Overview
- Deputies responding around 6:10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 16, to a Llano address found Carl Grillmair, 67, on his front porch with a gunshot wound and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
- The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by a gunshot wound to the torso.
- Freddy Snyder, 29, who was detained in connection with a carjacking reported in the same area, has been charged with murder, carjacking and first-degree burglary and is held on $2 million bail.
- Investigators have not released a motive and have not established any connection to other recent killings of scientists; authorities continue to seek tips from the public.
- Grillmair was a longtime Caltech IPAC researcher known for work on the Milky Way, stellar streams and exoplanets, with leadership on Hubble and Spitzer projects and a NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.