‘DEEPLY DISTRESSING’

Body Discovered in Desert Amid Search for Missing British Astronomer

Thomas Marsh had been missing for weeks until a search team recovered the body.

A body has been discovered in the search for a British professor who has been missing for two months in Chile. Astronomer Thomas Marsh was working at the La Silla astronomical observatory in the Atacama Desert when he was reported missing Sept. 16. He had not been seen since. An extensive search of the remote mountainous region around the observatory, led by a highly trained specialist search team, had been ongoing until the body was found around two miles from the observatory, Warwick University confirmed in a statement. The body has not been formally identified but is expected to be “over the next day or so,” with Marsh’s family already in Chile to help in the search. “This is deeply distressing news for Tom’s family and our thoughts are of course with them, along with his colleagues and our wider community,” provost Chris Ennew said. “And we realize it’s particularly difficult while people are waiting for formal identification to take place. I know what a terrible time this is for the colleagues who knew Tom and counted him as a close friend as well as an inspirational academic and mentor.”