Murder At The South Pole
Australian astrophysicist Rodney Marks met an untimely death under mysterious circumstances at the South Pole. In 2000, Marks, a free-spirited scientist who liked to color his hair purple and paint his fingernails black, was stationed at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, one of three U.S. stations in Antarctica conducting various studies and experiments. Marks, who was in perfect health, was assigned to Amundsen-Scott to study the Antarctic submillimeter telescope. He was settling into his new digs, when he suddenly became ill on May 11, which prompted him to visit the site doctor on three occasions, each time feeling more pain, anxiety and shortness of breath. He eventually went into cardiac arrest on May 12 and was pronounced dead. The doctor said the death was the result of natural causes. Because of the brutal Antarctic winter, his body was put into storage until October, when it was flown to New Zealand, on its way to home in Australia. But the stopover in New Zealand provided a stunning development. A forensic pathologist determined that Marks had died from complications of consuming around 150 milliliters of methanol. New Zealand Detective Grant Wormald launched an investigation into the case and he came to four possible conclusions: suicide, recreation, accident or poisoning. The first three possibilities were pretty much ruled out and Wormald concluded that Marks probably ingested the methanol unknowingly, which means he was poisoned. So did Marks become the only person in history to be murdered in Antarctica? Video blogger Jon Scott digs deeper into the mystery and brings us the details.
