powder Diffraction. The major aim of the project is to accumulate, archive and distribute relevant single crystal and powder diffraction software; plus related software and information resources for the crystallographic community (primarily via the Internet and World Wide Web).

http://www.sca.asn.au/nletters/sca37.htm

[hennie pennie]

More from the Australian MSM. Rupert Cranswick is not happy with the Chalk River facility, and while Canadian police have not ruled out foul play, Rupert seems to firmly believe that his brother met with problems in the nearby wilderness:

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2010/03/02/2/Melbourne_scientist_missing_in_Canada_434929.html

[hennie pennie]

Hi there, FTD -- you freepmailed me on Friday that you'd be gone for the weekend, I hope your trip went well, and I wonder if you've changed any of your initial impressions about the disappearance of Dr. Lachlan Cranswick in the meantime?

I hope you don't believe that science has RECENTLY become a scam, it's been based upon money and corrupt influence for many decades, hasn't it?

Y O U W R O T E :

>>>> "The site I linked to has been active right up through December when he showed pictures of his Christmas lights, You do not decorate for Christmas if depressed. The emails in the link are ongoing and the only anger I can see is toward the corruption of Nanotechnology and science/politics/Big Money like climate-gate. His picture back in 1996 had him lanky. He is 40 now and men lose their hair at any age. He works inside, so pale. The caps only caught my eye as only two wore them. Always nice to wear a cap if you do not want to be recognized in group photographs in the future. Not that means anything in this case "under the cap".I just find people of like mode of dress may have been hanging together prior to the photograph. The other subject is looking his way, but that is a stretch!! He is fair. The other is of middle eastern.

He has been to different parts of the world as seen via his website & photographs. His works carries him to these places so he has importance. He vacationed in Cuba (1996) He has been "hacked", as well. A person he conversed with over email suggested he release the weapons of mass destruction to the perpetrators. He talked of hacking also taking place in the Far East. The WMD analogy seemed to be more Internet game related. They are geeks in correspondence. Fantasy.

His biggest worry was the evils in the future of nanotechnology. The money involved. The Nanotechnology scam. One friend wrote he had patented a nano-car.

I showed you the street the close proximity of homes, where neighbors know their neighbors or at least see them come and go. You can go up and down his street via the "pictures" part of his address. Even the neighbor had clothes hanging on the line. He did not seem to live in seclusion. No interviews with neighbors, just a basic press release, a Police posting with picture.

His site didn't branch off into any medical research which if ill would be of interest.

He just seemed to think science had become a scam! He saw research which proved nothing; but active, in the race for more money. Nanotechnology that could become sinister. Reflects into his favorite movie chooses as well. But then he did like Josie and the PussyCats!! ;)

The story of a missing scientist has really had no play here. I mentioned this to a resident of a town just over the border US and they knew nothing about it.

I just find it odd. I read months and years of his postings on his own active site under his name. It is quite a "highway" and/or personal Encyclopedia of knowledge.

Thanks for posting ..Could have gone under activism, news, current events; extended, crime not just chat." <<<<<

[hennie pennie]

Thanks for your previous postings on other earlier threads, FTD; I disagree with Rupert Cranswick that his brother Lachlan was ecstatic with his job at Chalk River, but it's easy to see where such an erroneous impression could be made since they only exchanged several emails annually, and I doubt philosophy would have been discussed in such scanty correspondenc.

I now believe that Dr. Lachlan M.D. Cranswick walked away from his life.

I believe that his career had become utterly irrevokably repugnant to him; NOT science, itself, but the career and how it entails rigid adherance to the rules & protocols of the Famous.Renown.Well.Published.Child.Prodigy.Genius.Brilliant.Scientist Monopoly Board Game -- the one with the rule, "Publish or Die," the vile idiotic game with the insipid clockwork CHANCE cards, "You skipped the 19356th meeting - GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL, do *not* pass go, do not collect 2 million $$$$$$$, Loser."

Dr. Cranswick is certainly brilliant enough to manufacture a new identitiy and to do science on his own, and to have meticulously planned each & every single detail of his Great Escape. Perfect timing, to split when the reactor was down for repairs, so coworkers had no idea he was GONE-GONE, not merely using up acrued vacation time.

I do not believe that Dr. Cranswick will be located, unless he so chooses to be found. I wish him well, and hope he finds some fulfilling work, not just being a bartender/dishwasher, but perhaps tutoring children or working in the lawfirms of those attorneys who will prosecute the Global Warming Hoaxers & Liars who have cast such a deep black cloud of fraudulent corruption over the entire enterprise of science as a whole.

Hopefully, some time in the future he will ring up the George Noory Coast to Coast AM overnight talk show, and identify himself, speak briefly, and let all the people whom he left far behind him know that he is alive, well, safe, etc.

Hmmmm.... I wonder where he parked the vehicle he left in, and I wonder where he purchased it, and if he used ca$h????

[hennie pennie]

EXCERPT mobile.abc.net.au

Rupert Cranswick spoke to some of his brother's colleagues when he went to Canada for a couple of weeks and says it is surprising that they did not report him missing sooner.

"It's a large organisation. I'd say I met 20 research scientists," he said.

"I know that the reactor wasn't working, that it had a leak awhile back and they were fixing it, but Lachlan was still going to work and doing his research and preparing conferences and scientific papers.

"I find it very strange that none of them would have said, 'where's Lachlan', because he would always email if he wasn't coming in......."

[nw_arizona_granny]

Again, sorry to bother you, but in the past, it’s not been particularly difficult to learn these kind of details online about anyone so obviously hypereducated. It would also be interesting to learn why he never used “Ph.d.” after his name in numerous journal articles he co-authored.<<

Interesting thought, let me know if you find the answer.