Latest / The Path Went Chilly / Rodney Marks Pt. Two

Transcript

Rodney Marks Pt. Two · The Path Went Chilly

0:28
Welcome back to the Path Went Chile for part two of our series about the
0:32
unexplained death of Rodney Mars Robin, do you want to catch everyone up on
0:36
what we talked about in our previous episode, Well, this is the first
0:40
case you've ever covered from Antarctica. It takes place at the South Pole,
0:45
at the Amundson Scott South Pole Station, which is a research station where about
0:50
fifty people go to work a year round and it'll work so that during the
0:55
summer season it's six months of straight daylight, followed by the winter season which
0:59
is six months of straight darkness. And one of the people who loved working
1:03
there, this was his second stint there was Rodney Marx, who was an
1:06
Australian astrophysicist. He showed up there during the nineteen ninety nine was planning to
1:11
stay there for a whole year, and he also got engaged to a woman
1:15
who was stationed there named Sonia Walter, and they were planning to get married
1:19
after they made it back to the mainland. But one point during his stint
1:23
in May of two thousand, Rodney started to become very ill and over the
1:26
course, at thirty six hours his condition was worsen until he suddenly died.
1:30
They were not able to figure out his cause of death. At first,
1:33
they attributed to natural causes, but after a Rodney's body was flown back to
1:38
the mainland about six months later and he was given an autopsy, they discovered
1:42
that his exact cause of death was methanol poisoning. But of course, in
1:46
so much time had passed and all the people at the station had gone their
1:49
separate ways. And it was also a jurisdictional nightmare because the New Zealand police
1:53
wanted to do the investigation, but a lot of the people who were stationed
1:57
there were American and it was tough to decide who act she had jurisdiction in
2:00
Antarctica. So they were unable to figure out the circumstances of how Rodney may
2:05
have died. Could it have been an accident, could have been ingested methanol
2:07
by mistake by drinking tainted liquor, or was it an intentional homicide where someone
2:13
poisoned one of his drinks and that's how he died. But no one has
2:15
ever been named as a suspect or person of interest. No one has ever
2:19
been named as having a personal grudge against Rodney or a motive to murder him.
2:23
So to this day of this death is technically still unexplained and they've been
2:27
unable to determine if it was a homicide or an accidental death. So before
2:31
we start talking anymore about Rodney Marx's case, I want to share a story
2:35
about another crazy incident which occurred at the Emmonson Scott South Hole Station. In
2:40
our last episode, we mentioned that during the winter months, the weather is
2:44
so cold that it is nearly impossible for a plane to land there. Well,
2:49
just over a year before Rodney's death, a woman named doctor Jerry Nielsen
2:53
was assigned to serve as the physician at the station, but during the winter
2:55
season, she discovered a lump in her breasts. Due to the weather,
3:00
there was no way she could possibly be evacuated for months, so doctor Nielsen
3:04
was forced to perform a biopsy on herself and self treat her own cancer,
3:08
which involves self administering chemotherapy. The National Science Foundation even sent a military plane
3:15
to fly over the base and air drops some medical supplies for her treatment because
3:20
they cannot safely land and pick her up. But thankfully, once they're able
3:23
to evacuate Nielsen and transport her back to the United States for the proper medical
3:29
attention. Her cancer went into remission. Unbelievable. One Just what a hero
3:36
is she where she's saying, like, listen, I will get medical care,
3:39
and if i can't get it from somebody else, I'm going to have
3:43
to trust myself enough to try to save my own life. Like that alone
3:49
is one of the most epic and motivating and inspirational stories I've ever heard in
3:53
my life. It is tragic that you don't have a team setup like we
3:59
talked about on episode, where people are accounted for, provided for, and
4:04
have means to rarely needed but important kind of access to high end medical care
4:13
and the ability to get help when they need it. For her, thank
4:17
god, by the time she's able to be transported out, she is able
4:20
to get the necessary care and go into remission, because that could have gone
4:25
a very very different direction. Yeah, we knew that this part of the
4:29
story was going to get the strongest reaction out of you, even though it's
4:30
not directly tied to Rodney Marx's case. We just had to mention it because
4:34
it is so epic. Oh, it's crazy. I mean, you go
4:38
there and you really are. You're sacrificing so much of your life. It's
4:41
an amazing opportunity for someone's career, but you're sacrificing so much for the love
4:46
of science. And then you get there and you're not provided for the way
4:49
that you should be. It's a slap in the face with an organization that
4:53
has so much funding and so much money, it needs to really focus on
4:58
protecting those people who are doing their work well. Speaking of Raytheon Technologies,
5:03
here is another story. So we have one more true crime story to share,
5:08
and this one was chronicled by the late great true crime writer and Rule
5:13
in one of her chapters of her twenty twelve book Lying in Wait and Rules
5:16
Crime Files. It involves a sixty one year old man named Robert Alan Baker,
5:23
who beat and strangled his wife, Kathy Baker, to death in Greenback,
5:26
Washington, in June of twenty twelve and wound up receiving a sentence of
5:30
fifty two years in prison. While what's interesting is that Baker worked as a
5:35
defense contractor at the Raytheon Technologies Corporation, and, much like Rodney Marx and
5:41
Sonia Walter, his relationship with his wife began while they were working together at
5:46
the Aminston Scott South Pole station. At the end of her chapter about this
5:50
case and Rule actually made reference to Rodney Marx and while she did not know
5:55
if Baker knew Rodney or was stationed at the South Pole with him, she
5:59
hoped him investigators would look into a potential connection, while upon further research,
6:03
it turns out that Baker did not start working at Raytheon until two thousand and
6:08
one, one year after Rodney's death, so I think we can safely rule
6:13
him out. The main reason we made mention of this story is because there
6:16
was some controversy over the fact that Baker was a convicted sex offender who had
6:21
previously spent time in prison from molesting an underage relative, so Raytheon never should
6:27
have hired him in the first place, let alone send him off to an
6:30
isolated location in Antarctica to meet his future wife. This is why it could
6:34
have proved very useful for Raytheon and the National Science Foundation to have turned over
6:41
all their personnel files to the New Zealand Police for investigation, because who knows
6:46
if Rodney may have spent the winter with someone with a checkered history who was
6:49
capable of murdering him. Yeah, exactly. I mean, here's the thing
6:54
where when you don't do the diligent research there and you have these ideas that
6:58
you are again and putting people at risk, it's crazy to me. Right,
7:02
this guy Baker is a convicted sex offender who was spending time in prison
7:08
for molesting an underage relative. And so when you look at the fact that
7:13
these kinds of businesses and corporations, if their primary interest is who can make
7:18
us the most money, who can contribute to us the most, and they
7:21
don't look at risk they pose to not only the company, but also to
7:25
the people around them, it's ridiculous. It's motivated for money and not the
7:30
protection of who they serve and the people that serve alongside them. Yeah,
7:35
they're probably be thinking to their selves, well, we're not going to find
7:38
too many people who are willing to spend an entire year in Antarctica, so
7:41
we might have slim pickings. So of course they're going to hire a guy.
7:45
And it's unclear if they knew if Baker had was a convicted sex offender
7:48
and had this history, but even if they did, they might have felt,
7:50
well, we can't find too many other people to staff the place,
7:54
so let's send them down there and take our chances. I really and truly
7:58
hope that they just did know and they didn't willingly send a sex offender onto
8:05
a research base where basically nobody can access them for six months of the year.
8:09
That is a terrifying thought. So let's face it, if you wanted
8:13
to commit the perfect murder, the South Pole during the winter season would be
8:16
an ideal time and place to do so, because it could be months before
8:20
law enforcement showed up to conduct a proper investigation. Now, in Rodney's case,
8:26
his death was initially attributed to natural causes, but you might be wondering
8:31
how they would handle things if a violent crime did take place. Well.
8:35
A situation like this occurred at Antarctica's McMurdo Station in nineteen ninety six after an
8:39
incident where an American cook at the facility attacked an American coworker with a hammer,
8:45
though thankfully the victim survived, the McMurdo station manager was assigned to be
8:50
a special Deputy US Marshal with training and evidence protection, so he had the
8:54
power to arrest any Americans who committed crimes. There after the attack, you
9:00
had the cook confined to a hut until FBI agents were able to arrive at
9:03
the base and take the cook into custody. The advantageous part of the situation
9:09
is that it's unlikely that can find perpetrator would ever attempt to make an escape
9:13
because well, where would they go? Well exactly, That's exactly what I
9:16
was wondering earlier on when we were talking about you know, you have people
9:20
with a risky background that are hired, and not only do they have this
9:24
kind of isolated world to operate in, but what would you do if they
9:28
had known that Rodney had been murdered on in that lab? There's only fifty
9:33
people there. Is there a cell designed to hold somebody suspective of abuse or
9:37
perpetrating crime in the lab with fifty people? Is there really likely a large
9:43
security force who can supervise and monitor and care for someone who's in custody in
9:50
that research lab? Like, I just wonder what would be the protocol when
9:54
you have such a small functioning society, like fifty people for months that don't
9:58
have any outside access. How do you handle people like that? I'm actually
10:05
surprised that Agatha Christie has never attempted to make a story about this, like
10:09
a murder mystery at the Antarctica. I'd love to see like herk gul Perot
10:11
trying to parachute there and to like solve the murder because they can't get these
10:16
people out. Maybe somebody should make a movie about this. It sounds like
10:18
a great idea. You know, it's funny. Earlier on I almost made
10:22
it Agatha Christie comment too, because it's exactly what it reminded me of.
10:26
When Ashley was talking about the doctor not knowing and going into the doctor's office.
10:31
I'm like, oh my gosh, this is just like an Agatha Christie
10:33
novel, except for we don't know all of the characters that are there,
10:39
except for you know, the doctor. We know, but it is such
10:41
a fascinating story and it would make an excellent movie. You're right, Robin.
10:46
Now, like the Aminston Scott south Pole station, the McMurdo station is
10:52
located in the Ross Dependency region, which is under New Zealand claim. But
10:56
the crime we just mentioned was a clear cut case of one American violently attacking
11:01
another American, so there was no ambiguity about handling jurisdiction over to the American
11:07
authorities. But Rodney Mark's case is a lot more complicated because he was an
11:13
Australian citizen and no one could even be certain if a crime had taken place
11:18
at all. Well, it doesn't sound like there were any potential suspects.
11:22
I'm sure that there would be a ton of legal complications if it turned out
11:26
an American was responsible for his death. There were forty nine other people working
11:31
at the Aminston Scott station at the time Rodney died, so if foul play
11:35
did take place, there's your entire pool of suspects. Theoretically, even if
11:41
the higher ups of the station had their suspicions that Rodney's death was foul play,
11:46
I can kind of see why they might be compelled to stay quiet about
11:48
it and classify his death as natural causes. I mean, if it turned
11:52
out that someone intentionally poisoned Rodney by slipping methanol into one of his drinks,
11:58
can you imagine in the panic that might have ensued With no way in or
12:03
out of the South Pole for months. This would mean that everyone was trapped
12:07
there with a murderer, and without knowing that person's identity. The paranoia would
12:11
have been sky high. It's definitely not uncommon for people to go stir crazy
12:16
will spending long periods of time at an isolated location. So I'm sure an
12:22
unsold homicide would have only exacerbated that. Oh absolutely, you know that if
12:26
they had been able to identify. Listen, we have a homicide and something
12:31
like a poisoning. There is not that direct contact with a victim, so
12:35
there's not a presence of forensic science left there. There's very easy ways to
12:41
avert an eyewitness knowing what you're doing, and so it becomes a game of
12:45
clue where it's forty nine people looking at each other and saying, it's one
12:50
of us in this room. It's one of us in this lab that actually
12:52
is responsible for the death of this individual, and now none of us are
12:56
safe because we don't know who it is. I'm that's the horror movie right
13:01
there. That's the murder novel where you gather fifty people one's dead from a
13:07
poisoning that we knows a homicide, and all of a sudden, everyone gathered
13:11
to learn this information looks at their neighbor and it's like, are you the
13:15
killer? And now how do we function when we're trapped here, when we
13:18
don't have any idea of what could have occurred, especially if it was poisoning
13:24
in his drinks, Like no one would want to drink anything at all during
13:26
that time period. They'd have to be like extra cautious and make sure that
13:30
you only open your own bottles and stuff like that, because I cannot imagine
13:33
the steps to ensure that something like this would happen not happen over the next
13:37
few months without any law enforcement intervention. Yeah, that food, everything you
13:43
know. You would wonder is it tainted, Is it possible that I'm going
13:46
to be next? Or do they escalate their acts and not poison next time?
13:50
Do they do something that's more personal to see if they can get away
13:54
with that. So all of those things would be going through your head.
13:58
You'd have to wonder if it would turn into like this Lord of the Flies
14:01
type situation if it was found out that there was a murder because you don't
14:07
have any law enforcement intervention. You don't have any legal intervention. It's basically
14:13
like you're all stuck in this place and it's so isolated, and you're trying
14:16
to protect yourself and your fellow humans. So if you believe that somebody who
14:22
was responsible the lengths or the depths that something could go to, the potential
14:28
for people to get hurt in that situation would be almost catastrophic. So let's
14:33
start talking about Rodney himself. It's interesting how when you look at photos of
14:37
Rodney online, he's not someone you would visualize being a brilliant scientist, as
14:41
one particular photo shows him with long, purple dreadlocked hair while he's dressed in
14:46
a Sonic Youth T shirt. And of course he performed in a heavy metal
14:50
band at the base in his spare time. But it sounds like he was
14:52
very good at his job and had been doing excellent work on this project before
14:56
his untimely death. While accounts, Rodney was a very social, likable guy,
15:01
and even though one of his colleagues described him as having a dry sense
15:05
of humor which could sometimes rub people the wrong way, he had such an
15:09
affable personality that it was impossible for anyone to ever stay mad at him.
15:15
In other words, it doesn't appear like he made any enemies who stood out
15:18
as having a motive to murder him. The one theory which has been pretty
15:22
much completely discounted is Rodney's death being a suicide, as he showed no signs
15:26
of depression and really seemed to be enjoying his work. He had also just
15:31
fallen in love with one of the women he was stationed with, Sonya Walter,
15:35
so much so that they were actually planning to get married once they returned
15:37
to the mainland. While the isolation of spending one year at a remote Antarctic
15:41
location can definitely lead to depression and mental health issues for some people, Rodney
15:48
had already gone through this experience once before and seemed to enjoy it so much
15:52
that he signed up to do it again. Of Course, as we reiterated
15:56
on this podcast many times before, just because a person is not show any
16:00
outward signs of being depressed or unhappy does not necessarily mean that they're not feeling
16:04
suicidal on the inside. But I think that Rodney's actions prior to his death
16:10
would rule out that possibility. I mean, for starters, drinking methanol is
16:15
an unnecessarily protracted way to die, as it sounds like Rodney went through a
16:18
lot of agony during the last thirty six hours of his life. And not
16:22
to sound flippant, but if someone's stationed at the South Pole was feeling suicidal,
16:27
all they'd have to do is step outside without the proper protective gearon,
16:32
and everything would be over pretty quickly. I think the fact that Rodney kept
16:36
visiting the Basis medical facility for treatment shows that he had no intention of suicide.
16:41
Even if he decided to end things but then changed his mind. I'm
16:45
sure Rodney would have told the doctore in just a methanol to increase the chances
16:48
of saving his life. Oh, I think absolutely. And when I think
16:52
about what could motivate somebody else to hurt him, right, I do not
16:56
think that Rodney intended to hurt himself. I also think he was in a
17:00
place where if he had made a bad decision or consumed something to see if
17:04
he could get a better high, or you know, get drunk quicker.
17:07
I think given his pain and seeking medical care, he would have told the
17:11
doctor. But I do wonder who else was on that base who would have
17:15
a reason to feel threatened by him. Yes, he was a likable guy,
17:21
but he's also brilliant. He wouldn't have been there if he wasn't,
17:23
And you know a lot of those are grant funded positions and esteemed selected positions.
17:30
Is there someone who feels threatened by him, feels like he might be
17:33
discovering something at a higher level than they are, or is it related to
17:38
his love interest that's on the base? Is someone resentful of that? Is
17:41
someone also interested in her? Could someone have been interested in him and they
17:47
didn't have an opportunity. There's other reasons that someone could look at an individual
17:52
like Rodney and say, in these short months, I've developed a hatred for
17:56
him via competition, either romantically or professionally, And you could see somebody having
18:03
that motivation when you couple that with I remember reading that the base at this
18:07
time, like we know that Rodney was a heavy drinker, but that there
18:10
was a lot of heavy drinking going on in general, and that alcohol was
18:14
provided to them. Did you hear that, Robin, Oh, yeah,
18:15
definitely. Like they've always said that alcohol is essential to be able to stay
18:21
there for like six months in the winter darkness. You need alcohol to get
18:23
through it. And I'm sure some people would have developed genuine alcohol problems.
18:29
And when you add somebody having dry sense of humor onto that equation, there
18:33
could be any number of motivations somebody could have felt, like you know,
18:37
he insulted them or wronged them in some way, or like Ashley said,
18:40
they could have been jealous of his brilliance or of his fiance. They might
18:45
have wanted Sonia for themselves. There's any number of motivations, but will never
18:48
truly know because none of these individuals have been formally questioned or interviewed, and
18:55
we only have thirteen of the forty nine people who actually submitted the mail in
19:02
questionnaire, so we've got so little information here. One alternate theory which was
19:08
proposed is that Rodney could have drank some methanol in order to get a major
19:12
buzz or something. But I'm sure he would have said something once his illness
19:15
got really bad. So I have to agree with the New Zealand Police's assessment
19:21
that no matter what happened, it seems very likely that Rodney ingusted the methanol
19:26
unknowingly. Now it's certainly possible that there was no foul play here and that
19:30
Rodney did consume some methanol accidentally. Rodney was described as loving as alcohol,
19:37
but you could probably say that about most of the personnel at the station,
19:41
since it sounds like drinking like we just said, was an essential aspect of
19:44
getting through these long South Pole winters. In fact, while sharing her experience
19:48
there on a blog, Sonya Walter once wrote, quote, I'm not aware
19:52
of any AA meetings taking place, although it wouldn't be a bad idea for
19:56
quite a few people here end quote. Rodney was also described as being a
20:02
binge drinker at times, though most people would have stopped short of calling him
20:06
an alcoholic. I'll just add that at this time, substance use disorder wasn't
20:11
the proper terminology like it what like it is today, So just calling somebody
20:15
an alcoholic would have been what they would have done at the time. Oh
20:18
yeah, yeah. And he had no less than eighteen bottles of liquor inside
20:23
his room at the time of his death, and there were also around twenty
20:26
empty bottles for both alcohol and lab agents on his desk. So could it
20:32
be possible that Rodney mistook a bottle of methanol for liquor and drank it.
20:37
I mean, Rodney was described as a very cautious person who wouldn't have made
20:41
a mistake like that. But while when you're drunk, your personal judgment can
20:45
be heavily affected However, since it was months before anyone could arrive at the
20:51
station to pick up Rodney's body, all of those bottles, as well as
20:55
a number of other pieces of potential evidence, were tossed out before anyone even
21:00
considered the possibility of a homicide investigation. Consider this, they're on this base
21:07
where, like you guys said, you almost have to drink to get through
21:10
it, Like you don't, right, sobriety is definitely an option, but
21:12
it is one of the entertainment ways that people would cope with the mental health
21:18
of being away from family and in this bizarre climate of being more social than
21:23
they might normally be. This is a bunch of scientists together, so you
21:26
know, like it lubricates the social freedoms that they might not normally feel.
21:32
And he's in a rock band. He's in two different kind of bands as
21:36
well, and so well, it sounds like a lot of alcohol. Eighteen
21:40
bottles of liquor and then these empty bottles as well. Could he have also
21:44
been the person that was almost like their personal bartender and party host. He's
21:48
quirky and fun, and he's in a band. Could he have had multiple
21:52
options for people to come by his room and he'll make a drink or like
21:56
people come to his room and hang out. There's many possible abilities that one
22:00
he stocked up for a year long stay and that's why there's not much alcohol,
22:07
or could he have entertained other people in alcohol is one of those means
22:11
as well. And then it's not quite as crazy that you go, wow,
22:14
that's a lot for a single individual. Yeah, that's never been specified,
22:18
but he does sound like the type of person who would invite people privately
22:22
to his room in order to hang out and drink because he was such an
22:26
affable person. And if there were any suspects who like showed up spent a
22:30
lot of time in his room drinking with them, they would seem like logical
22:33
people to have possibly poisoned his drinks. But of course, because these people
22:37
were never questioned, we don't know that information. And I remember reading so
22:42
I don't know if this is correct that the facility provided alcohol for the employees
22:48
as like an incentive to you know, be like, hey, you're gonna
22:51
come here, but there's going to be booze type of a thing. And
22:53
if that was the case, and we know that Rodney is this outgoing,
22:57
affable person, who's like the life of the Maybe, like you said,
23:02
Ash, he has a bunch of the bottles in his room and it just
23:04
happens to be a regular meeting place where everybody goes to kick back and have
23:10
a few drinks after they finish their day. Of course, due to jurisdictional
23:15
issues, the New Zealand Police only got to question a handful of people who
23:18
were stationed at the base, and most of those interactions were done by questionnaires
23:22
which were pre screened by the National Science Foundation. Even if Rodney was not
23:27
the victim of an intentional homicide, it's possible his death was the result of
23:32
negligence on someone's part, which is why the NSF and their employees have been
23:37
very uncooperative about the whole thing. I mean, the agency claimed they conducted
23:41
their own internal investigation, but they've never turned their findings over to the New
23:45
Zealand Police or even provided any evidence to prove this investigation actually took place.
23:52
And since the New Zealand Police's coronial inquest was described as informal, the US
23:56
Department of Justice flat out told them that they had noah Tha authority to force
24:00
the NSF to do anything. This sounds like a major catch twenty two because
24:06
in order for this to happen, the New Zealand police would have to uncover
24:08
conclusive evidence that the NSF or Raytheon were complicit in a crime. But there's
24:15
very little chance of obtaining this evidence without the cooperation. Exactly and months later,
24:19
when you actually found out you needed to go back and ask questions and
24:23
do interviews and gather evidence. I just feel like almost every entity, whether
24:29
they had true intent and desire to know the truth, almost had to know
24:33
from the onset that there's no way to get to the bottom of this,
24:37
and you're not going to get valuable information from a questionnaire that has been scrutinized
24:44
and approved to limit liability and the public relation nightmare that the NSF wouldn't want
24:49
to occur once they discover that it's a suspected homicide. So it's just a
24:55
mess from the get go, and you see for years there is this question
24:59
of so like, can we do more? Should we be doing more?
25:02
How do we do more? And by the time it's eight years later,
25:04
people are starting to say, guys, we almost have to hang this up.
25:08
I don't see how we're going to get answers in this case. One
25:12
of the most controversial figures in this whole ordeal is the base physician, doctor
25:18
Robert Thompson, who's been the subject of heavy criticism for how he handled the
25:22
situation once Rodney became seriously ill. In particular, he's been criticized for his
25:29
failure to maintain and use the ectecum machine, which could have potentially detected the
25:33
methanol in Rodney's bloodstream before it was too late. It sounds like the fate
25:38
of doctor Thompson has sort of become a mystery within a mystery, because after
25:42
numerous failed attempts by the New Zealand police to track him down and get him
25:48
to testify at the inquest, his current whereabouts were described as unknown. Of
25:52
course, I would be interested to know if Thompson genuinely believed that Rodney's death
25:57
was natural causes, or if he decided to keep any personal suspicions to himself
26:03
in order to avoid a potential panic at the Base. I highly doubt that
26:07
Thompson was directly involved in some sort of murder conspiracy, but I can see
26:11
why he would be inclined to avoid answering questions about how he handled the situation
26:17
in case of potential liability issues. Thompson did originally provide a report about how
26:22
the situation with Rodney played out, but it would have been very useful to
26:26
get his clarification on certain things. One particular oddity which has stood out in
26:32
this case are the two needle marks found on Rodney's right arm. Since Rodney
26:37
was given separate injections of halidahal and another sedative prior to his death, you
26:41
might assume this was the source of the needle marks, but Thompson apparently said
26:45
they were already there before he made the injections. Rodney allegedly admitted to interveno
26:52
his drug use in the past, but since he was right handed, it
26:55
is strange that the marks would be on his right arm. Whatever the case,
26:59
there were no illegal drugs found in Rodney's system during the autopsy, and
27:03
while a theory has been proposed that perhaps he attempted to take some alcohol intravenously,
27:10
it sounds like the coroner was pretty certain the methanol was ingested, not
27:14
injected. It's possible the needle marks have no significance to the case at all,
27:18
but again, it would have been useful for Thompson to provide testimony in
27:23
order to clarify some of these points. While NSF said that they had a
27:27
zero tolerance policy for drug use, there have been multiple reports of marijuana being
27:33
used and grown at the station, which shouldn't be too surprising, But as
27:37
far as we know, there have never been any confirmed reports of usage of
27:41
heroin or any hard drugs which would have required a needle. If doctor Thompson
27:45
is telling the truth, which I don't see why he would not tell the
27:49
truth, then Rodney was transparent that he was experimenting with different drugs at a
27:56
party and several months earlier, and so if he had done that prior to
28:02
ever coming into Antarctica, it's possible if he truly was experimenting and this was
28:07
not something he did on a normal basis, that he wasn't the one even
28:10
injecting the intravenous drugs. That's someone who was a more experienced drug user and
28:15
someone helping him to learn how to inject those drugs was the one who actually
28:19
did that for him. But he shared that and he said, yeah,
28:22
look I do drink, but it was two days ago. Yeah, those
28:26
are totally old needle marks that I was experimenting with drugs back home, And
28:33
so I don't feel like the doctor here has any nefarious desires. I think
28:40
he was presented with a case that presented more like a common illness, like
28:45
a virus that has really taken hold of him, a really bad flu and
28:48
a migraine, and he's thinking of what is Rodney's typical medical history, anxiety,
28:55
panic attacks, tourette's self medicating. Okay, this could be a result
29:00
of either withdraws or an extreme mental health episode, right, even the physical
29:03
effects of vomiting and the blood and things like that. And so to me,
29:07
given what he knew, given what he had access to, most of
29:11
me thinks he was trying to do the best he could in the moment,
29:15
trying to get external people to call in and help consult on the case,
29:18
but racing against a clock, knowing there's something wrong, his health's declining,
29:22
and I don't know what else to try. Yeah, And since doctor Thompson's
29:27
whereabouts are described as unknown and nobody had any luck tracking him down, I've
29:33
always been curious if he's even aware that Rodney's case was. They found that
29:37
he died of methanol poisoning, and that his case has gotten so much publicity
29:41
and is so dissected. I mean, for all he knows, he could
29:44
have just moved on with his life. Assume Rodney died of natural causes and
29:47
that no one is paying any attention to it now. Even though there was
29:52
a large supply of alcohol available at the base, it apparently wasn't uncommon for
29:56
people stationed there to operate their own still to make moonshine. After all,
30:02
if you're living in complete isolation in the middle of nowhere for an entire year,
30:06
even drinking traditional alcohol can become monotonous. Apparently, one particularly popular brand
30:12
of homemade alcohol, which was often brewed at the base was called Toast Juice,
30:17
and it's been reported that the New Zealand Police was able to obtain a
30:21
bottle of Toast Juice for ESR testing and discovered that it was seventy one percent
30:26
pure alcohol. The Toast Juice was also reportedly discounted as being the source of
30:30
the methanol in Rodney's body. But if people at the base were frequently brewing
30:34
their own alcohol, you can see how something might have gone horribly wrong.
30:38
Even if the Toast Juice did not contain methanol. Rodney still could have consumed
30:44
some homemade moonshine containing methanol without even realizing it. But then again, if
30:48
Rodney did something like that and had any inkling that it could have been the
30:52
source of the illness he was experiencing, would he have said something to doctor
30:56
Thompson. I mean, while he may have gotten into trouble for consuming or
31:00
making moonshine, his life was on the line here, oh absolutely, And
31:04
he was trying to get help. He was scared, and so the only
31:08
thing they knew to do was to sedate him and give him a how doll.
31:14
And if that is the response, right, it's like he's he's scared,
31:18
he's panicking. I feel like he would have been as helpful as possible,
31:23
begging for help and saying, you know what about this? Could it
31:26
have been this? You know, doc, what's wrong? If he knew
31:30
I just ingested some homemade moonshine. I don't think he's worried about any kind
31:33
of criminal or career liability at that point. Pure alcohol, my god.
31:42
We're particularly intrigued by the theory involving the mysterious bottle of liquor that Rodney brought
31:48
to the base with him, containing a label which appeared to feature Portuguese writing.
31:52
The bottle was never found, but there were multiple witnesses who were called
31:56
seeing it, and if it was thrown away, then this implies that the
32:00
liquor was consumed before Rodney's death, and if it happened to be tainted liquor
32:04
containing methanol, then Rodney may not have had any inkling that it was causing
32:08
his illness since he obtained it before he even arrived at the South Pole.
32:13
According to the World Health Organization, tainted alcohol can lead to as many as
32:16
three hundred deaths per year from acute methanol poisoning. On our last episode,
32:22
we made reference to a two thousand and nine article about this case in Men's
32:25
Journal, and it made reference to an incident where a sherpa wound up dying
32:30
at a base camp at Mount Everest after drinking methanyl tainted whiskey. If that's
32:36
what happened, then technically no one from the base had any complicity in Rodney's
32:39
death, but without having the bottle to test his evidence, it would be
32:44
impossible to know for sure. But of course this theory is pure speculation,
32:50
and we cannot rule out the possibility that something else led to Rodney's poisoning and
32:54
someone from the base knows the truth and is never talked. If it is
32:59
that bottle, there's just zero way of being able to trace that back.
33:02
I mean, not really understanding the time that's passed and when he acquired that,
33:08
and if there were surveillance cameras of someone replacing it on the shelf as
33:13
a tainted bottle versus the regular bottle, all that would have been gone,
33:16
you know, a year after the purchase. Remember he came I believe in
33:20
December, the year before he died, and then his body is held almost
33:25
until you know, the winter again a year later. So no one was
33:30
going to have information about that tainted bottle, even from the store that it
33:34
was purchased from a year later. Okay, I'm confused about the statistic with
33:38
the chanted alcohol. Do they mean that it is three hundred people die from
33:44
tainted alcohol that is bought commercially or do they mean that three hundred people die
33:49
from tainted alcohol that they could have potentially homebrewed. They've never specified that.
33:53
I think that was just like a statistic they put in the Men's Journal article.
33:57
But yeah, that'd be interesting because if it was home brewed alcohol,
34:01
how can you really know for sure if it was tainted. Yeah, it
34:06
says that most cases of methanol poisoning and this is not for men's health,
34:08
This is from a science journal, but it says are a result of drinking
34:14
home brewed alcohol. Methanol is either deliberately added to strengthen the informally produced alcohol,
34:21
or it's left in the brew because of poor cleaning and distillery practices.
34:28
Aren't you supposed to like pour off the top when you make like a homebrew
34:31
or moonshine or something, and that pours off the methanol. I don't know.
34:35
I think people used to die alcohol. I don't. I don't remember.
34:37
You're from the South, you should know now. So one theory which
34:45
has been pushed forward is that Rodney's death was the result of a prank on
34:47
horribly wrong. I mean, lacing someone's drink with methanol seems like a pretty
34:52
stupid idea for a practical joke. But people don't always make the best decisions
34:57
when they're drunk and have been living in isolation from That's why it's such a
35:00
shame that Rodney did not receive a proper autopsy to find the methanol in his
35:05
system until over six months after his death, because by that point, the
35:09
forty nine other people who had been stationed at the base had all gone their
35:13
separate ways and were scattered all over the world. The key to figuring out
35:16
what happened to Rodney would be at a pinpoint, the last time he took
35:20
a drink. When Rodney was being examined by doctor Thompson, he said he
35:23
hadn't taken a drink in nearly two days. But where did this drink take
35:28
place? Was it in the privacy of his own room, or was it
35:30
at a social event with numerous people. Did someone else have the opportunity to
35:35
handle one of Rodney's drinks before they gave it to him. If this had
35:38
occurred anywhere else besides the South Pole, law enforcement probably would have gotten involved
35:44
immediately and backtracked Rodney's movements to try and determine where and when he took the
35:49
fatal drink containing the methanol. But after more than six months, figuring out
35:53
something like this would pretty much be impossible, particularly since only a small fraction
35:58
of the basis personnel. We're willing to answer questions from the New Zealand police.
36:02
If someone wanted to murder Rodney, poisoning one of his drinks would be
36:07
the absolute perfect way to do so, because methanol is odorless and known for
36:10
having a taste that resembles vodka, so Rodney would have never even noticed.
36:15
But I guess the issue is that Rodney had one hundred and fifty milliliters of
36:19
methanol in his system, which is about enough to fill a wine glass.
36:22
So I have to wonder what he was drinking to be able to consume that
36:25
much without realizing it, my goodness, and for how long? And if
36:30
someone's sitting there deliberately poisoning multiple beverages for him, that's incredibly disturbing and very
36:37
risky as well. I had no idea it was that much to fill a
36:40
wine glass. So for me, if he's sitting there and he's having multiple
36:45
drinks that are being tainted, it can take, I believe, up to
36:50
like seventy two hours for methanol to finally shut somebody's body down if it's a
36:55
high dose like that. So he is presenting me symptom what forty eight hours
37:01
after he's had his last drink. But it's such a high level. Do
37:06
you is there any way that that medically could have metabolized in his system and
37:10
it actually seems like more than what it was like, could that at all
37:15
be a possibility, or when it was mixed with other drugs that it seems
37:19
to have thrown off the chemical I don't know, makeup of his body.
37:22
That just seems like so much. I'm not entirely sure. I mean,
37:28
it was six months after he died when they finally found those millileaters, so
37:30
I'm not sure if the body does produce methanol after someone dies. But they
37:36
did say that it had a vodka taste, so it could be a thing
37:39
where someone literally poured a glass of methanol and told Rodney it was vodka and
37:45
that's how he consumed so much. Well, that's true, And you could
37:47
also if you have a mixer with it that dolls, you know, pretty
37:51
heavy, like an orange juice or something like that, it wouldn't it wouldn't
37:53
be as suspicious either. Now we mentioned earlier, but no less than eighteen
38:00
liquor bottles were found inside Rodney's room, So theoretically, if someone wanted to
38:06
sneak into his room and slip methanol into his liquor to poison him, How
38:09
would they know which bottle to choose. In order for a murder plot to
38:14
work, the perpetrator would need to be certain that Rodney was drinking a specific
38:17
beverage at a specific time, which is why it would have been so useful
38:22
to piece together Rodney's drinking habits in the days preceding his death. But of
38:27
course that still doesn't answer the question about who would have had a potential motive
38:31
to harm Rodney. Well, you might have noticed that we haven't made much
38:35
mention of his fiance, Sonia Walter. Sonia refused to give interviews following Rodney's
38:40
death, but she did provide evidence at the coronial inquest and would continue to
38:45
return to Antarctica to work lengthy stints there. It seems like she was content
38:51
to put the whole incident behind her and move on with her life, and
38:53
for all we know, she might genuinely believe there was no foul play involved.
39:00
Certainly don't have any reason to suspect Sonya and anything, but I can't
39:04
help but wonder if their relationship might have set someone else off. Even though
39:08
an isolated research station in the South Pole sounds like an unusual place to meet
39:13
your soulmate, it sounds like Rodney and Sonya fell head over heels in love
39:16
with each other and seemed to be a perfect match. I mean, the
39:21
couple had literally not spent any time together in normal civilization before they decided that
39:25
they wanted to get married. But what if there was someone at the base
39:30
who had feelings for Sonya and became jealous. I mean, this is not
39:35
an environment where you could just move on if you see someone you like with
39:37
another partner. If anyone had issues with seeing Rodney and Sonya together, it's
39:43
not like they could just avoid the situation, as there were pretty much trapped
39:46
there for another six months. I have to wonder if this could have driven
39:52
someone to murder. But once again, this is all just pure speculation,
39:55
since I have not heard any stories about someone having issues with Rodney and Sonya's
40:00
relationship or any friction ever developing over it at the base. I would love
40:06
to go back in time and figure out what the social scenario was there.
40:09
I mean, they're playing these bands, they're having these concerts there. Drinking
40:15
is a very common pastime for everybody. I don't know why, in my
40:19
gut, I almost feel as if somebody was saying, oh, let me
40:22
run make you a drink. And his room really was like a sub bar
40:27
where you can run in there, mix a drink and a cocktail, run
40:30
back out to the show where he's playing music and everyone's having fun. And
40:35
so if someone wanted to go help him by getting a drink, they could
40:37
have easily poison it and known exactly which alcohol to select. It seems crazy
40:44
that you would decide to taint a whole bottle because there is a risk that
40:46
your target isn't the one that consumes it. Sonia could have consumed it.
40:51
One of the other band members could have consumed it, one of the other
40:52
researchers could have You might have accidentally been served by that bottle. So I
40:57
would more see someone say let me run get you and they bring it to
41:01
him, and that's how he's able to consume it. If he was performing
41:06
a few nights earlier, it's very possible someone was a runner running to get
41:09
him some drinks. Now, one thing I'd like to know is was there
41:14
anyone else at the base who started hitting on Sonya after Rodney died, or
41:17
making attempts to comfort her and say I'll be there for you no matter what.
41:22
I mean. I haven't heard information about her getting involved in another relationship,
41:25
but I'd like to find out if someone was paying extra special attention to
41:30
Sonya after Rodney passed away, because that would make them look like a promising
41:34
suspect, oh for sure. Or was Rodney getting special attention or special notoriety
41:38
in praise for research he was doing that could equally make somebody angry. I
41:45
mean, I certainly hope that Rodney's death wasn't a murder, because if it
41:47
was, the responsible party has done a very successful job at getting away with
41:52
it. If the New Zealand police somehow uncovered evidence which pointed to a specific
41:57
suspect, I can only imagine the red tape which might be involved in order
42:00
to make an arrest and bring them to trial. While I discount the suicide
42:05
theory, and I'm pretty certain that Rodney was completely unaware that he ingested methanol,
42:09
I really don't think there's enough conclusive evidence to point towards his death being
42:13
a homicide or some sort of freak accident such as drinking taint and moonshine.
42:19
But if it's the latter, then I do have to wonder if there are
42:21
some people from the base who have always known more than they let on.
42:24
Detective Senior Sergeant Wormold speculated that there might have been some employees from the NSApp
42:30
and raytheon who did not want to cooperate because they feared it could affect through
42:34
employment prospects. It's quite sad that Rodney's family have stated that they've pretty much
42:38
come to terms with the fact that they might not receive any answers about what
42:43
happened to him, and given the jurisdictional issues, there's not really anything they
42:46
can do about it. So much time has passed that if someone knows something,
42:51
I really wish they would come forward to at least put the Marx family
42:53
at peace and assure them that there isn't somebody out there getting away with murder.
43:00
However, if the solution is something like Rodney being poisoned by a tainted
43:04
bottle of liquor he purchased elsewhere before he arrived at the base, then we
43:07
will probably never know the truth. All that being said, if you happen
43:12
to have any information about the unexplained death of Rodney Marx. Please contact the
43:16
appropriate authorities. Jules Ashley, any final thoughts on the case. I'm gonna
43:22
have to piggyback off you, Robin. When we talk about the family,
43:24
they said, quote, it seems impossible, right, practically impossible that we
43:30
could ever find answers here and to know exactly what happened to our Rodney.
43:36
And like we talked about earlier, Rodney had called home, not just to
43:40
share that he's fine and doing well in Antarctica and he is soaring in his
43:45
professional duties, but hey, mom and Dad, I'm bringing home a girl
43:51
who I'm marrying. I'm engaged, I am starting to grow my family.
43:55
You have a daughter in law who can't wait to meet you. I mean,
43:59
this is such an exciting time in their son's life. And then he
44:02
tragically dies from what they think is cardiac arrest. And so imagine processing your
44:08
young son's death and just thinking, wow, what are the odds that our
44:15
healthy son goes to this research place that he's been so many times before and
44:20
his body just gives out. It's wild to process. They're sitting there waiting
44:24
for his body and his remains to come back so that they can give him
44:28
proper burial, and then they get him back in their care. They check
44:32
an autopsy off the list, which is usually required when there's a sudden death
44:36
of a young individual, and it's methanol poisoning. So in their gut,
44:43
they are not grieving a tragic natural death, which has its own set of
44:46
coping mechanisms and grief kind of processes that go with it. Now they have
44:52
a question mark not only of like tell me what happened, But it's really
44:57
hard to understand, Like you said, is it murder? Is it ambern
45:00
with something? Could it have been the result of something at that lab?
45:04
Was it prior to him getting there, that he was exposed to something.
45:07
There's no answers or guidance for them, And so to now process what was
45:14
odd and crazy and tragic before a young man dying of natural causes, Now
45:19
it sets off a whole nother journey of what even happened? Like what senseless
45:23
thing happened that robbed us of time? Not just with Rodney, but remember
45:29
they lost so much more than that. They lost Sonia, They lost potential
45:31
kids that they could have had together. The family lost big time when they
45:37
buried their son, and so to not have answers is difficult. To feel
45:42
like institutions that your son gave his career in life to weren't really protecting his
45:46
best interest. All of that has to be so harmful. So my prayer
45:51
would be that one day there is some kind of clarity for the family.
45:55
But at this point it's so sad to say that I almost side with the
45:59
family and it says it's quote practically impossible to know what happened. Yeah,
46:05
I agree unless there is somebody who comes forward. And the one person that
46:10
I'm just so interested in is yes, the doctor is interesting, but I
46:15
don't think he had anything to do with it. I think there was potentially
46:17
just some negligence on his ecticam machine that he didn't recalibrate it or keep it
46:23
up to date. But it's the person who was anonymous and wrote in the
46:29
suggestion that they check into the liquor bottle with the that was shaped like a
46:32
shrimp or had a shrimp on it and potentially Portuguese writing. And I'd said,
46:37
well, maybe it was misdirection, and Ashley said, well, maybe
46:42
they did the poisoning, and they did it in that bottle and so they're
46:45
like cantin there. It is, so it could be any number of things,
46:49
and maybe that person was anonymous because of the corporation. Maybe they worked
46:54
for Raytheon or the NSF and they didn't want to have their job put into
47:00
jeopardy, or potentially they had something to do with it, and there's a
47:04
more nefarious angle there. But it is so heartbreaking in this situation, it's
47:09
literally like an Agather Christiane novel, but for the family, it's a very
47:14
real situation where their loved one goes He's brilliant, this brilliant astrophysicist who clearly
47:21
has struggled with drugs in the past. You know, you don't casually do
47:24
intervenous drugs, and he'd gotten himself to a place where maybe that's one of
47:29
the reasons that he liked being in that arctica. If you're somebody who'd struggled
47:32
with drug use and you know that it's going to be a drug free environment,
47:37
then you basically only have access to alcohol. So I can see how
47:40
that would be comforting in some way for somebody who may struggle with that,
47:45
And I just I find this case so frustrating. We have so little information
47:50
here, and I Just've got nothing else to say except for I really hope
47:54
that somebody comes forward if it is indeed murder, because this family really and
48:00
truly deserves to know what happened to Rodney. Yeah, in our last episode,
48:04
we used the word unprecedented to describe this case, because I can guarantee
48:07
you We're not going to find another case like this throughout the entire world.
48:12
And that is the problem. That is the big obstacle for getting it solved,
48:15
Because if we had a situation like this where someone was in an isolated
48:19
location and diet under suspicious circumstances, they'd be able to launch an investigation quickly,
48:23
question everyone else was there, collect the evidence, and even if it
48:28
was never solved, at least you could know that the best possible investigation was
48:31
being performed. But that was just not an option here because they could not
48:36
figure out Rodney's cause of death for six months, they could only question a
48:39
handful of the people who were actually present at the station. All the evidence
48:45
which could have pointed towards homicide had since been disposed of. So it's like
48:49
the only way this could be solved after all this time is if there is
48:52
someone from the station who knows the truth about what happened and decides to come
48:58
forward and develops the content. But if this is a case where Rodney just
49:01
drank a tainted bottle of liquor, then there's any did it alone without the
49:07
company of anyone else, then there's no way to conclusively solve this. So
49:10
it's kind of a terrible situation for the family where you really don't hope that
49:15
this wasn't a homicide and that someone is getting away with it. But if
49:17
it was not, then there's no way to provide the family with conclusive answers.
49:22
I mean, it is good that they've acknowledged that they may not get
49:27
any conclusive answers, because well, that's a terrible situation. I guess that
49:30
is better that they have come to terms with that fact, but it would
49:35
be nice if they could get a more conclusive resolution. I myself, I
49:40
am kind of on the fence. I mean, under almost circumstances, I
49:44
would automatically assume this was a murder, this is an intentional poisoning. But
49:47
because we don't have any information about potential suspects, motive or like a means
49:53
to carry out the crime, then we just can't say that for certainty.
49:57
I cannot rule out the possibility that this was some sort of just accidental poisoning,
50:02
just a tragic accident. But until someone comes forward, we will probably
50:07
never know the full truth and this will be literally one of the coldest cold
50:10
cases to ever exist. Robin, do you want to tell us a little
50:15
bit about the Trail Went Cold Patreon? Yes. The Trail Cold Patreon has
50:19
been around for three years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like
50:22
early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers and sign thank you
50:28
cards to anyone who signs up with us on Patreon if you join our five
50:31
dollars tier Tier two. We also offer monthly bonus episodes in which I talk
50:37
about cases which are not featured on the Trail Went Cold's original feed, so
50:42
they're exclusive to Patreon, and if you join our highest tier tier free,
50:45
the ten dollars tier. One of the features we offer is a audio commentary
50:50
track over classic episodes of UNSAWD Mysteries, where you can download an audio file
50:54
and then boot up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime YouTube and play
51:00
it with my audio commentary playing in the background where I just provide trivia and
51:05
factoids about the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very first
51:09
episode that I did a commentary track over was the episode featuring this case.
51:14
So if you want to download a commentary track in which I make more smart
51:17
ass remarks about Jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join Tier three. So
51:22
I want to let you know a little bit about the Jewles and Nashty patreons.
51:25
So there's early ad free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got
51:29
our Pathwent Chili mini's, which are always over an hour, so they're not
51:32
very mini, but they're just too short to turn into a series, and
51:36
we're really enjoying doing those, so we hope you'll check out those patreons.
51:39
We'll link them in the show notes. So I want to thank you all
51:43
for listening, and any chance you have to share us on social media with
51:45
a friend or to rate and review is greatly appreciate it. You can email
51:50
us at The Pathwentchili at gmail dot com. You can reach us on Twitter
51:53
at the Pathwin. So until next time, be sure to bundle up because
51:58
cold trails and chili pass call for warm clothing. Music by Paul Rich from
52:01
the podcast Cold Callers comedy