Victoria Castle, geology doctoral student at Stony Brook from North Massapequa, dies at 25

Victoria Castle had a thirst for knowledge and a passion for life, said her academic mentors at Stony Brook University, where she studied geology.

Those who knew Castle said they saw bright potential in a career that began at Stony Brook five years ago. She graduated in 2024 with a bachelor's degree in geology and was pursuing research at Stony Brook for her doctorate.

This week, Castle, 25, was planning to submit a proposal to NASA to date sediments on the surface of Mars, which if selected, would have funded her doctoral studies, said her mentor Marine Frouin, a Stony Brook assistant professor of geosciences.

Her life was cut short, however, on Monday, when authorities said she was strangled to death by her brother-in law, Joseph Horner, in her North Massapequa apartment.

"We were all heartbroken to hear the news. She touched a lot of people," Frouin said. "She really was becoming a brilliant scientist."

Horner, an elementary music teacher in the Oceanside School District, pleaded not guilty to a second-degree murder charge on Tuesday. Prosecutors said he confessed to police and could face additional charges.

Castle’s family declined to comment on Wednesday. Flowers were left outside her split-level apartment, where a black Kia Soul sat with a Super Mario Bros. Yoshi plush toy on the dashboard along with a Stony Brook University parking pass.

Frouin said she had worked with Castle since Castle was an undergraduate in 2022, studying luminescence dating to determine the age of soil samples and when they were last exposed to sunlight.

Frouin said Castle had wondered aloud about going to Mars someday, and she could have made it, driven by her curiosity.

"I saw her grow as a scientist and as a woman. We worked in the lab and spent most of our time in the dark," Frouin said. "She was really our ray of sunshine in that dark room. She would bring light everywhere she would go. She was something very special."

Castle was selected as a 2023 Velay fellow to study soil samples from southern Poland to research early human history and environmental changes, according to the university.

In a video discussing the fellowship, Castle thanked her family and mentors for supporting her research.

"I like to climb and hike, which has given me a vast appreciation of the breathtaking forces that shape the Earth’s surface," Castle said in the video. "In a changing world and unpredictable climate future, I feel the urgent need to understand more about the Earth and climate change in order to protect marginalized communities from the brunt of climate injustice and the environment."

Castle’s studies took her to dig sites with Frouin to do geology research, including in Colorado, Alabama, Mexico and at the Waco Mammoth National Monument in Texas.

She also published several research papers and was involved in work with younger students, said Tim Glotch, chair of Stony Brook’s geosciences department.

"She fell in love with working in the field and tackling important problems," Glotch said. "Her research was really starting to click, and you could see her research career taking off."

Glotch described Castle’s outsized presence in the geosciences department. He said she was "unapologetically loud."

"You could hear her coming down the hall a mile away, and it was hard to ever see her without a smile on her face. She was comfortable in her own skin and that’s what we loved about her," Glotch said. "She had a knack for finding interesting problems and tool sets for carving an interesting path. We’re going to miss all those things about her."

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.