Posted on 02/15/2002 8:14:22 PM PST by gd124
DETECTIVES were last night trying to unravel the circumstances in which a leading university research scientist was found dead at his blood-spattered and apparently ransacked home.
The body of Ian Langford, 40, a senior Fellow at the University of East Anglia’s Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment, was discovered on Monday night by police and ambulancemen. The body was naked from the waist down and partly wedged under a chair. It is understood that doors to the terraced house were locked.
A post-mortem examination failed to establish how Dr Langford, who lived alone in the house in Norwich, died.
Dr Langford began working at the university in 1993 after gaining his PhD in childhood leukaemia and infection following a first-class honours degree in environmental sciences. He worked most recently as a senior researcher assessing risk to the environment.
Professor Kerry Turner, director of the centre, said: “We are all very shocked by this appalling news. Ian was without doubt one of Europe’s leading experts on environmental risk, specialising in links between human health and environmental risk. He was known for his work on the effects on health of bathing water and air pollution, for example. He was one of the most brilliant colleagues I have ever had.”
I am going to have to break down and drive the 20 miles or so from my home to the bridge and look at that rail. My recollection is that the rail is CHEST HIGH to a 6' tall man. Thigh-high would make it, what? Maybe 3 feet at the MOST? That's ludicrous. A three foot tall rail on a bridge a hundred feet above the mighty Mississippi? Admittedly, there is LITTLE foot traffic, but nonetheless, there is a sidewalk for pedestrian traffic, and it would have a railing of adequate height. Heck---I'll go measure it soon; my new grandson lives (with his mom and dad) only maybe five miles or so from the river there.
It's one little overreach like this that makes it impossible for me to forward this to my microbioligist friend. Any chemical concentration that can kill you is "TOXIC." Air is 80% nitrogen. Flush it with more than that and you'll silently asphyxiate. Many telecom lines are pressurized with nitrogen, too, and if they leak into a small space--and you breathe it--you'll be dead before you know it. Plain old water is toxic too if you drink too much of it!
This could be part of a nefarious plot, but people can easily die from nitrogen poisoning. "The bends" are pretty ugly, too. Also nitrogen induced.
HELLO ... exactly what kind of research was this .. seems like a lot of scientist are being found dead these days ..
A pro hit man leaves little or no evidence.
Nitrogen is not a "deadly" gas, and is a part of the air. An extreme over-abundance of nitrogen in one's immediate atmosphere would gradually cause shortness of breath, lightheadedness, and fatigue; conditions a biologist would certainly recognize. Additionally, a nitrogen leak in a laboratory's refrigerator system sufficient to fill the room with nitrogen would set off gas system alarms, and would be so massive as to cause complete failure of the refrigeration system, causing the temperature to rise, also setting off alarms that every one of these systems is equipped with as a standard safety procedure.
Leni
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
The Mirror
February 13, 2002, Wednesday
NEWS; Pg. 4
RIDDLE OF DEAD DOC
Aidan Mcgurran
THE half-naked body of a leading university scientist has been found at his home. Police discovered Dr Ian Langford's body under a chair.
His terraced house had been ransacked.
A colleague of 40-year-old Dr Langford, at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, said: "He was a brilliant academic."
Norfolk police said: "The death is being treated as suspicious."
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Guardian Home Pages, Pg. 8The Guardian (London)
February 13, 2002
In brief: Inquiry into scientist's death
Police are investigating the death of research scientist Ian Langford, 40, a senior fellow at East Anglia University, who was found naked from the waist down and wedged under a chair at his blood-spattered home.
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Press Association
February 13, 2002, WednesdayPOLICE RULE OUT FOUL PLAY OVER SCIENTIST'S DEATH
Brian Farmer PA News
Detectives today said that they had ruled out the possibility that a scientist whose body was found at his home died as a result of foul play.
Ian Langford, 40, a senior researcher in the field of environmental risk at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, was found dead at his home in Norwich late on Monday.
A spokeswoman for Norfolk police today said that following post mortem tests police had decided that Dr Langford's death was not suspicious. It is understood that Dr Langford had wounds on his body.
Officers are now believed to be working on the theory that the injuries were either self-inflicted or sustained accidentally.
The spokeswoman said a report would be prepared for the coroner.
The university paid tribute to Dr Langford, who was said to be outstanding in his field.
Professor Kerry Turner, director of the University's Centre for Social and Economic Research in the Global Environment, said: "We are all very shocked by this appalling news.
"Ian was without doubt, one of Europe's leading experts on environmental risk, specialising in links between human health and environmental risk.
"He was one of the most brilliant colleagues I have ever had, both as an individual researcher and as a team player.
"He will be greatly missed at UEA."
Dr Langford, who was based in Professor Turner's department, is understood to have worked at the university for about eight years.
His death is the latest in a series of tragedies to have hit the university in the past two years.
Critically acclaimed author Professor W G Sebald died in a road accident in December, literary critic and English professor Lorna Sage died in January last year after a long illness, and in November 2000 novelist and American Studies Professor Sir Malcolm Bradbury died at the age of 68, also after a long illness.
PING me when you get a chance to look at it.
Right now I'm following the threads on the woman in Tennessee who died in an arsonist's car fire. She was out on bail Sunday morning and died Sunday night. She had sold real Tennessee drivers licenses to 3 illegal aliens from the Middle East (using fake names making them untraceable). This wasn't her first transaction of this sort but it was the first time that she got caught (on the tip from an informant to an FBI agent in NYC). She was slated to talk on Monday.
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