Primatologist Pair Murdered in South African Home

Judith Masters and Fabien Génin had both recently retired from the University of Fort Hare after celebrated careers researching lemurs and their kin.

Written byChristie Wilcox, PhD

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Primatologists Judith Masters and Fabien Génin

Image credit:Courtesy of the University of Fort Hare

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Judith Masters, a world-renowned primatologist specializing in lemurs and other tooth-combed primates, and Fabien Génin, her partner in life and science, were found dead on October 3, the apparent victims of a robbery. Police found Masters and Génin tied up in one of the rooms of their Hogsback home that morning, The Witness reports. Neither was visibly injured, and the cause of death has yet to be determined. A manhunt for the suspect is ongoing, according to The South African.

The news of their deaths rocked the primatology community. “I am at a loss for words right now with the cruelty of it all. Judith and Fabien were such lovely souls,” Brandi Wren, a primatologist at Purdue University in Indiana who describes the pair as friends of hers, tells The South African.

Masters, who was in her late 60s at the time of her death, was a professor at the ...

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Meet the Author

Christie Wilcox, PhD
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Christie was a well-established science blogger and writer when she was awarded a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology with a specialization in ecology, evolution and conservation biology from the University of Hawai‘i in 2014 for her research on the genetics of lionfishes. A short two years later, she published her debut book Venomous: How Earth’s Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry, which received widespread acclaim, and after that, she fully left academia behind and established herself as a science writer and editor. She joined The Scientist in 2021 as newsletter editor and left as senior editor in 2023. She is a member of the Author’s Guild, the Northwest Science Writers Association, and the National Association of Science Writers.
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