{"id":188006,"date":"2026-02-21T23:14:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T23:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/188006\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T23:14:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T23:14:20","slug":"renowned-caltech-scientist-who-led-search-for-life-across-the-solar-system-shot-dead-on-his-porch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/188006\/","title":{"rendered":"Renowned Caltech Scientist Who Led Search for Life Across the Solar System Shot Dead on His Porch"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n

Carl Grillmair was found dead on the porch of his Los Angeles home on Monday, Feb. 16<\/p>\n

The Caltech research scientist, 67, was famed for his research on distant planets<\/p>\n

Freddy Snyder, 29, has been charged in connection with Grillmair’s slaying, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff\u2019s Department<\/p>\n

A highly acclaimed Caltech scientist was fatally shot on the porch of his home in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

At around 6:10 a.m. local time on Monday, Feb. 16, deputies found a 67-year-old man lying on a porch with a gunshot wound, said the Los Angeles Sheriff\u2019s Department (LASD) in a news release<\/a>. A suspect was arrested in connection with the incident.<\/p>\n

The fatally shot man was later identified by the L.A. County medical examiner as Carl Grillmair, a Caltech astrophysicist who made several contributions to the study of distant planets, per the Los Angeles Times<\/a>, KTLA<\/a> and FoxLA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Deputies had responded to Grillmair’s home in the unincorporated community of Llano after receiving reports of an assault with a deadly weapon, according to the LASD. L.A. County Fire Department paramedics attempted life-saving measures, but he was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice tape (stock image) <\/p>\n

Getty<\/p>\n

While investigating the shooting, deputies also responded to a carjacking call in the same area. The suspect in the incident, 29-year-old Freddy Snyder, was arrested.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Feb. 18, Snyder was formally charged with both the carjacking and Grillmair\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n

The suspect was also charged with first-degree burglary related to a Dec. 28 incident, according to court records obtained by the L.A. Times. Snyder is being held on $2 million bail, LASD said.<\/p>\n

The LASD said the incident is still under investigation. Authorities did not clarify whether there was a connection between Snyder and Grillmair.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Caltech University confirmed to the L.A. Times that Grillmair worked as a research scientist at the university\u2019s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center \u2014 which partners with NASA and other organizations to further space exploration and research.<\/p>\n

One of Grillmair\u2019s Caltech co-workers, Sergio Fajardo-Acosta, told the outlet that one of Grillmair\u2019s\u00a0greatest achievements was authoring a paper published in 2007 about the presence of water on a distant planet outside of our solar system.<\/p>\n

Fajardo-Acosta described this as a \u201cvery ingenious discovery,” per the L.A. Times.<\/p>\n

\"AA Los Angeles County Sheriff cruiser <\/p>\n

Matt Gush\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for\u00a0PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.<\/p>\n

Fajardo-Acosta added that Grillmair\u2019s work focused on uncovering the structure of the Milky Way, and he discovered and named several galactic streams found in the solar system, noting, \u201cthe discovery of those galactic streams is attributed to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very famous in astronomy and a very renowned scientist,\u201d Fajardo-Acosta told the L.A. Times. \u201cHis legacy will live on forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the original article on People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Carl Grillmair was found dead on the porch of his Los Angeles home on Monday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[27084,87495,88388,88386,88389,48,52,51,12833,47,50,49,88387],"class_list":{"0":"post-188006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-caltech","9":"tag-carl-grillmair","10":"tag-distant-planets","11":"tag-freddy-snyder","12":"tag-grillmair","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-la-headlines","15":"tag-la-news","16":"tag-lasd","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","19":"tag-los-angeles-news","20":"tag-research-scientist"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}