Two Allegedly Murdered Scientists Found in Apartment Fire

Emergency responders arrived at a structure fire in Kansas City to find the two graduate students suffering from “apparent trauma” before they were declared dead at the scene.

Written byAmanda Heidt

| 2 min read

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Headshots of Camila Behrensen and Pablo Guzmán Palma

Camila Behrensen (left) and Pablo Guzmán Palma (right)

Image credit:The Stowers Institute for Medical Research

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Update (October 28): Police have identified 42-year-old Kevin Ray Moore as a suspect in the two killings, the Associated Press reports. Moore recently died in a suspected murder-suicide in Missouri, and prosecutors have not released any details regarding a possible motive for the murders.

The deaths of two South American scientists—24-year-old Camila Behrensen and 25-year-old Pablo Guzmán Palma—are being investigated as homicides after their bodies were recovered from a burning Kansas City, Missouri, apartment on the morning of October 1, the Kansas City Star reports. Both Behrensen and Guzmán Palma were predoctoral researchers and graduate students at the nearby Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

“We are devastated by the tragic deaths of two of our predoctoral researchers,” the organization states in a tweet. “These researchers were members of our 2020 class and vibrant members of our Stowers Institute community. Our deepest sympathies are with their families at this difficult time, ...

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Meet the Author

Amanda Heidt
Amanda first began dabbling in scicom as a master’s student studying marine science at Moss Landing Marine Labs, where she edited the student blog and interned at a local NPR station. She enjoyed that process of demystifying science so much that after receiving her degree in 2019, she went straight into a second master’s program in science communication at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Formerly an intern at The Scientist, Amanda joined the team as a staff reporter and editor in 2021 and oversaw the publication’s internship program, assigned and edited the Foundations, Scientist to Watch, and Short Lit columns, and contributed original reporting across the publication. Amanda’s stories often focus on issues of equity and representation in academia, and she brings this same commitment to DEI to the Science Writers Association of the Rocky Mountains and to the board of the National Association of Science Writers, which she has served on since 2022. She is currently based in the outdoor playground that is Moab, Utah. Read more of her work at www.amandaheidt.com.
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