Duncan MacPherson, 23, vanished in August 1989 in Austria just prior to his scheduled signing with Dundee’s Tayside Tigers Share Article Share Article Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit Bluesky Email Copy Link Link copied Bookmark Comments
The puzzling details involving the finding of a Canadian ice hockey player’s corpse in an Austrian glacier, many years after his passing, continue to bewilder detectives.
Duncan MacPherson went missing without a trace in August 1989, right before he was due to sign for Dundee’s Tayside Tigers. The 23-year-old’s remains were located 14 years later exhibiting several fractured bones and a crushed leg, frozen inside a glacier within the Austrian Alps, according to The Courier.
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Duncan had professed that he had been tapped as an operative for the CIA, and his relatives accused Austrian officials of masterminding a concealment. They spent all of their savings taking 10 journeys to Austria to try and solve the enigma surrounding their son’s demise, eventually escalating their case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Dundee hockey enthusiast George Carr remarked: “It certainly is an odd situation and casts doubt on his disappearance. MacPherson going astray must be considered one of the most extraordinary occurrences in the annals of ice hockey in Dundee.”, as reported by the Mirror US.
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MacPherson was raised in Saskatoon and was drafted by the New York Islanders in 1984 but never participated in a single game for the NHL.
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After his contract with the Islanders lapsed in 1989, Duncan agreed to an offer to serve as a player-coach for the Tayside Tigers.
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In the days preceding his disappearance, Duncan phoned millionaire Ron Dixon, who was planning on acquiring the Tigers, informing him that he was scheduled to arrive in Dundee two days later.
He paused for a snowboarding vacation in Austria and was last sighted on August 9, 1989, at the Stubaier Glacier in south Tyrol.
For a number of days, Duncan’s family and friends had no indication of his location. A vehicle abandoned at the glacier’s ground area was later connected to a friend who had loaned it to him in Nuremberg.
Receiving no support from Austrian police or the Canadian consular office, the MacPhersons circulated 2,500 missing person notices in multiple languages across four countries.
Duncan had earlier asserted that the CIA had attempted to enlist him as a spy, adding to the perplexity of his disappearance for his loved ones.
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In 1994, an amnesiac initially thought to be Duncan surfaced in Austria, but it was quickly verified this was not the missing man. Tragically, in the summer of 2003, Duncan’s remains were discovered by a worker operating snow-grooming equipment.
He had been encased in melting snow and ice in the middle of a heavily used ski slope in Neustift. Officials claimed he perished after falling into a crevasse, but a Canadian forensic anthropologist contended this did not explain the arrangement of fractured bones.
She suggested there had also been contact with a sizable piece of machinery, and the MacPhersons alleged Austrian authorities actively endeavored to prevent the truth from emerging.
The Austrian officials insisted they did everything achievable to ascertain what occurred and to assist Duncan’s parents in what was a very challenging investigation.
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The couple submitted an application with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, asserting violations of the right to life and the right to effective recourse.
The court concluded that the authorities had taken every possible action at their disposal.