Pod Insights Casefile True Crime Case 303: Duncan MacPherson About this episode When 23-year-old Canadian ice hockey player Duncan MacPherson accepted a coaching job in Scotland, he was ready for his next adventure. But when Duncan failed to show up for the first day of his new job, serious concerns were raised about his well being. A desperate search led his parents Bob and Lynda to the Austrian Alps, kicking off a series of events they could never see coming.
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Narration – Anonymous Host https://www.instagram.com/caseys.snaps/
Research & writing – Elsha McGill
Creative direction – Milly Raso
Production and music – Mike Migas http://mikemigas.com/
Music – Andrew D. B. Joslyn http://www.andrewjoslynmusic.com/
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Transcript 11,574 words · 3 speakers
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1:50 Speaker 00 Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website.
2:15 Speaker 00 When 23-year-old Duncan MacPherson left his hometown of Saskatoon, Canada for a new job in Scotland in August 1989, his parents weren't worried. From a young age, Duncan had always shown incredible bravery and independence. He was just three years old when he first insisted on taking the bus to a doctor's appointment all by himself. The bus driver had refused to pick him up on account of his age, but that didn't deter the toddler. He simply figured out how to get on another bus instead. This level of courage and determination followed Duncan into his teenage years, bolstered by his strong physical stature.
3:00 Speaker 00 He developed a passion for ice hockey and spent years honing his skills, becoming a prized defenseman for the Saskatoon Blades, where he earned the nickname "MacFearsome". His hard work paid off in 1984, when at the age of 18, he was picked in the first round by the New York Islanders as part of the National Hockey League professional draft. This meant a move across the border into the United States, away from the comfort of his close-knit family. For five years, Duncan devoted his life to the game before the team cut him loose. He wasn't too disappointed, though.
3:41 Speaker 00 While he adored ice hockey, he had no interest in the politics that went on behind the scenes in the major league. Duncan told his mother he was happy to be moving on and ready for the next step in his life. He accepted a well-paid job as the head coach for the Dundee Tigers ice hockey team in Scotland, and left Canada for Europe on Wednesday, August 2, 1989.
4:09 Speaker 00 On Friday, August 11, Duncan's mother, Linda MacPherson, woke up in the middle of the night screaming. Her husband, Bob, was sleeping beside her and was roused by the commotion. He tried to calm Linda down, assuring her she'd just had a bad dream. But Linda's instincts told her otherwise. "Something terrible has happened to Duncan," she cried.
5:03 Speaker 00 The last time Linda MacPherson had spoken to Duncan was a week earlier, on Friday, August 4, 1989. He'd called home to let his family know that he'd arrived safe in Germany, where he was staying with his close friend, George Peschott. Duncan told his mother he was exhausted from the long international journey. While he was unsure of his exact plans, he said he was going to spend some time travelling and relaxing before his coaching job with the Dundee Tigers officially commenced on Monday, August 14. Duncan promised Linda that he'd touch base with her again when he arrived in Scotland on Saturday, August 12.
5:46 Speaker 00 The day after Linda's nightmare, she eagerly waited for that call. Something in her gut was telling her that Duncan was not okay. Even when he'd been living in America, he never went more than a few days without checking in with his parents. That gnawing fear only intensified when the MacPhersons still hadn't heard from Duncan by Monday, August 14, the day he was scheduled to start his job with the Dundee Tigers.
6:18 Speaker 00 In the days before the internet and cellphones, it wasn't easy to make contact with overseas travellers. For days, Linda sat by the phone, urging it to ring. She tried to reassure herself that Duncan was probably just busy with his new job and would be in touch soon.
6:38 Speaker 00 On Wednesday, August 16, the phone finally rang.
6:44 Speaker 00 It was a hockey friend of Duncan's who lived in Europe. He was trying to track Duncan down because he'd just spoken to the Dundee Tigers team manager. It looked like Duncan had never made it to Scotland.
7:01 Speaker 00 It was an anxiety-filled 24 hours for Linda and Bob McPherson until they finally made contact with Duncan's friend George Peschut the following day, Thursday, August 17. George was a Canadian ice hockey player who had recently accepted a position on a German team, and he was living in the German city of Nuremberg. He told the MacPherson that he and Duncan had spent a couple of days together before George had to go away for training camp on August 7.
7:34 Speaker 00 Duncan wanted to visit some friends and do some travelling, so George lent him his car, a red Opel Corsa. The plan was for Duncan to be back in Nuremberg by August 11 to return George's car and catch his flight to Scotland. But George said he'd just returned from his training camp.
7:56 Speaker 00 To his surprise, Duncan's hockey bag was still there, but Duncan and the Opel Corsa were not.
8:07 Speaker 00 After making a few more calls, the MacPherson discovered that on Monday, August 7, Duncan had left Nuremberg and driven three hours north to the Bavarian town of Fussan. There, he stayed with his friend Roger, another Canadian ice hockey player who was living in Europe. It was a short but enjoyable visit. The two played tennis together and then went out for dinner, where Roger got a kick out of Duncan's attempts to water without speaking a word of German.
8:40 Speaker 00 Duncan stayed at Roger's house that night, then hit the road again at around lunchtime the following day of Tuesday, August 8.
8:50 Speaker 00 Roger told the MacPherson he wasn't entirely sure of Duncan's plans from there. Fussan is just one kilometre north of the Austrian border and only a few hours' drive from Italy. Duncan had mentioned wanting to visit a friend in the Italian city of Bolzano, but nothing was set in stone.
9:11 Speaker 00 He'd departed from Roger's with no specific plans, and neither Roger, George, nor any of Duncan's other contacts in Europe had heard from him since.
9:23 Speaker 00 Upon learning this information, Linda's heart sank. She and her husband had raised Duncan and his brother to be reliable, respectful, and trustworthy young men. While Duncan was definitely keen for an adventure after years dedicated to hockey, he was a rule follower who adored his family. There was no way he would have just taken off and bailed on his job commitment without so much as a phone call.
9:52 Speaker 00 He also had a lot of respect for George Peschut and would never run off with his car without seeking permission first.
10:02 Speaker 00 The MacPherson contacted their bank to find out when Duncan had last cashed one of his traveller's cheques. They were told it was Monday, August 7, the day Duncan visited Roger in Fussan. This meant that ten days had passed without Duncan accessing any of his money. The MacPherson' anxiety spiked as they considered all possibilities. What if Duncan had accidentally driven George's car off the road and he was concealed in a ditch or mountainside somewhere? What if he'd picked up a hitchhiker who caused him harm?
10:41 Speaker 00 In the 1980s, kidnappings for ransom weren't unheard of in Italy. What if Duncan had unwittingly crossed paths with the Mafia?
10:55 Speaker 00 After two more days passed with no word from Duncan, on Sunday, August 20, the MacPherson contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, and reported the 23-year-old to be missing.
11:10 Speaker 00 To their surprise, their situation wasn't treated with any sense of urgency. Instead, they were told to call back again during regular office hours on Monday.
11:23 Speaker 00 When the MacPherson finally made contact with the police the next day, the officers they spoke to told them not to worry. Duncan was an adult who was free to do as he pleased. Like many other young foreigners, he'd likely just gotten caught up in an adventure or had met a girl and would resurface again soon. Or maybe he intended to disappear for a while, which, as an adult, he was free to do.
11:53 Speaker 00 The MacPherson didn't believe any of these reasons for a second. Not only would they have been completely out of character for Duncan, he also had a girlfriend back at home and the two had been making plans for her to come and visit him in Scotland. When Duncan still hadn't contacted anyone by Wednesday, August 23, the RCMP finally alerted Interpol and a bulletin was distributed to police stations and border crossings throughout Europe. While the MacPherson were relieved to know that Duncan was officially being treated as a missing person, the authorities continued to reassure them that he'd likely show up soon.
12:37 Speaker 00 Linda and Bob felt completely helpless waiting around in Saskatoon. They realised that the only way to ensure the search for their son was taken seriously was to fly to Europe and to do it themselves.
12:56 Speaker 00 On Sunday, August 27, the couple touched down in Germany, armed with 2,000 missing person posters printed in various languages. By now, Duncan had been missing for well over two weeks. Their first stop was to the missing persons unit of the Nuremberg Police. Like the RCMP, the officer in charge assured the worried parents that Duncan was likely off chasing romance. At six foot one, he was a strong, athletic young man, and he'd be able to take care of himself in the face of danger.
13:34 Speaker 00 Linda pointed out that 20 days had passed since he'd last cashed one of his traveller's cheques. Still, this raised no alarm bells for the police officer. He assured the MacPherson that the girl Duncan was with was probably rich.
13:52 Speaker 00 Frustrated that they weren't being taken seriously, Linda and Bob rented a car and began tracing Duncan's movements themselves. This was no easy feat for the middle-aged couple. They were modest people who enjoyed a quiet and wholesome life. Neither of them had ever been to Europe before, and they didn't speak any of the local languages. Linda was a schoolteacher and Bob a small plane pilot. They'd won their home in a raffle, which had afforded them a comfortable upbringing for their two boys. Venturing across Europe to take on the authorities was far beyond their comfort zone,
14:34 Speaker 00 but they both remained convinced that they'd find Duncan no matter what.
14:41 Speaker 00 Duncan had cashed his last traveller's cheque at a travel agency in Nuremberg. The MacPherson went there and showed the staff a photo of their son. One of the agents recalled serving Duncan there on Monday, August 7. He had put a deposit down for a flight to the Scottish city of Glasgow, set to depart five days later on Saturday, August 12.
15:08 Speaker 00 This was the same date he told his parents he would contact them from Scotland.
15:14 Speaker 00 According to the travel agent, Duncan said he'd returned to the office the day before the flight to pay the remaining balance and pick up his ticket, but he never did. From there, the MacPherson drove to Fussan, the German town where Duncan was last seen by his friend Roger. Studying a map, they tried to put themselves in Duncan's shoes. Given Fussan's proximity to both Austria and Italy, it made sense to assume he might have visited one of the nearby towns in either country. Austria offered world-class skiing, while northern Italy offered windsurfing, both activities that would appeal to the outdoor sport-loving Duncan.
16:00 Speaker 00 He'd mentioned to Roger that he'd like to visit Italy's Lake Garda, which was about a five-hour drive south of Fussan.
16:09 Speaker 00 Bob and Linda McPherson set out on this route, stopping at every regional police station along the way. For days, they traversed all the areas they thought Duncan might have visited, plastering his missing person posters while on the constant lookout for George's red opal corset. They checked with officials at the border crossings in Italy and Switzerland. Nobody they spoke to recalled seeing Duncan.
16:39 Speaker 00 In fact, to Bob and Linda's horror, none of the border officials or regional police were even aware of their son's case.
16:48 Speaker 00 In spite of what they'd been told by the RCMP, it didn't appear that an Interpol bulletin had been sent out. This meant that Duncan could have been passing through any number of towns and countries without anyone even being aware that he was a missing person.
17:10 Speaker 00 Linda and Bob continued to go over every possible scenario in a desperate bid to figure out what could have happened to their son. Soon, another unnerving possibility began to enter their minds. A few months before Duncan had left for Europe, he'd fulfilled a dream of his by hiking North America's Appalachian Trail. While it had been a positive experience for the nature lover, he'd returned with an unwanted souvenir: Lyme disease. Transmitted by tick bites, Lyme disease is typically characterized by a rash, body aches, fever, and fatigue.
17:54 Speaker 00 Duncan had fully recovered by the time he left for Europe, but after his disappearance, his parents learnt that in rare cases, Lyme disease can leave individuals with memory loss, confusion, and personality changes. They wondered whether Duncan could be experiencing these symptoms. Maybe he was alive somewhere, but suffering from some kind of neurological episode. There was also an odd comment that Duncan had made to his family in the months before his trip. Out of nowhere, he'd told Linda that a recruiter from the Central Intelligence Agency had tracked him down and asked if he'd be interested in working as a spy.
18:39 Speaker 00 This wasn't a far-fetched offer. Intelligent, athletic types like Duncan made attractive recruits. Linda had told Duncan it sounded like an exciting opportunity, but he said he wasn't interested. Working for the CIA would mean changing his identity and leaving his family behind, which he wasn't prepared to do. While it seemed unlikely, the MacPherson wondered whether Duncan had changed his mind and accepted a position with the agency after all.
19:15 Speaker 00 They also had a niggling feeling that something wasn't quite right about the job that Duncan had accepted with the Dundee Tigers in Scotland. He'd been offered the position by a Canadian businessman named Ron Dixon, who had recently bought the team. Ron offered Duncan the high-paying role, even though the two had never met.
19:38 Speaker 00 Duncan had been a little dubious. He told his family there was something off about Ron Dixon and his offer, but he'd pushed his concerns aside, knowing it was too good an opportunity to turn down.
19:53 Speaker 00 Ron said that Duncan had called him at some point during his travels in Europe. He wasn't sure of the exact date, but he believed it was most likely on Thursday, August 10. This was two days after Duncan was last seen leaving Fosse and two days before his flight to Scotland.
20:15 Speaker 00 The MacPhersons had no idea what to think. Every possibility was on the table, from foreign intelligence to amnesia to foul play.
20:27 Speaker 00 Yet, they were no closer to a breakthrough.
20:35 Speaker 00 Almost a month had passed with no reported sightings of Duncan. Then, on Thursday, September 14, Linda had an instinctive feeling that she knew where he was. When she and Bob had first driven from Fosse to Italy, their route had taken them through the Austrian city of Innsbruck. Known as the capital of the Alps, it was a charming city nestled amongst stunning mountain peaks that was known for offering a wide range of winter sports. Boasting impressive architecture, alpine views, and easy access to the ski slopes, it was exactly the kind of place that would have appealed to Duncan.
21:18 Speaker 00 It was also only a two-hour drive from Fosse.
21:23 Speaker 00 Given that Duncan had just two days after leaving Roger before he was due back in Nuremberg, Linda reasoned that he wouldn't have wanted to waste too much of that time behind the wheel. It therefore made sense to her that Duncan would have decided to stop in Innsbruck for the night before seeing the sights the following day.
21:47 Speaker 00 Linda and Bob returned to Innsbruck and approached the local police, only to discover that they still hadn't been made aware of Duncan's disappearance.
21:58 Speaker 00 Linda expressed her belief that Duncan had likely stopped over in Innsbruck on the night of Tuesday, August 8. She requested that a search be done of all the hotels in the area to see if Duncan's name was any of their registers.
22:15 Speaker 00 The police refused.
22:18 Speaker 00 Innsbruck, which had twice hosted the Winter Olympics, had hundreds of hotels and guest lodgings. Making inquiries with each one would be a monumental task when they didn't even have any evidence to indicate Duncan had passed through the area. Like the others, Innsbruck Police reassured the MacPherson that Duncan was likely off having an adventure and would show up soon. If he had come to Austria, his parents could rest assured that it was a safe country with a very low crime rate and nothing bad would have happened to him. The MacPherson remained convinced that Duncan would have travelled to Innsbruck.
23:02 Speaker 00 They spent the next few days driving around town and the surrounding mountains, putting Duncan's missing person posters up and making inquiries of their own.
23:13 Speaker 00 Upon learning of their story, the head coach of the Innsbruck Hockey Club felt for the couple and pulled some strings to have Duncan's case broadcast on a local news network.
23:25 Speaker 00 The segment was broadcast on Wednesday, September 20, almost fifty days since Duncan had vanished. The McPhersons asked anyone who might have seen Duncan or his vehicle to come forward. Finally, someone did.
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28:11 Speaker 00 Sebastian Wagner, not his real name, was a contractor who had recently been doing some repair work to the parking lot of a popular ski resort known as the Stubei Glacier, forty kilometres south of Innsbruck.
28:26 Speaker 00 The Stubei Glacier is situated at the end of the Stubei Valley, roughly 3,000 metres above sea level. It is made up of five glaciers, making it the largest glacier ski area in Austria.
28:41 Speaker 00 In the winter, hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world flock to the area to make the most of the snowfall. But it is just as popular in the summertime, with tourists drawn to the hiking trails, waterfalls and alpine huts that dot the surrounding mountainside.
29:00 Speaker 00 When Sebastian saw the news bulletin about Duncan MacPherson's disappearance, he was certain he'd seen that red opal corsa before. It had been sitting in the parking lot of the Stubei Glacier Resort, near the Gondola Station, for weeks. Sebastian immediately notified the police, who followed up on the lead that night.
29:25 Speaker 00 The vehicle was right where Sebastian said it would be. At a quick glance, nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. The driver's side window was slightly ajar, allowing the officers to reach inside and to open it up. In the glove box, they found Duncan MacPherson's passport and uncashed traveller's cheques. A plastic bag of fruit sat rotting on the back seat, along with Duncan's backpack, a sweater, ice skates and a hand-drawn map.
29:58 Speaker 00 Duncan himself was nowhere to be seen, nor were there any signs that a struggle had taken place.
30:06 Speaker 00 However, an unsent letter to his girlfriend provided a potential clue. In the letter, Duncan mentioned that he'd just bought a cool new pair of Mephisto-brand walking shoes. The shoes weren't in Duncan's car, which raised the possibility that he might have warned them to go hiking on one of the nearby trails.
30:30 Speaker 00 Police immediately made inquiries with the accommodation providers in the area. Duncan MacPherson hadn't been registered as a guest at any of the major hotels or the small Alpine Huts, nor did anyone recognise him from his photograph.
30:49 Speaker 00 Bob and Linda MacPherson arrived at the Stubei Glacier the day after Duncan's car was found. Upon learning that the vehicle had been in the area for weeks, they were stunned.
31:02 Speaker 00 The Stubei Glacier is a major tourist attraction, bringing in millions of dollars in revenue each year. Every day, thousands of visitors and locals used the parking lot, but the glacier shut for business in the evenings and the parking lot was virtually emptied by 6pm. The MacPhersons wondered how Duncan's car could have sat there for weeks without it raising any alarms, especially when police were aware that a tourist had gone missing in the area.
31:33 Speaker 00 The MacPhersons checked into the nearby hotel to join the search for their son. As they were registering, a man approached them.
31:44 Speaker 00 He introduced himself as Walter Hinterholtz, a Stubei Glacier snowboard instructor who also worked at the hotel part-time. Walter said he'd just seen the missing person poster taped to the window of the MacPhersons' rental car and recognised Duncan's photo.
32:03 Speaker 00 While most of the ski runs on the Stubei Glacier were closed in August due to lack of snow, one small bunny hill with a rope-toe lift remained open, known as the Schaufelfahrer. Walter Hinterholtz claimed that on the morning of Tuesday, August 9, he had given Duncan a two-hour snowboarding lesson on the Schaufelfahrer. He'd been impressed by how quickly Duncan had gotten the hang of things and how well he was able to control the board.
32:34 Speaker 00 After the lesson, the two ate lunch together. Duncan told Walter about his upcoming coaching job in Scotland and his desire to go windsurfing on Lake Garda before then. Walter recommended that Duncan visit Austria's Lake Arken instead. It was less than an hour from Innsbruck and would give Duncan more time before he had to be back in Germany for his flight. Duncan seemed pleased by this. He told Walter he was going to spend the rest of the afternoon testing out his new snowboarding skills and might then go for a hike on one of the surrounding trails. He arranged to meet Walter again for a follow-up lesson the next morning.
33:21 Speaker 00 The jumper Duncan had been wearing was soaked through, so he bought a new one from the gift shop and hung his wet one out to dry in Walter's office before hitting the slope on his own. At the end of the day, Walter returned to his office only to find that Duncan's jumper was still there. He reasoned that Duncan would probably just pick it up after his lesson the next morning. But he never showed up, and the jumper remained unclaimed.
33:56 Speaker 00 The Shuffle Fairness Ski Run was located three thousand seven hundred and seventy vertical feet above the parking lot. The only way to reach it was to ride the gondola or hike it on foot.
34:10 Speaker 00 The MacPherson rode the gondola up to see the slope for themselves. It was only a small area, its entire surface visible from the base. The ski run was clearly marked, with a rope cordon marking an out-of-bounds area to the east.
34:28 Speaker 00 The MacPherson knew there was no way something bad could have happened to Duncan at this spot.
34:35 Speaker 00 Not only was the slope smoothed over at the end of each day by a snow groomer machine, if Duncan had accidentally gone off course, he would have left behind an obvious trail.
34:47 Speaker 00 He was also last seen wearing a bright yellow ski jacket, which would have been very visible.
34:54 Speaker 00 A search team combed to the slope, but didn't find any trace of Duncan.
35:00 Speaker 00 Walter Hinteholzels girlfriend, who was also employed by the Stubeig Glacier, recalled seeing Duncan on the tow lift at 2:30pm on Wednesday, August 9, shortly after he'd finished his lunch with Walter.
35:15 Speaker 00 This was the last confirmed sighting. Based on Duncan's conversation with Walter, police deduced that after practising snowboarding for a while, Duncan likely set out on one of the hiking trails. This would explain why his new shoes were missing.
35:34 Speaker 00 Walter had advised to Duncan to avoid hiking downhill because it would cause stress on his knees, which were weak from hockey injuries.
35:43 Speaker 00 One Stubeig Glacier employee recalled seeing a tall young man standing near a waterfall below the glacier on August 9. In the summer, the melting ice created deep whirlpools around the waterfall. Police theorised that Duncan could have ignored Walter's advice, hiking downhill to the waterfall where he fell in and drowned.
36:08 Speaker 00 They searched the falls but found nothing to indicate Duncan had been there.
36:14 Speaker 00 They focused their search further up the mountain instead, where snow continued to fall. There was no sign of Duncan there either.
36:25 Speaker 00 By Monday, September 25, the search for Duncan MacPherson at the Stubeig Glacier reached its fifth fruitless day. With no confirmed sightings of him after August 9, the police concluded that he'd likely gotten lost or had an accident on the mountain, and his body was concealed by snow. His abandoned car hadn't raised any alarms because hikers often left their vehicles in the Stubeig Glacier parking lot while heading out for extended hiking trips, during which they camped at the Alpine Huts along the way. Police reasoned that they hadn't patrolled the parking lot because it was private property.
37:08 Speaker 00 They called off the search, confident that Duncan's body would eventually be recovered by hikers or hunters in due course.
37:20 Speaker 00 Bob and Linda MacPherson were outraged by this conclusion. Without Duncan's body, how could the police be sure that he was even dead? Let alone that he'd died by accident on the mountain somewhere? As far as his parents were concerned, Duncan could be anywhere. He might not even be dead. Disappointed with the Innsbruck police investigation, the MacPhersons were dubious about their claims that they'd found no record of Duncan having stayed anywhere in Innsbruck throughout August. Bob and Linda conducted their own inquiries and discovered that Duncan had indeed spent the night of Tuesday, August 8,
38:03 Speaker 00 in a youth hostel downtown before checking out the next morning. While this bolstered the police theory that Duncan had disappeared on the same day he was last seen, the MacPhersons couldn't help but wonder. If the police had overlooked a simple detail like Duncan's hostel registration, what else had they missed?
38:26 Speaker 00 Ron Dixon, the owner of the Dundee Tigers ice hockey team, was confident he'd spoken to Duncan on Thursday, August 10, the day after he'd been snowboarding at the Stubei Glacier. A recently purchased cassette tape found in Duncan's car was traced to a music store in Innsbruck where an employee remembered serving Duncan.
38:49 Speaker 00 She couldn't be sure exactly when, but she remembered one distinct detail: Duncan hadn't been alone, but with a dark-haired man.
39:01 Speaker 00 While it pained Bob and Linda to imagine, they considered whether Duncan might have been abducted and was being held captive. What if he was out there somewhere, willing his parents to find him?
39:16 Speaker 00 As Bob later told Esquire magazine: "Even though we knew in our hearts that he probably wasn't alive, you always think there's some chance. That's what made us want to keep going. It's amazing how much you hang on to that thread, the tiniest bit of hope."
39:40 Speaker 00 They stood over it for days before the realisation dawned on Linda. Walter Hinterhosen, the snowboard instructor, had told the MacPherson that Duncan had rented a snowboard, gloves and ski boots prior to their lesson together. At the time, there was only one ski shop on the mountain. In order to rent any equipment, customers had to put a government-issued ID or credit card down as a deposit, which would be returned to them when handing over their gear at the end of the day.
40:16 Speaker 00 It occurred to Linda that staff at the shop would be able to tell them whether or not Duncan returned his gear. If he hadn't, this would signify that he might have had an accident while he was out snowboarding, instead of after.
40:32 Speaker 00 Linda visited the rental shop and asked them to check their records. The staff told her they'd recently started a new log and had therefore thrown the old one away. While none of the employees specifically recalled Duncan returning his gear, no snowboards were missing from their inventory, so they reasoned that he must have returned it.
40:56 Speaker 00 It was protocol for staff to inform guards of any rental equipment that hadn't been returned, so they could check the slope for any potential accidents. If the police theory was correct and Duncan really had perished while hiking in the Stubei Valley, his parents couldn't bear the thought of his body being left out there all alone. With winter just around the corner, they knew that time was of the essence, as any search efforts would be hindered completely once the heavy snowfall began.
41:30 Speaker 00 A Canadian businessman heard about the situation and generously funded a Canadian search and rescue team to fly to Austria and continue the search themselves. They arrived on Sunday, October 8, the beginning of the third month of Duncan's disappearance.
41:48 Speaker 00 With the help of some new computer software and a Sneed-a-dog, they started from the Stubei Glacier Resort parking lot and searched outwards around the valley from there.
42:00 Speaker 00 The days ticked by with no breakthroughs, and by Sunday, October 15, the team was forced to call off the search on account of heavy snowfall. Defeated, Bob and Linda MacPherson felt there was nothing more they could do.
42:17 Speaker 00 They reluctantly returned to Canada, vowing to come back as soon as the snow melted.
42:27 Speaker 00 Around at the same time that the MacPhersons left Austria, the manager of one of the Alpine huts in the Stubei Valley came across one of Duncan's missing posters for the first time. Upon seeing Duncan's face, he was reminded of a strange incident that had occurred a couple of weeks earlier. On Monday, September 25, a disheveled-looking, English-speaking foreigner had shown up at the hut in the middle of the night.
42:56 Speaker 00 He'd tracked there through the dark without suitable hiking gear, not even a flashlight. He seemed a little disoriented and had taken off again after breakfast the next morning, heading towards the old smugglers' trails into Italy. The hut manager thought the man bore a resemblance to Duncan MacPherson.
43:19 Speaker 00 Bob and Linda weren't sure what to make of this. The police had assured them that all the hut managers had been notified of Duncan's disappearance, so it seemed odd that such an encounter could have occurred without it raising suspicions at the time. Then again, it gave them hope that Duncan could be experiencing amnesia as a result of his Lyme disease or an accident and could still be alive after all.
43:48 Speaker 00 As the months passed by, other potential sightings of Duncan continued to trickle in. One Canadian tourist thought she spotted him at a bar in Russia. Thinking fast, she took a photo and sent it to his family, but it wasn't Duncan.
44:08 Speaker 00 The MacPherson couldn't shake the feeling that Ron Dixon, the man who'd offered Duncan the coaching job, knew more about Duncan's disappearance than he was letting on.
44:19 Speaker 00 Not only did Ron claim to be one of the last people to speak with Duncan before he went missing, the MacPherson found it odd that he hadn't contacted them to let them know Duncan never arrived in Scotland. He'd never even reached out to offer any support.
44:38 Speaker 00 The MacPherson did some digging and discovered that Ron Dixon had a shady past. Rumours swelled about his dodgy real estate ventures and a criminal record that included a prison sentence for manslaughter. The MacPherson wondered if Duncan's job offer seemed too good to be true because something more sinister had been at play.
45:02 Speaker 00 Regardless, they weren't discounting the possibility that Duncan had indeed died by accident around the Stubei Glacier. In the summer of 1990, they returned to Austria, bringing Duncan's beloved dog Jake with them. For weeks, they camped in the Stubei Valley and hiked the surrounding trails on the lookout for any sign of Duncan. They returned every summer for the next three years, but came no closer to finding him.
45:39 Speaker 00 In late 1993, a German television programme called Bitte Melde Dich aired a segment about Duncan's disappearance, urging anyone with information about his whereabouts to come forward. A woman named Lena, not her real name, was watching the show when something occurred to her. Lena lived in the Austrian city of Klagenfurt, roughly 320 kilometres southeast of Innsbruck. Four years earlier, on Saturday, September 9, 1989, a distressed and malnourished young man had emerged from the woods in a town about half an hour from Klagenfurt. Speaking only North American English, he had no identification on him and claimed
46:23 Speaker 00 he couldn't remember his name, where he came from, or anything else about his life. The only thing he could remember was that he'd once lived in New York.
46:36 Speaker 00 The mystery man was arrested for vagrancy before being transferred to a mental health facility.
46:43 Speaker 00 Doctors initially thought he might be suffering from some type of neurological condition, but when he didn't respond to any of the treatments, it was determined that he had a severe case of amnesia. The man was given the green light to live in Austria. He settled in Klagenfurt, where he went by the name Mark Scherfman. Over time, Lena became friends with Mark.
47:11 Speaker 00 Other than the fact that he couldn't remember his true identity, there was nothing unusual about him. He was a nice guy who lived an otherwise normal life.
47:23 Speaker 00 But when Lena saw the bitter Melde Deek segment about Duncan MacPherson's disappearance, it gave her pause. Mark Scherfman had emerged from the woods exactly one month after Duncan MacPherson was last seen at the Stubei Glacier, only a few hundred kilometres away.
47:43 Speaker 00 Mark had been wearing an American brand of jeans, just like Duncan had.
47:49 Speaker 00 Duncan had had various surgeries on his knees. Mark's knees also had surgical scars on them. Duncan's front teeth had been knocked out during a hockey match and had been replaced with crowns. Mark's front teeth had received similar dental work. Looking at Duncan's picture on the television, Lena saw the similarities and wondered: Could the two men be one and the same?
48:19 Speaker 00 Lena shared her suspicions with her boyfriend, who managed to get a hold of the MacPherson' phone number. In early February 1994, he called them in Canada to pass on the information.
48:34 Speaker 00 Bob and Linda didn't know what to think.
48:38 Speaker 00 Given Duncan's brush with Lyme disease just before his trip to Europe, the possibility that he was experiencing amnesia seemed entirely plausible.
48:48 Speaker 00 And what were the chances that two young North American men could go missing within such close proximity within just a few weeks of one another?
48:58 Speaker 00 The MacPherson contacted Foreign Affairs, who arranged to have someone from the Canadian Embassy in Austria visit Mark Scherfman. Everything Lena said was true. Mark and Duncan did share many similarities. The embassy officials even took Mark to an ice skating rink to put his skills to the test. It turned out he was a talented skater.
49:26 Speaker 00 A picture of Mark was faxed to the MacPherson in Canada. They gathered around the fax machine along with some of Duncan's friends, anticipation soaring as the image emerged. But Mark Scherfman looked nothing like Duncan. His loved ones considered every conceivable possibility that Duncan's appearance could have changed in the four years since his disappearance, and embassy officials ordered a comparison of the two men's dental records. They didn't match. A former teammate of Duncan's who was living in Austria went to visit Mark just in case. But, to the crushing disappointment of many,
50:11 Speaker 00 he confirmed that Mark Scherfman and Duncan MacPherson were definitely not the same person.
50:21 Speaker 00 In the summers that followed, Bob and Delinda spent their life savings returning to Austria. They refused to change their phone number or move house, just in case Duncan ever tried to get in touch.
50:36 Speaker 00 By 2003, Duncan had been missing for 14 years. Bob and Delinda could no longer afford the annual trips, and they did their best to get on with their lives, even though their son was never far from their minds.
50:54 Speaker 00 That summer, the temperature soared to record heights in Innsbruck. So much of the winter snow melted that even the Shuffle Fairness Ski Run had to be closed down.
51:07 Speaker 00 On Friday, July 18, 2003, a Stubei Glacier employee was walking along the empty ski run collecting rubbish when they noticed something sticking out of the snow approximately 35 metres east of the ski lift. At the McPherson's home in Saskatoon, the phone rang the next day.
51:30 Speaker 00 It was a friend of theirs from Innsbruck.
51:34 Speaker 00 "They've found Duncan", he said.
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54:52 Speaker 00 It didn't take long for the Innsbruck police to confirm that Duncan had died by accident on the same day he was last seen, back on Wednesday, August 9, 1989. His body had been buried in a small crevasse and was seemingly frozen in time. Dressed in the same bright yellow ski jacket and the newly purchased jumper he'd been wearing at the time of his disappearance, his pockets still held his wallet, which contained essentials for his European trip, including his international driver's licence and a Canadian calling card.
55:29 Speaker 00 The snowboard and ski boots he'd supposedly returned to the rental shop were also still with him.
55:38 Speaker 00 Similar crevasses to the one Duncan's body was found in crisscrossed all over the St. ubei glacier. To make the area safe for skiers, piston bullies groomed the ski runs at the end of each day, filling each of the crevasses in with snow. Ungroomed areas were cordoned off to make sure skiers didn't veer out of bounds.
56:02 Speaker 00 The ski lift operator insisted that the area to the left and right of the ski lift had been cordoned off at the time Duncan went missing. Crevasses like the one Duncan's body was found in also moved naturally over time. It was therefore deduced that at the time of Duncan's death, the crevasse would have been about 40 metres further uphill, just outside of the designated ski run.
56:30 Speaker 00 Authorities therefore theorised that Duncan could have either ridden off course while snowboarding, or been riding the ski lift when he fell off.
56:41 Speaker 00 It wasn't possible to snowboard down the lift route, and they assumed Duncan would have thought it was too difficult to climb up. Instead, they concluded that he likely took a shortcut on foot across an out-of-bounds area. The air was thick with fog that day, and Duncan could have gotten lost before falling into one of the crevasses, too far outside of the ski run for anyone else to notice.
57:11 Speaker 00 Duncan's frozen remains were removed using an ice pick and transported to the coroner, where a pathologist was tasked with formally identifying the body.
57:22 Speaker 00 In Austria, autopsies aren't necessary if the individual is determined to have died as the result of an accident, and as such, no autopsy was requested. Based on the known facts, the pathologist concluded that Duncan had likely fallen into the crevasse and was unable to climb out. He would have managed to breathe some of the air that was trapped in the snow for a little while, before running out of oxygen and suffocating to death.
57:56 Speaker 00 Bob and Linda MacPherson promptly arrived in Innsbruck to identify Duncan's mummified body. His remains were laid out in the forensic institute, covered in a white sheet with only his face visible. Despite his skin being black from oxidation, Linda recognised her son right away.
58:17 Speaker 00 Bob and Linda each took a moment to say goodbye to their son. If there was any consolation to be found after fourteen agonising years, it was that Duncan likely hadn't suffered too badly.
58:33 Speaker 00 The forensic pathologist in charge, Dr Walter Rabl, told the MacPhersons that survivors of similar experiences had reported feeling calm and happy in the moments before they were rescued.
58:46 Speaker 00 While the MacPhersons were relieved to discover that Duncan hadn't suffered any of their worst-case scenarios, something didn't feel right.
58:57 Speaker 00 A few days after identifying their son, they returned to the Stubei Glacier and rode the gondola up the Schaufelferner like they'd done many times before. Two glacier employees then drove them in a snowcat to the location where Duncan's body had been found.
59:16 Speaker 00 While the MacPherson were anticipating the spot to be off to the side, in an area that was obviously out of bounds, they were shocked to see that it was right in the middle of the ski run. In fact, they'd passed by that very spot themselves several times over the years. Bob had even taken a photo of Linda standing nearby. It struck them that, for all the time they'd spent worrying about their son, thousands of people had been skiing practically right over him.
59:51 Speaker 00 As they tried to get their heads around the reality of it all, Bob looked into the recently disturbed ice and noticed something black emerging from the melting snow. He picked it up. It was a large piece of Duncan's rented snowboard, clearly broken with the serial number still visible.
1:00:13 Speaker 00 Bob poked around further, and to his utter dismay, he found several of Duncan's bones that the recovery team had failed to retrieve.
1:00:24 Speaker 00 Appalled by the careless recovery efforts, the MacPherson sought answers from Dr Walter Rabble, the forensic pathologist. He advised them that some of the items, such as Duncan's snowboard and clothing, had been encased in such a way that it was impossible to remove them using an ice pick. Instead, the rescue crew had used a snow grooming machine to dig them out, which had resulted in some damage. Bob was taken aback by this. He was familiar with snow grooming machines and knew that they didn't have any excavation capabilities. The tiller blade on the front, which consists of a rapidly rotating shaft,
1:01:08 Speaker 00 was used to push snow, not dig ice.
1:01:14 Speaker 00 Suspicion raised, the MacPherson wanted to have their own autopsy conducted. But repatriating Duncan's body back to Canada was an expensive endeavour, and their relentless search for him had already set them back over 100,000 euros, their entire retirement fund.
1:01:33 Speaker 00 They simply didn't have the money. Besides, Dr Rabble advised them that, given how long Duncan's body had spent in the ice, an autopsy probably wouldn't reveal much anyway. He offered to have a computerised tomography scan done of Duncan's body instead. It would produce two- and three-dimensional X-ray images of the remains. While it wouldn't reveal how Duncan had died, it would show any injuries he'd sustained.
1:02:07 Speaker 00 The MacPherson agreed to go ahead with the scan. A few days later, Dr Rabble told them that while he hadn't yet seen the scans himself, a colleague in the radiology department said Duncan hadn't sustained any major injury that would account for his death, bolstering the theory that he'd died by suffocation. Reluctantly, his parents accepted the explanation for Duncan's accidental death and consented to have his body cremated. They returned to Canada, armed with nothing more than his ashes, his ski boots, and the remnants of his broken snowboard.
1:02:51 Speaker 00 While Duncan's case was officially closed, that didn't stop his parents from seeking answers. It seemed unbelievable to them that Duncan could have died right at the spot where he was last seen, and then gone undetected for so many years. The last reported sighting of Duncan had occurred around 2:30pm on Wednesday, August 9, 1989. The slope closed to the public at 4pm, after which the piston bullies came out to groom the snow in preparation for the following day's run. What the MacPherson couldn't understand was why didn't anyone go looking for Duncan, despite the fact his car sat in the parking lot,
1:03:34 Speaker 00 his rental gear hadn't been returned to the ski shop, and his wet clothing sat hanging in Walter Hinterhossel's office.
1:03:43 Speaker 00 For many years, the Innsbruck police had told the MacPherson there had never been any fatal accidents on the Schaltfahne ski run. But, as the MacPherson soon discovered, this wasn't the case. In fact, almost one year to the day before Duncan went missing, international student Chung Yen Chu had been skiing the Schaltfahne when he fell from the ski lift. He then took a shortcut across the Cordondorf area and fell into a crevasse. Unlike Duncan, Chung was visiting with friends, who raised the alarm when he failed to surface at the end of the day. Rescue workers found Chung in the ice, his body temperature so low that he was barely
1:04:28 Speaker 00 clinging to life. He was transported to hospital, where he passed away due to complications from hypothermia. During the MacPherson' tireless search for Duncan, the possibility that he could have fallen down a crevasse had never once been suggested by officials, even though he was last sighted in that very area where Chung Yen Chu had died a year earlier. And the same police officer had overseen both searches. Not only did this raise some serious red flags for the MacPherson, they also took issue with the suggestion that if Duncan had fallen off the ski lift, he might have
1:05:09 Speaker 00 found it too difficult to climb back up the slope, and that's why he took the shortcut through the Cordondorf area. Duncan was a fit, strong professional athlete, who was also very safety-conscious. Back in 1993, snowboarding instructor Walter Hintehozl had even told the German television show Bitte Melde Deek that Duncan had been particularly cautious around the slope boundaries. So, if he had indeed fallen off the ski lifts, the MacPherson found it hard to believe that he would have taken the risky shortcut, instead of simply climbing back up the mountain.
1:05:50 Speaker 00 In September 2003, the Innsbruck police released their final official report into Duncan MacPherson's death. While they acknowledged that they could only speculate about the cause of the accident, a statement from the police read:
1:06:07 Speaker 00 "Mountain accidents, primarily falls into crevasses or ice breaks in glacier areas, happen regularly. Staying on the glacier outside of the secured ski area without appropriate safety equipment carries, among other things, a high risk of falling into a crevasse. Such accidents are almost always the result of careless behaviour on the part of those involved."
1:06:36 Speaker 00 The MacPherson's were eager to see the results of Duncan's computerised tomography scan for themselves, but it took them several months of going back and forth with Dr Walter Rabble in Innsbruck before they finally got a hold of them. The scan left Bob and Linda stunned. Despite being told that Duncan hadn't sustained any fatal injuries, it appeared on the scan that he'd been decapitated. Both of his forearms were fractured and had been completely separated from his body. His left leg also appeared to have been amputated in two places, and the lower part of his left leg was completely shattered.
1:07:20 Speaker 00 Dr Rabble explained that the injuries to Duncan's forearms likely occurred when he fell into the crevasse and presumably tried to break his fall. As for the other injuries, he said these had been caused by the natural movement of the ice over the years. He'd examined many corpses that had been stuck in glaciers and had observed similar injuries, with the glacier essentially breaking up the bodies over time.
1:07:50 Speaker 00 Linda and Bob weren't convinced. Eager to get all the information they could, they successfully petitioned to get a copy of the 2003 case file from Canadian Foreign Affairs. Reports and photos of the recovery mission revealed that Duncan's body had been retrieved by two St. Dubaig Glacier employees, with their rescue workers hovering in a helicopter overhead.
1:08:16 Speaker 00 No police officers or a coroner were present. Not only did this seem grossly inadequate, the photos of Duncan's body as it lay in the ice also raised some serious questions. Firstly, Duncan's body lay horizontally on its left-hand side, not vertically, like most people who die from similar falls. His left leg was completely shattered, while his right leg, which lay directly on top of the left, was perfectly intact. If the damage to Duncan's body was caused by the natural movement of the ice over the years, how could one leg be fine and the other so badly damaged?
1:09:01 Speaker 00 The MacPherson were also told that damage to Duncan's clothing and snowboard had been done during the recovery process, but it was clear from the photos that this wasn't the case. Some of his clothing was already torn to shreds and bunched together in a way that didn't look like a natural occurrence. Duncan's left ski boot also sat by his side, perfectly intact and filled with snow. Its insular lining was found elsewhere, shredded and covered with V-shaped puncture marks, consistent with the damage to his left leg.
1:09:39 Speaker 00 This meant that Duncan hadn't been wearing the boots at the time he died, which meant he'd unstrapped them from his snowboard. The MacPherson wondered whether he could have survived the fall into the crevasse and had enough room to take the boots off and attempt to climb out. But if that had been the case, the boots would have gone further down into the crevasse, not remained right next to his body.
1:10:07 Speaker 00 But what really shocked the MacPherson was the snowboard itself. When they'd been given the broken board, red paint marks were visible in the wood, which had been explained as having occurred during the recovery mission.
1:10:24 Speaker 00 Examining the photos, the MacPherson could see that the red paint marks were visible on the snowboard when Duncan's body was initially found, indicating that damage had occurred earlier on. Bob retrieved the broken snowboard from his basement and examined it closely. He noticed that the damaged parts of the board featured the exact same amount of heavy weathering and rust as the undamaged parts.
1:10:54 Speaker 00 The only explanation Bob could find for this was that the board must have been broken and exposed to the elements long before the recovery in 2003. And if the board had been torn up by machinery before it was buried in the ice, then what did this mean for Duncan?
1:11:17 Speaker 00 The MacPherson sent the scans to a medical professional in Canada, who raised the possibility that Duncan might have been run over by a snow grooming machine. Two renowned forensic experts, who had first-hand experience in examining corpses that had been retrieved from the ice, independently agreed.
1:11:38 Speaker 00 The damage to Duncan's body wasn't caused by movements in the glacier, but by contact with heavy machinery.
1:11:48 Speaker 00 In Innsbruck, Dr Walter Rabble discounted this possibility. He said that such an incident wouldn't have severed Duncan's limbs, but caused the damage to his ribs, pelvis, and organs. It also didn't explain how he'd ended up in the crevasse. If Duncan was run over by a snow grooming machine, Dr Rabble said someone would have had to drive back and push him into the crevasse after the fact.
1:12:19 Speaker 00 Bob and Delinda had always been dubious about the claim that no snowboards had been missing from the rental shop on the afternoon Duncan went missing. They noted that while Duncan's international driver's licence and calling card had been returned to them, his Canadian driver's licence had not. They wondered whether this was because Duncan had left the licence with the rental shop as a deposit for his equipment, along with his shoes, which also hadn't been returned to his family. When Duncan failed to return at the end of the day, someone got rid of the licence, his shoes, and any record of his hire.
1:13:02 Speaker 00 If this was the case, it meant something had to have happened to Duncan on Wednesday August 9 that Stubei Glacier personnel were aware of. A glacier official claimed that the Kordandoff area had been searched during the initial search in late September 1989, but it had been snowing at the time, and therefore the crevasse Duncan was in would have been covered with snow.
1:13:29 Speaker 00 Bob and Delinda had been there at the time in question. It hadn't been snowing, nor was there any fresh snow on the ground.
1:13:40 Speaker 00 Stubei Glacier staff also claimed that on the day Duncan went missing, all known crevasses on the ski run had been filled in, and those that hadn't had been cordoned off. The police had taken photos of the Shalford Fairness ski run during the search for Duncan in 1989, but despite numerous requests from Duncan's family, they refused to hand these over. Without the photos, there was no way to know for sure if the dangerous areas had indeed been cordoned off.
1:14:15 Speaker 00 Convincet that something more sinister than a tragic accident was at play, the MacPherson made multiple efforts to have Duncan's case reinvestigated.
1:14:26 Speaker 00 But Innsbruck Police maintained that it was an open-and-shut accidental death, and the case would remain closed. Over the following years, the MacPherson tried everything they could think of to have Duncan's case reviewed. They filed numerous complaints with the Austrian authorities, submitted a formal complaint to the Ministry of Justice, and even tried their luck with the European Court of Human Rights. All of their appeals were rejected.
1:14:59 Speaker 00 Refusing to let it go, Bob and Linda began working with California-based author John Leake, who had taken an interest in Duncan's case.
1:15:09 Speaker 00 John had lived in Austria while investigating the crimes of serial killer Jack Unterveger, as covered in episode 197 of Case File, and he had a good understanding of Austrian culture.
1:15:22 Speaker 00 John spent several years getting to know the MacPherson and the intricate details of their story. After reviewing all of the evidence for himself, John consulted with numerous specialists, including Dick Peniman, an American expert in ski slope accidents. Dick took one look at the snowboard and injuries to Duncan's leg and immediately knew the damage was caused by a snow grooming tiller. "Not only are the bones broken in pieces," Dick explained, "but the flesh around the bones has also been chopped up." A crevasse fall could break bones, but it couldn't grind meat.
1:16:05 Speaker 00 Given that Duncan's boots were no longer on his feet, the theory was raised that he might have fallen into the crevasse, survived the fall, and then managed to climb out on his own.
1:16:18 Speaker 00 While he was hanging on the edge with one hand and a leg, the snow groomer came along and drove over him, mangling the exposed limb before burying him in the ice. But if Duncan's body had only been mangled and not fully run over, it raised the question of how Duncan's body and his snowboarding equipment ended up so deep into the crevasse and not just on the surface.
1:16:45 Speaker 00 As far as Dick Peniman was concerned, not one, but two separate events had resulted in Duncan's death.
1:16:54 Speaker 00 An alternative theory was that Duncan could have suffered an injury, perhaps a broken leg, which would explain why he unstrapped his board and took his left boot off. Perhaps he was lying in a semi-fetal position as he waited for help to arrive, unable to walk himself.
1:17:13 Speaker 00 Unable to see him through the fog, a snow groomer accidentally hit him, dragging his limbs into the tiller and killing him. Realising what they'd done and the impact this would have on tourism, one or more employees removed his body from the tiller. They threw Duncan's body in the crevasse, which was concealed with snow.
1:17:38 Speaker 00 The MacPhersons took their concerns to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, who aired two episodes about Duncan's case for the long-running investigative documentary programme The Fifth Estate. Speaking about the possibility of third-party involvement, John Leake said:
1:17:58 Speaker 00 "How did this rack on the surface of the slope wind up in a neat package in a shallow crevasse? Those two actions do not go together, and I've talked to twenty different people who know glaciers and crevasses and physics and everything else, and no one can explain to me how those two things can happen without an intermediate action of someone."
1:18:25 Speaker 00 Canadian high school teacher Judy Wigmore was watching the show when it occurred to her that she'd been skiing on the Stubei Glacier with her family on the very same day that Duncan went missing. As far as Judy recalled, there had been no signs or barriers on the ski run to indicate any potential dangers. If she'd known about the crevasse hazards, she would have never let her children go skiing there. Unsettled by this thought, Judy tracked down her old travel notes from Wednesday, August 9, 1989.
1:19:00 Speaker 00 She had recorded the conditions that day as being "pretty awful, mostly white-out and slushy snow."
1:19:10 Speaker 00 Judy wrote that it was so overcast they could hardly see the mountains. She also recalled that the ski shop had been very disorganised, and it had been a challenge to get her whole family outfitted for the day.
1:19:25 Speaker 00 Judy reached out to Bob and Linda MacPherson with this information, and sent them the few photos that she'd snapped on the ski run that day. The ski lift on the main hill where Duncan was last seen was clearly visible in one of them. There was no fence or cordoned off area to be seen.
1:19:49 Speaker 00 After researching Duncan's case for several years, John Leake released his findings in a book titled Cold A Long Time: An Alpine Mystery. John ultimately believed that that Stubei Glacier personnel likely knew from the get-go that Duncan had died in a crevasse on Wednesday, August 9, 1989, but had withheld this information, knowing that his parents would have demanded a wide-scale excavation of the crevasses until their son was found. Not wanting to shut the glacier down in the middle of peak season or suffer the bad publicity that would go with it, they said Duncan had returned his rental equipment to cover up the truth and redirect the investigations elsewhere.
1:20:36 Speaker 00 While it was possible that only the driver of the snow groomer and perhaps some of his coworkers knew exactly how the disaster happened, John wrote:
1:20:47 Speaker 00 "After systematically analysing the facts with Dick Peniman, we realised that only one conclusion could be drawn: Someone had intentionally concealed Duncan's body in the crevasse."
1:21:02 Speaker 00 The MacPherson contemplated taking legal action against the Stubeig Glacier, but were dissuaded by both the Innsbruck pathologist and some independent lawyers. Because the exact cause of Duncan's death remained unclear, they were told there was little chance of proving any misconduct by the Stubeig Glacier staff.
1:21:24 Speaker 00 Instead, they sought reimbursement from the Stubeig Glacier founder Heinrich Klier for the costs they'd incurred during their search for Duncan, on the basis that his employees had given them misleading information.
1:21:39 Speaker 00 Their claim was rejected by Klier's insurance provider, who stated the glacier company was not at fault for their son's death.
1:21:49 Speaker 00 While Bob and Linda ultimately accepted that whatever happened to Duncan had been an accident, they believed that both the Stubeig Glacier staff and Innsbruck police had acted negligently. Not only had this caused the MacPherson' 14 years of undue angst and financial hardship, it also put the lives of other skiers at risk.
1:22:14 Speaker 00 Linda told a journalist for German magazine Datem: "The only crime for us is the way in which this case was investigated."
1:22:25 Speaker 00 When asked on the Fifth Estate how she would react if someone finally came forward and took accountability, Linda responded: "I don't think I'd be able to speak. I'd just be so happy that I'd cry. It would restore my faith in humanity."
1:22:44 Speaker 00 August 2024 marked the 35-year anniversary of Duncan MacPherson's death. Bob and Linda are now in their 80s, and they remain convinced that Duncan's death was covered up to protect the Stubeig Valley's valuable tourism industry. While they have come to accept that they will never get the justice they so desperately desire from officials in Austria, they still refuse to stay quiet.
1:23:13 Speaker 00 In August 2024, Linda told CTV News that without anyone coming forward to take responsibility, "My next and only choice is to expose the corruption. I won't quit. There's always a way to move it along."
1:23:32 Speaker 00 A British documentary about Duncan's case is supposedly in the works, with the couple vowing to continue their quest for justice until they die.
1:23:44 Speaker 00 While it's essential for Linda that someone be held accountable for the failures in her son's case, she only has to think of Duncan's warm and generous nature to be reminded of the good in people. When Linda had arrived in Innsbruck to identify her son's remains, she asked for a moment alone with him. Looking at Duncan's face, she knew straight away that something wasn't right, but she focused on farewelling him as best she could. Linda told Duncan:
1:24:18 Speaker 00 "I'm sorry you died so young, but I know you had a good life and you died doing something you loved, and that gives me some peace."
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Next Case 304: The Staudte Family Page updated November 7, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated