Memphis police Lt. Joe Scott said the body, carrying a wallet with the identification of Don C. Wiley, was found Thursday in the river in Vidalia, La. Wiley was last seen in Memphis more than a month ago. Workers with the Louisiana Hydroelectric Plant discovered the body about 12:30 p.m. snagged on a tree, police said. The plant, 300 miles south of Memphis, sits on the river as does the city of Memphis.
The body was being returned to Memphis Thursday night for the autopsy. Positive identification also will be made today.
Wiley, 57, has been missing since Nov. 16 when his rented white Mitsubishi Galant was discovered on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge over the Mississippi River in Memphis about 4 a.m. The keys were still in the ignition, the hazard lights were not turned on and the gas tank was full.
Possible Suicide
Wiley, a molecular biologist, was in Memphis for a two-day annual meeting of the Scientific Advisory Board of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital of Memphis. The board, composed of 15 physicians and scientists, evaluates the hospital's programs through discussions with faculty members.
Police considered the matter a missing persons case and had said it might have been a suicide.
"As soon as the body gets in our morgue the medical examiner will begin the autopsy to help answer a lot of questions," Memphis Police Director Walter Crews told a news conference.
Wiley was last seen Nov. 15 between 11:30 p.m. and midnight at a St. Jude's dinner at the downtown Peabody Hotel, about a 15-minute drive from the bridge.
Wiley had done research into a number of potentially deadly viruses, including Ebola. Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever that causes body fluids to seep from tissues and orifices. The virus is highly contagious and lethal, and there is no vaccine.
Scientific organizations, such as St. Jude and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Md., posted rewards for information leading to the "arrest and charge" of anyone responsible for the disappearance of Wiley. The rewards totaled $26,000.
Harvard President Lawrence Summers issued a statement Thursday night saying Wiley "was a brilliant biologist and a greatly admired member of this commmunity, and his loss leaves a tremendous void."
A colleague at St. Jude is trying to be optimistic.
"We're holding out any and all hope that this is not Don, but we are going to wait until the authorities make some decision," said hospital deputy director Dr. William Evans. "We are all quite devastated by the possibility Don's not going to be with us any more."
Evans found it hard to believe Wiley took his life.
Indhold Forrige Næste
Annex III
List of People met, July 1996.
UNIDO, Vienna
MR. R. Beltran, Director, Office of the Director-General Mr. W.H. Holaday, Chief, Programme + Project Review Committee Secretariat Mr. O. Gonzales-Hernandez, Head, Evaluation Branch
Mr. J. Navrátil, Senior Evaluation Officer
Dr. Z. Csizer, Director, Chemical Industries Branch
Mr. M. Rigola, Head, Environment and Energy Branch
Dr. B. Sugavanam, Chief, Agro-Chemical Industries Unit
Dr. Yong-Hwa Kim, Environmental Toxicologist, Industrial Development Officer
Dr. M. Abtahi, Senior Industrial Development Officer
PAKISTAN
Dr. Ghulam Mustafa, Head Entomology Section
Mr. Mohammad Siddique Hamdard, Agricultural Chemist Mr. Sajjud Ahmad, Entomologist
Department of Plant Protection, Karachi
Dr. Muhammad Shafi, Plant Protection Adviser & Director General
A later article had it that investigators were ruling it an accident, not a suicide (he accidently fell over a reportedly 5 foot restraining wall). I don't know where the story stands today.
By ruling it an accident, his wife has a better shot at collecting the life insurance that she is due. She still won't have the peace of mind that her husband's death has been fully investigated.