NASA ex-official found dead in Thailand

A 76-year-old retired NASA official who served on the Apollo Navigation Team has been found dead with a rope around his neck and genitals inside a home in Thailand, a British daily reported Wednesday.

Police found the body of Paul Milford Muller in Tak province Tuesday and suspect he had been dead for about three days, the Daily Mail reported.

Police said there was a rope tied around his genitals and waist and another tied around his neck, and hanging from the knob of his bedroom door.

Equipment for injecting crystal meth, five methamphetamine pills and several sex toys were also found in the room.

There were no signs that Muller, 76, had been assaulted. He appeared to have died from asphyxiation or from a heart attack after a drug overdose, police said.

Muller worked for 10 years at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, and served on the Apollo Navigation Team.

He also wrote three books, including one called "Suicide Inc.", which he described as a "romantic and erotic thriller". On the cover of the novel is a picture of a noose, the daily reported.

According to his publishing company, Muller was single, and "lived with a mature family with whom he had a relationship for some years, in a modern home in the Thai style that he built on the outskirts of a farming village near Nakhon Sawan".