Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 5, 1994                   TAG: 9404050161
SECTION: NATIONAL/INT                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ORACLE, ARIZ.                                LENGTH: Medium

BIOSPHERE CREW ACCUSED OF SABOTAGE

The Monday morning break-in came three days after a representative of Biosphere's main backer, Texas billionaire Ed Bass, seized control of the project and barred the pair from the grounds.

Pinal County Sheriff's deputies were seeking Abigail Alling and Mark Van Thillo for questioning, said sheriff's spokeswoman Belia Fessenden. Biosphere managers reported getting a 4 a.m. call from the two in which they claimed responsibility for the break-in, Fessenden said.

A crew of seven remained in the 3-acre domed world, which was not significantly damaged, said Biosphere spokesman Chris Helms.

``Biosphere 2 is totally and completely operational,'' Helms said.

Reporters were barred from the complex in the desert 35 miles north of Tucson, and paid public tours were suspended. The project seeks to duplicate the Earth's environment as a laboratory and prototype space colony.

During her two-year stay in the dome, Alling, a marine biologist from New York, was best known for her scuba dives in the project's miniature ocean. Van Thillo, of Belgium, ran most of the life-support equipment.

Friday, a federal judge in Fort Worth, Texas, named Bass associate Martin C. Bowen as receiver and issued an order barring four top managers from the project for alleged financial mismanagement.

The court order didn't name Alling and Van Thillo, but when Bowen arrived he banned them from the grounds until he could interview them and decide their future with the project, Helms said.