UPDATE: Murdered Caltech astrophysicist called authorities a few months ago on the same man who later killed him, alleging trespass at that time. Freddy Snyder, was arrested on a weapons charge in Dec. 2025 (because Snyder was no longer on the property when law enforcement arrived in Dec.). This week, Snyder's family, who apparently lived in the area, reported that Snyder had carjacked their car, but only reported it after they learned Snyder was the suspect in a murder.
By Matthew Rodriguez, Hunter Sowards
Updated on: February 20, 2026 / 3:10 PM PST / CBS LA
…"The LA County Sheriff's Department said Freddy Snyder, 29, allegedly killed 67-year-old Carl Grillmair in the High Desert city of Llano on Monday morning. Deputies responded to the 30700 block of 165th Street East and found Grillmair on the porch with a fatal gunshot wound. …
[In none of the articles is it disclosed who placed the 911 call to the scientist's home. It is a very remote area. See pics below. And no one, anywhere, has posted a picture of the accused murderer.]
"Detectives said that Snyder had carjacked a family member's car before killing Grillmair, but the family did not report it until after they realized Snyder allegedly killed someone.
"LASD saidGrillmair had [previously] called deputies on Dec. 20, 2025, to have Snyder trespassed from his home. Deputies arrested Snyder for weapons violations because he had left Grillmair's home by the time authorities arrived, according to detectives.
"[This time, t]he LA County District Attorney's Office charged Snyder with murder, carjacking and burglary. His bail is set at $2 million.
"A colleague confirmed that Grillmair worked at the California Institute of Technology. According to his profile on Caltech's website,Grillmair's research focused on dark matter, galactic structure, stellar populations and exoplanets.
…
"Carl is irreplaceable because of the ingenuity he injected into his research in astronomy,"Sergio Fajardo-Acosta said.
"Grillmair wasawarded the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.
"He was always ready to teach," Fajardo-Acosta said. "To share his knowledge, he never held anything back."
https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1393002-leading-astrophysicist-shot-dead-at-southern-california-home#:~:text=The%20county%20medical%20examiner%20later,threats%2C%20according%20to%20the%20report.
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/caltech-scientist-shot-to-death-in-front-of-los-angeles-county-home/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYHSDNkeRho [shows how remote the area was where scientist, apparently killer's family members from whom he stole the car, lived]
“He was very famous in astronomy and a very renowned scientist,” said astronomer Sergio Fajardo-Acosta, who worked alongside Grillmair at Caltech for 26 years. “His legacy will live on forever.”
“…A spokesperson for Caltech confirmed that Grillmair was employed as a research scientist at the university. He worked at the university’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, which partners with NASA, the U.S. National Science Foundation and researchers around the world to advance the exploration of the universe.
“Grillmair enjoyed living in a remote area of the Antelope Valley because it allowed him to observe bright stars in the dark night sky, and he even built an at-home astronomical observatory outfitted with several telescopes, Fajardo-Acosta said. When he wasn’t studying outer space, heenjoyed flying airplanes over the desert and working on home improvement projects.
…
“Grillmair’s work had focused on ‘’’uncovering the structure of the Milky Way, identifying faint stellar streams and substructures that make up the galactic halo surrounding our spiral galaxy, and helping reshape our understanding of how galaxies evolve’’’, according to his website.
One of his ‘’’most notable accomplishments was a paper published in 2007’’’ about thepresence of water on a distant planet outside our solar system. ..
Grillmair also ‘’’had the privilege of naming several galactic streams that he discovered, which are a relic of the collision of the Milky Way with another galaxy.’’’
…
‘Grillmair had ‘’’been awarded substantial observation time as a principal investigator on the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope, and his research earned him numerous accolades, including a NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.’’’
At the time of his death, he was focused on studying comets and asteroids that could pose a hazard to Earth.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-02-19/caltech-astrophysicist-fatally-shot-on-porch-in-antelope-valley