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CNN Live At Daybreak

Harvard Biochemist's Disappearance Is Still A Memphis Mystery

Aired November 28, 2001 - 05:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's bring you now the latest on the anthrax front. Health officials in Connecticut plan to retest two postal facilities for anthrax. The facilities are near the home of Ottilie Lundgren. She's the 94-year-old woman who died of anthrax a week ago. So far, no evidence of anthrax has been found. One theory, that her mail may have somehow been cross contaminated by an anthrax- laced letter that was sent to Senator Patrick Leahy's office.

Speaking of Congress, mail is expected to flow again this week on Capitol Hill for the first time since the anthrax threats began. Capitol police say the letters and packages will undergo tighter security measures, including irradiation. That will add about a week to the delivery time, by the way. Meanwhile, cleanup crews expect to take another two to four weeks decontaminating the Senate's Hart Office Building. Experts are planning to use chlorine gas to kill the anthrax in the most heavily tainted areas.

Mystery is still surrounding the disappearance of one of the nation's top experts in infectious diseases. Investigators say they're looking into all possibilities.

More now from CNN's Martin Savidge, who reports from Memphis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 57-year-old renowned Harvard University biochemist Dr. Don C. Wiley disappeared in the early morning hours of November 16 in Memphis, Tennessee. He'd gone to Memphis to attend a scientific meeting at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and to visit with family.

At 4:00 in the morning his rental car was found abandoned on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge spanning the Mississippi River. The car doors were unlocked, the keys still in the ignition, the tank full. He hasn't been heard from since.

WALTER CREWS, MEMPHIS POLICE DEPARTMENT: We began this investigation as a missing person investigation. From there it went to a more criminal bent.

SAVIDGE (on camera): Memphis police are looking into a number of theories, including suicide, or that he was the victim of robbery and murder, or that he was the victim of a crime. But that whoever did it wasn't interested in what was in his wallet, but what was in his head. (voice-over): Dr. Wiley is seen as one of the world's leading researchers of deadly viruses, among them, AIDS and the Ebola virus. Ebola is one of the most frightening diseases known to man. Highly contagious, it kills 50 to 80 percent of its victims. There is no vaccine. Reportedly some nations outside the U.S. have experimented with the virus as a possible weapon of war or terror.

Memphis police have no evidence to suggest the doctor's disappearance has anything to do with his expertise. But his family says it is just as out of the question, he committed suicide. Married with two young children, he was at the pinnacle of his career.

Dr. Wiley was last seen at a banquet at the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis the night he vanished. Those who saw him last say he showed no signs of a man contemplating his own death.

DR. WILLIAM EVANS, ST. JUDE'S CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: It's inconceivable to us who were with Don that night and the day before that, you know, that there was any possibility he would do any harm to himself. I mean, we've simply dismissed that as a possibility.

SAVIDGE: Wiley left the hotel around midnight. The bridge where his car was found is only five minutes drive away and in the wrong direction from where he was staying, leaving authorities with a baffling four hour unexplained gap, until his vehicle was found. They're scanning surveillance tapes from late night convenience stores and gas stations. Memphis police say there are a number of interesting elements to Dr. Wiley's disappearance, not the least of which is his background.

Martin Savidge, CNN, Memphis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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