Subj:	Missing Scientist Found Dead in Mississippi River
Date:	12/21/01 8:31:19 AM Pacific Standard Time

December 21 9:47 AM ET

Missing Scientist Found Dead in Mississippi River

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Reuters) - The body of a Harvard scientist
missing for more than a month since his rental car was left
parked on a bridge over the Mississippi River has been found
downstream, police said on Friday.

Workers at a hydroelectric plant in Louisiana found the body
of Don Wiley on Thursday, about 300 miles south of where the
molecular biologist was last seen on Nov. 18 at a medical
meeting in Memphis, Tennessee.

Authorities had yet to determine the cause of death, Memphis
police said.

Police had speculated that Wiley committed suicide, though
his family and colleagues said he showed no signs of
unhappiness. His rental car was found on the bridge, its gas
tank full and the keys in the ignition.

Wiley's disappearance triggered alarm bells because of his
expertise in deadly viruses such as Ebola amid U.S. fears of
possible bioterrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks and
subsequent anthrax mailings.