Case 303: Duncan MacPherson

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please see the show notes for this episode on your
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app or on our website. When 23-year-old Duncan Macpherson left
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his hometown of Saskatoon, Canada for a new job in
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Scotland in August 1989, his parents weren't worried. From a
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young age, Duncan had always shown incredible bravery and independence.
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He was just three years old when he first insisted
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on taking the bus to a doctor's appointment all by himself.
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The bus driver had refused to pick him up on
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account of his age, but that didn't deter the toddler.
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He simply figured out how to get on another bus instead.
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This level of courage and determination followed Duncan into his
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teenage years, bolstered by his strong physical stature. He developed
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a passion for ice hockey and spent years honing his skills,
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becoming a prized defenceman for the Saskatoon Blades where he
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earned the nickname McFearsome. His hard work paid off in
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1984 when, at the age of 18, he was picked
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in the first round by the New York Islanders as
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part of the National Hockey League professional draft. This meant
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a move across the border into the United States, away
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from the comfort of his close-knit family. For five years,
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Duncan devoted his life to the game before the team
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cut him loose. He wasn't too disappointed though. While he
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adored ice hockey, he had no interest in the politics
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that went on behind the scenes in the major league.
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Duncan told his mother he was happy to be moving
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on and ready for the next step in his life.
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He accepted a well-paid job as the head coach for
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the Dundee Tigers ice hockey team in Scotland and left
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Canada for Europe on Wednesday August 2 1989. On Friday
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August 11, Duncan's mother, Linda McPherson, woke up in the
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middle of the night, screaming. Her husband, Bob, was sleeping
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beside her and was roused by the commotion. He tried
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to calm Linda down, assuring her she'd just had a
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bad dream. But Linda's instincts told her otherwise. Something terrible
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has happened to Duncan, she cried. The last time Linda
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McPherson had spoken to Duncan was a week earlier on
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Friday August 4 1989. He'd called home to let his
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family know that he'd arrived safe in Germany where he
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was staying with his close friend, George Peshut. Duncan told
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his mother he was exhausted from the long international journey.
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While he was unsure of his exact plans, he said
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he was going to spend some time travelling and relaxing
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before his coaching job with the Dundee Tigers officially commenced
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on Monday August 14. Duncan promised Linda that he'd touch
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base with her again when he arrived in Scotland on
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Saturday August 12. The day after Linda's nightmare, she eagerly
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waited for that call. something in her gut was telling
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her that Duncan was not okay. Even when he'd been
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living in America, he never went more than a few
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days without checking in with his parents. That gnawing fear
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only intensified when the McPhersons still hadn't heard from Duncan
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by Monday August 14, the day he was scheduled to
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start his job with the Dundee Tigers. In the days
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before the internet and cell phones, it wasn't easy to
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make contact with overseas travellers. For days, Linda sat by
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the phone, urging it to ring. She tried to reassure
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herself that Duncan was probably just busy with his new
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job and would be in touch soon. On Wednesday August 16,
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the phone finally rang. It was a hockey friend of
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Duncan's who lived in Europe. He was trying to track
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Duncan down because he'd just spoken to the Dundee Tigers
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team manager. It looked like Duncan had never made it
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to Scotland. It was an anxiety-filled 24 hours for Linda
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and Bob McPherson until they finally made contact with Duncan's
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friend George Peshut the following day, Thursday August 17. George
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was a Canadian ice hockey player who had recently accepted
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a position on a German team and he was living
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in the German city of Nuremberg. He told the McPhersons
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that he and Duncan had spent a couple of days
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together before George had to go away for training camp
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on August 7. Duncan wanted to visit some friends and
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do some travelling, so George lent him his car, a
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red Opel Corsa. The plan was for Duncan to be
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back in Nuremberg by August 11 to return George's car
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and catch his flight to Scotland. But George said he'd
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just returned from his training camp. To his surprise, Duncan's
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hockey bag was still there, but Duncan and the Opel
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Corsa were not. After making a few more calls, the
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McPhersons discovered that on Monday August 7, Duncan had left
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Nuremberg and driven three hours north to the Bavarian town
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of Fusen. There, he stayed with his friend Roger, another
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Canadian ice hockey player who was living in Europe. It
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was a short but enjoyable visit. The two played tennis
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together and then went out for dinner, where Roger got
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a kick out of Duncan's attempts to water without speaking
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a word of German. Duncan stayed at Roger's house that night,
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then hit the road again at around lunchtime the following
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day of Tuesday August 8. Roger told the McPhersons he
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wasn't entirely sure of Duncan's plans from there. Fussen is
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just one kilometre north of the Austrian border and only
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a few hours' drive from Italy. Duncan had mentioned wanting
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to visit a friend in the Italian city of Bolzano,
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but nothing was set in stone. He'd departed from Rogers
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with no specific plans, and neither Roger, George, nor any
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of Duncan's other contacts in Europe had heard from him since.
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Upon learning this information, Linda's heart sank. She and her
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husband had raised Duncan and his brother to be reliable,
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respectful and trustworthy young men. While Duncan was definitely keen
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for an adventure after years dedicated to hockey, he was
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a rule follower who adored his family. There was no
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way he would have just taken off and bailed on
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his job commitment without so much as a phone call.
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He also had a lot of respect for George Peshut
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and would never run off with his car without seeking
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permission first. The McPhersons contacted their bank to find out
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when Duncan had last cashed one of his traveller's cheques.
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They were told it was Monday August 7, the day
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Duncan visited Roger in Fusan. This meant that 10 days
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had passed without Duncan accessing any of his money. The
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McPherson's anxiety spiked as they considered all possibilities. What if
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Duncan had accidentally driven George's car off the road and
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he was concealed in a ditch or mountainside somewhere? What
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if he'd picked up a hitchhiker who caused him harm?
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In the 1980s, kidnappings for ransom weren't unheard of in Italy.
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What if Duncan had unwittingly crossed paths with the mafia?
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After two more days passed with no word from Duncan
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… On Sunday August 20, the McPhersons contacted the Royal
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Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, and reported the 23-year-old to
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be missing. To their surprise, their situation wasn't treated with
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any sense of urgency. Instead, they were told to call
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back again during regular office hours on Monday. When the
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McPhersons finally made contact with the police the next day,
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the officers they spoke to told them not to worry.
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Duncan was an adult who was free to do as
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he pleased. Like many other young foreigners, he'd likely just
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gotten caught up in an adventure or had met a
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girl and would resurface again soon. Or maybe he intended
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to disappear for a while, which as an adult, he
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was free to do. The McPhersons didn't believe any of
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these reasons for a second Not only would they have
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been completely out of character for Duncan, he also had
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a girlfriend back at home and the two had been
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making plans for her to come and visit him in Scotland.
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When Duncan still hadn't contacted anyone by Wednesday August 23,
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the RCMP finally alerted Interpol and a bulletin was distributed
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to police stations and border crossings throughout Europe. While the
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McPhersons were relieved to know that Duncan was officially being
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treated as a missing person, the authorities continued to reassure
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them that he'd likely show up soon. Linda and Bob
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felt completely helpless waiting around in Saskatoon. They realised that
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the only way to ensure the search for their son
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was taken seriously was to fly to Europe and do
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it themselves. On Sunday August 27, the couple touched down
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in Germany armed with 2,000 missing person posters printed in
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various languages. By now, Duncan had been missing for well
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over two weeks. Their first stop was to the missing
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persons unit of the Nuremberg police. Like the RCMP, the
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officer in charge assured the worried parents that Duncan was
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likely off chasing romance. At 6 foot 1, he was
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a strong, athletic young man and he'd be able to
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take care of himself in the face of danger. Linda
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pointed out that 20 days had passed since he'd last
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cashed one of his traveller's cheques. Still, this raised no
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alarm bells for the police officer. He assured the McPhersons
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that the girl Duncan was with was probably rich. Frustrated
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that they weren't being taken seriously, Linda and Bob rented
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a car and began tracing Duncan's movements themselves. This was
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no easy feat for the middle-aged couple. They were modest
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people who enjoyed a quiet and wholesome life. Neither of
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them had ever been to Europe before and they didn't
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speak any of the local languages. Linda was a schoolteacher
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and Bob a small plane pilot. They'd won their home
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in a raffle, which had afforded them a comfortable upbringing
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for their two boys. Venturing across Europe to take on
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the authorities was far beyond their comfort zone, but they
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both remained convinced that they'd find Duncan no matter what.
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Duncan had cashed his last traveller's cheque at a travel
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agency in Nuremberg. The McPhersons went there and showed the
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staff a photo of their son One of the agents
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recalled serving Duncan there on Monday August 7. He had
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put a deposit down for a flight to the Scottish
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city of Glasgow, set to depart five days later on
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Saturday August 12. This was the same date he told
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his parents he would contact them from Scotland. According to
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the travel agent, Duncan said he'd return to the office
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the day before the flight to pay the remaining balance
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and pick up his ticket. but he never did. From there,
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the McPhersons drove to Fusan, the German town where Duncan
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was last seen by his friend Roger. Studying a map,
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they tried to put themselves in Duncan's shoes. Given Fusan's
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proximity to both Austria and Italy, it made sense to
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assume he might have visited one of the nearby towns
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in either country. Austria offered world-class skiing, while northern Italy
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offered windsurfing, both activities that would appeal to the outdoor,
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sport-loving Duncan. He'd mentioned to Roger that he'd like to
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visit Italy's Lake Garda, which was about a five-hour drive
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south of Fusen. Bob and Linda McPherson set out on
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this route, stopping at every regional police station along the way.
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For days, they traversed all the areas they thought Duncan
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might have visited, plastering his missing person posters while on
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the constant lookout for George's red Opal Corsa. They checked
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with officials at the border crossings in Italy and Switzerland.
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Nobody they spoke to recalled seeing Duncan. In fact, to
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Bob and Linda's horror, none of the border officials or
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regional police were even aware of their son's case. In
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spite of what they'd been told by the RCMP, it
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didn't appear that an Interpol bulletin had been sent out.
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This meant that Duncan could have been passing through any
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number of towns and countries without anyone even being aware
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that he was a missing person. Linda and Bob continued
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to go over every possible scenario in a desperate bid
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to figure out what could have happened to their son. Soon,
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another unnerving possibility began to enter their minds. A few
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months before Duncan had left for Europe, he'd fulfilled a
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dream of his by hiking North America's Appalachian Trail. While
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it had been a positive experience for the nature lover,
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he'd returned with an unwanted souvenir, Lyme disease. Transmitted by
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tick bites, Lyme disease is typically characterised by a rash,
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body aches, fever and fatigue. Duncan had fully recovered by
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the time he left for Europe, but after his disappearance,
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his parents learned that in rare cases, Lyme disease can
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leave individuals with memory loss, confusion and and personality changes.
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They wondered whether Duncan could be experiencing these symptoms. Maybe
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he was alive somewhere, but suffering from some kind of
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neurological episode. There was also an odd comment that Duncan
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had made to his family in the months before his trip.
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Out of nowhere, he'd told Linda that a recruiter from
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the Central Intelligence Agency had tracked him down and asked
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if he'd be interested in working as a spy. This
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wasn't a far-fetched offer. Intelligent athletic types like Duncan made
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attractive recruits. Linda had told Duncan it sounded like an
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exciting opportunity, but he said he wasn't interested. Working for
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the CIA would mean changing his identity and leaving his
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family behind, which he wasn't prepared to do. While it
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00:18:48.630 --> 00:18:52.730
seemed unlikely, the McPhersons wondered whether Duncan had changed his
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mind and accepted a position with the agency after all.
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They also had a niggling feeling that something wasn't quite
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right about the job that Duncan had accepted with the
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Dundee Tigers in Scotland. He'd been offered the position by
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a Canadian businessman named Ron Dixon, who had recently bought
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the team. Ron offered Duncan the high-paying role even though
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00:19:18.410 --> 00:19:23.829
the two had never met. Duncan had been a little dubious.
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He told his family there was something off about Ron
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Dixon and his offer, but he'd pushed his concerns aside
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knowing it was too good an opportunity to turn down.
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Ron said that Duncan had called him at some point
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during his travels in Europe. He wasn't sure of the
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00:19:43.359 --> 00:19:46.430
exact date, but he believed it was most likely on
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00:19:46.509 --> 00:19:51.440
Thursday August 10. This was too late. days after Duncan
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00:19:51.500 --> 00:19:55.119
was last seen leaving Fusan and two days before his
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flight to Scotland. The Macphersons had no idea what to think.
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Every possibility was on the table, from foreign intelligence to
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00:20:06.730 --> 00:20:12.200
amnesia to foul play. Yet, they were no closer to
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00:20:12.259 --> 00:20:20.960
a breakthrough. Almost a month had passed with no reported
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00:20:21.019 --> 00:20:26.859
sightings of Duncan. Then on Thursday September 14, Linda had
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00:20:26.900 --> 00:20:31.940
an instinctive feeling that she knew where he was. When
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00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:35.119
she and Bob had first driven from Fusan to Italy,
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their route had taken them through the Austrian city of Innsbruck.
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Known as the capital of the Alps, it was a
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charming city nestled amongst stunning mountain peaks that was known
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for offering a wide range of winter sports. Boasting impressive architecture,
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00:20:52.079 --> 00:20:56.539
alpine views, and easy access to the ski slopes, it
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00:20:56.579 --> 00:20:59.240
was exactly the kind of place that would have appealed
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to Duncan. It was also only a two-hour drive from Fusen.
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Given that Duncan had just two days after leaving Roger
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before he was due back in Nuremberg, Linda reasoned that
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he wouldn't have wanted to waste too much of that
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time behind the wheel. It therefore made sense to her
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that Duncan would have decided to stop in Innsbruck for
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the night before seeing the sights the following day. Linda
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00:21:30.589 --> 00:21:34.269
and Bob returned to Innsbruck and approached the local police.
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only to discover that they still hadn't been made aware
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of Duncan's disappearance. Linda expressed her belief that Duncan had
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likely stopped over in Innsbruck on the night of Tuesday
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August 8. She requested that a search be done of
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00:21:51.789 --> 00:21:54.450
all the hotels in the area to see if Duncan's
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00:21:54.529 --> 00:22:01.880
name was any of their registers. The police refused. Innsbruck,
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00:22:02.039 --> 00:22:05.220
which had twice hosted the Winter Olympics, had hundreds of
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00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:10.240
hotels and guest lodgings. Making inquiries with each one would
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00:22:10.289 --> 00:22:13.569
be a monumental task when they didn't even have any
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00:22:13.690 --> 00:22:19.109
evidence to indicate Duncan had passed through the area. Like
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00:22:19.190 --> 00:22:23.599
the others, Innsbruck police reassured the Macphersons that Duncan was
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likely off having an adventure and would show up soon.
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If he had come to Austria, his parents could rest
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00:22:31.619 --> 00:22:34.220
assured that it was a safe country with a very
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00:22:34.309 --> 00:22:37.829
low crime rate, and nothing bad would have happened to him.
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The McPhersons remained convinced that Duncan would have travelled to Winsbrook.
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They spent the next few days driving around town and
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the surrounding mountains, putting Duncan's missing person posters up and
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making enquiries of their own. Upon learning of their story,
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the head coach of the Innsbruck Hockey Club felt for
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the couple and pulled some strings to have Duncan's case
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00:23:04.299 --> 00:23:09.880
broadcast on a local news network. The segment was broadcast
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on Wednesday September 20, almost 50 days since Duncan had vanished.
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The McPhersons asked anyone who might have seen Duncan or
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00:23:20.250 --> 00:23:37.289
his vehicle to come forward. Finally, Someone did. Casefile will
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00:23:37.309 --> 00:23:40.910
be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening
306
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To have a coffee with Oli.
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This is John from the Dave McWilliams podcast.
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Sebastian Wagner, not his real name, was a contractor who
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00:26:26.309 --> 00:26:28.990
had recently been doing some repair work to the parking
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lot of a popular ski resort known as the Stubai Glacier,
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00:26:32.650 --> 00:26:38.900
40 kilometres south of Innsbruck. The Stubai Glacier is situated
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00:26:38.960 --> 00:26:42.420
at the end of the Stubai Valley, roughly 3,000 metres
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00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:46.319
above sea level. It is made up of five glaciers,
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making it the largest glacier ski area in Austria. In
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00:26:52.029 --> 00:26:55.329
the winter, hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the
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00:26:55.390 --> 00:26:57.910
world flock to the area to make the most of
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the snowfall. But it is just as popular in the summertime,
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00:27:02.559 --> 00:27:06.599
with tourists drawn to the hiking trails, waterfalls, and alpine
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00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:12.259
huts that dot the surrounding mountainside. When Sebastian saw the
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00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:16.609
news bulletin about Duncan McPherson's disappearance, he was certain he'd
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00:27:16.670 --> 00:27:21.509
seen that red Opal Corsa before. It had been sitting
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00:27:21.549 --> 00:27:25.009
in the parking lot of the Stubai Glacier Resort near
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00:27:25.049 --> 00:27:32.049
the gondola station for weeks. Sebastian immediately notified the police,
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00:27:32.289 --> 00:27:36.269
who followed up on the lead that night. The vehicle
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00:27:36.470 --> 00:27:40.470
was right where Sebastian said it would be. At a
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00:27:40.529 --> 00:27:43.529
quick glance, nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary.
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00:27:44.569 --> 00:27:48.390
The driver's side window was slightly ajar, allowing the officers
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00:27:48.450 --> 00:27:52.220
to reach inside and to open it up. In the
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00:27:52.259 --> 00:27:57.339
glove box, they found Duncan McPherson's passport and uncashed traveller's checks.
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00:27:58.740 --> 00:28:01.910
A plastic bag of fruit sat rotting on the back seat,
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00:28:02.230 --> 00:28:06.130
along with Duncan's backpack, a sweater, ice skates and a
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00:28:06.150 --> 00:28:12.069
hand-drawn map. Duncan himself was nowhere to be seen, nor
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00:28:12.190 --> 00:28:17.410
were there any signs that a struggle had taken place. However,
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00:28:17.829 --> 00:28:21.549
an unsent letter to his girlfriend provided a potential clue.
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In the letter, Duncan mentioned that he'd just bought a
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00:28:26.750 --> 00:28:31.349
cool new pair of Mephisto brand walking shoes. The shoes
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00:28:31.430 --> 00:28:34.950
weren't in Duncan's car, which raised the possibility that he
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00:28:34.990 --> 00:28:37.210
might have warned them to go hiking on one of
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00:28:37.289 --> 00:28:43.599
the nearby trails. Police immediately made inquiries with the accommodation
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00:28:43.660 --> 00:28:48.539
providers in the area. Duncan McPherson hadn't been registered as
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a guest at any of the major hotels or the
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small Alpine Huts. nor did anyone recognise him from his photograph.
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00:29:00.049 --> 00:29:03.390
Bob and Linda McPherson arrived at the Stubai Glacier the
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day after Duncan's car was found. Upon learning that the
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00:29:07.869 --> 00:29:11.269
vehicle had been in the area for weeks, they were stunned.
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00:29:12.710 --> 00:29:16.250
The Stubai Glacier is a major tourist attraction bringing in
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00:29:16.349 --> 00:29:21.410
millions of dollars in revenue each year. Every day, Thousands
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00:29:21.470 --> 00:29:24.819
of visitors and locals used the parking lot, but the
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00:29:24.859 --> 00:29:27.900
glacier shut for business in the evenings and the parking
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00:29:27.960 --> 00:29:32.819
lot was virtually empty by 6 p.m. The McPhersons wondered
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00:29:32.900 --> 00:29:36.049
how Duncan's car could have sat there for weeks without
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00:29:36.109 --> 00:29:40.099
it raising any alarms, especially when police were aware that
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00:29:40.130 --> 00:29:45.240
a tourist had gone missing in the area. The McPhersons
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00:29:45.319 --> 00:29:48.259
checked into the nearby hotel to join the search for
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00:29:48.299 --> 00:29:52.920
their son. As they were registering, a man approached them.
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00:29:54.720 --> 00:29:59.329
he introduced himself as Walter Hinterholzel, a Stubai Glacier snowboard
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00:29:59.390 --> 00:30:04.990
instructor who also worked at the hotel part-time. Walter said
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00:30:05.069 --> 00:30:07.809
he'd just seen the missing person poster taped to the
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00:30:07.849 --> 00:30:12.400
window of the Macpherson's rental car and recognised Duncan's photo.
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00:30:14.279 --> 00:30:17.000
While most of the ski runs on the Stubai Glacier
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00:30:17.059 --> 00:30:20.349
were closed in August due to lack of snow, One
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00:30:20.470 --> 00:30:23.809
small bunny hill with a rope tow lift remained open,
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00:30:24.190 --> 00:30:29.539
known as the Schaufelfanner. Walter Hinterholzel claimed that on the
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morning of Tuesday August 9, he had given Duncan a
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00:30:33.140 --> 00:30:38.460
two-hour snowboarding lesson on the Schaufelfanner. He'd been impressed by
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00:30:38.519 --> 00:30:41.230
how quickly Duncan had gotten the hang of things and
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00:30:41.269 --> 00:30:45.609
how well he was able to control the board. After
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00:30:45.650 --> 00:30:50.059
the lesson, the two ate lunch together. Duncan told Walter
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00:30:50.119 --> 00:30:53.680
about his upcoming coaching job in Scotland and his desire
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00:30:53.740 --> 00:30:59.609
to go windsurfing on Lake Garda before then. Walter recommended
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00:30:59.670 --> 00:31:04.569
that Duncan visit Austria's Lake Aachen instead. It was less
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00:31:04.630 --> 00:31:07.470
than an hour from Innsbruck and would give Duncan more
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00:31:07.509 --> 00:31:09.859
time before he had to be back in Germany for
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00:31:09.890 --> 00:31:16.029
his flight. Duncan seemed pleased by this. He told Walter
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00:31:16.089 --> 00:31:18.359
he was going to spend the rest of the afternoon
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00:31:18.410 --> 00:31:21.779
testing out his new snowboarding skills and might then go
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00:31:21.819 --> 00:31:25.660
for a hike on one of the surrounding trails. He
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00:31:25.720 --> 00:31:28.940
arranged to meet Walter again for a follow-up lesson the
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00:31:28.980 --> 00:31:34.839
next morning. The jumper Duncan had been wearing was soaked through,
409
00:31:35.140 --> 00:31:37.160
so he bought a new one from the gift shop
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00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:39.809
and hung his wet one out to dry in Walter's
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00:31:39.890 --> 00:31:44.349
office before hitting the slope on his own. At the
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end of the day, Walter returned to his office only
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00:31:47.549 --> 00:31:52.630
to find that Duncan's jumper was still there. He reasoned
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00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:55.759
that Duncan would probably just pick it up after his
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00:31:55.819 --> 00:31:59.859
lesson the next morning, but he never showed up and
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00:31:59.960 --> 00:32:08.880
the jumper remained unclaimed. The Shuffle Fairness Ski Run was
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00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:15.589
located 3,770 vertical feet above the parking lot. The only
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00:32:15.619 --> 00:32:18.190
way to reach it was to ride the gondola or
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00:32:18.269 --> 00:32:23.029
hike it on foot. The McPhersons rode the gondola up
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00:32:23.130 --> 00:32:26.849
to see the slope for themselves. It was only a
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00:32:26.970 --> 00:32:32.009
small area, its entire surface visible from the base. The
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00:32:32.069 --> 00:32:35.369
ski run was clearly marked, with a rope cordon marking
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00:32:35.410 --> 00:32:40.549
an out-of-bounds area to the east. The McPhersons knew there
424
00:32:40.589 --> 00:32:43.569
was no way something bad could have happened to Duncan
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00:32:43.630 --> 00:32:47.849
at this spot. Not only was the slope smoothed over
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00:32:47.930 --> 00:32:50.690
at the end of each day by a snow groomer machine,
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00:32:51.250 --> 00:32:54.289
if Duncan had accidentally gone off course, he would have
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00:32:54.329 --> 00:32:59.380
left behind an obvious trail. He was also last seen
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00:32:59.460 --> 00:33:02.220
wearing a bright yellow ski jacket, which would have been
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00:33:02.299 --> 00:33:07.559
very visible. A search team combed the slope, but didn't
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00:33:07.619 --> 00:33:13.609
find any trace of Duncan. Walter Hinterholzel's girlfriend, who was
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00:33:13.690 --> 00:33:17.470
also employed by the Stubai Glacier, recalled seeing Duncan on
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00:33:17.509 --> 00:33:21.970
the tow lift at 2.30pm on Wednesday August 9, shortly
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00:33:22.109 --> 00:33:26.619
after he'd finished his lunch with Walter. This was the
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00:33:26.680 --> 00:33:32.759
last confirmed sighting. Based on Duncan's conversation with Walter, police
436
00:33:32.799 --> 00:33:37.059
deduced that after practising snowboarding for a while, Duncan likely
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00:33:37.119 --> 00:33:40.720
set out on one of the hiking trails. This would
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00:33:40.759 --> 00:33:45.940
explain why his new shoes were missing. Walter had advised
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00:33:46.059 --> 00:33:49.559
Duncan to avoid hiking downhill because it would cause stress
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00:33:49.640 --> 00:33:54.049
on his knees, which were weak from hockey injuries. One
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00:33:54.130 --> 00:33:58.349
Stubai Glacier employee recalled seeing a tall young man standing
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00:33:58.410 --> 00:34:03.200
near a waterfall below the glacier on August 9. In
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00:34:03.240 --> 00:34:06.839
the summer, the melting ice created deep well pools around
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00:34:06.920 --> 00:34:12.980
the waterfall. Police theorised that Duncan could have ignored Walter's advice,
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00:34:13.280 --> 00:34:17.269
hiking downhill to the waterfall where he fell in and drowned.
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00:34:19.010 --> 00:34:22.670
They searched the falls but found nothing to indicate Duncan
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00:34:22.710 --> 00:34:27.320
had been there. They focused their search further up the
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00:34:27.360 --> 00:34:31.969
mountain instead, where snow continued to fall. There was no
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00:34:32.030 --> 00:34:38.489
sign of Duncan there either. By Monday September 25, the
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00:34:38.550 --> 00:34:42.070
search for Duncan McPherson at the Stubai Glacier reached its
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00:34:42.170 --> 00:34:47.400
fifth fruitless day. With no confirmed sightings of him after
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00:34:47.519 --> 00:34:51.380
August 9, the police concluded that he'd likely gotten lost
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00:34:51.639 --> 00:34:53.860
or had an accident on the mountain elsewhere. and his
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00:34:53.900 --> 00:34:59.300
body was concealed by snow. His abandoned car hadn't raised
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00:34:59.380 --> 00:35:02.639
any alarms because hikers often left their vehicles in the
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00:35:02.679 --> 00:35:06.739
Stubai Glacier parking lot while heading out for extended hiking trips,
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00:35:07.239 --> 00:35:10.429
during which they camped at the alpine huts along the way.
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00:35:12.150 --> 00:35:15.650
Police reasoned that they hadn't patrolled the parking lot because
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00:35:15.690 --> 00:35:20.809
it was private property. They called off the search, confident
460
00:35:20.869 --> 00:35:24.260
that Duncan's body would eventually be recovered by hikers or
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00:35:24.320 --> 00:35:34.019
hunters in due course. Bob and Linda McPherson were outraged
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00:35:34.139 --> 00:35:38.610
by this conclusion. Without Duncan's body, how could the police
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00:35:38.650 --> 00:35:41.489
be sure that he was even dead, let alone that
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00:35:41.510 --> 00:35:45.889
he'd died by accident on the mountain somewhere? As far
465
00:35:45.929 --> 00:35:50.289
as his parents were concerned... Duncan could be anywhere. He
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00:35:50.369 --> 00:35:56.550
might not even be dead. Disappointed with the Innsbruck police investigation,
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00:35:56.880 --> 00:36:00.420
the McPhersons were dubious about their claims that they'd found
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00:36:00.559 --> 00:36:04.780
no record of Duncan having stayed anywhere in Innsbruck throughout August.
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00:36:06.599 --> 00:36:10.460
Bob and Linda conducted their own inquiries and discovered that
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00:36:10.539 --> 00:36:14.059
Duncan had indeed spent the night of Tuesday August 8
471
00:36:14.059 --> 00:36:17.809
in a youth hostel downtown before checking out the next morning.
472
00:36:19.550 --> 00:36:23.050
While this bolstered the police theory that Duncan had disappeared
473
00:36:23.130 --> 00:36:26.239
on the same day he was last seen, the McPhersons
474
00:36:26.320 --> 00:36:30.000
couldn't help but wonder. If the police had overlooked a
475
00:36:30.079 --> 00:36:34.940
simple detail like Duncan's hostel registration, what else had they missed?
476
00:36:37.130 --> 00:36:40.789
Ron Dixon, the owner of the Dundee Tigers ice hockey team,
477
00:36:40.929 --> 00:36:45.250
was confident he'd spoken to Duncan on Thursday August 10,
478
00:36:45.250 --> 00:36:48.449
the day after he'd been snowboarding at the Stubai Glacier.
479
00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:53.579
A recently purchased cassette tape found in Duncan's car was
480
00:36:53.659 --> 00:36:56.820
traced to a music store in Innsbruck where an employee
481
00:36:56.900 --> 00:37:02.360
remembered serving Duncan. She couldn't be sure exactly when, but
482
00:37:02.579 --> 00:37:08.099
she remembered one distinct detail. Duncan hadn't been alone, but
483
00:37:08.300 --> 00:37:14.110
with a dark-haired man. While it pained Bob and Linda
484
00:37:14.190 --> 00:37:18.210
to imagine, they considered whether Duncan might have been abducted
485
00:37:18.349 --> 00:37:22.130
and was being held captive. What if he was out
486
00:37:22.170 --> 00:37:27.800
there somewhere, willing his parents to find him? As Bob
487
00:37:27.949 --> 00:37:32.619
later told Esquire magazine, Even though we knew in our
488
00:37:32.659 --> 00:37:36.590
hearts that he probably wasn't alive, You always think there's
489
00:37:36.630 --> 00:37:40.530
some chance. That's what made us want to keep going.
490
00:37:41.809 --> 00:37:44.750
It's amazing how much you hang on to that thread,
491
00:37:45.389 --> 00:37:52.800
the tiniest bit of hope. They stewed over it for
492
00:37:52.840 --> 00:37:58.440
days before the realisation dawned on Linda. Walter Hinterholzel, the
493
00:37:58.500 --> 00:38:02.559
snowboard instructor, had told the McPhersons that Duncan had rented
494
00:38:02.619 --> 00:38:06.699
a snowboard, gloves and ski boots prior to their lesson together.
495
00:38:08.420 --> 00:38:11.280
At the time, there was only one ski shop on
496
00:38:11.320 --> 00:38:16.280
the mountain. In order to rent any equipment, customers had
497
00:38:16.320 --> 00:38:19.550
to put a government-issued ID or credit card down as
498
00:38:19.590 --> 00:38:22.789
a deposit, which would be returned to them when handing
499
00:38:22.869 --> 00:38:26.909
over their gear at the end of the day. It
500
00:38:26.949 --> 00:38:29.690
occurred to Linda that staff at the shop would be
501
00:38:29.769 --> 00:38:32.840
able to tell them whether or not Duncan returned his gear.
502
00:38:34.199 --> 00:38:37.099
If he hadn't, this would signify that he might have
503
00:38:37.139 --> 00:38:40.940
had an accident while he was out snowboarding, instead of after.
504
00:38:42.980 --> 00:38:45.800
Linda visited the rental shop and asked them to check
505
00:38:45.860 --> 00:38:50.530
their records. The staff told her they'd recently started a
506
00:38:50.590 --> 00:38:53.449
new log and had therefore thrown the old one away.
507
00:38:54.719 --> 00:38:58.920
While none of the employees specifically recalled Duncan returning his gear,
508
00:38:59.440 --> 00:39:03.690
no snowboards were missing from their inventory, so they reasoned
509
00:39:03.969 --> 00:39:08.070
that he must have returned it. It was protocol for
510
00:39:08.130 --> 00:39:11.510
staff to inform guards of any rental equipment that hadn't
511
00:39:11.550 --> 00:39:14.489
been returned, so they could check the slope for any
512
00:39:14.550 --> 00:39:20.429
potential accidents. If the police theory was correct and Duncan
513
00:39:20.489 --> 00:39:23.809
really had perished while hiking in the Stubai Valley, his
514
00:39:23.889 --> 00:39:26.539
parents couldn't bear the thought of his body being left
515
00:39:26.639 --> 00:39:31.219
out there all alone. With winter, just around the corner,
516
00:39:31.570 --> 00:39:34.440
they knew that time was of the essence, as any
517
00:39:34.519 --> 00:39:38.539
search efforts would be hindered completely once the heavy snowfall began.
518
00:39:41.010 --> 00:39:45.090
A Canadian businessman heard about the situation and generously funded
519
00:39:45.150 --> 00:39:48.170
a Canadian search and rescue team to fly to Austria
520
00:39:48.289 --> 00:39:54.139
and continue the search themselves. They arrived on Sunday October 8,
521
00:39:54.139 --> 00:39:58.800
the beginning of the third month of Duncan's disappearance. With
522
00:39:58.840 --> 00:40:02.019
the help of some new computer software and a sniffer dog,
523
00:40:02.320 --> 00:40:05.809
they started from the Stubai Glacier Resort parking lot and
524
00:40:05.949 --> 00:40:11.639
searched outwards around the valley from there. The days ticked
525
00:40:11.719 --> 00:40:16.170
by with no breakthroughs, and by Sunday October 15, the
526
00:40:16.210 --> 00:40:18.889
team was forced to call off the search on account
527
00:40:18.929 --> 00:40:24.489
of heavy snowfall. Defeated, Bob and Linda McPherson felt there
528
00:40:24.510 --> 00:40:29.989
was nothing more they could do. They reluctantly returned to Canada,
529
00:40:30.429 --> 00:40:33.389
vowing to come back as soon as the snow melted.
530
00:40:38.619 --> 00:40:41.699
Around at the same time that the McPhersons left Austria,
531
00:40:41.960 --> 00:40:44.260
the manager of one of the Alpine huts in the
532
00:40:44.300 --> 00:40:47.860
Stubai Valley came across one of Duncan's missing posters for
533
00:40:47.880 --> 00:40:53.230
the first time. Upon seeing Duncan's face, he was reminded
534
00:40:53.289 --> 00:40:55.769
of a strange incident that had occurred a couple of
535
00:40:55.789 --> 00:41:02.909
weeks earlier. On Monday September 25, a dishevelled-looking English-speaking foreigner
536
00:41:02.989 --> 00:41:04.780
had shown up at the hut in the middle of
537
00:41:04.860 --> 00:41:09.349
the night. He'd trekked there through the dark without suitable
538
00:41:09.409 --> 00:41:13.869
hiking gear, not even a flashlight. He seemed a little
539
00:41:13.909 --> 00:41:17.849
disoriented and had taken off again after breakfast the next morning,
540
00:41:18.250 --> 00:41:23.519
heading towards the old smuggler's trails into Italy. The hut
541
00:41:23.579 --> 00:41:27.559
manager thought the man bore a resemblance to Duncan McPherson.
542
00:41:30.280 --> 00:41:33.139
Bob and Linda weren't sure what to make of this.
543
00:41:34.400 --> 00:41:37.320
The police had assured them that all the hut managers
544
00:41:37.400 --> 00:41:41.179
had been notified of Duncan's disappearance, so it seemed odd
545
00:41:41.280 --> 00:41:44.239
that such an encounter could have occurred without it raising
546
00:41:44.300 --> 00:41:49.260
suspicions at the time. Then again, it gave them hope
547
00:41:49.400 --> 00:41:52.760
that Duncan could be experiencing amnesia as a result of
548
00:41:52.820 --> 00:41:55.800
his Lyme disease or an accident and could still be
549
00:41:55.840 --> 00:42:01.639
alive after all. As the months passed by, other potential
550
00:42:01.719 --> 00:42:06.809
sightings of Duncan continued to trickle in One Canadian tourist
551
00:42:06.929 --> 00:42:11.269
thought she spotted him at a bar in Russia. Thinking fast,
552
00:42:11.449 --> 00:42:13.989
she took a photo and sent it to his family.
553
00:42:14.610 --> 00:42:21.340
But it wasn't Duncan. The McPhersons couldn't shake the feeling
554
00:42:21.389 --> 00:42:24.760
that Ron Dixon, the man who'd offered Duncan the coaching job,
555
00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:28.210
knew more about Duncan's disappearance than he was letting on.
556
00:42:29.889 --> 00:42:32.269
Not only did Ron claim to be one of the
557
00:42:32.309 --> 00:42:35.469
last people to speak with Duncan before he went missing,
558
00:42:35.989 --> 00:42:39.329
the McPhersons found it odd that he hadn't contacted them
559
00:42:39.429 --> 00:42:44.039
to let them know Duncan never arrived in Scotland. He'd
560
00:42:44.119 --> 00:42:49.500
never even reached out to offer any support. The McPhersons
561
00:42:49.559 --> 00:42:52.699
did some digging and discovered that Ron Dixon had a
562
00:42:52.780 --> 00:42:57.940
shady past. Rumours swelled about his dodgy real estate ventures
563
00:42:58.139 --> 00:43:01.800
and a criminal record that included a prison sentence for manslaughter.
564
00:43:03.539 --> 00:43:07.199
The Macphersons wondered if Duncan's job offer seemed too good
565
00:43:07.239 --> 00:43:13.610
to be true because something more sinister had been at play. Regardless,
566
00:43:13.969 --> 00:43:17.949
they weren't discounting the possibility that Duncan had indeed died
567
00:43:18.010 --> 00:43:24.130
by accident around the Stubai Glacier. In the summer of 1990,
568
00:43:24.130 --> 00:43:28.389
they returned to Austria, bringing Duncan's beloved dog Jake with them.
569
00:43:30.190 --> 00:43:33.329
For weeks, they camped in the Stubai Valley and hiked
570
00:43:33.449 --> 00:43:37.039
the surrounding trails on the lookout for any sign of Duncan.
571
00:43:38.639 --> 00:43:42.260
They returned every summer for the next three years, but
572
00:43:42.300 --> 00:43:51.739
came no closer to finding him. In late 1993, a
573
00:43:51.780 --> 00:43:55.840
German television program called Bitte Melder Dick aired a segment
574
00:43:55.889 --> 00:44:00.590
about Duncan's disappearance, urging anyone with information about his whereabouts
575
00:44:00.670 --> 00:44:05.570
to come forward. A woman named Lena, not her real name,
576
00:44:05.809 --> 00:44:10.389
was watching the show when something occurred to her. Lena
577
00:44:10.469 --> 00:44:14.869
lived in the Austrian city of Klagenfurt, roughly 320 kilometres
578
00:44:14.909 --> 00:44:21.119
southeast of Innsbruck. Four years earlier, on Saturday September 9, 1989,
579
00:44:21.119 --> 00:44:24.619
a distressed and malnourished young man had emerged from the
580
00:44:24.659 --> 00:44:27.820
woods in a town about half an hour from Clargenford.
581
00:44:29.239 --> 00:44:33.199
Speaking only North American English, he had no identification on
582
00:44:33.239 --> 00:44:36.360
him and claimed he couldn't remember his name, where he
583
00:44:36.420 --> 00:44:40.840
came from, or anything else about his life. The only
584
00:44:40.900 --> 00:44:43.840
thing he could remember was that he'd once lived in
585
00:44:43.920 --> 00:44:49.960
New York. The mystery man was arrested for vagrancy before
586
00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:55.199
being transferred to a mental health facility. Doctors initially thought
587
00:44:55.239 --> 00:44:58.659
he might be suffering from some type of neurological condition,
588
00:44:59.269 --> 00:45:02.070
but when he didn't respond to any of the treatments,
589
00:45:02.449 --> 00:45:05.530
it was determined that he had a severe case of amnesia.
590
00:45:07.329 --> 00:45:10.070
The man was given the green light to live in Austria.
591
00:45:11.230 --> 00:45:14.309
He settled in Klagenfurt, where he went by the name
592
00:45:14.489 --> 00:45:21.949
Mark Scherfmann. Over time, Lena became friends with Mark. Other
593
00:45:21.989 --> 00:45:24.949
than the fact that he couldn't remember his true identity,
594
00:45:25.329 --> 00:45:29.030
there was nothing unusual about him. He was a nice
595
00:45:29.090 --> 00:45:34.949
guy who lived an otherwise normal life. But when Lena
596
00:45:35.030 --> 00:45:39.809
saw the bitter Meldedijk segment about Duncan McPherson's disappearance, it
597
00:45:39.889 --> 00:45:44.849
gave her pause. Mark Scherfman had emerged from the woods
598
00:45:44.969 --> 00:45:48.869
exactly one month after Duncan McPherson was last seen at
599
00:45:48.909 --> 00:45:54.329
the Stubai Glacier, only a few hundred kilometres away. Mark
600
00:45:54.389 --> 00:45:57.630
had been wearing an American brand of jeans, just like
601
00:45:57.670 --> 00:46:02.630
Duncan had. Duncan had had various surgeries on his knees.
602
00:46:03.590 --> 00:46:08.860
Mark's knees also had surgical scars on them. Duncan's front
603
00:46:08.900 --> 00:46:11.570
teeth had been knocked out during a hockey match and
604
00:46:11.610 --> 00:46:16.329
had been replaced with crowns. Mark's front teeth had received
605
00:46:16.510 --> 00:46:21.869
similar dental work. Looking at Duncan's picture on the television,
606
00:46:22.269 --> 00:46:26.489
Lena saw the similarities and wondered, could the two men
607
00:46:26.610 --> 00:46:32.349
be one and the same? Lena shared her suspicions with
608
00:46:32.389 --> 00:46:34.949
her boyfriend, who managed to get a hold of the
609
00:46:34.989 --> 00:46:40.800
McPherson's phone number. In early February 1994, he called them
610
00:46:40.860 --> 00:46:45.869
in Canada to pass on the information. Bob and Linda
611
00:46:45.949 --> 00:46:50.389
didn't know what to think. Given Duncan's brush with Lyme
612
00:46:50.409 --> 00:46:53.769
disease just before his trip to Europe, the possibility that
613
00:46:53.809 --> 00:46:59.530
he was experiencing amnesia seemed entirely plausible. And what were
614
00:46:59.570 --> 00:47:02.739
the chances that two young North American men could go
615
00:47:02.820 --> 00:47:06.440
missing within such close proximity within just a few weeks
616
00:47:06.519 --> 00:47:12.679
of one another? The McPhersons contacted Foreign Affairs, who arranged
617
00:47:12.800 --> 00:47:16.019
to have someone from the Canadian Embassy in Austria visit
618
00:47:16.099 --> 00:47:22.219
Mark Scherfman. Everything Lena said was true. Mark and Duncan
619
00:47:22.300 --> 00:47:27.699
did share many similarities. The embassy officials even took Mark
620
00:47:27.800 --> 00:47:30.329
to an ice skating rink to put his skills to
621
00:47:30.369 --> 00:47:34.590
the test. It turned out he was a talented skater.
622
00:47:37.349 --> 00:47:40.730
a picture of Mark was faxed to the McPhersons in Canada.
623
00:47:41.949 --> 00:47:44.969
They gathered around the fax machine along with some of
624
00:47:45.030 --> 00:47:52.429
Duncan's friends, anticipation soaring as the image emerged. But Mark
625
00:47:52.469 --> 00:47:58.389
Scherfman looked nothing like Duncan. His loved ones considered every
626
00:47:58.469 --> 00:48:02.320
conceivable possibility that Duncan's appearance could have changed in the
627
00:48:02.360 --> 00:48:06.219
four years since his disappearance. and embassy officials ordered a
628
00:48:06.260 --> 00:48:11.550
comparison of the two men's dental records. They didn't match.
629
00:48:13.230 --> 00:48:16.150
A former teammate of Duncan's who was living in Austria
630
00:48:16.210 --> 00:48:20.219
went to visit Mark just in case. But to the
631
00:48:20.280 --> 00:48:24.860
crushing disappointment of many, he confirmed that Mark Scherfman and
632
00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:32.559
Duncan McPherson were definitely not the same persons. In the
633
00:48:32.619 --> 00:48:36.530
summers that followed, Bob and Linda spent their life savings
634
00:48:36.610 --> 00:48:41.369
returning to Austria. They refused to change their phone number
635
00:48:41.570 --> 00:48:44.480
or move house just in case Duncan ever tried to
636
00:48:44.519 --> 00:48:47.840
get in touch. By 2003, Duncan had been missing for
637
00:48:47.840 --> 00:48:54.960
14 years. Bob and Linda could no longer afford the
638
00:48:55.019 --> 00:48:58.219
annual trips, and they did their best to get on
639
00:48:58.280 --> 00:49:01.400
with their lives, even though their son was never far
640
00:49:01.519 --> 00:49:07.719
from their minds. That summer, the temperature soared to record
641
00:49:07.760 --> 00:49:12.389
heights in Innsbruck. So much of the winter snow melted
642
00:49:12.650 --> 00:49:16.130
that even the Schaffelfehner ski run had to be closed down.
643
00:49:17.650 --> 00:49:23.150
On Friday July 18 2003, a Stubai Glacier employee was walking
644
00:49:23.230 --> 00:49:27.030
along the empty ski run collecting rubbish when they noticed
645
00:49:27.150 --> 00:49:31.570
something sticking out of the snow approximately 35 metres east
646
00:49:31.630 --> 00:49:37.000
of the ski lift. At the McPherson's home in Saskatoon,
647
00:49:37.480 --> 00:49:41.550
the phone rang the next day. It was a friend
648
00:49:41.610 --> 00:49:56.630
of theirs from Innsbruck. They've found Duncan, he said. Thank
649
00:49:56.650 --> 00:50:09.710
you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors,
650
00:50:09.949 --> 00:50:24.239
you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. It
651
00:50:24.360 --> 00:50:27.510
didn't take long for the Innsbruck police to confirm that
652
00:50:27.570 --> 00:50:30.289
Duncan had died by accident on the same day he
653
00:50:30.329 --> 00:50:35.690
was last seen back on Wednesday, August 9, 1989. His
654
00:50:35.769 --> 00:50:38.469
body had been buried in a small crevasse and was
655
00:50:38.570 --> 00:50:43.360
seemingly frozen in time. Dressed in the same bright yellow
656
00:50:43.440 --> 00:50:47.079
ski jacket and the newly purchased jumper he'd been wearing
657
00:50:47.119 --> 00:50:50.500
at the time of his disappearance, his pocket still held
658
00:50:50.539 --> 00:50:55.010
his wallet which contained essentials for his European trip, including
659
00:50:55.110 --> 00:51:01.070
his international driver's license and a Canadian calling card. The
660
00:51:01.150 --> 00:51:05.250
snowboard and ski boots he'd supposedly returned to the rental
661
00:51:05.289 --> 00:51:11.610
shop were also still with him. Similar crevasses to the
662
00:51:11.730 --> 00:51:15.010
one Duncan's body was found in crisscrossed all over the
663
00:51:15.050 --> 00:51:20.400
Stubai Glacier. To make the area safe for skiers, piston
664
00:51:20.440 --> 00:51:23.199
bullies groomed the ski runs at the end of each day,
665
00:51:23.599 --> 00:51:28.530
filling each of the crevasses in with snow. Ungroomed areas
666
00:51:28.590 --> 00:51:31.550
were cordoned off to make sure skiers didn't veer out
667
00:51:31.590 --> 00:51:36.940
of bounds. The ski lift operator insisted that the area
668
00:51:36.980 --> 00:51:39.300
to the left and right of the ski lift had
669
00:51:39.340 --> 00:51:42.179
been cordoned off at the time that Duncan went missing.
670
00:51:43.820 --> 00:51:47.159
Crevasses like the one Duncan's body was found in also
671
00:51:47.260 --> 00:51:52.289
moved naturally over time. It was therefore deduced that at
672
00:51:52.329 --> 00:51:55.449
the time of Duncan's death, the crevasse would have been
673
00:51:55.489 --> 00:52:00.050
about 40 metres further uphill, just outside of the designated
674
00:52:00.110 --> 00:52:06.050
ski run. Authorities therefore theorised that Duncan could have either
675
00:52:06.170 --> 00:52:09.789
ridden off course while snowboarding or been riding the ski
676
00:52:09.849 --> 00:52:15.130
lift when he fell off. It wasn't possible to snowboard
677
00:52:15.170 --> 00:52:18.289
down the lift route, and they assumed Duncan would have
678
00:52:18.349 --> 00:52:23.010
thought it was too difficult to climb up. Instead, they
679
00:52:23.070 --> 00:52:26.510
concluded that he likely took a shortcut on foot across
680
00:52:26.590 --> 00:52:32.420
an out-of-bounds area. The air was thick with fog that day,
681
00:52:32.739 --> 00:52:35.960
and Duncan could have gotten lost before falling into one
682
00:52:36.000 --> 00:52:39.260
of the crevasses, too far outside of the ski run
683
00:52:39.340 --> 00:52:45.699
for anyone else to notice. Duncan's frozen remains were removed
684
00:52:45.920 --> 00:52:49.070
using an ice pick and transported to the coroner, where
685
00:52:49.090 --> 00:52:54.730
a pathologist was tasked with formally identifying the body. In Austria,
686
00:52:55.110 --> 00:52:58.949
autopsies aren't necessary if the individual is determined to have
687
00:52:58.989 --> 00:53:01.929
died as the result of an accident, and as such,
688
00:53:02.449 --> 00:53:07.809
no autopsy was requested. Based on the known facts, the
689
00:53:07.849 --> 00:53:11.889
pathologist concluded that Duncan had likely fallen into the crevasse
690
00:53:12.150 --> 00:53:16.219
and was unable to climb out. He would have managed
691
00:53:16.360 --> 00:53:18.739
to breathe some of the air that was trapped in
692
00:53:18.780 --> 00:53:21.659
the snow for a little while before running out of
693
00:53:21.760 --> 00:53:30.030
oxygen and suffocating to death. Bob and Linda McPherson promptly
694
00:53:30.090 --> 00:53:35.309
arrived in Innsbruck to identify Duncan's mummified body. His remains
695
00:53:35.369 --> 00:53:38.179
were laid out in the forensic institute, covered in a
696
00:53:38.219 --> 00:53:43.199
white sheet with only his face visible. Despite his skin
697
00:53:43.260 --> 00:53:47.539
being black from oxidation, Linda recognised her son right away.
698
00:53:49.699 --> 00:53:52.900
Bob and Linda each took a moment to say goodbye
699
00:53:52.960 --> 00:53:57.179
to their son. If there was any consolation to be
700
00:53:57.239 --> 00:54:01.750
found after 14 agonising years, it was that Duncan likely
701
00:54:01.849 --> 00:54:07.489
hadn't suffered too badly. The forensic pathologist in charge, Dr
702
00:54:07.550 --> 00:54:12.159
Walter Rabel, told the McPhersons that survivors of similar experiences
703
00:54:12.300 --> 00:54:15.559
had reported feeling calm and happy in the moments before
704
00:54:15.619 --> 00:54:21.320
they were rescued. While the McPhersons were relieved to discover
705
00:54:21.380 --> 00:54:26.010
that Duncan hadn't suffered any of their worst-case scenarios, something
706
00:54:26.090 --> 00:54:31.389
didn't feel right. A few days after identifying their son,
707
00:54:31.639 --> 00:54:35.190
they returned to the Stubai Glacier and rode the gondola
708
00:54:35.289 --> 00:54:40.789
up the Schaufelfehner like they'd done many times before. Two
709
00:54:40.869 --> 00:54:44.090
glacier employees then drove them in a snowcat to the
710
00:54:44.130 --> 00:54:49.389
location where Duncan's body had been found. While the McPhersons
711
00:54:49.429 --> 00:54:52.210
were anticipating the spot to be off to the side
712
00:54:52.349 --> 00:54:54.730
in an area that was obviously out of bounds …
713
00:54:55.369 --> 00:54:57.570
they were shocked to see that it was right in
714
00:54:57.590 --> 00:55:01.909
the middle of the ski run. In fact, they'd passed
715
00:55:02.010 --> 00:55:05.880
by that very spot themselves several times over the years.
716
00:55:07.400 --> 00:55:11.079
Bob had even taken a photo of Linda standing nearby.
717
00:55:12.800 --> 00:55:15.719
It struck them that for all the time they'd spent
718
00:55:15.780 --> 00:55:19.530
worrying about their son, thousands of people had been skiing
719
00:55:19.670 --> 00:55:24.599
practically right over him. As they tried to get their
720
00:55:24.659 --> 00:55:27.699
heads around the reality of it all, Bob looked into
721
00:55:27.739 --> 00:55:32.159
the recently disturbed ice and noticed something black emerging from
722
00:55:32.199 --> 00:55:37.190
the melting snow. He picked it up. It was a
723
00:55:37.230 --> 00:55:41.349
large piece of Duncan's rented snowboard, clearly broken with the
724
00:55:41.429 --> 00:55:47.659
serial number still visible. Bob poked around further. and to
725
00:55:47.719 --> 00:55:51.690
his utter dismay, he found several of Duncan's bones that
726
00:55:51.730 --> 00:55:56.989
the recovery team had failed to retrieve. Appalled by the
727
00:55:57.030 --> 00:56:01.949
careless recovery efforts, the McPhersons sought answers from Dr Walter Rabel,
728
00:56:02.179 --> 00:56:07.320
the forensic pathologist. He advised them that some of the items,
729
00:56:07.559 --> 00:56:11.019
such as Duncan's snowboard and clothing, had been encased in
730
00:56:11.079 --> 00:56:13.619
such a way that it was impossible to remove them
731
00:56:13.800 --> 00:56:18.289
using an ice pick. Instead, the rescue crew had used
732
00:56:18.369 --> 00:56:21.309
a snow grooming machine to dig them out, which had
733
00:56:21.349 --> 00:56:26.750
resulted in some damage. Bob was taken aback by this.
734
00:56:27.829 --> 00:56:31.369
He was familiar with snow grooming machines and knew that
735
00:56:31.409 --> 00:56:36.269
they didn't have any excavation capabilities. The tiller blade on
736
00:56:36.289 --> 00:56:40.250
the front, which consists of a rapidly rotating shaft, was
737
00:56:40.429 --> 00:56:47.429
used to push snow, not dig ice. Suspicions raised the
738
00:56:47.469 --> 00:56:52.309
McPhersons wanted to have their own autopsy conducted, but repatriating
739
00:56:52.389 --> 00:56:56.179
Duncan's body back to Canada was an expensive endeavour and
740
00:56:56.300 --> 00:56:59.099
their relentless search for him had already set them back
741
00:56:59.219 --> 00:57:06.280
over 100,000 euros, their entire retirement fund. They simply didn't
742
00:57:06.320 --> 00:57:11.920
have the money. Besides, Dr Rabel advised them that given
743
00:57:11.940 --> 00:57:14.880
how long Duncan's body had spent in the ice, an
744
00:57:14.949 --> 00:57:20.119
autopsy probably wouldn't reveal much anyway. He offered to have
745
00:57:20.179 --> 00:57:26.019
a computerised tomography scan done of Duncan's body instead. It
746
00:57:26.059 --> 00:57:30.309
would produce two- and three-dimensional X-ray images of the remains.
747
00:57:31.369 --> 00:57:35.110
While it wouldn't reveal how Duncan had died, it would
748
00:57:35.170 --> 00:57:41.030
show any injuries he'd sustained. The McPhersons agreed to go
749
00:57:41.090 --> 00:57:45.809
ahead with the scans. A few days later, Dr. Rabel
750
00:57:45.889 --> 00:57:49.159
told them that while he hadn't yet seen the scans himself,
751
00:57:49.599 --> 00:57:53.599
a colleague in the radiology department said Duncan hadn't sustained
752
00:57:53.780 --> 00:57:57.380
any major injury that would account for his death, bolstering
753
00:57:57.440 --> 00:58:03.329
the theory that he died by suffocation. Reluctantly, his parents
754
00:58:03.409 --> 00:58:07.829
accepted the explanation for Duncan's accidental death and consented to
755
00:58:07.869 --> 00:58:12.929
have his body cremated. They returned to Canada armed with
756
00:58:13.050 --> 00:58:16.710
nothing more than his ashes, his ski boots, and the
757
00:58:16.789 --> 00:58:25.719
remnants of his broken snowboard. While Duncan's case was officially closed,
758
00:58:25.980 --> 00:58:30.579
that didn't stop his parents from seeking answers. It seemed
759
00:58:30.780 --> 00:58:33.960
unbelievable to them that Duncan could have died right at
760
00:58:34.000 --> 00:58:36.960
the spot where he was last seen and then gone
761
00:58:37.119 --> 00:58:42.130
undetected for so many years. The last reported sighting of
762
00:58:42.210 --> 00:58:46.769
Duncan had occurred around 2.30pm on Wednesday August 9 1989.
763
00:58:46.769 --> 00:58:52.469
The slope closed to the public at 4pm, after which
764
00:58:52.650 --> 00:58:55.349
the piston bullies came out to groom the snow in
765
00:58:55.389 --> 00:59:00.130
preparation for the following day's run. What the McPhersons couldn't
766
00:59:00.170 --> 00:59:04.050
understand was why didn't anyone go looking for Duncan, despite
767
00:59:04.090 --> 00:59:06.710
the fact his car sat in the parking lot, his
768
00:59:06.809 --> 00:59:09.969
rental gear hadn't been returned to the ski shop and
769
00:59:10.059 --> 00:59:15.659
his wet clothing sat hanging in Walter Hinterhosel's office. For
770
00:59:15.719 --> 00:59:19.179
many years, the Innsbruck police had told the McPhersons there
771
00:59:19.199 --> 00:59:22.219
had never been any fatal accidents on the Shelfall Fairness
772
00:59:22.239 --> 00:59:27.309
ski run. But as the McPhersons soon discovered, this wasn't
773
00:59:27.429 --> 00:59:31.690
the case. In fact, almost one year to the day
774
00:59:31.769 --> 00:59:36.349
before Duncan went missing, international student Chung Yin-Chu had been
775
00:59:36.429 --> 00:59:39.860
skiing the Schaufelfener when he fell from the ski lift.
776
00:59:41.090 --> 00:59:44.079
He then took a shortcut across the cordoned off area
777
00:59:44.320 --> 00:59:49.579
and fell into a crevasse. Unlike Duncan, Chung was visiting
778
00:59:49.639 --> 00:59:52.440
with friends who raised the alarm when he failed to
779
00:59:52.500 --> 00:59:56.570
surface at the end of the day. Rescue workers found
780
00:59:56.670 --> 00:59:59.690
Chung in the ice, his body temperature so low that
781
00:59:59.730 --> 01:00:04.130
he was barely clinging to life. He was transported to hospital,
782
01:00:04.329 --> 01:00:10.320
where he passed away due to complications from hypothermia. During
783
01:00:10.360 --> 01:00:14.360
the McPherson's tireless search for Duncan, the possibility that he
784
01:00:14.400 --> 01:00:17.239
could have fallen down a crevasse had never once been
785
01:00:17.280 --> 01:00:21.019
suggested by officials, even though he was last sighted in
786
01:00:21.059 --> 01:00:24.659
that very area where Chung Yin-Chu had died a year earlier.
787
01:00:25.469 --> 01:00:31.400
and the same police officer, had overseen both searches. Not
788
01:00:31.519 --> 01:00:35.159
only did this raise some serious red flags for the McPhersons,
789
01:00:35.519 --> 01:00:38.880
they also took issue with the suggestion that if Duncan
790
01:00:38.920 --> 01:00:41.440
had fallen off the ski lift, he might have found
791
01:00:41.480 --> 01:00:44.300
it too difficult to climb back up the slope, and
792
01:00:44.360 --> 01:00:47.420
that's why he took the shortcut through the cordoned off area.
793
01:00:48.940 --> 01:00:52.679
Duncan was a fit, strong professional athlete who was also
794
01:00:52.840 --> 01:01:00.070
very safety conscious. Back in 1993, snowboarding instructor Walter Hinterhäusel
795
01:01:00.130 --> 01:01:03.849
had even told the German television show Bitter Melderdeck that
796
01:01:03.929 --> 01:01:09.550
Duncan had been particularly cautious around the slope boundaries. So,
797
01:01:09.840 --> 01:01:12.719
if he had indeed fallen off the ski lifts, the
798
01:01:12.760 --> 01:01:15.440
McPhersons found it hard to believe that he would have
799
01:01:15.519 --> 01:01:19.460
taken the risky shortcut instead of simply climbing back up
800
01:01:19.519 --> 01:01:26.250
the mountain. In September 2003, the Innsbruck Police released their
801
01:01:26.309 --> 01:01:31.980
final official report into Duncan McPherson's death. While they acknowledged
802
01:01:32.099 --> 01:01:35.159
that they could only speculate about the cause of the accident,
803
01:01:35.519 --> 01:01:41.519
a statement from the police read, Mountain accidents, primarily falls
804
01:01:41.579 --> 01:01:45.699
into crevasses or ice breaks in glacier areas, happen regularly.
805
01:01:46.869 --> 01:01:50.630
Staying on the glacier outside of the secured ski area
806
01:01:50.750 --> 01:01:55.199
without appropriate safety equipment carries, among other things, a high
807
01:01:55.280 --> 01:01:59.760
risk of falling into a crevasse. Such accidents are almost
808
01:01:59.929 --> 01:02:03.139
always the result of careless behaviour on the part of
809
01:02:03.260 --> 01:02:11.199
those involved. The McPhersons were eager to see the results
810
01:02:11.260 --> 01:02:15.429
of Duncan's computerised tomography scan for themselves. but it took
811
01:02:15.510 --> 01:02:18.510
them several months of going back and forth with Dr
812
01:02:18.530 --> 01:02:21.679
Walter Rabel in Innsbruck before they finally got a hold
813
01:02:21.719 --> 01:02:28.019
of them. The scan left Bob and Linda stunned. Despite
814
01:02:28.039 --> 01:02:31.960
being told that Duncan hadn't sustained any fatal injuries, it
815
01:02:32.000 --> 01:02:36.360
appeared on the scan that he'd been decapitated. Both of
816
01:02:36.420 --> 01:02:40.079
his forearms were fractured and had been completely separated from
817
01:02:40.119 --> 01:02:44.039
his body. His left leg also appeared to have been
818
01:02:44.159 --> 01:02:47.559
amputated in two places, and the lower part of his
819
01:02:47.619 --> 01:02:49.699
left leg was completely shattered.
820
01:02:52.159 --> 01:02:52.500
Dr.
821
01:02:52.559 --> 01:02:56.960
Rabel explained that the injuries to Duncan's forearms likely occurred
822
01:02:57.019 --> 01:03:00.119
when he fell into the crevasse and presumably tried to
823
01:03:00.159 --> 01:03:04.300
break his fall. As for the other injuries, he said
824
01:03:04.320 --> 01:03:07.119
these had been caused by the natural movement of the
825
01:03:07.340 --> 01:03:12.090
ice over the years. He'd examined many corpses that had
826
01:03:12.110 --> 01:03:16.210
been stuck in glaciers and had observed similar injuries, with
827
01:03:16.250 --> 01:03:22.400
the glacier essentially breaking up the bodies over time. Linda
828
01:03:22.420 --> 01:03:27.079
and Bob weren't convinced. Eager to get all the information
829
01:03:27.139 --> 01:03:30.699
they could, they successfully petitioned to get a copy of
830
01:03:30.760 --> 01:03:36.170
the 2003 case file from Canadian Foreign Affairs. Reports and
831
01:03:36.269 --> 01:03:39.730
photos of the recovery mission revealed that Duncan's body had
832
01:03:39.750 --> 01:03:44.269
been retrieved by two Stubai Glacier employees, with their rescue
833
01:03:44.309 --> 01:03:49.699
workers hovering in a helicopter overhead. No police officers or
834
01:03:49.739 --> 01:03:55.260
a coroner were present. Not only did this seem grossly inadequate,
835
01:03:55.599 --> 01:03:57.969
the photos of Duncan's body as it lay in the
836
01:03:58.170 --> 01:04:04.530
ice also raised some serious questions. Firstly, Duncan's body lay
837
01:04:04.590 --> 01:04:09.570
horizontally on its left-hand side, not vertically like most people
838
01:04:09.610 --> 01:04:14.909
who die from similar falls. His left leg was completely shattered,
839
01:04:15.150 --> 01:04:17.789
while his right leg, which lay directly on top of
840
01:04:17.849 --> 01:04:23.090
the left, was perfectly intact. If the damage to Duncan's
841
01:04:23.150 --> 01:04:26.030
body was caused by the natural movement of the ice
842
01:04:26.239 --> 01:04:29.400
over the years, how could one leg be fine and
843
01:04:29.500 --> 01:04:34.969
the other so badly damaged? The McPhersons were also told
844
01:04:35.010 --> 01:04:38.340
that damage to Duncan's clothing and snowboard had been done
845
01:04:38.420 --> 01:04:41.940
during the recovery process, but it was clear from the
846
01:04:42.000 --> 01:04:46.400
photos that this wasn't the case. Some of his clothing
847
01:04:46.460 --> 01:04:49.360
was already torn to shreds and bunched together in a
848
01:04:49.400 --> 01:04:54.059
way that didn't look like a natural occurrence. Duncan's left
849
01:04:54.219 --> 01:04:57.940
ski boot also sat by his side, perfectly intact and
850
01:04:58.039 --> 01:05:03.869
filled with snow. Its insular lining was found elsewhere, shredded
851
01:05:04.150 --> 01:05:08.449
and covered with V-shaped puncture marks, consistent with the damage
852
01:05:08.570 --> 01:05:13.579
to his left leg. This meant that Duncan hadn't been
853
01:05:13.679 --> 01:05:16.659
wearing the boots at the time he died, which meant
854
01:05:16.860 --> 01:05:22.119
he'd unstrapped them from his snowboard. The McPhersons wondered whether
855
01:05:22.179 --> 01:05:25.349
he could have survived the fall into the crevasse and
856
01:05:25.429 --> 01:05:28.170
had enough room to take the boots off and attempt
857
01:05:28.269 --> 01:05:32.000
to climb out. But, If that had been the case,
858
01:05:32.340 --> 01:05:34.980
the boots would have gone further down into the crevasse,
859
01:05:35.519 --> 01:05:41.010
not remained right next to his body. But what really
860
01:05:41.070 --> 01:05:46.329
shocked the McPhersons was the snowboard itself. When they'd been
861
01:05:46.369 --> 01:05:49.710
given the broken board, red paint marks were visible in
862
01:05:49.750 --> 01:05:53.340
the wood, which had been explained as having occurred during
863
01:05:53.380 --> 01:05:59.030
the recovery missions. Examining the photos, the McPhersons could see
864
01:05:59.110 --> 01:06:02.070
that the red paint marks were visible on the snowboard
865
01:06:02.170 --> 01:06:06.260
when Duncan's body was initially found, indicating that damage had
866
01:06:06.300 --> 01:06:12.539
occurred earlier on. Bob retrieved the broken snowboard from his
867
01:06:12.619 --> 01:06:17.739
basement and examined it closely. He noticed that the damaged
868
01:06:17.840 --> 01:06:21.059
parts of the board featured the exact same amount of
869
01:06:21.159 --> 01:06:26.519
heavy weathering and rust as the undamaged parts. The only
870
01:06:26.599 --> 01:06:29.900
explanation Bob could find for this was that the board
871
01:06:30.019 --> 01:06:33.480
must have been broken and exposed to the elements long
872
01:06:33.539 --> 01:06:38.650
before the recovery in 2003. And if the board had
873
01:06:38.730 --> 01:06:41.650
been torn up by machinery before it was buried in
874
01:06:41.690 --> 01:06:49.159
the ice, then what did this mean for Duncan? The
875
01:06:49.199 --> 01:06:52.840
McPherson's sent the scans to a medical professional in Canada
876
01:06:53.059 --> 01:06:56.199
who raised the possibility that Duncan might have been run
877
01:06:56.320 --> 01:07:01.780
over by a snow grooming machine. Two renowned forensic experts
878
01:07:01.840 --> 01:07:05.400
who had first-hand experience in examining corpses that had been
879
01:07:05.460 --> 01:07:11.469
retrieved from the ice independently agreed. The damage to Duncan's
880
01:07:11.530 --> 01:07:15.909
body wasn't caused by movements in the glacier, but by
881
01:07:15.989 --> 01:07:23.380
contact with heavy machinery. In Innsbruck, Dr Walter Rabel discounted
882
01:07:23.420 --> 01:07:28.150
this possibility. He said that such an incident wouldn't have
883
01:07:28.230 --> 01:07:32.610
severed Duncan's limbs, but caused damage to his ribs, pelvis
884
01:07:32.650 --> 01:07:37.210
and organs. It also didn't explain how he'd ended up
885
01:07:37.250 --> 01:07:41.489
in the crevasse. If Duncan was run over by a
886
01:07:41.550 --> 01:07:45.429
snow grooming machine, Dr Rabel said someone would have had
887
01:07:45.489 --> 01:07:48.960
to drive back and push him into the crevasse after
888
01:07:49.000 --> 01:07:54.559
the fact. Bob and Delinda had always been dubious about
889
01:07:54.599 --> 01:07:57.500
the claim that no snowboards had been missing from the
890
01:07:57.559 --> 01:08:02.340
rental shop on the afternoon Duncan went missing. They noted
891
01:08:02.409 --> 01:08:06.110
that while Duncan's international driver's licence and calling card had
892
01:08:06.130 --> 01:08:10.349
been returned to them, his Canadian driver's licence had not.
893
01:08:11.909 --> 01:08:15.010
They wondered whether this was because Duncan had left the
894
01:08:15.070 --> 01:08:17.619
licence with the rental shop as a deposit for his
895
01:08:17.680 --> 01:08:21.239
equipment or along with his shoes, which also hadn't been
896
01:08:21.279 --> 01:08:25.859
returned to his family. When Duncan failed to return at
897
01:08:25.899 --> 01:08:28.810
the end of the day, someone got rid of the license,
898
01:08:29.090 --> 01:08:34.569
his shoes, and any record of his hire. If this
899
01:08:34.670 --> 01:08:37.550
was the case, it meant something had to have happened
900
01:08:37.649 --> 01:08:41.960
to Duncan on Wednesday August 9 that Stubai Glacier personnel
901
01:08:42.159 --> 01:08:47.229
were aware of. A Glacier official claimed that the cordoned
902
01:08:47.279 --> 01:08:50.590
off area had been searched during the initial search in
903
01:08:50.649 --> 01:08:55.069
late September 1989, but it had been snowing at the time,
904
01:08:55.430 --> 01:08:58.420
and therefore the crevasse Duncan was in would have been
905
01:08:58.460 --> 01:09:03.590
covered with snow. Bob and Linda had been there at
906
01:09:03.609 --> 01:09:08.409
the time in question. It hadn't been snowing, nor was
907
01:09:08.449 --> 01:09:14.500
there any fresh snow on the ground. Stubai Glacier staff
908
01:09:14.699 --> 01:09:18.029
also claimed that on the day Duncan went missing, All
909
01:09:18.090 --> 01:09:21.029
known crevasses on the ski run had been filled in,
910
01:09:21.510 --> 01:09:25.909
and those that hadn't had been cordoned off. The police
911
01:09:25.949 --> 01:09:29.210
had taken photos of the Shelfilferna ski run during the
912
01:09:29.270 --> 01:09:34.340
search for Duncan in 1989, but despite numerous requests from
913
01:09:34.380 --> 01:09:40.300
Duncan's family, they refused to hand these over. Without the photos,
914
01:09:40.539 --> 01:09:42.720
there was no way to know for sure if the
915
01:09:42.779 --> 01:09:49.130
dangerous areas had indeed been cordoned off. Convinced that something
916
01:09:49.189 --> 01:09:52.369
more sinister than a tragic accident was at play, the
917
01:09:52.409 --> 01:09:58.489
McPhersons made multiple efforts to have Duncan's case reinvestigated. But
918
01:09:58.729 --> 01:10:01.920
Innsbruck Police maintained that it was an open and shut
919
01:10:02.079 --> 01:10:07.260
accidental death and the case would remain closed. Over the
920
01:10:07.319 --> 01:10:10.819
following years, the McPhersons tried everything they could think of
921
01:10:10.840 --> 01:10:15.439
to have Duncan's case reviewed. They filed numerous complaints with
922
01:10:15.479 --> 01:10:19.300
the Austrian authorities, submitted a formal complaint to the Ministry
923
01:10:19.319 --> 01:10:22.609
of Justice, and even tried their luck with the European
924
01:10:22.670 --> 01:10:27.350
Court of Human Rights. All of their appeals were rejected.
925
01:10:31.369 --> 01:10:34.590
Refusing to let it go, Bob and Linda began working
926
01:10:34.649 --> 01:10:38.449
with California-based author John Leake, who had taken an interest
927
01:10:38.529 --> 01:10:43.699
in Duncan's case. John had lived in Austria while investigating
928
01:10:43.739 --> 01:10:47.239
the crimes of serial killer Jack Unterweger, as covered in
929
01:10:47.279 --> 01:10:51.420
episode 197 of Casefile, and he had a good understanding
930
01:10:51.479 --> 01:10:56.489
of Austrian culture. John spent several years getting to know
931
01:10:56.529 --> 01:11:01.510
the McPhersons and the intricate details of their story. After
932
01:11:01.590 --> 01:11:05.090
reviewing all of the evidence for himself, John consulted with
933
01:11:05.250 --> 01:11:09.819
numerous specialists, including Dick Penniman, an American expert in ski
934
01:11:09.840 --> 01:11:14.529
slope accidents, Dick took one look at the snowboard and
935
01:11:14.609 --> 01:11:18.090
injuries to Duncan's leg and immediately knew the damage was
936
01:11:18.149 --> 01:11:22.189
caused by a snow grooming tiller. Not only are the
937
01:11:22.229 --> 01:11:26.659
bones broken in pieces, Dick explained, but the flesh around
938
01:11:26.739 --> 01:11:30.699
the bones has also been chopped up. A crevasse fall
939
01:11:30.819 --> 01:11:37.739
could break bones, but it couldn't grind meat. Given that
940
01:11:37.800 --> 01:11:41.220
Duncan's boots were no longer on his feet, the theory
941
01:11:41.279 --> 01:11:44.260
was raised that he might have fallen into the crevasse,
942
01:11:44.539 --> 01:11:47.819
survived the fall, and then managed to climb out on
943
01:11:47.880 --> 01:11:51.649
his own. While he was hanging on the edge with
944
01:11:51.789 --> 01:11:54.729
one hand and a leg, the snow groomer came along
945
01:11:54.829 --> 01:11:59.130
and drove over him, mangling the exposed limb before burying
946
01:11:59.210 --> 01:12:04.100
him in the ice. But if Duncan's body had only
947
01:12:04.140 --> 01:12:07.380
been mangled and not fully run over … it raised
948
01:12:07.479 --> 01:12:11.069
the question of how Duncan's body and his snowboarding equipment
949
01:12:11.449 --> 01:12:14.489
ended up so deep into the crevasse and not just
950
01:12:14.569 --> 01:12:19.770
on the surface. As far as Dick Penniman was concerned,
951
01:12:20.170 --> 01:12:24.399
not one but two separate events had resulted in Duncan's death.
952
01:12:26.500 --> 01:12:30.079
An alternative theory was that Duncan could have suffered an injury,
953
01:12:30.340 --> 01:12:33.680
perhaps a broken leg, which would explain why he unstrapped
954
01:12:33.699 --> 01:12:37.649
his board and took his left boot off. Perhaps he
955
01:12:37.689 --> 01:12:40.670
was lying in a semi-fetal position as he waited for
956
01:12:40.710 --> 01:12:45.979
help to arrive, unable to walk himself. Unable to see
957
01:12:46.020 --> 01:12:49.579
him through the fog, a snow groomer accidentally hit him,
958
01:12:49.960 --> 01:12:55.050
dragging his limbs into the tiller and killing him. Realising
959
01:12:55.149 --> 01:12:58.289
what they'd done and the impact this would have on tourism,
960
01:12:58.829 --> 01:13:01.909
one or more employees removed his body from the tiller.
961
01:13:03.029 --> 01:13:06.859
They threw Duncan's body in the crevasse, which was concealed
962
01:13:06.960 --> 01:13:13.659
with snow. The McPhersons took their concerns to the Canadian
963
01:13:13.699 --> 01:13:18.060
Broadcasting Corporation, who aired two episodes about Duncan's case for
964
01:13:18.100 --> 01:13:24.550
the long-running investigative documentary program, The Fifth Estate. Speaking about
965
01:13:24.590 --> 01:13:30.550
the possibility of third-party involvement, John Leake said, How did
966
01:13:30.569 --> 01:13:33.369
this wreck on the surface of the slope wind up
967
01:13:33.449 --> 01:13:37.689
in a neat package in a shallow crevasse? Those two
968
01:13:37.840 --> 01:13:41.520
actions do not go together, and I've talked to 20
969
01:13:41.520 --> 01:13:45.600
different people who know glaciers and crevasses and physics and
970
01:13:45.680 --> 01:13:49.060
everything else, and no one can explain to me how
971
01:13:49.140 --> 01:13:54.210
those two things can happen without an intermediate action of someone.
972
01:13:56.930 --> 01:14:00.430
Canadian high school teacher Judy Wigmore was watching the show
973
01:14:00.550 --> 01:14:02.949
when it occurred to her that she'd been skiing on
974
01:14:02.970 --> 01:14:05.890
the Stubai Glacier with her family on the very same
975
01:14:05.949 --> 01:14:10.409
day that Duncan went missing. As far as Judy recalled,
976
01:14:10.630 --> 01:14:13.010
there had been no signs or barriers on the ski
977
01:14:13.050 --> 01:14:17.810
run to indicate any potential dangers. If she'd known about
978
01:14:17.829 --> 01:14:20.949
the crevasse hazards, she would have never let her children
979
01:14:20.989 --> 01:14:26.619
go skiing there. Unsettled by this thought, Judy tracked down
980
01:14:26.699 --> 01:14:32.220
her old travel notes from Wednesday, August 9, 1989. She
981
01:14:32.260 --> 01:14:42.300
had recorded the conditions that day as being, quote, Judy
982
01:14:42.380 --> 01:14:45.149
wrote that it was so overcast they could hardly see
983
01:14:45.189 --> 01:14:49.369
the mountains. She also recalled that the ski shop had
984
01:14:49.409 --> 01:14:52.789
been very disorganised and it had been a challenge to
985
01:14:52.829 --> 01:14:57.859
get her whole family outfitted for the day. Judy reached
986
01:14:57.979 --> 01:15:01.229
out to Bob and Linda McPherson with this information and
987
01:15:01.350 --> 01:15:04.010
sent them the few photos that she'd snapped on the
988
01:15:04.050 --> 01:15:07.930
ski run that day. The ski lift on the main
989
01:15:07.970 --> 01:15:11.489
hill where Duncan was last seen was clearly visible in
990
01:15:11.609 --> 01:15:15.569
one of them. There was no fence or cordoned off
991
01:15:15.670 --> 01:15:24.569
area to be seen. After researching Duncan's case for several years,
992
01:15:24.909 --> 01:15:28.600
John Leake released his findings in a book titled Cold
993
01:15:28.640 --> 01:15:34.279
A Long Time, An Alpine Mystery. John ultimately believed that
994
01:15:34.359 --> 01:15:38.279
Stubai Glacier personnel likely knew from the get-go that Duncan
995
01:15:38.319 --> 01:15:42.600
had died in a crevasse on Wednesday August 9 1989,
996
01:15:42.600 --> 01:15:46.319
but had withheld this information, knowing that his parents would
997
01:15:46.340 --> 01:15:50.310
have demanded a wide-scale excavation of the crevasses until their
998
01:15:50.350 --> 01:15:54.859
son was found. not wanting to shut the glacier down
999
01:15:54.920 --> 01:15:57.539
in the middle of peak season or suffer the bad
1000
01:15:57.619 --> 01:16:00.880
publicity that would go with it. They said Duncan had
1001
01:16:00.939 --> 01:16:04.210
returned his rental equipment to cover up the truth and
1002
01:16:04.289 --> 01:16:10.250
redirect the investigations elsewhere. While it was possible that only
1003
01:16:10.289 --> 01:16:13.050
the driver of the snow groomer and perhaps some of
1004
01:16:13.109 --> 01:16:17.640
his co-workers knew exactly how the disaster happened, John wrote,
1005
01:16:19.399 --> 01:16:23.760
After systematically analysing the facts with Dick Penniman, we realised
1006
01:16:23.939 --> 01:16:28.899
that only one conclusion could be drawn. Someone had intentionally
1007
01:16:28.960 --> 01:16:36.229
concealed Duncan's body in the crevasse. The McPhersons contemplated taking
1008
01:16:36.310 --> 01:16:40.130
legal action against the Stubai Glacier, but were dissuaded by
1009
01:16:40.170 --> 01:16:45.880
both the Innsbruck pathologist and some independent lawyers. Because the
1010
01:16:45.979 --> 01:16:49.979
exact cause of Duncan's death remained unclear, They were told
1011
01:16:50.119 --> 01:16:53.100
there was little chance of proving any misconduct by the
1012
01:16:53.140 --> 01:16:59.270
Stubai Glacier staff. Instead, they sought reimbursement from the Stubai
1013
01:16:59.310 --> 01:17:03.510
Glacier founder Heinrich Kleer for the costs they'd incurred during
1014
01:17:03.569 --> 01:17:07.100
their search for Duncan, on the basis that his employees
1015
01:17:07.140 --> 01:17:12.920
had given them misleading information. Their claim was rejected by
1016
01:17:12.979 --> 01:17:17.020
Kleer's insurance provider, who stated the Glacier company was not
1017
01:17:17.079 --> 01:17:22.189
at fault for their son's death. While Bob and Linda
1018
01:17:22.369 --> 01:17:26.560
ultimately accepted that whatever happened to Duncan had been an accident,
1019
01:17:27.029 --> 01:17:30.960
they believed that both the Stubai Glacier staff and Innsbruck
1020
01:17:31.000 --> 01:17:36.439
police had acted negligently. Not only had this caused the
1021
01:17:36.640 --> 01:17:41.560
McPhersons 14 years of undue angst and financial hardship, it
1022
01:17:41.619 --> 01:17:46.460
also put the lives of other skiers at risk. Linda
1023
01:17:46.520 --> 01:17:51.619
told a journalist for German magazine Datum, The only crime
1024
01:17:51.699 --> 01:17:55.199
for us is the way in which this case was investigated.
1025
01:17:56.979 --> 01:17:59.619
When asked on the Fifth Estate how she would react
1026
01:17:59.680 --> 01:18:04.350
if someone finally came forward and took accountability, Linda responded,
1027
01:18:04.369 --> 01:18:08.590
I don't think I'd be able to speak. I'd just
1028
01:18:08.630 --> 01:18:12.329
be so happy that I'd cry. It would restore my
1029
01:18:12.430 --> 01:18:20.600
faith in humanity. August 2024 marked the 35-year anniversary of
1030
01:18:20.680 --> 01:18:25.630
Duncan McPherson's death. Bob and Delinda are now in their 80s,
1031
01:18:25.920 --> 01:18:29.550
and they remain convinced that Duncan's death was covered up
1032
01:18:29.710 --> 01:18:35.250
to protect the Stubai Valley's valuable tourism industry. While they
1033
01:18:35.289 --> 01:18:37.550
have come to accept that they will never get the
1034
01:18:37.590 --> 01:18:41.789
justice they so desperately desire from officials in Austria, they
1035
01:18:41.869 --> 01:18:48.189
still refuse to stay quiet. In August 2024, Linda told
1036
01:18:48.310 --> 01:18:53.619
CTV News that without anyone coming forward to take responsibility, quote,
1037
01:18:54.779 --> 01:18:57.979
my next and only choice is to expose the corruption.
1038
01:18:58.930 --> 01:19:02.289
I won't quit. There's always a way to move it along.
1039
01:19:04.510 --> 01:19:08.619
A British documentary about Duncan's case is supposedly in the works,
1040
01:19:09.020 --> 01:19:12.300
with the couple vowing to continue their quest for justice
1041
01:19:12.600 --> 01:19:18.630
until they die. While it's essential for Linda that someone
1042
01:19:18.689 --> 01:19:21.630
be held accountable for the failures in her son's case,
1043
01:19:22.170 --> 01:19:25.250
she only has to think of Duncan's warm and generous
1044
01:19:25.310 --> 01:19:29.789
nature to be reminded of the good in people. When
1045
01:19:29.890 --> 01:19:33.539
Linda had arrived in Innsbruck to identify her son's remains,
1046
01:19:33.880 --> 01:19:37.680
she asked for a moment alone with him. Looking at
1047
01:19:37.760 --> 01:19:42.140
Duncan's face, she knew straight away that something wasn't right,
1048
01:19:42.720 --> 01:19:45.649
but she focused on farewelling him as best she could.
1049
01:19:47.229 --> 01:19:52.750
Linda told Duncan,'' I' m sorry you died so young, but
1050
01:19:52.810 --> 01:19:55.189
I know you had a good life and you died
1051
01:19:55.350 --> 01:19:59.569
doing something you loved.'' And that gives me some peace.
1052
01:20:33.020 --> 01:20:36.119
We all love to communicate, but with more ways to
1053
01:20:36.159 --> 01:20:38.000
do it than ever, it can be confusing.
1054
01:20:38.619 --> 01:20:40.399
Sometimes it's like a different language.
1055
01:20:41.039 --> 01:20:46.239
We're Comreg, Ireland's independent communications regulator for mobile and broadband services.
1056
01:20:46.760 --> 01:20:49.000
We have online support and we can help you resolve
1057
01:20:49.060 --> 01:20:52.659
issues with your provider if things go wrong. When communication
1058
01:20:52.699 --> 01:20:55.000
needs navigation, we'll help you find the way.
1059
01:20:56.079 --> 01:20:56.979
Hi, this is Comreg.
1060
01:20:57.180 --> 01:20:57.680
How can I help?