RedHanded - Bonus Patreon Upcycle - Rodney Marks: Murder at The Bottom of the World

Episode Date: January 4, 2024

Thanks to COVID, we all now know, better than ever the impact that social isolation can have on our mental health. Depression, confused thinking, and emotional instability were symptoms many of us became all too familiar with; but imagine you had been in lockdown somewhere thousands of miles away from the nearest city, in perpetual darkness for 6-months of the year, and subjected to temperatures as low as -80 degrees celsius... Oh, and you're locked down with your co-workers...That shit might just make you want to kill somebody... right?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, the Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello again. Welcome back to part two, the final part of this year's Patreon bonus upcycle. Once again, we have gone into the Patreon archives and pulled out one of our fantastic monthly bonus episodes. We really hope you enjoy it.

And if you do, and you're like, hey, I could get used to this, why not go over to patreon.com slash redhanded, where you can join our Patreon. And you can choose exactly how much you want to sign up for. $5, $10, $20, it's up to you. But the more you give, the more bonus content you get. Now, with that being said, please enjoy this episode. I'm Sruti. I'm Hannah. And welcome to Patreon bonus episode for the month of Mouch. Mouch. Well done.

Congratulations. Come on in. The water's fucking icy. Yeah. Because this month's bonus episode takes us to a continent where there are no police, no prisons or prisoners, and a continent that has a crime rate lower than any Scandinavian country. In fact, it has the lowest

crime rate of anywhere on the entire planet. And many of the residents of this continent even have PhDs. Is it Iceland that has the most noble laureates per capita because there's so few people? Oh, I didn't know that. I think so. I think it is Iceland. Oh, but if it's per capita, that's massive over-representation because if it's like that's taking into account the fact that they've got fewer people. Yeah. So I think it's like maybe they's massive over representation because if it's like that's taking into account the fact that they've got fewer people yeah so i think it's like maybe they've only ever had two but because there's so few people oh i see i see that like that's like the number of sure yeah fucking hell no i didn't i don't know i don't know i obviously don't know how to podcast because i haven't even put my headphones on i was like something feels weird

why can i not why can I not hear you through my ears in a more intimate oh there you go yeah am I there now you're in my brain brilliant hello no it is it's an icy place giving away all the clues but I do have a little heat pad on my lap because Hannah and I have gone full-on hospice office yeah hospice office that's what our new office is it's a hospice office because the other day we've moved into this new office and we've been here for like six weeks now and we're just very cold it's quite chilly yeah because it's like a converted warehouse and it looks very nice got a big window lots of exposed brickwork but i'm questioning the

repointing on some of that brick work. Someone's renovated a house. I know. Hello. Because there's quite a lot of gusty wind that seems to come in. There's single glazing as well, which doesn't help. Yeah. So it's quite appropriate for today's episode. But we bought ourselves some old people heat pads.

And it's the best thing we ever purchased. I can't remember where I heard this. There was an old people's home. They were like, we have a psychic cat because the cat knows who's going to die next. No. Because it will go and lie on the bed of the person who's going to die next. Maybe the cat was killing people. Well, they figured out that when someone is close to death, they give them a heated blanket.

So the cat just goes and sits on the heated blanket. It wasn't psychic. I like the idea that this old people's home only had one heated blanket and you only got it if you were going to die. Well, luckily for you, dear listeners, Hannah and I are not about to die, hopefully. And we bought ourselves one heated pad each so we don't have to share it or get harassed by a cold cat but anyway all of that is very irrelevant back to the continent that we're heading to today the other natives of this particular continent the ones that don't have phds do have wings but they can't fly and they're born in tuxedos and are absolutely fucking adorable and however cute and romantic it might be and whimsical,

their name for this particular bird in Mandarin does not translate to business goose. However much people on Hinge want you to believe that it does. I saw a business goose swimming in South Africa, which was one of the coolest things ever. Because obviously kind of like the Galapagos Islands, they do have like a special breed of penguin. And they are fast. And you'll just be in the ocean and they'll just come and hang out with you and be like,

pew, pew, pew, I'm a penguin. Amazing. They are very cute. And actually I spent a birthday several years ago when I was traveling in Torres del Paine, which is either in Argentina or Chile, I can't remember. But I camped on the 29th of October it was absolutely fucking freezing yeah I bet right next to a penguin colony colony fuck me are those birds loud they make noise 24 hours a day it's like they don't sleep or they

take it in turns to sleep but they were very very loud so yes you've guessed it there are of course penguins and you have probably also guessed the magical utopic land that we are talking about today it is of course antarctica not like they got it wrong on the apprentice arctic arctic arctic yes because famously no penguins in the arctic or the arctic no no and if you don't know what we're talking about it's because you're not watching enough of the bbc hit series the og apprentice obviously it's been going're not watching enough of the BBC hit series The OG Apprentice. Obviously it's been going for many many years right it's been going for like 15 years or something like that so I don't know whether the casting pool is now just much smaller but I feel like especially this series the people on it I'm like you literally could not sell me a toothbrush. No no they're very bad. Like terrible terrible. I think it

is a combination of them purposefully picking people who are quite stupid yes yeah though one of the girls on it used to work at my old company shut up which one the blonde one that's in the final what's her name she never smiles the one that they were doing the like qvc shopping thing and they're like smile smile smile oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so anyway i think they're all quite stupid and also i do have to say that those tasks are like created for people not to succeed massively oh sure yeah but they fail very badly and i also think it's edited for comic effect of course it is but anyway that's not what we're here to talk about. We are here to talk about Antarctica. And much like its landscape, if you look a little closer at Antarctica,

its record isn't quite as pristine as it might first appear. To this day, not a single murder has ever been recorded there. But that doesn't mean that nobody ever got close. The first violent crime on record in the Antarctic dates all the way back to 1959. And it took place on a Soviet research station known as the Vostek Station. Immediately, Soviet research station

setting for a horror film. Oh, absolutely. The only thing that could top it is there's like and it's a rom-com set on a soviet research center yeah so apparently there was a rather heated chess game between two russian scientists and it ended up with one of them attacking the other one with an ice pick again very russian of them very trotsky-esque. That particular stabbing incident, unlike Trotsky, wasn't fatal. But after a KGB investigation, chess games were banned from then on in all Soviet Antarctic stations, which, fair enough.

Though I would say, if you get angry enough to stab your comrade with an ice pick, I think it's probably not just about the chess. I don't think it's about the chess. I think it's probably not just about the chess i don't think it's about the chess i think it's about being so incredibly isolated and in the dark i think i'd stab anyone after about a week so when we were reading about this incident we did sort of have a little think about whether something as inconsequential as a game of chess between two co-workers would have ended in the same way had they not been living together in one of the most isolated and brutal parts of the world. I hate chess. I think it's just invented to make people feel stupid. I'm not very good at thinking steps ahead, which is why I'm

terrible at chess and also not very good at Connect Four. But I just like the amount of time it takes to become good at chess, I think is specifically engineered for people to feel smug I don't like it not a fan not a fan at all I wouldn't say I'm particularly good at chess but I feel like let them have it I'm fine with it so this isolation this isolationist theme that's going to be running through today's episode I I think thanks to COVID, we all know now better than ever, the impact that isolation can have on an individual's mental health. Everything ranging from depression to confused thinking, delusions, hallucination, emotional instability, and in extreme cases, even outright psychosis can spawn from long periods of social isolation. Now, if you double that up with the harsh conditions of Antarctica, a continent that

has just two seasons all year round, summer and winter, where during the six-month winter the entire continent is in perpetual darkness with absolutely no daylight whatsoever, you might begin to understand how someone could see murdering their co-worker with an ice pick as the only reasonable reaction to losing a game of chess especially since studies have clearly shown that when a person's circadian rhythm the biological system governed by the 24-hour day and therefore light and dark is disrupted they can become more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior oh 100 you ever met a new parent yeah like just let people fucking sleep also people who do shift work

I'm like how do they manage how do you manage that because it's just not it's not natural it's not and the ice pick incident the great ice pick chess game of the ages isn't the only example of this kind of behavior that we've seen in April, the Argentine Almirante Brown Research Station was burned to the ground by the station's disgruntled leader, a doctor who was rather upset when he was ordered to stay there for the entire winter. That would be me. I mean, I would burn it to the ground. I love that we've described him as disgruntled. I'm like, yeah, it's like just a bit pissed off. Not like he's just fed up. Sent a bit of a pithy email he fucking burnt his research center down to the ground so he wouldn't have to stay there that would be me saru sent me a picture the other day of a dog hugging a like pile of snow

because saru loves the winter loves being cold whereas i hate it so i like sent back a tweet that was like i like to pretend that i'm a really complex emotional being, but actually when the sun comes out, I'm happy. So I'm functionally no different from a large leaf, which is true. That dog video was so funny. It's just like a ballad playing over this husky laying on top of a tiny little bit of snow that's left in his garden. I'm Jake Warren. And in our first season of Finding,

I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mum's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now exclusively on Wondery+. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go.

A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me and it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding and this time, if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media-fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall,

that was no protection. Claudine Gay is now gone. We've exposed the DEI regime, and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On The Media. To listen, subscribe to On The Media wherever you get your podcasts. So, this disgruntled man, who was so disgruntled he set it on fire, that meant that the station's personnel had to be rescued by a ship and taken to a neighbouring American station about 60 miles away. And as recently as 2018, again on a Russian research station, the Bellinghausen station, a 54-year-old electrical engineer called Sergei

Stavinsky stabbed 52-year-old welder Oleg Belozgakov in the chest multiple times. They'd been working together for about seven months at the base with 14 other people. During this time, tensions had risen between the pair of them because Oleg liked to wind Sergei up by repeatedly giving away the spoilers to every book that Sergei checked out of the station's library. That's such a niche dick move. Oh, it's vindictive, isn't it? It's just so mean. It's so mean. Like, I don't want to victim blame. But what? Why? Why are you doing that, Oleg? Leave him alone. Yeah. So it seems that Sergei reached his breaking point at lunchtime when Oleg suggested that he should dance on the

table for money. And that's when Sergei lost it, grabbed a knife and stabbed Oleg right in the chest. Oh, dear. I know people do get upset about spoilers and i've never really understood it i think because like i'm just one of those people where knowing what happens doesn't ruin it for me so i don't find it annoying i've never fully understood why people get so enraged by it yeah i'd rather not know i'd rather you not whisper the ending of every book i pick up from pick Bruce Willis is dead. Pick up every book I pick up from this library when all we have to do is read these books that are in the library. And I'm like,

but I'm probably not going to stab you over it. What are the like all time greatest? I mean, the Sixth Sense, obvious one. Fight Club's another obvious one. There's got to be more. Oh, I've just finished listening to Billy Connolly's autobiography, which I highly recommend, by the way. It's called Winswwept and interesting and there's a bit in it where he's talking about

learning to scuba dive and then talks about like various interactions with sharks he was like yeah it's like jaws you know that film where the shark can play the cello i love billy connelly we'll listen to it in Sri Lanka you'll have a great time. So let's not get ourselves into trouble by giving away more spoilers and let's move on. Fortunately, Oleg, the book spoiler, was flown to a hospital in Chile just in time. And he actually survived being stabbed in the chest multiple times. Oh, yeah. That's what happens when you're mean and vindictive. But at the time of the attack, Sergei and the 14 others on the base had just come out of the Antarctic winter,

which no doubt had had an enormous impact on their mental health. And mixed with all the alcohol that they'd been downing on a regular basis, it was a disaster waiting to happen. Now you might be wondering how the law in the Antarctic is handled. We have done on this show many a rundown on the legal systems of many a continent, many a nation, many a city, cathedral, city, whatever. Well, in the Antarctic, it's slightly different. Since there is no government to make the laws and no state has sovereignty over the continent, the Antarctic is subject to a series of international treaties known as the Antarctic Treaty System. Great.

But to be fair, easy to remember. Yes, true. If we were ever going to have to do an exam on the legal system of the Antarctic, presumably one of the questions wouldn't be what is the treaty system called, the Antarctic Treaty System. But if it was, fucking pass. So the most important of these treaties is the Antarctic Treaty. Again, just such original naming systems here.

And this came into effect in 1961 and has since been signed by 54 countries, including the US, the UK and Russia. Presumably the nations that are spending the most time out on the Antarctic. And it's mainly there to ensure scientific cooperation between countries and to outlaw any sort of military operations taking place on the icy continent. But how does the treaty deal with crimes committed there? Well, scientists don't suddenly get to act as law enforcement.

No, no, no. Instead, as per the Antarctic Treaty, the person who commits the crime is subject to the law enforcement policies of their home country. Interesting. Okay. So kind of like cruise ships? No, the opposite of cruise ships. who commits the crime is subject to the law enforcement policies of their home country. Interesting. Okay. So kind of like cruise ships. No, the opposite of cruise ships.

Oh, yes. Cruise ships are wherever they're registered. Unless they're within six miles of a country, something like that. That's just me remembering the Amy Bradley episode that I wrote fucking five years ago. So if I'm wrong, you brought it on yourself, listener. So for example, let's have a look at our book spoiler stabber, Sergei. He was imprisoned in a church in Antarctica for 11 days before he was flown back to Russia. There are churches on Antarctica? I also thought that, but you know what? Probably. Those Christians, man, they get everywhere.

They're trying to fucking convert some penguins, you know, etc. While we're here, let's build a church. And the good thing about like a Protestant church, I don't know if it was, but I assume maybe it was, very simple to build. Yep. Can knock one of those up in a day. Probably most other religious houses are going to take a bit longer,

so they beat you to it. Welcome to my religious house. Just off the Russian fucking research centre. I thought the Russians would have been orthodox. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Well, in the 80s, they would have been nothing at all. Of course. Yeah, that's why they were like,

Sergei, to teach you a lesson, I'm going to fucking knock you in this godhouse. To the church with you. Once Sergei got back to Mother Russia, it was discovered by those having a look at him that he was actually in the midst of a nervous breakdown when he had attacked Oleg. And the judge decided to drop the attempted murder case against him.

Surprisingly, at the request of the stabby Oleg, who said he forgave Sergei and believed that he showed genuine remorse, which is extremely nice of him. I wonder if he was like, you know what? Fair enough. I was. I deserved it. I was also having a tough time. We've been in the dark for six months and I was being a right prick. Yeah, yeah.

So you know what? There's there. At least it's holding his hands up. Equals, equals. Equals, equals. And now, of course, a case like this only works if the culprit is caught. And in all the examples we've mentioned of the previous crimes committed on the continent of Antarctica, it's pretty obvious who was guilty.

There's one case that stands out against the others, and it happened in May 2000. And it might well be the only murder to have ever taken place in the Antarctic that we know of. And to this day, almost 22 years on, it remains officially unsolved. It was the 11th of May 2000, and Rodney Marks was walking back to the main base at Amundsen Scott South Pole Station, when he began to feel slightly peculiar. But this wasn't the normal sort of strange feeling that everybody got from adjusting

to the minus 62 degrees Celsius temperatures and the 24 hour long nights. The 32 year old astrophysicist's chest was tight and he was struggling to breathe. A little later on, his vision started to blur and his entire body began to ache. Rodney assumed that he was likely just exhausted from working long hours and got into bed early, hoping that a good night's sleep might sort him out. He was wrong. Rodney didn't sleep a wink that night, and by 5.30am, he was hunched over his toilet, vomiting blood. That morning, knowing something was definitely very, very wrong, Rodney stumbled to the biomed facility. He went back there three times over the course of the day,

and after each visit, his symptoms were just worse and worse. Every bone and muscle in his body felt like it was on fire. His eyes had become so sensitive that he had to wear sunglasses even though the sun hadn't risen over the base for weeks. It was not looking good for him. His physical state deteriorated and his mind did too. On Rodney's third visit to the doctor he was so agitated that he was almost hyperventilating. The doctor, Dr Thompson, couldn't think of a single medical problem that would be causing Rodney's symptoms and the only link to the outside world he had was a satellite phone and also an internet connection, both of which

were down at the time. The only thing Thompson could think might have been the issue was potentially alcohol withdrawal symptoms or maybe the astrophysicist's high level of anxiety. So the doctor decided that he was going to inject Rodney with the powerful antipsychotic Haldol, hoping that it would calm him down. Almost immediately after the injection, Rodney's body relaxed and he laid back on his gurney as his breathing calmed down. So it seemed like the anti-psychotic had done the trick. But it hadn't. Just a few minutes later, Rodney's heart totally stopped. Thompson then spent the next 45 minutes attempting to resuscitate Rodney, but it was hopeless. At 6.45pm on the 12th of May in the year 2000, Rodney Marks was declared dead. I love a good, like, isolation horror. Yeah. I love a good like isolation horror yeah I love a good like space horror I also love a good like

icy horror like you know talking like aliens aliens versus predator is that the one that's like a pyramid under Antarctica I don't know but just the idea of being trapped there needing serious help and the satellite phone's down and the internet's down well that's why they all have to have their appendixes out yeah yeah yeah and their wisdom teeth yes get it all out preventatively but obviously there are many medical conditions that might pop up during the long stints that these people serve in antarctica that might come up unexpectedly yes and i have one for you hannah it's a quote-unquote fun fact so during the winter of 1998 at the same pole station that we're at so amundsen scott south pole station there was a woman there named dr jerry lynn

nielsen and dr jerry one day found a lump on her breast and being the bad bitch that she was she teleconferenced with doctors in America whilst performing a biopsy on herself using medical equipment that had been airdropped to her by a military plane. Wow. She then discovered from the biopsy that she did indeed have cancer. So she administered chemotherapy on herself while waiting weeks for weather conditions to improve so that she could be basically rescued from there and taken back to America. That's pretty sick. That is pretty sick. What a babe. I know. I hope she survived. I know, I don't have that information, but let's

say that she did. I'm choosing to believe that she did live. Exactly. So as for Rodney, due to the extreme weather temperatures of the Antarctic winter, it wouldn't be possible for a plane to land at the base for another five months. So, his peers had hours after Rodney's death saying that he had died of natural causes which seems like a pretty swift declaration of that considering there hadn't been any sort of investigation into what had actually killed him. And the remaining 49 other people at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station

mourned the death of their colleague but then they carried on with their daily lives. Rodney was actually an Australian citizen the people at the Amundsen Scott South Pole Station mourned the death of their colleague, but then they carried on with their daily lives. Rodney was actually an Australian citizen working on an American base, which was on territory claimed by New Zealand. So this all made it a pretty big headache, to say the least, in terms of deciding who was going to investigate Rodney's death. But it eventually landed on New Zealand being the ones to take on that onus. So on the 30th of October 2000, the first plane from Antarctica landed in Christchurch, New Zealand, carrying Rodney Marks' body in a casket along with it. Six weeks later, on the 19th of December, a forensic pathologist carried out an autopsy on the young astrophysicist's body and revealed a

very disturbing discovery. Rodney's cause of death had been anything but natural. In fact, Rodney Marks had been poisoned. Rodney's blood contained lethal amounts of methanol, a highly toxic, sweet-tasting, colourless wood alcohol that Rodney used to clean high-tech telescopes. But the amount found in his blood was way beyond any amount that could be explained by normal contact with the chemical. There was at least a small wine glass worth of methanol in his system, and the pathologist was certain that Rodney must have ingested it. But the question was, had Rodney drunk the poison accidentally, intentionally, or had someone slipped it to him? I think that's the thing, isn't it? With methanol,

is that the stuff that's in like antifreeze that makes it taste really sweet, which is the danger because like if you spill it in your like shed or something, your dog will drink it. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, apparently antifreeze is really sweet. And now like a lot of producers or manufacturers of antifreeze like have to put other stuff in it to make it taste horrible because dogs love the taste of antifreeze. And it obviously kills them. The pathologist also found needle marks on Rodney's arms, but his body was free of any illegal drugs. Suicide seemed like an unlikely explanation to the other 49 people that lived and worked with Rodney at Amundsen Scott. Apart from the fact that his shock and confusion about what was happening to him in his final hours seemed completely genuine,

he just didn't seem to have a reason to take his own life. I mean, people don't need a reason. Like, there is no logical reason to take your own life. It's a completely illogical thing to do. But i can understand people who are his friends would say that to be like he didn't have a reason to kill himself at all yeah yeah yeah yeah no i understand that however what i do think is it's a fucking horrible way to go and if you knew which he would have if he had he if he had injected it himself he would have known what it was and i find it I find it harder to believe that he wouldn't have just said, I've drunk all this methanol. Yeah, because if he had done it to himself and then changed his mind,

because that's why he's going to the med tent, he would have obviously told them so that they could have helped him. I would find it very difficult to believe that he wouldn't. And as much as we've talked about how difficult it is to live on these bases and how much it can have an impact on people's mental health, it didn't seem so for Rodney. Rodney absolutely loved his work, and when he wasn't working, he was one of the most social, full-of-life people you could ever meet,

according to his colleagues. He loved his friends at the base, and he even was planning to marry his fiancée and colleague, Sonia Walton, when they returned home. Also, this wasn't Rodney's first rodeo. He was already very familiar with the stresses of life in the Antarctic, having wintered there the year before, from 1997 to 1998. He had also worked at the Centre of Astrophysical Research in Antarctica, which is also called CARA, and this is in the South Pole, and this is for some sort of infrared explorer project and

one of his colleagues there Dr Chris Martin said that Rodney loved it so much he had decided to go back so it's a man who knows what he was letting himself in for even then of course it could have changed but I find his shock like his colleagues say at what was going wrong with him confusing if he had done it to himself and on his second trip which is 1999 to 2000 which would ultimately be his last rodney worked on the antarctic sub millimeter telescope and remote observatory project as a researcher for the smithsonian astrophysical observatory antarctica is one of the best places in the world to observe space and rodney was carrying out groundbreaking research. So

investigators ruled out suicide and it also seemed extremely unlikely that Rodney could have accidentally drunk 150 milliliters of methanol. It was no secret that Rodney liked to drink and that he regularly did so to mask the symptoms of his Tourette's syndrome but that wouldn't explain why he'd resort to drinking methanol especially when you're in a place where all you have to do to die is go outside. apparently like falling asleep in the cold is like not a bad way i mean it's obviously horrible because you're dead yeah but like i've heard that drowning people feel like euphoric and falling asleep in the cold just feels like falling asleep in the cold and then you just never wake back up again and and you know rodney's a really intelligent guy he's a

scientist for god's sake. He would have known what the chemical was and not to ingest it. And also, if he was looking to get pissed, they had all the booze they wanted in the world. They weren't short of anything. It's not like he has to make moonshine in the bath. No, I mean, they never once say anywhere about this episode that they were somehow like rationing alcohol and he'd been driven to drink methanol. So that, unfortunately, leaves just one possibility. That someone had slipped drink methanol. So that unfortunately leaves just one possibility, that someone had slipped the methanol into Rodney's drink. So that left the 49 other

people who worked on the base, including his fiance, I would assume, feeling quite uneasy, thinking that they potentially had a killer in their midst. Oh, it's like such a like, locked room Agatha Christie. Yes, absolutely. Why aren't there more like, crime or like crime dramas like this? I'd watch this. There was a podcast one, The White Vault. Oh, yeah.

Years ago by the same people who made the black tapes, I think. Oh, yeah. I never actually listened to that. Maybe I should give it a shot. They did also have the BBC submarine thriller last year. Oh, yeah. Vigil, HMS Vigil. It was okay.

Yeah. No, I didn't watch it. But the people on the base, as much as they thought about it, they couldn't decide who would have wanted to hurt Rodney. He was one of the most popular people on the base. His bohemian ways and natural charm won people over instantly. He was a six-foot-two bearded free spirit with purple hair. He played the guitar in the base's band,

which is called Fanny Pack and the Big Nancy Boys, which is hilarious. And he was described by his colleagues as absolutely brilliant. I think that's the thing, isn't it? Because the other cases that we've talked about of violence in Antarctica, they seem to be very spontaneous acts of aggression or violence. Which match up with the idea that people are sort of slowly losing their minds thanks to the isolation and perpetual darkness. But this, if Rodney was killed, which is absolutely what it looks like, it's a very calculated thing that somebody did to slip him 150 mil of ethanol and then stay silent about it for the rest of their lives

because it's never been discovered who's done it. I think that's probably what freaked people out more than if someone had just attacked him over the dinner table. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of his colleagues had this to say about Rodney in a blog post. His dry wit was sometimes misinterpreted here by the people not used to it, and this is where his considerate nature and his kindness would come out. I saw him numerous times make amends in a very nice way for these misunderstandings. He would also say or do something kind for someone having a hard time in general. I think that's also

quite interesting, isn't it? Because obviously on these international research bases they have people from all over the world so like russians brits americans new zealanders australians and obviously everyone has a very different sense of humor and culturally speaking and there's a lot of alcohol and everybody's in darkness and everybody's really tired and cold and isolated. And I'm guessing, yeah, there were probably petty arguments about shit that didn't fucking matter. And yeah, I can see how this kind of thing happens. Not the murder, obviously. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US.S. history. Presidential lies,

environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today.

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from law and crime, this is the rise and fall of Diddy. Listen to the rise and fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery Plus. So the investigation into Rodney's death, as we said, it was given to New Zealand to handle, and it was carried out by veteran detective Grant Wormald. And from the jump, this case was absolutely riddled with hurdles, which given the fact that he's only got 49 people to pick from, I get that it's hard. I'm not throwing shade on Grant, but it's not like you've got everybody in the world is a possible suspect.

No, and it quite literally has to be one of them. It does. It's not a penguin. Exactly, exactly. Malicious penguin attack. quite literally has to be one of them it does it's not a penguin exactly exactly malicious penguin attack okay so the thing i will say about what did make grant's investigation quite difficult was that he wasn't actually at the base he was carrying out the investigation from 5 000 miles away so okay again this should be a movie and also he was carrying out the murder

investigation six months after the fact, because obviously people had just decided that it wasn't foul play at first and it wasn't looked into as being something different for a very long time after. And there were also numerous other obstacles in his way. For one, the evidence he had to go off was basically non-existent, apart from the findings from the autopsy. Had a young healthy person like Rodney died in such a strange circumstance anywhere else in the world his office and living quarters would have been cordoned off and preserved for investigation but since Rodney's death had initially been announced to be from natural causes prematurely massively prematurely this didn't happen so they've basically lost god knows what

sort of evidence in the first few days. And a couple of items had been collected from Rodney's office and bedroom and put aside, but everything else had just been thrown away. And obviously, unfortunately, both his office and his bedroom had also been cleaned. And his office had even been used by other scientists. And his fiance Sonia had slept in his bedroom for the rest of the winter so basically total destruction yeah there's no chance there's no evidence as warmold carried out his investigation the best he could with the limited information that he had the nsf and the u.s government carried out their own investigation in 2002 2002, Wormald made a formal request to the NSF

for the contact information of the 49 people who had been working at the base in 2000 with Rodney, along with any other findings they'd made. But they were less than cooperative. It seems the NSF were more concerned about this case turning into a PR nightmare than they were about finding the truth about what happened to Rodney. And they had good reason to be worried. Before Rodney's death, the US government were already facing scrutiny about drinking culture amongst the base's polies, as they're known, and now one of their scientists had died from methanol poisoning. Well, that could have been

the straw to break the camel's back. And the NSF eventually declined Wormhole's requests, saying that they had privacy concerns. Yeah. This just is like, obviously, all of these kind of research institutions, they live and die by grants given to them by the US government, and also probably by other institutions like universities, probably. And I think no one needs this kind of stink attached to them. Because they're just like, shush, shush.

No one's going to give us any money if everybody thinks that everybody's just up there fucking getting smashed all the time yeah but also like of course they are yeah what else are they gonna do it's dark but things only got worse for the nsf when dr robert thompson who was remember the base's doctor who had treated rodney in his final hours tragically revealed that he had in fact had a piece of equipment in the corner of his lab that could have potentially identified the methanol in Rodney's system. So obviously if they had been able to identify what was wrong with Rodney while he was still sick, they might have been able to save his life. And this piece of equipment was called

a Kodak Etchechem blood analyzer. Again, this all just sounds so sci-fi. But the problem was that this Etch-a-Chem had not been properly maintained. And as a result, it needed to be recalibrated every time it was turned off and on. The problem was that this process apparently takes anywhere between nine and 10 hours and just the little fucking disgusting cherry on the top of this cake is that the machine had been turned off the day before rodney had come to thompson for help so when thompson is there if the machine had been on and they had tested him they might have been able to find out what was wrong with him and if they known it was methanol poisoning they might have been able to do something but it wasn't and yeah so obviously

they couldn't test Rodney's blood or take the necessary steps to treat him and save his life if they had had the machine on all they apparently would have needed to do was to run a mixture of ethanol and saline through Rodney's blood in order to reverse the effects of the methanol poisoning literally just ethanol and saline would have saved his life if they'd just known what was wrong with him. And again, due to poor maintenance of the equipment that was there, they didn't. I feel like someone's got to be up

for a negligence charge here. Like, at the very least. Again, it's only if the NSF are going to follow through and investigate, though. And they're like, shh. We don't need people dying of methanol poisoning, either from being fucking drunk or poisoning each other,

as well as malfunctioning equipment. Yeah. In his investigation, Wormald had other medical professionals read through Thompson's medical notes from the day that he died. And one of them, Dr. Silver, argued that the Etrochem was actually a straightforward piece of machinery and it would have taken a lot less time to recalibrate than Thompson was claiming. Thompson.

My Agatha Christie eyes are squinting at you. And, you know, he's the one that's like, oh no, the internet. It's not working. Oh no, the phone. And then he has to say the thing about the Etch-a-Chem because people will be like, wait a minute, what's that machine in the corner? We know what that is. That could have tested what was wrong with him.

And he's like, oh, it was turned off and it would have taken 10 hours to turn back on. Hmm. Suspect. Yeah. Strangely, later in Walmalt's inquiries, when he tried to reach out to Thompson, he never responded.

Dun, dun, dun. In fact, he'd seemingly completely fallen off the grid and impossible to get in touch with. I wonder if he had a guilty conscience. The NSF were of little help in contacting Thompson or anyone else for that matter, because it actually took years of pestering for the NSF to agree to sending out a questionnaire to the 49 other people who'd worked with Rodney. And when they did eventually send out this questionnaire, they added a note saying that participation in the questionnaire was not mandatory.

Only 13 people responded, and their results weren't really of much help to the investigation. So without any cooperation from the NSF and no solid leads, the investigation just had nowhere to go. So apart from the armchair detectives on the internet and various true crime forums, nobody seems to have any idea what happened to Rodney. And with the investigation into his death only having created more questions than answers,

the case of Rodney Marks holds quite a strange position in the long history of Antarctic tragedies. Was it an unfortunate accident or the perfect crime? I think it was Dr. Thomason. But we will never know for sure because he's not saying anything but my money's on him. Yes, we will never know. But yes, you're right. I'm also quite suspicious of him now. Now to this day, there is still no system in place for handling homicides in Antarctica. Like we said at the top of the episode, the Antarctic Treaty states that anybody who commits a crime on the continent will be subject to the criminal laws of their own home

country. But in the situation where an alleged crime results in somebody getting killed and the identity of the alleged killer being unknown, well then that's where things obviously get a bit more complicated. And until the case of Rodney Marks, this hadn't ever happened before. There's never been a trial for a murder that took place on Antarctica, but that doesn't mean it can be said for certain that a murder's never taken place there before. Now, as sad as his untimely death was, Rodney Marks was memorialised quite spectacularly

by having a 2,900-foot mountain dubbed Mount Marks after him in the South Pole. So that's quite. Yeah. That's nice. Yeah. So yeah that is the case of Rodney Marks

guys. Very bizarre. I feel like obviously we would have to do like an entire fucking podcast series on it to explore all 49 of the people that are

there. But Dr. Thompson. Suspect Dr. Thompson. Suspect indeed. Or is he a red herring? But this isn't actually a crime drama so maybe it's just him yeah i feel like yeah it's a bit like and then there were 12 or

whatever that book is called but yeah no it's it's kind of got everything i really enjoy in a crime story yeah yeah yeah but sad for rodney marks who was just like a cool like scientist with purple hairdo and living his best life in antarctica yeah man so yeah that is that guys so hopefully you enjoyed that if you have any suggestions for future patreon bonus episodes stick them in the comments somewhere i don't know we'll take a look and uh i don't know keep on trucking i don't know keep on antarcticking and don't know. Keep on Antarctic-ing. And we will see you next month or probably next,

in the next few hours. Bye. Bye. How was that? Did you enjoy it? I hope so. If you did, once again remember you could get your eyes, ears, hands

on so much extra Red Handed content by simply going to patreon.com slash redhanded right now. And the more you give, the more you get. It's up to you. Choose your tier. $5, $10, $20. It's up to you. And also, hey, if you've left it a little bit last minute with your Christmas presents, a Patreon yearly subscription makes the perfect gift for the spooky bitch in your life, even if it's you. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made, a seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant.

When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry. But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing. From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The Cotton Club Murder

early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years.

I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness. And inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained.

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