Man Disappears, Found 15 Years Later on a Mountain - Here’s What Happened

In August 1989, a young Canadian professional  hockey star named Duncan MacPherson was supposed to start a new job coaching a hockey team  in Scotland, but he never made it there. Numerous police agencies across Canada and  Europe, tried to find out what happened to him. From running off with a rich Italian girl to  suffering from a case of amnesia and even being recruited as a spy for the CIA, countless theories  emerged over the years as to what happened.

However, the truth about Duncan’s fate  is more shocking than you can imagine. Duncan MacPherson was born on February 3, 1966,  to Lynda and Bob MacPherson in rural Saskatoon, Canada. Throughout his adolescence,  Duncan became an amazing hockey player and built up an impressive record playing for the  Saskatoon Blades, a major junior ice hockey team.

At the time, the Massachusetts-based Springfield  Indians acted as a training ground for new players looking to join the New York Islanders, among  several other pro teams and from 1984 to 1989, that’s where Duncan played. Over those five years though, Duncan was routinely sidelined by various  injuries. He also found it difficult to keep up with the higher-caliber players  he encountered in this new professional world.

After lagging behind his teammates  and with an unknown future due to injuries, the New York Islanders let him go in 1989. Although some might have thought this would be a huge setback to Duncan, it was not the  case. In fact, he was somewhat happy with the decision.

You see, Duncan loved hockey more  than anything else. However, he did not like the mentality he faced from American teams  that he felt seemed to not care about their players or treat them right. He still wanted  to be involved with hockey and began applying for numerous coaching jobs overseas in Europe.

While Duncan was waiting to hear back on his applications, he began traveling the US to  experience some of the things he had always wanted to do, like spending several months hiking  up and down the Appalachian Trail. It was one of the happiest times of his life. But things  took a turn for the worse when he got home.

Somewhere along the trail, Duncan had been bitten  by a tick and was infected with Lyme disease. This potentially deadly bloodborne pathogen knocked  Duncan for a loop, and he was bedridden at home for almost two months while he recovered. After his recovery, he began searching for a hockey coaching job once more, and that  is when he was approached by a Vancouver businessman named Ron Dixon.

Ron had  recently purchased the Dundee Tigers, a Scottish team, and he presented Duncan with  a deal that he would be hard-pressed to refuse. According to Duncan, Ron wanted him to be  the Tigers' full-time, permanent coach. Along with a promised high salary, Duncan could  also fulfill his dream of being involved with the sport without all the team politics of  the NHL.

Although this deal seemed too good to be true, he did not have any other offers and  accepted the position at the end of July 1989. Once Duncan had officially said yes, he was  given a start date of August 14. With his schedule now free for a few weeks, Duncan decided  to go to Europe to visit some of his buddies, former pro players in North America who now  played or coached for various European teams.

He figured it'd be fun to not only see them but  also take in some of the sites around Europe before starting the next chapter of his life. On August 4, 1989, he left Saskatoon and flew to Nuremberg, Germany, to stay at the home  of his friend George Pesut. After spending several days with George, Duncan asked if  he could borrow his car, a red Opel Corsa, to take a road trip from Germany through Austria  and possibly Italy.

He promised to return the car by August 11 since he had a flight to catch to  Dundee on August 12 and George readily agreed. After leaving George’s house on August 7, he  drove to Fussen, Germany, to stay at another friend's house. This friend, Roger Kortko,  only spent a day with him before Duncan left his home on the morning of August 8.

Duncan had promised his mom he would call on August 14 after he got settled into  his new home in Dundee, but by August 16, she still hadn’t heard from him and  began to worry. At this point though, she thought that maybe he was just busy and did not  have time to check in, so she felt a huge sense of relief when her phone rang later that day. But  it wasn’t Duncan on the other end of the line.

Instead, it was his new boss, Ron Dixon. He had  listed his parents as his emergency contacts, and he was calling to see if they knew where he  was at. It turned out that Duncan had never shown up for the new job.

His parents, knowing that  Duncan would never throw an opportunity like this away, were extremely worried and knew  that something must have happened to him, and they filed a missing persons report with  the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that same day. Although officers promised them that Duncan’s  photo and information would be passed to Interpol, who would then distribute it to every police  station, border checkpoint, and jail in Europe, his parents were not going to sit idly  by and wait for this to happen. Instead, they hopped on the next available flight and  flew to Germany to begin retracing his steps.

Once Duncan's parents landed, they first  went to George Pesut's house in Nuremberg. When they questioned him, he told them he had  been equally worried since he had failed to return his car on time. George knew this was  not like the normally responsible Duncan he knew and he had already spoken to police about  filing a missing person report in Nuremberg.

However, when he tried to do so, the officers  there refused to take it. They simply told him that Duncan was a strong young man who  probably ran off with a rich Italian or Austrian girl. Of course, both George and his parents  knew this was false since he was in a committed relationship and his girlfriend was supposed to be  moving in with him in Scotland the following week.

Although George couldn’t tell Duncan’s parents  much about his plans, he did know that he went to Fussen to visit with Roger Kurtko, and  he was the next person they would speak to. According to Roger, Duncan did not really have  a well-thought-out itinerary. He told them that Duncan had stated that he wanted to visit Austria  and then might visit a friend in Bolzano, Italy, or go windsurfing at Lake Garda in northern  Italy before returning to Nuremberg on August 9.

Unsure of exactly where he went from there,  his parents pulled out a road map of central Europe and figured that if he were going  to drive to northern Italy, he would have to pass through the Austrian city of Innsbruck  along the way. This would be their next stop. Innsbruck and its environs are a huge tourist  attraction in Austria.

The area, known as Tyrol, is filled with mountains and glaciers perfect  for hiking, skiing, and snowboarding. Although it was August, a few ski slopes were still  open around the famous Stubai Valley, which formed the epicenter of the tourist hot  spots in the area. Duncan had to have been there.

Once Duncan’s parents arrived in Innsbruck, they  woke up the next morning to find one of the most beautiful sites they had ever seen. Spread all  around them were rolling hills, steep mountains, and tons of snow. Lynda knew that her son  would love this area and must still be there.

Based on this mother's intuition, the pair began  searching for Duncan in the Innsbruck area. Due to the narrow roads and mountain passes, the  couple feared that Duncan might have driven off the road. For days, they drove up and down  mountain roads, stopping at each bend to peer down below to see if they saw anything.

Not finding any wrecked cars, they also searched the local lakes. Duncan had talked  about wanting to windsurf in Italy. Maybe he had gotten into an accident and had drowned  in the water?

But, alas, none of the lakes they went to had any traces of Duncan. Undeterred, they began speaking to local police to inquire about their investigation  into his disappearance. But when they went to speak to the police, they were shocked to  hear that they had not heard about his case.

Once his parents had informed police officials  in Innsbruck, they promised to look into it. Taking them at their word, they then began  crisscrossing the country to different border checkpoints. At the Italian border, his parents  were equally miffed that his information had not been shared there either.

At the Swiss border,  these officers likewise knew nothing about his case. Infuriated, they demanded the Royal  Canadian Mounted Police submit the information to Interpol again. And while they promised  to do so, this would be the first of what would turn out to be many empty promises from  both the Canadian and Austrian governments.

Feeling that no one else was taking Duncan’s  disappearance seriously, his parents decided to continue looking for him on their own. Because  his passport had not been checked at either the Italian or Swiss borders, Lynda knew that her  son most likely never left the Innsbruck area. They implored the local police to see if they  had checked the hotel records in town, but they were told that it was simply too big of a task and  would require an army of investigators to do that.

This response was a common theme the pair  ran into during their search for Duncan. After almost two weeks of going door to door and  calling every hotel and hostel they could find, they finally got their first big break. One of  the local hostels they called did indeed have a record of Duncan staying there.

He checked in  for one night on the evening of August 8 and left the next morning. He did not stay any other  nights. It wasn’t much, but it was something!

Finally, with the first hard proof that Duncan  had been in the area, his parents pleaded with local police to circulate his missing persons  report. However, they cited Austrian privacy laws that because he was an adult, he could be  missing if he wanted to. Besides, if something had happened and his car was abandoned, someone  would have reported it by now, they reasoned.

Infuriated, the couple then found a sympathetic  Austrian newspaper to broadcast a missing person report that they paid for with their own  money. It would go on air in a few weeks and in the meantime, they decided to try the Canadian  consulate in West Germany to get help moving past the Austrian police who were stonewalling them. But once the couple arrived at the consulate, no one there wanted to speak with them,  and every time they asked to speak with the Canadian ambassador, he kept saying  he was too busy.

Finally, after two days, his second-in-command finally met with them. During this conversation, he gave no new information. He continued to give them the same  line that the Austrians had been giving them: Duncan was a big, strong boy and  that he was probably fine.

Of course, they knew this was not the case. In a strange  gesture of goodwill, the officer insisted that they have dinner with him that night at his  mansion. Of course, the couple was reluctant, but he would not take no for an answer.

That night, during dinner at the mansion, the officer received a call that would change  their lives forever: Duncan's car had been found. Within hours of the TV advertisement the  couple paid for had aired, a parking lot attendant at a hotel near Innsbruck,  reported that Duncan’s car was there. Duncan’s parents immediately left  Germany that night and drove as fast as they could to Innsbruck.

Upon  arrival at the police station though, they found that something was off.  The police told them that they had already gotten inside the car and  removed all of Duncan’s belongings. The couple was given a bag containing his  belongings and when Bob asked the officers if they had fingerprinted the car, they said  they had no reason to fingerprint it.

When his parents inquired as to why his belongings  were not left in the state they were found in, the officers did not respond. What was going on? Once officers handed over his items, it only  solidified their suspicions that something was off.

They claimed that all that was inside the  car was a backpack filled with some clothes, his passport, and a bag of now rotten fruit.  When pressed on where exactly the car was though, officers refused to say. However, when they  saw a police car leave the station, they decided to follow it to see where it was going.

After tailing the police car for a short while, they soon found it. Parked facing the Stubai  Valley, the car had sat in the parking lot for 42 days without anyone reporting it before the  news report ran. It was hard to believe that the car had sat for so long in an area that  prided itself on looking out for one another.

After getting inside the car, the couple found  a few other items, but one in particular caught their eye. It was an audio cassette in the center  console that had the logo for a local music store. His parents went there, and the saleswoman  positively identified Duncan as having bought the cassette.

She told them something else too. That  when he came in, he had been with another man. Now armed with concrete evidence,  including the car, the hostel receipt, and the witness identification, that he had  been in Innsbruck, the couple focused their search on alpine hotels in the area, starting  with the Alpensporthotel in Mutterbergalm.

After entering the hotel, they began asking the  front desk if Duncan had ever stayed there when a surprise visitor approached them. His  name was Walter Hinterhoelzl. He was the hotel's resident snowboarding instructor,  and he said he remembered Duncan very well.

According to Walter, Duncan had rented a snowboard  and booked a lesson with him on the morning of August 9. Duncan, with his excellent physique and  balance as a hockey player, performed quite well, especially considering that it was his first  time snowboarding. Walter remarked that during the lesson, his clothes became wet from snow and  sweat and that he had placed some of them in his office to dry out.

Walter then stated that Duncan  claimed he was going to practice by himself on the slope for a few more hours and that the next  morning, he would take another lesson with him. However, the next morning came and went with no  sign of Duncan. Walter did not suspect anything and assumed he must have just went on to  do something else.

But when several weeks had passed and Duncan had not picked up his  clothes, he took them home to his apartment. With Walter's testimony, an important gap had  been filled. But they now had another crucial question that would determine the trajectory of  the search: was the snowboard returned to the rental shop?

If not, then it meant that Duncan  had likely gone missing while snowboarding and could still be out there somewhere. So Duncan's parents went to the rental shop and spoke with the employee present.  They asked to see the rental records from August for their missing son.

The woman, visibly  shaking and nervous, glanced over to her manager, who quickly stepped in. The manager claimed that  they had just switched systems for maintaining their rental records, and the ones from  August had already been thrown away. However, he assured them that with his iron-clad  memory, Duncan's snowboard had been returned.

Frustrated at the lack of assistance, the  couple doubled down on their search efforts before the winter snow began to fall, which  would cover everything around them and seal the truth of what happened potentially forever. But soon, they would get a helping hand from across the Atlantic. A sympathetic Canadian  businessman had heard about their plight.

He offered to send a world-renowned search and  rescue team to Austria at no expense to the parents. With their state-of-the-art computer  programs, helicopters, and tracking dogs, the team was one of the best in the business. Duncan’s parents readily agreed and thought this was the opportunity they were waiting  for.

But unknown to them, the police were again actively working against them. Because the search and rescue team claimed that often relatives are involved in a loved  one’s disappearance, they had to get all their information straight from the police, despite  the couple being the only ones actually trying to find Duncan. But the couple bit their tongue  and decided to let the team do their job.

However, the Austrian police knowingly sent  them looking in the wrong places. According to diplomatic cables that Lyndsay  obtained later, even at this early stage, the police had a working theory as to what  happened. According to them, they believed Duncan had simply fallen into a crevasse and died. 

Crevasses can be especially deadly during winter months since they are often covered in a thin  sheet of snow or ice, and stepping on one can send a person plummeting ten, thirty, or even a  hundred or more feet down into a dark, icy tomb. But the Austrian authorities had not disclosed  this to Duncan's parents or the search and rescue team. So, instead of searching the Stubai  glacier, the team spun their wheels aimlessly, searching the mountains around it.

After  several weeks of searching, the team, faced with no other options, called it quits and  went home. Although they did not want to, Duncan's parents soon returned home too, though they  vowed to return as soon as the weather permitted. Over the next 14 years, the couple would make  nine separate trips to Austria to search for their son.

Often, as Bob recalls, some locals and police  would show up, but they would not even acknowledge him. It seemed as if the locals were tired of  them showing up and hoped that the pair would just go away if they were rude enough to them.  But they never gave up on searching for their son.

Over time, as each search in the hiking  trails around Stubai Valley or the glacier itself proved nothing new, the couple began  to grow increasingly desperate for answers. In November 1993, German television ran an expose  on Duncan's case. After one of its reruns a few months later, a German woman from Nuremberg  called the MacPherson household directly.

What she said next was perhaps the most solid  evidence of what had happened to Duncan yet. According to her, she had a close  friend in Klagenfurt, Austria, several hours away from Innsbruck, who was caring  for a man with severe amnesia. The man was tall, spoke only North American English, and had two  missing front teeth that were corrected with dental implants.

He had been found wandering in  the woods around Innsbruck in early September 1989 with no wallet or identification, as well  as being malnourished. The man could not remember his name but took on the name of Mark  Schoeffman. The only thing he could remember about his past life was living in New York state.

To Lynda and Bob, this was it. Their son and this mystery man had similar physical characteristics.  Duncan only spoke English and had lost some of his Canadian accent after living in the  States for several years.

Most importantly, the man said he had lived in New York, which is  where Duncan split his time between there and Massachusetts. But how had Duncan gotten amnesia? There is medical evidence that in rare cases of Lyme disease, the patient can eventually  develop amnesia.

With his illness happening just a few months before, his parents  were certain that this was their son. Lynda immediately called the Canadian  embassy and asked them to look into it. In one of the few helpful times in this case,  the Canadian authorities were able to track down the location of this man and verify he was,  in fact, real.

The man who was now known as Mark had been discharged from a psychiatric facility  and was living with a foster family to get back on his feet. Canadian and Austrian authorities  sent several photos of the man to his parents. Unfortunately, the man bore no resemblance to  Duncan.

Undeterred, one of Duncan’s friends from Germany drove to Austria to see the  man in person. He too confirmed they did not look alike. These suspicions were confirmed  when dental records conclusively proved that the mystery man was not their son.

Duncan  MacPherson was still out there… somewhere. Though this lead had been the most promising  one to date, the case would take another turn in the late 90s when Lynda sued the Canadian  government to release diplomatic cables between them and the Austrian government. After several years of litigation, the Canadian government finally released nearly  800 pages of sensitive documents relating to the investigation.

And while these documents proved  without a doubt that the Austrian police had lied to them, they also presented another angle. Inside this trove of documents were several pages of completely redacted correspondence  between Canada and what was then known as Czechoslovakia. But what sort of secrets could  these documents be hiding?

Then it hit her. Before leaving for Europe, Duncan had claimed to  his parents that a CIA agent had approached him in America and wanted to recruit him.  Though the role sounded interesting, it would entail creating a new identity and  leaving his old life behind, something Duncan did not want to do.

But how credible was this? During the Cold War, it was not uncommon to recruit foreign athletes, especially ones like  Duncan, who played for teams that traveled around the world. Hockey players like him could  infiltrate Communist countries with legitimate cover stories.

Once inside, they could spy for  countries like the US. Lynda figured that maybe he had been caught spying in Czechoslovakia and  was imprisoned there on espionage charges. This would jive with some reports the couple had  gotten in the years since his disappearance.

Several witnesses claimed to have seen Duncan  in Moscow and several other cities in Eastern Europe. Maybe Duncan had taken the CIA up on  their offer of a new life but had been captured in Czechoslovakia? Lynda had to know for sure.

She sued the Canadian government again to release the redacted documents, and after another long  court battle, she won. But when she got them, she was dismayed to see that the cables were  nothing more than the Canadian government asking if Duncan had been in Czechoslovakia,  with the Czechs answering in the negative. No CIA coverup after all.

In July 2003, the Stubai Valley was sweltering under the hottest summer  on record. Because of this, numerous bodies were turning up inside crevasses that had been hidden  for decades. On July 18, on the Stubai glacier, a piece of yellow fabric was seen sticking  up out of a crevasse.

Upon closer inspection, the fabric was a jacket covering a body.  Officials immediately assumed it to be Duncan, and the Canadian embassy called to inform them. After arriving in Austria, Lynda and Bob soon learned that the body had been taken to Innsbruck. 

Upon arriving at the Institute of Forensic Medicine there, they were greeted by a Dr Walter  Rabl. The Austrian police had ordered Dr Rabl to perform an identification of the corpse. Utilizing  both DNA analysis on a piece of his left femur and dental records, Dr Rabl positively ID’d the  body as that of the missing Duncan MacPherson.

Duncan’s body had been found, but what had  really happened to him? And why did it seem like everyone was trying to cover up the truth? When Lynda and Bob were let into the examining room to see their son, a large white sheet  was covering him, with only his head being exposed.

His skin, like thick black leather after  being encased in his icy tomb all these years, still looked remarkably like their son.  After being left alone for a few moments, Lynda kissed her son goodbye and then  joined Dr Rabl to enquire about an autopsy. Lynda had been convinced for years that Duncan  had fallen into a crevasse, and then a snow groomer had buried him alive.

She wanted an  autopsy done to confirm this theory. However, according to Dr Rabl, an autopsy in this case  was unnecessary since it would not likely reveal the case of death. His parents insisted on  an autopsy, but Dr Rabl stated he would only do one if ordered by the local prosecutor.

After his parents spoke with the prosecutor, he told them an autopsy was unnecessary since it  was clear that Duncan had fallen into a crevasse and died. Still wanting answers, they asked Dr  Rabl if he could at least take some detailed X-rays and a CT scan of the body. They also  wanted the items found with him, which included his clothing, a snowboard, and snow boots.

While the couple waited for the additional medical evidence, they noticed something odd.  His snowboard and clothing looked like they had been shredded in a machine. These observations  would later be key, but they did not know that at the time.

In the meantime, they went to police  headquarters to see what the police would say. During the conversation, the police reluctantly  agreed to show the couple the photographs. The photos included three pictures from 4:56,  4:57, and 5:10 that afternoon.

They showed ski slope employees working to get Duncan  out, and a fourth photo 20 minutes later shows that he was out of the crevasse. Importantly, there were no police, detectives, or medical personnel present.  The discovery and excavation of Duncan had been entirely carried out by hotel staff. 

Officers simply picked up the body and left. When the couple returned to Dr Rabl’s  office, they questioned him about the state of the snowboard. After all, it looked  chewed up.

Instead of calling the police, he called the hotel. Speaking with the staff, they  claimed that when excavating the body, they had used a snow groomer’s tiller to help free Duncan. But the couple had no other recourse except to wait on their son's body.

While their family  encouraged them to transport the body home, its cost and their desire to have him home  quickly made them cremate him in Austria. Once home, the couple began digging  deeper into the evidence and discovered something was not right at all. After returning to Canada, the couple began looking over the photos that  Dr Rabl had given them, and what they saw was shocking.

The injuries to Duncan were massive. His  head, left arm, left hand, left knee, left leg, and left foot had all been severed. When looking  at these shocking photos, the couple asked Dr Rabl how this could have happened.

He explained  that bodies stuck in ice are often subjected to intense forces as they move down the mountain and  spit out towards the bottom. These natural forces would explain all the damage sustained. But the couple weren’t buying it.

After consulting with numerous forensic  anthropologists, medical doctors, and an expert in ski slope accident reconstruction,  they all came to the same conclusion: Duncan's injuries had not been caused by natural forces.  And there was plenty of evidence to back this up. For one, there was the location Duncan was found. 

He was still on the ski slope, essentially encased in the natural tomb where he lay. In cases where  glaciers tear up a body, the person has to make their way all the way down the mountain, and  this process typically takes hundreds of years. Not only was Duncan found right near where  he probably died, but the damage to his body was inconsistent.

If Mother Nature had  ripped his body apart, it would not have selectively done so only to his left side.  Additionally, the damage was too precise. All of his severed body parts looked as if they  had been sliced by a machine and not crunched and broken by ice.

Photos from the Institute of  Forensic Medicine prove this further since his left foot, left knee, and left hand were found  in a pile stuck together separate from his head, which was separate from his trunk. And while the forensic anthropologists did not have a good answer on how he died, the  ski accident reconstruction expert did. From the marks on his body, along with his shredded  snowboard, the expert was able to scientifically prove that the marks had the same measurements  as those from the tiller on a snow groomer.

But what did the Austrians have to say about that? According to the hotel employees who spoke with Dr Rabl, they had used a snow groomer to help  remove Duncan’s body from the crevasse. However, Lynda had taken photos of the slope the same week  his body had been recovered.

There was absolutely zero snow on the ground, and the employees were  observed using snow groomers to get around, but the tillers were in the upright position. Additionally, trying to back a tiller into a giant hole does nothing. Even people who had  not seen snow a day in their lives could tell you that by looking at the snow groomer.

Based on all of this evidence, this is the most plausible theory about what really  happened to Duncan MacPherson on August 9, 1989. After lunch with his snowboard instructor, Duncan  returned to the slop to keep practicing. Because of the heavy fog and light rain that day, most  of the guests left the mountain around lunchtime, so that afternoon, Duncan was probably the only  person on the mountain still snowboarding.

Wanting to make the most of his trip, he probably  felt the need to keep practicing to make the next day’s lesson even better. Sometime during the afternoon, as Duncan was snowboarding, he went over a  crevasse that was commonly exposed during this time of year. Due to the damage to his ankles  and femur, it is most likely that he suffered a severe injury that left him incapacitated.

That afternoon, a snow groomer left the resort to get an early start on finishing the day’s work  due to most guests leaving early. Whether Duncan was conscious is unclear, but the evidence shows  that he had taken off his snow boots and was lying on the ground with just his boot liners on. It is  very possible he passed out due to a combination of shock from blood loss and hypothermia.

However,  his injuries were likely still survivable. As the snow groomer approached, Duncan may  have tried to signal to the driver he was there and needed to be rescued. Or he could  have said nothing due to being passed out and the driver never saw or heard him due to the  loud machinery and poor weather conditions.

As the driver got near Duncan, the snow  groomer itself missed him, but the tiller, which extends further out than the rest  of the vehicle, clipped his left leg, which he had been holding with his left hand, and  sucked him and his snowboard into the machine. In a matter of moments, Duncan would  have died. Because the tiller likely spit the snowboard out and hit the snow  groomer, the driver would have exited the vehicle and stumbled upon the grisly scene.

What happened next will never be known for sure. Whether the employee acted alone because he was  afraid of being arrested for negligent homicide, drunk driving, or both is unclear. Perhaps  there was a conspiracy between himself and other resort staff to bury the dead  tourist.

This is most likely considering the shroud of secrecy surrounding his case.  But what was the motive for the conspiracy? The Stubai glacier was and remains today the  lifeblood of the local economy.

Because of this, influential people in the area have always  been keen to keep any negative publicity out of the limelight. The MacPhersons, with  their ever-present persistence, were a threat to business. If the truth had gotten out that a  tourist had died on the ski slope, their bottom line would definitely have taken a hit.

This was  something local business leaders, who kept police officer salaries high, could not tolerate. In their eyes, if a tourist died, it meant nothing to them in the grand scheme of things. But to Lynda and Bob MacPherson, Duncan was more than just a dollar sign.

He was their son. For more bizarre missing persons stories, check out “The Most Disturbing Stories of People  Going Missing” or watch this video instead!