The Questionable Death of Duncan MacPherson: Stubai Alps

Summary

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National Park After Dark

Episode: The Questionable Death of Duncan MacPherson: Stubai Alps

Date: March 30, 2026
Hosts: Danielle & Cassie

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the mysterious and tragic disappearance and death of Duncan MacPherson, a young Canadian hockey player who vanished in the Austrian Stubai Alps in 1989. The hosts, Danielle and Cassie, unravel the 14-year search conducted by his parents—Linda and Bob McPherson—to uncover the truth behind his fate. The story weaves together elements of natural hazards, bureaucratic resistance, and the lengths families will go to for answers, raising unsettling questions about the possible cover-up by local authorities at a resort central to the region’s economy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Austria & the Stubai Glacier

• Austria’s Wilderness: Danielle gives background on Austria’s green landscapes, national parks, and biodiversity, especially its mountains and glacial areas ([04:50]).
• The Dangers of Crevasses: Discussion about the presence and risks of crevasses in alpine regions—deep glacial cracks that are hazardous to even skilled mountaineers ([00:03], [32:59]).
• The Resort’s Local Importance: Stubai Glacier’s status as the region’s economic engine is emphasized, highlighting local attitudes towards outsiders and negative publicity ([42:31]).

2. Who Was Duncan MacPherson?

• Early Life & Hockey Career: Duncan was a well-liked, talented Canadian hockey player drafted to the NHL (New York Islanders) in 1984. Despite a promising start, injuries derailed his pro career ([09:00]).
• Character: Described as mature, kind, and notably unbitter about his career setbacks; extremely close to his family ([11:09]).
• Life After Hockey: Turned down a suspicious CIA recruitment offer, considered biology studies, and finally accepted a job to coach in Scotland, planning European travel before starting ([15:08], [18:24]).

3. Disappearance (1989): Chronology & Family’s Search

• Timeline: Duncan was last seen August 9, 1989, taking a snowboard lesson at Stubai Glacier Resort ([29:55]).

• Missing Person Campaign: After he missed his start date in Scotland and failed to contact his family, his parents mounted an international search: posters, media, and visiting Europe multiple times ([22:13], [23:15]).

• Ineffective Authorities: Local police and Canadian officials often dismissed parents’ concerns and failed to issue proper alerts or check logical leads, like the car sitting for 42 days at the resort ([24:09], [26:19]).

  "We don't handle missing persons on weekends..." — [Danielle, 22:49]

• Dismissive Attitude: Authorities repeatedly suggested Duncan simply ran off to enjoy life, ignoring evidence and family testimony ([25:16]).

• Clue: The Car: A resort contractor spots the friend's car Duncan drove, parked for 42 days; Duncan’s belongings inside indicate he planned to return soon ([27:36]).

4. Initial Theories & Local Obstacles

• Dismissals & Misdirection: Resort staff and authorities reinforce the narrative that Duncan left the area, had an accident elsewhere, or that everything found is coincidental ([35:23], [36:38]).

• Hostility & Secrecy: Locals show insular attitudes, prioritizing community and economic interests over transparency ([44:48], [49:27]).

  “For a simple man in Tyrol, the highest value is protecting his community... even if I knew something about this, I would never say anything.” — Austrian local via author John Leake ([48:29])

• Ski Resort Hazards: Descriptions of open crevasses on ski runs and routine snowcat operators burying them, often without confirming if anyone fell in ([32:59], [45:49]).

5. Discovery of the Body (2003) & Immediate Aftermath

• Body Found: A record heatwave in 2003 melts the glacier, revealing Duncan’s body—almost exactly where he was last seen, in the middle of a groomed ski run ([49:49]).
• Condition: Body was decapitated, missing both forearms, with severe leg injuries; it was “arranged” under a sheet for the family ([52:31]).
• Dismissive Forensics: The pathologist (Dr. Rabble) assures the family cause of death was asphyxiation in a crevasse, describes it as "peaceful," and authorities refuse an autopsy or further investigation ([50:55]).

6. Evidence of Possible Cover-Up

• Contradictory Official Reports: Authorities claim Duncan returned rental equipment, had called his family later, and underwent an autopsy—all untrue ([58:23]).
• Shocking Discoveries: When Linda and Bob visit the site, they find Duncan’s shattered snowboard and bones still on the slope, with the serial number matching the unreturned rental board ([56:02]).
• Incomplete Recovery: No police were present at the body's extraction; maintenance staff performed the task, leaving remains and evidence on the slope ([57:39]).

7. Mounting Questions: Accident or Cover-Up?

• Parent’s Tenacity: Linda leads a years-long campaign, gathering evidence and seeking expert opinions ([59:18]).

• Injury Analysis: Experts including an internationally renowned ski accident specialist (Dick Penniman) state injuries and equipment damage are consistent with Duncan being run over by the tiller of a snowcat grooming machine, not just a crevasse fall ([63:10], [68:15]).

  “This went through a tiller, this was shredded through a machine. His left leg was mangled and looked like it went through a meat grinder.” — Dick Penniman, ski safety expert ([68:15])

• Red Paint Forensics: Red paint matching resort grooming equipment is found on gear and personal effects with damage ([63:35]).

• Timing of Injuries: Rust and weathering indicate injuries and damage predated body recovery, debunking claims that he was accidentally mangled upon extraction ([65:16]).

• Possible Sequence: Injuries suggest Duncan may have suffered an accident, been incapacitated, and then inadvertently or deliberately run over during poor visibility, then hidden in a crevasse by workers to protect the resort and industry ([66:38], [70:07]).

• Official Stonewalling: All legal and governmental appeals are denied, and the case remains officially ruled an “accident” ([71:37]).

8. Human Cost & Enduring Fight for Justice

• Family's Loss: The McPhersons spent 14 years searching, draining their savings, making nine international trips, and spending nearly a year in the Alps searching for their son ([74:50]).

  "Duncan would have done the same for me." — Linda McPherson ([74:50])

• Frustration and Empathy: The hosts voice outrage at the local and official indifference.

• Linda’s Grace: When asked what she’d say to anyone who came forward, Linda simply wants truth rather than revenge ([77:57]).

  "If someone came forward... it would restore my faith in humanity." — Linda ([77:57])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Local Attitudes and Resistance:

  “For a simple man in Tyrol, the highest value is protecting his community... even if I knew something about this, I would never say anything.”
  — Austrian local (via John Leake), [48:29]

• On Family Tenacity:

  "Duncan would have done the same for me."
  — Linda McPherson, [74:50]

• On Authority Dismissiveness:

  “We don't handle missing persons on weekends...”
  — [Danielle quoting authorities, 22:49]

  “Get on with your lives, because life is for the living.”
  — Canadian diplomat, [41:58]

• Forensic Expert’s Conclusion:

  “This went through a tiller, this was shredded through a machine... his left leg was mangled and looked like it went through a meat grinder.”
  — Dick Penniman, ski safety expert, [68:15]

• Closing Reflection:

  "Not every mystery wraps up with a tidy explanation. In the end, this is so much more than a mysterious death or even a murder mystery... it is a story of a family with endless resolve and unending love for one another."
  — Danielle, [74:50]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro & Setting the Scene: [00:03-07:04]
• Duncan’s Background & Europe Plans: [07:04-19:35]
• Disappearance & Immediate Reaction: [19:35-29:34]
• Last Known Sighting at Resort: [29:34-34:16]
• Family’s Search & Official Resistance: [34:16-44:45]
• Cultural & Economic Context: [44:45-49:27]
• Discovery of Body & Aftermath: [49:49-58:20]
• Examining Forensic Evidence: [61:18-71:33]
• Family’s Fight for Truth: [71:33-74:50]
• Personal Impact & Conclusion: [74:50-end]

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Tone & Language

The conversation is empathetic, personal, and candid, blending fascination for wild places with frustration at bureaucratic failures and community secrecy. Both Danielle and Cassie display deep respect for the McPhersons’ fight, disbelief and anger toward dismissive officials, and a powerful sense of justice.

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Summary for New Listeners

This episode is a compelling blend of travel, true crime, and investigative journalism that exposes how a promising young athlete vanished amid natural danger, institutional neglect, and a community willing to protect its own at any cost. It’s a moving account of parental devotion, the pitfalls of small-town secrecy, and the persistence needed to challenge odds when the truth is inconvenient. National Park After Dark delivers not just the chills of mysterious deaths, but also the heartbreak and human perseverance behind real-life wilderness tragedies.

Transcript

[Danielle]

In 1991, bodies began to appear in the Austrian Alps. A heat wave had hit the region and the melting glaciers revealed one corpse after another. A hiker who went missing in 1981. A couple from Vienna who disappeared in 1934. Each had fallen into a crevasse. Deep chasms in the ice that pose an enormous hazard to skiers and mountaineers alike. Even people with the best equipment can fall in, get stuck and perish before anyone finds them. One of the bodies that appeared that summer was unique. No missing persons report, no modern equipment. This body had been frozen for 5,300 years before the great pyramids were built. While woolly mammoths walked the earth, this mummified iceman drew his last breath. Scientists named him Otzi, after the region of the Alps where he was found. Scientists studied Otzi and learned that he'd been murdered. He had an arrow in his back and a broken nose. On the modern day border between Italy and Austria, Otzi was attacked before he froze. Linda and Bob McPherson watched the news of Otzi's discovery intently, wondering if their son had met the same fate two years earlier. Duncan McPherson, a 23 year old former NHL player, had disappeared during a trip to Europe, 20 miles from Otzi's final resting place. The McPhersons were working tirelessly to learn what happened to their son. They drained their retirement savings to spend summers in Austria, chasing down every lead that they could find, usually with no luck. For the most part, they found themselves butting heads with local authorities who seemed disinterested in solving the case entirely. The Austrian government was quick to open and quicker to close Duncan's case, releasing official statements that Linda could prove were false. At first it seemed like it could have been miscommunication, language barriers, or even mismanagement. But in the 14 years it took for Duncan's body to appear, it started to feel nefarious to Linda. It started to look like Duncan's death was a cover up. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Foreign.

[Cassie]

Welcome, everybody. We're stoked to be back. I'm Cassie.

[Danielle]

And I'm Danielle. And dare I say this is my freebie?

[Cassie]

It is.

[Danielle]

Dare I say.

[Cassie]

So there's no national park tie?

[Danielle]

No.

[Cassie]

At all.

[Danielle]

No. I know. I'm going. What? I'm going crazy. I know.

[Cassie]

She's gone rogue. All right, just so you know, you're doing this very early in the year.

[Danielle]

I know.

[Cassie]

Which means you're dedicated for the next.

[Danielle]

But here's my thinking. I feel like we should work on a rollover basis. Whereas if I Didn't use my freebies in previous years. They have rolled over into this year and I can.

[Cassie]

So you get them. Have you ever used a freebie?

[Danielle]

I did. Dorothy. Edie. That was a freebie.

[Cassie]

Okay.

[Danielle]

And I think that's it.

[Cassie]

Okay. So five years, which means you've only.

[Danielle]

Nobody called me out.

[Cassie]

So you get three more this year.

[Danielle]

Yeah. And we did the psychic one, but that was a dual decision.

[Cassie]

Yeah.

[Danielle]

And that doesn't count either.

[Cassie]

I don't think that counts.

[Danielle]

No.

[Cassie]

As our freebie.

[Danielle]

So.

[Cassie]

Yeah.

[Danielle]

And to be honest, I was going to do this as a bonus episode because of the whole no national park tie in, but once I started getting more in depth into this story and I. I just. I think it deserves a main feed slot. So here we are. I did write a little bit about national parks, just a tiny bit, just to talk about Austrian national parks, because we've. I don't think we've ever covered a story in this area of the world. So I wanted to at least, like, tip our hat to them a little bit. But as a whole, this story does not take place in a park.

[Cassie]

You did already talk about crevasses too, though. So is it. I feel like that's a huge part of our show, right? It is. Is it a freebie?

[Danielle]

You guys can tell us. I guess my vote is that it is a freebie, but it does occur outside, so there's that which counts. Okay, well, let's talk about Austria. As I was researching this, I t. I thought about you a lot because the. Just the footage of this place in the world just screams like, Cassie belongs here.

[Cassie]

I. Austria is really high on my list, along with Norway. I would really love to go to Austria.

[Danielle]

Yeah. It just looks so, so beautiful. And it's actually one of Europe's greenest countries. Almost half of its land area is covered by forests and shaped by deciduous and mixed woodlands. And the landscapes, of course. Anyone who has seen any sort of photo of Austria knows that there's these, like, majestic high mountains, there's glacial valleys. And the biodiversity here for plant and animal life is crazy. Especially because. Do you have any idea of how big Austria is like, in comparison to the United States at all?

[Cassie]

I would say the size of Maine.

[Danielle]

You're. You know, you're so.

[Cassie]

I know my geography. I know that is one thing I can proudly. I'm like. As soon as you said that, I was picturing picturing a map of Europe in my brain and I'm like, oh, yeah, that looks like Maine.

[Danielle]

Yeah, it's Actually just slightly smaller than the state of Maine. And they have six national parks. Wow. Yeah.

[Cassie]

Maine. Step up your game.

[Danielle]

Maine. Come on. I'm embarrassed. Yeah. So, yeah. All that to say, it's beautiful, it's wonderful. People go there for a reason. They take conservation pretty seriously. They have a lot of cool wildlife things that just because of the area of the world, there's a lot of overlap in different ecosystems. And because of that, a lot of the wildlife mirrors that. And I was obviously went down a little bit of a rabbit hole with their wildlife. And they have. Their first documented breeding pair of wolves was documented in 2016. They don't have a ton of wolves there right now. And they kind of hang out along the border areas. I think they've hovered around like maybe 30 to 50 animals, but they were extirpated there in the 1800s. And in 2016, they had their first breeding pair again. So that's exciting.

[Cassie]

Very exc.

[Danielle]

Yeah.

[Cassie]

We should go there.

[Danielle]

Okay. You convinced me. I gotta go to Italy, my homeland.

[Cassie]

You do.

[Danielle]

And it's right there.

[Cassie]

It is right there. We could do the Dolomites.

[Danielle]

Okay.

[Cassie]

Hop into Switzerland.

[Danielle]

Okay. Go over to Austria and then take the train down through Italy. I gotta go to Sicily. Gotta end it in Sicily, I think. Please.

[Cassie]

Oh, I thought we were starting in Italy.

[Danielle]

Oh, sorry, I lost it already. But yeah, whatever. We're gonna do it. Okay. So anyway, we gotta lay at the land a little bit. And that is where our story is taking place today. But first, let's get to know the. The main person in today's story. His name is Duncan McPherson. And Duncan had always been a really great guy. He was kind and gentle with his friends and family, and he was an incredible teammate on the ice because he was a star hockey player and his hockey nickname was McPherson. And I just gotta say, right off the bat, it could have also been McDreamy or McSteemy or whatever that is. Like, are those two different people in Grey's Anatomy or the same. I should know different.

[Cassie]

Well, either way is the guy with the brown hair. I forget his name.

[Danielle]

I don't know anything.

[Cassie]

I don't know anything about Grey's Anatomy. Who am I. Who am I to even say that? I haven't watched Grey's Anatomy since 2009.

[Danielle]

Yeah, well, either way, he could have been one of the Mick, you're so good lookings. Because he is hot. Duncan is really a good looking guy.

[Cassie]

He was born for hockey players.

[Danielle]

I do. I think. I don't know. I love hockey. I think I do now, yeah. After I saw Duncan for sure. He was born on February 3, 1966, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

[Cassie]

Oh, that's rough.

[Danielle]

God, don't make me say that again. And grew up loving the sport of hockey, especially from a young age. He kind of just took to it right away. I feel like that's maybe a Canadian thing also.

[Cassie]

Totally.

[Danielle]

It's like, you're born. Get out there.

[Cassie]

Born on an ice hockey rink.

[Danielle]

Yeah. And he excelled at it. He was really good at it. He picked up the skill right away. He was the oldest brother of two and born to his parents, Linda and Bob. And he grew up playing hockey, but like I said, he kind of just rose through the ranks really quickly and became a strong defenseman. By the early 1980s, he was playing for the major junior leagues on the Saskatoon Blades. So it wasn't just a pastime. He was making it his career. He was tall, six foot one. I looked up his stats because I'm like, okay, Duncan. Okay, Duncan. Wow. He had thick black hair, pearly white smile, and a body built for the ice. Ahead of one rivalry game, the other team's biggest player called Duncan out by name and promised to beat him up, essentially. And while his teammates kind of nervously asked him how he felt about the threat, Duncan calmly replied, I've got it. He just got that cool attitude. Yeah, have you seen me? I'm fine. During the game, you can imagine his mom watching the fight through her fingers, hands clenched to her face, as he took on a giant. Giant. But Duncan came out on top. He was a hero to his team and their fans. And while Linda hated the violence that sometimes arises with the sport, she admired her son's courage and fearless spirit. Those qualities, amongst his clear talent for the sport, led the New York Islanders to draft Duncan in the first round into the NHL in 1984, when he was just 18 years old. In preparation for the major leagues, he played for the minor leagues on the Springfield Indians and Indianapolis Iceland. And while his future looked bright, things didn't go to plan in the pros after a series of injuries set him back. He never quite reached the heights he had aspired to. And in 1989, the Islanders actually let him go. So all that work, but he's in his early 20s. Like, it's devastating. But he kind of took it pretty well considering that he just put so many years into the sport, and his mom was really worried for him. Like, some athletes totally unravel after something like this. I mean, dedicate your whole life.

[Cassie]

Exactly. That's Your whole life to it, and then it's just taken from you. It's like, where do I go now?

[Danielle]

Right, exactly. So especially because it's like such a big part of your identity, but somehow Duncan handled it really well, and he handled it with a grace that you don't really see in 23 year old guys. In an interview. There's footage of it online, actually. After this decision was made, there was literally no bitterness in his voice at all. No resentment, and just like this mature acceptance, I guess. And he just said simply, you play the best you can and if you're not meant to be a superstar, well, there's nothing you can do about it. Like, yeah, well, all right.

[Cassie]

This is a weird question. Maybe you don't know the answer, but did he have all his teeth?

[Danielle]

It looks like he did in pictures, but I don't know if they were fake.

[Cassie]

Yeah, I feel like all hockey players are missing their front teeth. Like, especially front tooth.

[Danielle]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Cassie]

6:1 and has all his teeth.

[Danielle]

I know. And there's pictures of him. Like, he's kind of one of those guys that when you see different photos of him, it's not that you're like, is how is this the same person in every photo? Like, he obviously looks like the same person, but he changes up his. Whether it's his haircut or his facial hair style differently, he just looks like different eras all at once. And especially in the 80s, you look older than you really were type of thing. Yeah, but his passport photo. I'll post it. I'm not about posting his passport photo because it's out there online and he's so good. He has a mustache. Okay. Anyway, I knew the way you were

[Cassie]

describing him that he had a mustache. Just because you have things for mustaches.

[Danielle]

I do. Okay. Like lusting over Duncan here. Okay.

[Cassie]

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[Danielle]

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[Cassie]

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[Danielle]

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[Cassie]

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[Danielle]

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[Cassie]

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[Danielle]

Join the Nordic Club to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you Rack. So after he gets this, he's let go from the islanders. He needed to figure out what his next steps would be. And he considered for a while going to school, going to college for biology because he had a love of nature. And in pursuit of that love, he was thinking, maybe I can make a career out of this. But he elected to not do that. And instead he was like, I'm going to go hike the at. So he hiked the at. And of course after that, you know, a lot of people take months off to do that and then reevaluate through life. And he did that as well. And when he got back, he really focused on his next decisions career wise. And around the same time, he got several different job authors, including one supposedly from the CIA. In the late 1980s, during the height of the Cold War, few people could travel freely in and out of the Soviet Union, but hockey players could. Over lunch, a man who claimed to be from the CIA told Duncan that he could use his hockey background to go undercover and cross the Iron Curtain. Duncan told his parents that he turned down the offer because, number one, he would have had to disappear from his family's life to become, like, this covert secret agent CIA operative. And he wasn't willing to do that. And also, he kind of thought it was sketchy. He's like, I don't know the legitimacy of this offer either.

[Cassie]

It sounds weird. He's just like, at lunch, and someone's like, hey, do you want to join the CIA? All you have to do is not tell anyone where you're going to be and meet me in this dark alley

[Danielle]

and change your name and give up your life.

[Cassie]

Yeah.

[Danielle]

But. Yeah, so he turned that down. And after that, a wealthy Canadian businessman called Duncan up out of the blue and offered him a job as a hockey coach. This guy had just bought a hockey team called the Tigers in Dundee, Scotland, and he basically said, hey, if you move there and relocate there, you can coach this team, and that job is yours and secured. For Duncan, this felt like a really great opportunity. Of course, it's a way to continue working in the hockey world. And at first he was thinking, is this too good to be true? Like, it just feels like out of nowhere, I'm getting this offer. I don't even really know this person. And he just randomly bought a hockey team and needs a coach. Like, what is this? But he thought it over, and he was just kind of like, you know what? Yolo, I'm gonna do it. I'm young. What else is there? You know, this is a cool opportunity if it works out. And plus, he had a friend that lived in Europe, and he had the opportunity to travel in the beginning of August for a few weeks before that job started in Scotland. So he was like, yeah, I'm gonna go hang out in Europe for a couple weeks, see a few countries, and then go over and start my new career.

[Cassie]

Fun. I feel like everyone in their 20s goes through a phase where they go to Europe.

[Danielle]

I didn't, and I wish I did.

[Cassie]

Really? Yeah.

[Danielle]

I know I was not too late.

[Cassie]

You could do it in your 30s or your 40s or 50s or 60s or whatever, but you should do it

[Danielle]

I know I will. I was just too busy. And I had my phase of living in Colorado, in the mountains, off grid pretty much. And that was great. Okay. So he ultimately decides to take a leap of faith, accepted the position, and in the summer of 1989, he packed up his belongings and readied himself for his new chapter. While he didn't have firm plans for his time in Europe prior to his arrival date In Scotland of August 12, he did mention a possible stop in Austria. And with that, Duncan hugged his family goodbye, kissed his girlfriend Tara pat his dog Jake, and caught a flight to Germany to meet up with his friend. And this is just a really interesting, creepy note that doesn't seem pertinent until the end and you find out what happens to him. But he was. You know, everyone is like, I'm gonna read a book on the plane, you know? And his book of choice on the plane was Touching the Void. Oh, about someone who falls in a glacier.

[Cassie]

Yeah, I just covered. Yeah, yeah, I just covered it. No, not Abandoned in the Arctic. I forgot what I titled it now.

[Danielle]

Me too, actually. Yeah, well, it's out there, if anyone's curious. Once in Germany, his friend Roger generously let Duncan borrow his car so that he could explore and do some sightseeing on his own. The plans were set for Duncan to go off and do his own thing until the latest August 11, because he needed to catch a flight to Scotland for August 12th.

[Cassie]

That's Al's birthday.

[Danielle]

August 12th.

[Cassie]

Yeah, a Leo fire sign.

[Danielle]

I knew I liked him. And throughout all of this, Duncan, if I didn't preface this before, he's extremely close with his family. He talks to them all the time. And he promised his mother and father that he would be in touch with them and give them updates about what he was doing and kind of like how his things were going. And especially when you're about to. You're moving abroad to start a new job. Of course you're going to be in contact with them. And so Linda and Bob were expecting to get calls from him every once in a while, but especially when he got to Scotland. It's like, hey, I made it and start, or whatever. But after several days passed, like over a week, Linda worried that something was wrong. He told his parents that he would call them, of course, before his flight to Scotland. But that call never came. As the days went on, she waited anxiously by the phone until it finally rang on August 16, and a voice asked, have you heard from Duncan? It was a hockey friend of Duncan's named Sean who lived in Europe. And Linda said, no, he was gonna call, you know, when he got to settled into his job in Scotland, but I haven't heard from him yet. And silence followed so long that Linda had to clarify if Sean was still even on the other line. And after a pause, Shawn replied with a nervous edge in his voice, saying, yeah, Mrs. McPherson, it's strange because I just spoke with his team manager, and it seems Duncan never made it to Scotland. While it was devastating and shocking news, Linda, curiously may have had a premonition. Aside from worrying about her son, she had woken up from a night terror on the night of August 11th, just days prior, screaming. And she was nearly inconsolable. She just woke up from this vivid night terror. And she was like, clutching onto her husband Bob and saying, something terrible has happened to Duncan.

[Cassie]

Oh, wow.

[Danielle]

And that. So that was like four or five days before this phone call happened. After this phone call from Sean, immediately the McPherson started to make phone calls of their own. He was last seen by friends in Germany, but of course borrowed that friend's car to drive towards Austria. And he didn't give an exact itinerary. He just. They're going off of what? His friends were like, oh, yeah, he mentioned that he was going to go off and do this. These stops. They called Canadian officials who put out a missing persons report across Europe, only after telling her to call back on Monday because they didn't handle missing persons cases on the weekends.

[Cassie]

What? Yeah, I mean, I know Europe is much more into the work life balance thing, but that's a little crazy. What do you mean?

[Danielle]

It's like, okay, you can have your

[Cassie]

life balance Saturday or Sunday, you're, you're not working.

[Danielle]

Yeah, it's like, okay, let's limit the work life balance to people who work in, like, a retail or a bakery or something. I, I not emergency situations. Right.

[Cassie]

That's wild.

[Danielle]

So they're basically, you know, when Monday comes around and they've clocked back in, they are telling her, hey, we're going to release basically an Interpol report that will trigger and flag if Duncan either goes to the airport or is seen at a border crossing or if he gets arrested and goes to jail or something. Like, anytime his name flags in the system, it. Because of this, this notice, they would be notified. After two weeks of not hearing anything and kind of just sitting anxiously In Canada, the McFersons flew to Germany with 2,000 printed missing persons posters that they made and printed out themselves. And they plastered them literally everywhere, gave out hundreds of them to anybody that they could have a conversation with. They hung them on window shops, and they even put them in their car window, their rental car window. So when they're driving around, it's being broadcasted to everyone.

[Cassie]

You might have said this already, but what year is this?

[Danielle]

This is 1989.

[Cassie]

Okay. I was just wondering if there was social media or anything at this point, but obviously not.

[Danielle]

For about a month, the couple scoured the countryside, ending up in the mountain town of Innsbruck, asking anyone who could understand English if they had seen their son. They talked with the Canadian embassy, Austrian police, travel agents, border agents, and local hockey associations. They drove hundreds of miles around country roads, peering off sharp edges in case his car had gone off the road and he had crashed and just no one had seen him. For the most part, officials assured them that he would turn up soon at the police station. One officer even said to them, your son is big and strong. Nothing can happen to him. I'm sure he's just met a beautiful girl and is having a great time. Just, like, wrote them off completely. And first of all, the parents are like, okay, well, he has a girlfriend. He has, like, 11 girlfriend. He would never just disappear. You know, all the things that you want to just, like, slap this person.

[Cassie]

He had a job lined up. Exactly. Why would you say that?

[Danielle]

Well, and of course, they rebut that and give explanations of why that doesn't seem probable, especially with their son, that they know better than this police officer does. And they were also like, also, he hasn't used a traveler's check in over two weeks. Like, how is he getting money if he's off and living his best life somewhere? And the police officer was like, oh, well, the girl he met must be rich.

[Cassie]

Those are a lot of bold assumptions with no evidence at all.

[Danielle]

Yeah, it's very dismissive.

[Cassie]

Yeah.

[Danielle]

So Linda wasn't sure what had happened to her son at this point, but she sure shit knew that was not it. Finally, after almost a month of constant searching and following any potential lead, filled with frustrations as they discovered the Interpol report was not filed correctly. So that big broadcast that was going to go out to all of these central European countries that they promised would be such a help never got done correctly.

[Cassie]

So they're just dropping the ball left and right.

[Danielle]

Yep. And they found this out, actually, because nearly every border crossing that they went to on their own, because, remember, they're kind of like, doing their own investigation, separate investigation, or at least anything they could do on their own. Every border crossing they went to, and they have their Own flyers, you know, that they made. And they're talking about it. No one knew who they. Who they were talking about.

[Cassie]

So no one had been notified to even look for him.

[Danielle]

Right, exactly. So after all of this, they're getting no real concrete leads at all. Until finally, a contractor working at the resort saw an advertisement on TV funded entirely by the McPherson's, basically saying, you know, our son is missing. Have you seen him? And he recognized the car in the photograph that they included in this advertisement, and it was the car, the friend's car, that Duncan was last seen in. And he recognized this car right away because it had been parked in the ski resort parking lot that he was working at for 42 days.

[Cassie]

It's been 42 days now.

[Danielle]

Yep. And that car has been sitting there for over a month.

[Cassie]

And no one flagged it prior to this.

[Danielle]

Nope. And that alone on its own, like, not even taking any other frustration into account. That one piece just baffled Linda because, number one, it's been sitting there for over a month. But it's bright red. It's so. And I'll post a picture of it. It's so obvious. It's not, like, tucked away in a corner somewhere. It's not obscured in any way. It's bright red. It sticks out like a sore thumb. And it's hard to believe that no one noticed it or flagged it before. And. And when she brought this up to the police, they kind of assured her that, hey, yeah, it's a parking lot for the ski resort. But also, a lot of people use it to park at for overnight hiking trips and, like, backpacking trips into the surrounding area. So sometimes cars are there for prolonged periods of time, and no one really takes notice of that.

[Cassie]

42 days, though, is a little.

[Danielle]

I know.

[Cassie]

I know that's not a backpacking trip,

[Danielle]

but of course, I just want to, like, mention that, because it's in the same vein of how dismissive the law enforcement has been to the McPherson's at kind of every turn. And this is just the beginning, honestly, of that. But it just illustrates that they're kind of just like, yeah, yeah, it's. Yeah, that's weird. But also, there's this explanation that you should just accept. Yeah. So going and focusing in on this car. Almost all of Duncan's belongings were found in it. His backpack, his passport, like, some. His watch. There was a bag of fruit in there, like snacks that he was planning to eat. It was like a bag of rotting fruit. He had a letter to his girlfriend written out and sealed like he was about to send a letter to his girlfriend. All signs to Linda that he had certainly planned on returning back to this car. It's not like he ditched it and went off somewhere to do it.

[Cassie]

Doesn't even sound like it was a backpacking trip for a few days if he left.

[Danielle]

Well, where are you gonna get anywhere with your pat without your passport in Europe also?

[Cassie]

Well, I mean, if you're backpacking just outside. I mean, like if you're hiking or something.

[Danielle]

Oh, you mean.

[Cassie]

Okay, yeah, like, he clearly isn't on a backpacking excursion out at the. He's probably skiing at the resort.

[Danielle]

Right. Well, and we'll get into it. So after this all comes out. Wanting to stay close to the resort where his car was found, Duncan's parents rented a room at the hostel near the resort. And upon check in, were approached by a snowboard instructor named Walter Hinterholzel. He worked for the Stubai Glacier Resort and recognized Duncan's photo from the flyer taped to the McPherson's car that was parked at the hostel. And he recognized this guy Duncan immediately because he had given him a private lesson on August 9, roughly 40 days prior. Walter said that Duncan was an eager student. He arrived with rental gear and proved to be a capable snowboarder and quick on his feet. Even though he was a beginner, he kind of had a knack for it. And of course, not that if you ice skate, you can snowboard, but, you know, he's athletic. Tomato, tomato. And he's athletic. He's good at it. And yes, he was a beginner and he recognized that. And that's why he sought out an instructor in a lesson. But he. I'm imagining he was way better than I was or I am. And anyway, so the. The instructor remembered him. You know, it was a memorable lesson. And they even got lunch together after the lesson at the restaurant at the resort. And they had a conversation after a couple hour lesson. And they even planned. Duncan was like, hey, if the weather's good tomorrow, I want to come back and do it again. Like he, you know, he had plans to do that. And the. I want to say that you're going to know this. Of course, 95% people won't, but this ski resort overlooks the ski run on this glacier. And it reminds me a lot of the. When we were on our trip to the Athabasca Glacier, remember we were at that restaurant on top of the building and it overlooked the glacier. It's just like that.

[Cassie]

Oh, cool.

[Danielle]

So. And of course, I'll Post pictures and stuff so people can get a really good visual of this. But yeah, it was really pretty and it overlooks the ski run and all that. So they have lunch, they part ways at around 2:30 in the afternoon. And Duncan actually elected to go back out and continue practicing on his own even though his lesson was done. And a quick aside here just to bring us all back to time frame here. If you're surprised to hear that this place was open for skiing in the middle of August, so was Linda. Stu by Glacier is a network of ski runs on active glaciers. And while most of the resort is closed during the summer months, the smallest North Basin glacier was open year round. And that is where Duncan took his lesson. And I will of course link the documentaries and stuff I watch for this that has a ton of footage of this resort. But it is not like New England resorts that we picture of skiing and snowboarding. There are crevasses everywhere. Everywhere.

[Cassie]

This crevasses at the ski resort?

[Danielle]

Yes. It's on an active glacier and there are crevasses everywhere.

[Cassie]

That's wild to me.

[Danielle]

And we'll get into it because it's a huge part of this story. But I just need you to right off the bat imagine that and not imagine like oh, fresh powder. And it's like so nice.

[Cassie]

No, that's crazy. That sounds so dangerous, especially for a beginner. I'm just picturing me as a beginner snowboarder and if there were crevasses anywhere, I mean I was falling, couldn't turn, you know. Yeah, that's so dangerous.

[Danielle]

Yep. And of course over their lunch that they had Duncan mentioned to Walter he wanted to take a follow up lesson the next day. But he never arrived. And he had actually left a sweater and a belt behind in Walter's office that had gotten damp when he was out riding. And he put, he draped them over the radiator to dry out. He's like, I'll just get him tomorrow when I come back for my lesson. And when he failed to show, Walter shrugged it off. He's like, okay, well he must have made other plans or something came up. You know, I just met this guy a day ago. It's not like, oh my God, what happened? He would never not show up. You know, he's just like, oh, I

[Cassie]

guess that's that other plans. It sounds like it was kind of the loosely based. He's like, if the weather's good, I'll be back. Yeah, you know.

[Danielle]

Yep. So after learning all of this, the McPhersons tried to find out if Duncan had an accident on the ski mountain. You know, it makes sense. The last person to see him was a snowboard instructor. His car is still at the resort. But neither Walter nor Austrian officials thought that that was likely. Instead, they argued that Duncan had likely left the resort and got into some type of trouble on a nearby trail, either on a waterfall hike below the resort or on a longer hut to hut trip throughout the Alps. Like each lead, the McPhersons threw whatever they could at the hiking theory. When Austrian search teams found nothing, Linda and Bob hired a private one. Canadian search and rescue teams combed nearby trails until it snowed, but found nothing. Bob and Linda made repeated visits to the Canadian embassy to keep pressure on the case. They appealed the media in Canada and Austria to get the word out, landing a missing person segment on the local news. When they pressed the local police to check hotel registries around Innsbruck, the authorities dismissed the suggestion, saying it would take an army to do something like that. They're like, that's literally too much work. We're not gonna do that.

[Cassie]

That's. That's awful to say to someone who's missing their loved one also.

[Danielle]

And it's your actual job to do this. That is your job.

[Cassie]

Hesitant to participate in their job since the beginning.

[Danielle]

Right. Well, of course, Linda does not want to accept that. So her and Bob took that upon themselves as well to do. They followed up on the snowboard instructor story that Duncan had arrived with rented equipment because, of course, he had to go get that somewhere. So let's follow that lead. Where did he rent it from? Had he returned it? If he brought it back, that could support the idea that he left the area. But if he hadn't returned the snowboard, that could suggest that he did have an accident while on the ski mountain. With the help of a German speaking friend, they went to the rental shop and the atmosphere immediately felt really off. Like they said you could cut the tension with a knife. Like, the vibes were not good. When they asked the staff about the snowboard, they immediately got defensive. They claimed they didn't recognize the photo of Duncan, that the rental logs from August had been thrown away and destroyed, and that particularly the guy that ran the rental counter, he said he was 100% sure that they were not missing any type of equipment. So even though there's no logbook anymore, which is questionable, but yeah, they're like, we're not. We're not missing anything.

[Cassie]

It sounds like they were missing the snowboard and never reported it. And now they're Trying to save themselves.

[Danielle]

Well, you just wait.

[Cassie]

Zootopia 2 has come home to Disney Plus.

[Danielle]

Let's go get ready for a new case. We're the greatest partners of all time.

[Cassie]

New friends. Gary the Snake and your last name,

[Danielle]

the Snake Dream Team. The new habitats. Zootopia has a secret rep tow population.

[Cassie]

You can watch the record breaking phenomenon at home.

[Danielle]

Zootopia 2, now available on Disney Plus. Rated PG.

[Cassie]

And right now you can get Disney

[Danielle]

plus and Hulu for just $4.99 a

[Cassie]

month for three months with a special limited time offer. Ends March 24th. After three months, plan auto renews and $12.99 a month, terms apply.

[Danielle]

So the whole exchange, the whole thing felt really awkward, intense. And especially when someone gets really defensive right away, when you're just simply asking questions. That already feels strange. But what could they do at this point? You know, they're asking information. This is the answers they're getting. They have nothing else to go off of. So they're like, well, okay, apparently the snowboard was returned and we just have to pivot and look elsewhere. Like, what are we gonna do in the years to come? Linda and Bob continued their search, but without any new information, they started to lose hope of finding any answers. They entertained calls from psychics and started to wonder if Duncan really had gone undercover with the CIA. Because remember, like, he has that offer. Yeah. Although there were surely subtler ways of becoming a spy than leaving your parents to broadcast your missing person's case across all of Europe. They considered it. They're like, I mean, I feel like

[Cassie]

you're holding on to hope at that point too, because you have no answers. And I mean, realistically, if that is what happened, your son would be alive and working and hopefully thriving somewhere. So I can totally see how you would be rethinking every conversation you've had with him and been like, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe something. Maybe things are okay and we're just

[Danielle]

in the dark a hundred percent. There was also a gut wrenching false alarm when a guy with amnesia appeared at one of Austria's mountain huts. He. He spoke only English, like Duncan. He was an excellent ice skater like Duncan, and had vague memories of New York, where Duncan was drafted into the NHL. But long story short, it wasn't him. It was just some other guy dealing with some sort of mental health crisis. But of course, that's just another example of how their hopes are up and then they're down. And, you know, this is years now. Like, this is stretching for a very long time. And Linda and Bob were left with something that experts called ambiguous loss. They didn't know what had happened to Duncan, which meant they couldn't stop worrying. Yet they couldn't really grieve him either. Even as years passed and his death was all but certain, they could never truly be sure until he was found dead. He could still be alive. So, of course, it's an impossible position to be in. It takes an extraordinary toll on family and friends, and we've talked about it before, but that, you know, gray area, and you don't want to give up hope, even though rationally you're like, okay, I feel like I know the answer, that he is not living anymore. But that doesn't provide any sort of closure.

[Cassie]

You're living with no answers, which I think can be a lot harder than knowing, because at least then you have, like you mentioned, you can have some type of closure in that, or at least just knowing that you know what happened.

[Danielle]

Yeah. And yet, for all the uncertainty the McPhersons dealt with, Austrians in the Tyrol Valley were pretty confident they knew where Duncan was. Deep in a glacial crevasse, deceased. That kind of thing is just a fact of life there. To keep people from falling into the crevasses that appeared at Stubai Glacier, Resort, employees with snowcat grooming machines filled them up with snow when they appeared, like playing whack a mole with bottomless pits. Almost a year to the day before Duncan went missing, a Japanese tourist fell into a crevasse that had not been filled in on the same exact slope. Hours later, he was found alive, but after he was rushed to the hospital, he died of hypothermia. That led Austrian police to send a notice to Interpol that they believed Duncan McPherson had died in a glacial crevasse. None of this, by the way, was conveyed to the McPhersons. Not the death of the Japanese tourist, nor that their son had almost certainly died on stew by Glacier. They were told that he had been in a mountain accident, which left the McPhersons wondering what that even meant. And as they wrestled with the excruciating unknowns, a diplomat at the Canadian Embassy told them, I think that you and your family should get on with your lives, because life is for the living the way I would. Light that person up.

[Cassie]

Yes, burn it down. Burn it all down. How do you say that to someone? One, he's not confirmed dead yet because nobody's been looking for him that seriously, except for his family, who have gotten no answers. And to just be like, move on.

[Danielle]

It's like, we think this is what happened to him? No further information. Just keep on living. Keep on. Keep on L I V I n out there.

[Cassie]

Yeah.

[Danielle]

Get away from me. Anyway, so, needless to say, Linda and Bob did not take that advice.

[Cassie]

Yeah.

[Danielle]

And in the years that the McPhersons would spend turning over every stone, they began to learn more about the Stubai Glacier Resort. The region of Tyrell had long been a remote, rural, and fiercely independent place, mostly home to farmers. Those farmers had a long history of organized resistance. Their militias had repelled the likes of Napoleon in the 1800s and fought back against Mussolini in World War I. All of this helped to explain, at least in part, their deeply held values of privacy and the small town mindset that they encountered in Innsbruck. And one of the prominent resistance members, a guy who blew up a Mussolini statue, was a famous mountaineer named Heinrich Kleer. And in the 1970s, he set his sights on the Tyrol region, launching an extremely ambitious project to build a ski resort there. It would require 100 miles of new pavement, a series of tricky gondolas in the mountains, and overcoming a mountain of Austrian bureaucracy. Many thought he was crazy for this, but it worked. And he named the resort Stubai Glacier. Not long after it opened, it was the most profitable ski resort in all of Austria. And by the time of Duncan's visit, there was. They were on track to host over a million visitors every year. So all of this to say that Stubai Glacier Resort completely transformed this local economy. It was the golden goose of their blossoming tourism industry, providing jobs and incomes to hotels, snowboard instructors, rental equipment, shops, and maintenance staff who filled crevasses at Stubai Glacier with snow. Locals celebrated Heinrich as the godfather of the valley and were very protective of this mountain resort. It had come to represent their little community and supported its people. If negative press brought down the resort, the town would be brought down with it. And that alone might help explain some of the defensiveness and hostility that Bob and Linda encountered while they were there. Because they're going sniffing around for, you know, they're like, hey, something sketchy. Seems like it's happening over here. And everyone's like, oh, nothing to see here. Yeah, move along. You know, you don't. You don't touch this.

[Cassie]

Yeah, it seems fishy. Yeah.

[Danielle]

One day in 1990, the second summer that the McPhersons traveled to Austria, they took a walk up the glacier that Duncan took lessons on. And as they walked, a woman just a few feet ahead of them plunged into the snow, like, nearly vanished into a hole in the ice. Somehow her partner, that she was with grabbed a hold of her wrist and was able to pull her back out. And Linda, you know, is watching this right behind her, absolutely shocked. They were on a maintained path marked for safe travel. So what the hell just happened? As she walked to the edge of the crevasse, she peered down, and a cold darkness stared back at her. She took out her camera and took a photo quickly. An employee behind her muttered something on the radio. And within minutes, a grooming machine came up to dump snow into the crevasse. And she saw this employee and was like, hey, don't you make sure that no one is trapped in there before you just go and fill it in?

[Cassie]

Yeah.

[Danielle]

And he answered, only if someone has been reported missing.

[Cassie]

What? What if no one knows they're missing yet? Maybe a crevasse just appeared because someone fell in it.

[Danielle]

And these crevasses are. Matt, the book goes into it in detail, and so did the documentaries, but these crevasses can be up to six stories high. Like, they're.

[Cassie]

I need to Google this resort. Please do, because I need. I have a visual, but.

[Danielle]

So it's S T U B A I Stubai Glacier Resort.

[Cassie]

Whoa. It's beautiful. You gotta type in crevasse, because none of them are.

[Danielle]

Yeah, it's like, look how amazing it is.

[Cassie]

It looks beautiful. Oh, my God.

[Danielle]

Imagine skiing there. I could never. I would be so afraid.

[Cassie]

One of the first things that comes up is a post. I guess this is an avalanche, but it says a massive search operation involving about 250 rescuers pulled several skiers to safety after an avalanche on Austria's Stubai Glacier. And it's. Wow. Wow. And here's a picture where it just points to all the crevasses on the ski run.

[Danielle]

Yeah. Well, later that week, Bob went to the police station to ask about the crevasses, the crevasse situation that all of a sudden, they have now seen firsthand. And it's all starting to come in together for them, like, because, you know, originally the explanation was like, oh, he was involved in a mountain accident. We don't have anything else. So we're just presuming that they're like, what does that even mean? Well, now they get it. They're like, oh, okay. This seems like a very logical explanation,

[Cassie]

like, how many people are missing from

[Danielle]

this area for maybe what had happened to him? You know, like, this seems like a likely scenario. He could have fallen into a crevasse and been carelessly covered by snow. They wanted the authorities to take it seriously. And Bob had arrived to the station to show them the photos they had taken. But before he could even get to the counter, one of the officers behind it spoke to him sternly, saying, you shouldn't have taken those photos on the glacier. And Bob was really confused because, first of all, how did he even know that he was about to approach them with these photos? He hasn't even had a conversation with them yet. And the cop angrily repeated himself, you had no right to take those pictures. Bob tried to explain what they had seen. That a woman nearly fell, you know, maybe to her death into inside of a crevasse right in front of them, and they were merely trying to help and, like, get more information. But the officer cut him off again, saying, you had no right to take a photo. And other officers, like, kind of just quietly glared at him. And Bob eventually just gave up and left.

[Cassie]

Yeah.

[Danielle]

So faced with this resistance and misdirection, Linda was fueled above all else by a search for the truth, which put them at odds with many people in this community. In his book about the incident, titled Cold A Long Time, author John Leake asked an Austrian neighbor of his to describe the Dynamics between the McPhersons and. And the locals. He said that for a simple man in Tyrell, the highest value is protecting his community. He may dislike some of his neighbors, even resent the village's wealthy and powerful, but he fears nothing more than being cast off because he can't imagine living anywhere else. So this neighbor understands why the McPhersons are outraged, and he sympathizes with them. But even if he knew something, he told the author, he's like, even if I knew something about this and what happened to Duncan, I would never say anything. Like, it's a very hush hush situation.

[Cassie]

Yeah.

[Danielle]

When Canadians or Americans show up and start asking questions, he basically is saying, like, we don't see you. We can recognize and sympathize and be like, we. We feel for you, and we understand that you're trying to look for the truth and stuff, but you're a threat.

[Cassie]

Yeah, we're here. We're protecting our own. We're protecting our community. You're an outsider here.

[Danielle]

Yeah. Okay, so let's fast forward. It's now been 14 years since Duncan disappeared, and Duncan's body melts out of the ice. In July of 2003, during a record heat wave, Bob and Linda received a call. Duncan had been found at Stubai Glacier Resort. A skier had spotted his yellow jacket poking out of the snow, and maintenance workers chipped him out of the glacier with ice Picks and a grooming machine. Linda and Bob flew to Austria as fast as they could and went straight to the forensics building that held his body. They had been looking for their son for so long. Now that they could finally see him, emotions came flooding in. While they worked up the courage to see him, they asked the attending doctor, a man named Dr. Rabble, and how Duncan had died. The doctor replied, or he's a pathologist. And he replied that Duncan had died of asphyxiation, running out of oxygen after falling into a crevasse. And he was like, you know, it's a good. It was a good way to go. It's peaceful.

[Cassie]

What? How is affixiation peaceful?

[Danielle]

Yeah. And it's like, how do you even know that? But we'll get. We'll get there. So Linda went in to see her son first. His body was resting on a table, and a sheet covered everything but his head. He seemed a shell of himself, but she could still recognize her son. Bob looked on, feeling a deep sense of pity for his son, who by then had been almost mummified. What a terrible end to his young life. Linda longed to lift the sheet and hold Duncan's hand, but she also wanted to leave him in peace, like he had been through enough. So she kissed his forehead before saying goodbye. For the first time in 14 years, the McPhersons could be certain about something. Unfortunately, the comfort from that moment was very short lived. They went to the prosecutor's office to request an autopsy be performed, but the official there was immediately angry with the McPhersons. He refused to shake Bob's outstretched hand, offered no condolences, and shut down their pleas by saying, the case is time barred. There will be no autopsy and no further investigation. Dr. Robble said the autopsy likely wouldn't tell them anything new about his cause of death. And if they wanted one, they would now need to pay out of pocket to fly his remains back to Canada and pursue an autopsy there. But they couldn't afford that. I mean, this is now so 14 years worth of flying back and forth to Austria. They drained their entire retirement fund. They funded all of these independent investigations and efforts and all that over, you know, nearly 15 years. So at this point, they're like, we just, we don't have the money for that to fund this ourselves. And, you know, we have it like, he, he's here, he's deceased. We, you know, at least we have that. So they didn't pursue an autopsy, especially because Dr. Robble was like, we. I'm pretty confident, you know, this is what happened? And so they did not pursue the autopsy. But Dr. Robble did order a CT scan in lieu of an autopsy. So at least there's some imaging happening here. And those images, he thought, you know, hopefully this will be enough to give these parents some peace of mind. He didn't mention though that Duncan's body was in pieces on the table. He had been decapitated, both of his arms were amputated below the elbows and his leg had been absolutely destroyed. He only appeared to be intact because of the arrangement under the privacy sheet that Linda didn't want to lift and disturb. So to her it looked like he was just laying there under a sheet. But in reality his body was in pieces. After the CT scan came back months later, Dr. Rabble assured them that many of the injuries that were seen, you know, the decapitation and all the injuries to other parts of his body were typical of what is to be seen in crevasse corpses. Basically that over this prolonged period of time the moving ice and shifting ice moves apart and breaks apart the joints and separates different pieces of the body. And for example, like Duncan's head was decapitated and in hindsight the McPhersons would regret not getting an autopsy and he was cremated.

[Cassie]

Oh, so they lost all of that evidence. I'm surprised just based on all of the work that they were doing with Canada that Canada didn't fly him home.

[Danielle]

I am too. I'm also surprised by that. But I do want to say that and we'll get into it a little bit more later on but there are, I'm not going to post them because they're very graphic, but there is the author of Cold A Long Time has a website literally called like cold a long time.com and he has all of this information on there you can look into and there are dozens of photos of. Because there's the CT images which I'll post because of course like it's a CT image. But as far as the images of Duncan's remains, they took extensive photos of him not only on the glacier being recovered but in the pathologists examination. So you can see all of his mummified remains and like just different injuries and stuff. Just if you want an actual clearer picture of what was seen or not seen by the parents. It's, it's interesting but all that information is there. It's online if. And available if you want to see it. But anyway. Oh my God. And this is, it gets so nuts. I feel like I'm like just wait, it gets, it gets more Insane. We're already an hour in, but it does. So afterwards, after they see Duncan and kiss him goodbye, he gets cremated. They're still in Austria. They wanted to visit the Stubai Glacier to see where exactly his remains were pulled from. And much to their surprise, he was found right in the middle of a ski run, a place that they had walked past dozens of times before, not knowing that he was literally right under their feet.

[Cassie]

And if it's in the middle of a ski run, they must have covered that so quick.

[Danielle]

Yeah.

[Cassie]

Because you wouldn't just leave that.

[Danielle]

And I want to. Oh, my God, my picture is on my computer and not on my phone. I want to send this to you so bad because. And I'll post these. It's. You probably saw it when you looked up the Subai Glacier Resort. So you see the resort and it's overlooking the ski run. Like you can. It's right there. There's a photo of that and there's a little arrow that points to where his body was found. You could see it from if you were having lunch on the top of the.

[Cassie]

I think I saw that one. Yeah, I saw that picture.

[Danielle]

Yeah. So it's literally right in the middle of the run.

[Cassie]

It's not like he was going off into what was supposed to be dangerous areas. He was literally on a groom ski run.

[Danielle]

So for the McPhersons, you know, for them at this point in time, they just want to see where he. He was discovered and just maybe just as part of their healing journey type of thing, I want to visit this place he was last alive. So they get there and they were absolutely horrified because shattered pieces of Duncan's snowboard were littered across the snow. And as Bob bent down to collect them, he found pieces of the snowboard, even with a serial number attached to it. This was the board that Duncan had rented, the same board that the shop owner claimed that he had returned. And that was not missing.

[Cassie]

And they're just leaving it in the middle of the ski run.

[Danielle]

Yes. In addition, two, they also found scattered bones, pieces of Duncan that they did not recover.

[Cassie]

That's horrific.

[Danielle]

The McPhersons later learned that no police were on scene for Duncan's remains recovery. Like, no police were sent up to the run to properly collect his remains. They sent stew by glacier maintenance staff up there to collect him, and that's why there was all of this stuff still left over.

[Cassie]

That's not right for anyone involved. For a maintenance staff to be cleaning up a dead body is not right. But then also to not have any sort of Professional handling your son's remains in a respectful way, but also to leave parts of his body just in the middle of a ski run.

[Danielle]

Yeah. Yep.

[Cassie]

That's horrible.

[Danielle]

So this entire thing, of course, strikes them as insensitive and unprofessional, but totally emblematic of the official response to his death, which was essentially nothing to see here. Move along. News articles about Duncan melting from the ice reported that Duncan had skied beyond the region. The resort carefully patrolled for crevasses. But of course, now that they're seeing this for themselves, that is not true. Bob and Linda had gotten photos of the recovery and visited the site in person. He was found right smack dab in the middle of a groomed ski run, a location which could literally be seen from the resort restaurant. By this point, Linda viewed this as a tactic to avoid implicating the resort. And there would be more to come. The Austrian authorities released a final report on Duncan's case. In it, they claimed that Duncan had spoken to his parents on August 11, which was a lie seemingly meant to place Duncan in time after his lesson at the resort, which is just so. Anyway. It also continued on to claim that he skied outside the groomed area, of course, which is a lie. It also claimed he returned the rented snowboard that was found with his corpse and claimed that an autopsy was conducted. So in reality, none of these things happened. In fact, the exact opposite of those things happened. Yet the official report is stating otherwise. Linda and Bob had plenty of reasons to doubt the official ruling on that report that Duncan's death was an accident. But their long nightmare of searching had finally come to a close. A search that was physically, financially, and emotionally exhausting. Bob, now 65 years old, was slowing down a little. And with this bit of closure, it might have been like, okay, we don't have everything, but it's enough, and maybe we can start to heal and move forward with our lives. But despite all the pain it caused, Linda never took her foot off the gas. This felt like a cover up, and she wanted the truth. She amassed an enormous collection of evidence and handwritten notes. She corresponded with Dr. Robl for years, whose CT scans revealed the extent of the injuries Duncan had sustained. If they could piece together the damage done to his legs and arms, they could learn if his death was truly an accident. She appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to investigate the case, which turned it down. She approached an investigative TV program called the Fifth Estate, which is kind of like Canada's version of 60 Minutes. And they ran a really Amazing special on Duncan's disappearance that I'll link in the episode description if you guys want to watch it. With the help of a friend they made in Austria, they petitioned the Austrian government for the official files from the case. And she brought in an investigative writer named John Leake, who would later publish a book about Duncan's death called Cold A Long Time, steadily, she worked towards an explanation that could help explain all of the lingering questions, all of the secrecy and all of the lies.

[Cassie]

So to clarify, is she thinking that maybe something else happened besides him falling into a crevasse?

[Danielle]

Yes, and we're getting into that.

[Cassie]

And planted in the crevasse later to make it seem like that's what happened?

[Danielle]

Yes. What? Yep. And here we go with that.

[Cassie]

This took a turn that I was not expecting.

[Danielle]

Okay, well. And we're getting into it right this moment. Okay, well, I'll preface this before we begin. If you are a visual learner, I'm going to do my best to try and describe this. But if you need imagery to connect what I'm saying, again, there are all of those images online of the CT scan and of Duncan's remains that will maybe help piece together this explanation. But just a fair warning, there tough to look at. I mean, there of his mummified remains. Okay, so the official ruling was that Duncan had died in a crevasse. Some of his bones broke during the fall, and others were pulled apart after the glacier moved and the ice pulled him apart. And while that is gruesome, it is a real thing. Ice can pull victims apart at the joints. And the glacier did decapitate Duncan. Like, it was kind of proven, like this happens. This is consistent with the findings that we've seen. In other words, humans who have been in glaciers for a really long time, etc. Etc. So that's the official report. But several experts argued that the glacier could not explain the damage to Duncan's arms and legs. His forearms were shattered beneath the elbows, and his left femur was broken. All in jagged breaks. I mean, it's very clear on the CT scan his femur is completely snapped. That kind of force didn't line up with the pressure inside of a glacier, but it was a perfect match for injuries sustained by a machine. I will also note that.

[Cassie]

So do they think he was run over by the groomer?

[Danielle]

Yep. Okay, here we go. Here we go. So adding to that, they had recovered the equipment found with Duncan's body, including his snowboard, his boots, and his clothes. Multiple items had very suspicious, evenly spaced cuts in them. Cuts that had carved matching notches out of the plywood board pieces of his boot and his long distance calling card that he had on his person.

[Cassie]

Ah, the days of calling cards.

[Danielle]

I know. Oh, my God. Flashback. The cuts were also accompanied by smears of red paint, the same red paint that is applied to the tiller of Stubai Glacier's Snowcat grooming machines. So to give a visual of a grooming machine here for people who are not familiar with what they look like or have spent time on the mountains. So grooming machines are kind of like big tractors. They've got a snowplow up front to level off the snow, and they tow a tiller behind them. And this tiller uses a row of hydraulically powered teeth spinning at high speeds to chew up the snow and pack it into a consistent fine powder. The McPhersons were making the case that Duncan was somehow struck by a grooming machine.

[Cassie]

And.

[Danielle]

And after being twisted up in the tiller, either by accident or on purpose. They're not claiming either one. They're like, we just think this is what happened. And then he ended up in a crevasse. Austrian officials had attempted to debunk this theory before. This isn't the first time that it's been considered or thrown out there. They said that Duncan's body had been dug out partially by a Snowcat grooming machine when he was being recovered. And that was the ex that explained away all of what they were seeing on the snowboard and parts of his body and things like that. And any damage to Duncan or his gear could have happened when he was being extracted, not before he went in. However, the snowboard had deep pocketed rust beneath those cut marks. Rust that could have only occurred if those cuts had been exposed for a prolonged period of time. So clear, very clearly, forensically, looking at this evidence, they're like, okay, that makes no sense.

[Cassie]

No wonder why they wouldn't want an autopsy.

[Danielle]

That's not how rust works. Okay, so there's that. The same could be said of Duncan's injuries. Looking at the photos, all of his broken bones displayed weathering from long term exposure to the elements, while a new break would be much lighter in color. So even the CT scan imagery is telling a different story. Dr. Robble had dismissed the grooming machine explanation because Duncan's skull had and chest were left unharmed in every grooming machine accident that he had personally ever seen. The victims had all sustained serious injuries to their torso, but only Duncan's legs and arms had been harmed. Yet that alone was not a compelling Explanation for Linda, just because Dr. Rabble hadn't personally seen it didn't mean to her that it was not possible. While the Austrian government maintained that all of Duncan's injuries were caused by the glacier, this was the only theory that could explain the type of injuries he had, along with the red paint cut marks that lined up with the Stubai Glacier snowcats. Which left the McPhersons with one final question to confront. Who was driving that grooming machine? Did they know that they hit Duncan? Did they find him bleeding and tangled up in their tiller and then put his body into a crevasse to cover it up? Other skiers that visited the day Duncan was at Stubai Glacier reported a foggy day with poor visibility. In the fifth Estate documentary, one doctor suggests that Duncan had fallen into a crevasse and managed to climb out, only to be struck by the grooming machine who failed to see him. Author John Leake suggests that when the crevasse opened up beneath Duncan, he was moving fast enough that he almost cleared it, but ran into the upper edge of the ice hard enough that he bounced out and back onto the slope. And if that happened, that type of collision could have easily explained his broken leg. And that if that did happen and he injured himself in that way, he was clearly unable to move. You know, he just snapped his femur in half in a snowboarding accident. So he was probably laying there waiting for help to arrive, incapacitated to some degree, and then the snowcat came and ran and ran him over. The documentary has a segment featuring Dick Penniman, the nation's foremost expert on ski safety and avalanches. As an instructor, he's taught over 30 years at Sierra Community College, the National Avalanche School, Outward Bound, and elsewhere. As an expert in ski patrol, Penniman has worked for Sugar bowl and Alpine Meadows and has been hired as a consultant across the United States and Canada, Chile, Argentina and Australia. He is also world renowned for his experience pertaining to accidents on ski slopes. And he was asked to reconstruct what could have happened to Duncan. So he was essentially just given the equipment that was used on the day that he died, because very intelligently, the McPherson's kept everything and they stored it in their home, like his snowboard, his gear, like literally everything. They preserved it as it was. And so they gave this over to him and said, we're not going to give you any further information other than this was recovered with our son who was found deceased on this glacier. What do you think happened? And so he takes it all, he reconstructs everything and his findings were clear. Referring to the snowboard, he said, quote, this went through a tiller, this was shredded through a machine. His left leg was mangled and looked like it went through a meat grinder. Inconsistent with injuries sustained in a fall or by a collision with another skier. In short, his anti mortem injuries or the injuries sustained before death were rough, but they were limited to his left arm and leg. So what could have happened? In his explanation, he essentially said that. So he actually did. Like he created a model CAD drawing, essentially. And it's like a bird's eye view of a tiller. So looking down on a snow cap machine, towing a tiller. And he's basically saying that if Duncan was lying down or was not seen, either poor visibility or he was just kind of partially covered by snow or whatever it was, if the snow cat didn't see him, the snow cat itself didn't have to run him over, because that's not what he's seeing. He's seeing that the tiller that's being towed behind it is kind of like when you're towing a trailer and it can swing out and back and forth if you turn the vehicle. So he's saying that maybe the vehicle avoided him entirely, but it turned slightly and the tiller swung out and caught and caught him up on his left side. So that's why his just his limbs are affected and that's why not his head and his torso were affected because it kind of clipped him and he got kind of tangled up into the. The teeth of the tiller.

[Cassie]

Gotcha.

[Danielle]

In either case, the snowcat driver and potentially some of their co workers must have pulled the injured Canadian free of the tiller, tossed him down into a crevasse and buried his body. And the truth in the snow.

[Cassie]

Yeah. Because if what that doctor had said is correct, he said he died of asphyxiation. So it's not that he died of these injuries.

[Danielle]

Right. So if that's true, and even if that isn't true, and he died of trauma from this tiller, still you tell someone, well, and the biggest thing here is what, like the point that they're trying to get to, and that I'm wanting to highlight here, is that he didn't just wind up in that crevasse on his own after being tilled up, like, so they're basically saying he got caught up in this tiller and humans recognized that, pulled him out, and then put him into a glacier and covered him up.

[Cassie]

Yeah. Instead of seeking any type of medical help or telling anybody what happened exactly?

[Danielle]

Potentially, they carried that secret with them, and the people of Tyrell were willing to sweep the case under the rug to protect the ski resort and keep their economy afloat. Duncan was dead, but they would not let that kill their economy or indict themselves. So that's kind of like what they're thinking at this point. All evidence is pointing to that. This explanation, of course, is absolutely heartbreaking. But the McPherson's layout a really compelling case, you know, for that explanation.

[Cassie]

They've found it seems like we finally have some type of answer.

[Danielle]

Yeah. And you can learn way more about it in detail. I mean, if you want to read the book or watch the documentaries, there's so much more that goes into it, but that's just kind of the overview of that, that. But long story short, this explanation went nowhere with Austrian officials. Linda made multiple legal appeals in Austria, including the Federal Ministry and Parliament, arguing the case was mishandled and needed to be reopened. Each appeal was denied. They pressured the Canadian government and embassy, along with the media to keep attention on the case, but they. But that petered out over the years. They even confronted the owner of Stuy Glacier, seeking compensation for the expense of. The expense of hiring a private search team, which they had only done because their staff at the resort had advised them to look for Duncan outside of the resort, while internal documents revealed they were confident he had fallen into the ice in the resort all along. And that too went nowhere.

[Cassie]

Wow.

[Danielle]

Despite their tireless work for 15 years, untold sleepless nights of grief, doubt, and fear, the McPherson's were never able to get the case reopened. His death would forever be ruled an accident. At the start of his book, author John Leake says, this couldn't have happened to better people. And that feels very true. Linda and Bob fought tirelessly for the truth, only to be met at each stage with resistance and misdirection. They knew it couldn't bring Duncan back, but Linda hoped that finding the truth could help prevent anyone else from sharing their son's fate. In 1998, Stubai Glacier ended their practice of summer skiing, though that was likely due to rising summer temperatures more than it was a result of Duncan's death on the glacier. Hearing this story, you can't help but root for Linda and Bob to find justice for Duncan, or at the very least, to find a compelling explanation of what happened. But unfortunately, not every mystery wraps up with a tidy explanation. In the end, this is so much more than a mysterious death or even a murder mystery stories. It is a story of a Family with endless resolve and unending love for one another. Even today, Linda tells Duncan's story. Not just his death, but who he was in life. Just last month, she shared a story online about a time he rerouted his entire hockey team's bus just to go swing by and say hello to his grandma. And that visit, like, earned a little blurb in the local paper at the time for being just like, wholesome and cute. Yeah, thanks to his parents enduring love, Duncan might be gone, but he is not forgotten. The couple spent 14 years searching for Duncan, not only physically, but for answers. They drained their retirement fund, took nine international trips to Austria, and spent nearly an entire year in boots on the ground, searching days combing the Alps. Over 300 days they spent on their own looking for him, like in the wilderness. Not just calls and other sort of search efforts. Instead of getting on with their life like that diplomat suggested they do, the McPherson suspect their son fell victim to a tourist destination, protecting their valued industry. But they don't expect to hear that from any officials in Austria. Now they only seek to expose the corruption. In 2024, Linda, age 81, and Bob, aged 86, vow to continue the quest for justice until the day they die. Over the years, people asked Linda what kept her going, how she kept searching for all of that time, and her answer was simple. Duncan would have done the same for me. And that is the story of Duncan McPherson and his really questionable, awful death.

[Cassie]

I've never heard that story before, and I think that I. From the way you presented it and what their family found, I feel like they're onto something. And I feel like they've probably hit the nail on the head with that, especially because of the resistance that they've gotten from the people there. Yeah, it seems like they were barking up the right tree and people were not happy, happy about it. And that's super unfortunate, especially for something so horrific to happen to someone that you love. And then if that had happened and he had gotten hit by this groomer and they had brought him to a hospital and they had handled this correctly, it would have been an awful accident. But because of the COVID ups that went into it, it's just, it makes it so, so much worse.

[Danielle]

And that's exactly what, you know, throughout the documentaries and the different sources I was researching, that was pretty much Linda. Bob is involved as well, and he's always there and he's clearly right alongside Linda. But Linda is kind of the, the person who takes the lead and answering a lot of this stuff, and she's Been very vocal about that. Like, we. If this was truly an accident, we would have accepted that. But it doesn't seem that way, and I'm not gonna let it go, you know, like, it's not right. And she was actually asked at the very end of that documentary by the interviewer, you know, like, what if tomorrow somebody came forward and said, I was the person dri. Or I know what happened. I was involved, or I made an awful mistake. I didn't mean to do it. Like, what would you say to that person? And she said, you know, I have spent a lot of time thinking about that, and I'm not quite sure what I would say in the moment, but I can tell you it would restore my faith in humanity. You know, that, like, you're. And it's just, like. To hear an answer like that after all of this is incredible. And I just feel for them so bad. Like, you can. There are the people that you can tell. Like, you can see the physical toll it's taken on them. They just look tired. Tired and just so sad, you know? But, yeah, I mean, they go hard for their son and after all this time, and they're never gonna give up. And there's actually two documentaries, though. There's one that's, like, a little more recent. I think it was in 2024, a couple years ago. But then there was one from 2006, and that one in 2006, the interviewer they went to, there's all this footage of the interviewer going to speak with Austrian police officials. And she goes hard, too, and she's like, what the fuck?

[Cassie]

What is this?

[Danielle]

Yeah, why didn't you do your job? And the. I forget his title, but he was. He was involved in the case, you know, and he's just, like, so dismissive. So dismissive. He's like, that would have been a lot. Like, what are we supposed to say? Like, it was an accident, whatever. Like, he's gone from our system now. We handled it. I don't understand what this is all about in so many words.

[Cassie]

But, yeah, I hope that for the family's sake, that someone comes forward one day and confirms or explains exactly what happened and how you said it would restore her faith in humanity. It would just show that after all this time, someone decided it was time to do the right thing. Even though I think that doing the right thing at this point would be so difficult to do because you've been hiding for so long and so much has come out, and it's been such an awful outcome that I Think it would be really hard, but I think that I. I hope someone decides to do that because that's what this family deserves.

[Danielle]

It feels like it would be a deathbed confession type thing.

[Cassie]

Yeah, but I hope not, because deathbed confessions, they are not very brave. It's selfish.

[Danielle]

I always say it's selfish, but, yeah, it's selfish.

[Cassie]

It's all coward. Cowardly. It's really cowardly to give a deathbed confession knowing that you're going to have no repercussions for what you're saying.

[Danielle]

Yeah, I agree.

[Cassie]

So I hope that they come forward before that period of time, especially because his parents are 80s. They're in their 80s. Give them. Give them closure.

[Danielle]

Yeah. Yeah. So I know it was a freebie, but like I said, I think it warranted an episode because, God, I just feel for this family so hard.

[Cassie]

Yeah.

[Danielle]

Anyhow, do you have a palate cleanser?

[Cassie]

No.

[Danielle]

What? Oh, I have one. Maybe it's not a palette. I don't know. It's just something that we haven't talked about yet. I feel like I'm going through something because I got purple chrome nails.

[Cassie]

You've been on a chrome kick. But purple is very surprising.

[Danielle]

It's the purple that's taking me aback. I was sitting there and I was getting. I got.

[Cassie]

I'm rubbing off on you toes. I got.

[Danielle]

You know, I was getting my pedicure. I always get black gel. I never stray from that. And then I was just like, you know what? I'm feeling a little crazy.

[Cassie]

Feel like a bright and spring and purple.

[Danielle]

Purple.

[Cassie]

It's not like a deep purple either.

[Danielle]

No, it's not.

[Cassie]

It's like a pale y.

[Danielle]

Bright purple. Yeah. And in the right light, it kind of looks silver. So it's not totally in your face, but it really is purple. And then in the same day, same day, I bought a pink duvet cover.

[Cassie]

What kind of pink?

[Danielle]

A pink. There's no mistaking that pink.

[Cassie]

Like, not a coral. No, like a hot pink.

[Danielle]

No, not hot pink. Like a blush pink.

[Cassie]

Okay. I like blush pink.

[Danielle]

And I have silk, like this color pillowcases or more pink. No, I feel like it's more pink. I know what's happening.

[Cassie]

I knew I'd rub off one day.

[Danielle]

It's happening. It's all happening.

[Cassie]

My plan is working.

[Danielle]

But it's fine because it's like, yeah, I have some pink things and I might have purple nails, but I also have, like, dead things everywhere in my house still.

[Cassie]

You do have dead things everywhere.

[Danielle]

It's like right next to the bat skeleton. You got me in a glass case. So I still feel like myself.

[Cassie]

Beauty and the Beast, they have the rose, and yours is a.

[Danielle]

It's a bad. It's legit that. It's called something, but, yeah, it's legit. A Beauty and the Beast capsule. Yeah. So, anywho. Well, there's that. All right. That was all I had. Next time, it's your. It's on you.

[Cassie]

Okay, I'll. I'll keep that in mind.

[Danielle]

Okay, well, thank you, everyone, for joining us. We will see you next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view, but watch your back. Bye.

[Cassie]

Bye.

[Danielle]

He was born on Feb. 3, 1966, in Saskatoon. Oh, God. This is a tongue twister. Hold on, please. In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

[Cassie]

Ooh, that's rough.

[Danielle]

God, don't make me say that again. He grew up to. Oh, sorry. He grew up. He grew up loving playing. I'm sorry. He grew up. Should we start over? He grew up loving playing.

[Cassie]

Where are you?

[Danielle]

Not on planet Earth. Okay,

[Cassie]

thanks for joining us for another episode. We hope you learned something new and have another location to put on your list. If you want more NPAD content, make sure to follow along with our adventures on all socials at National Park After Dark.

[Danielle]

For more stories just like this one, with the added bonus of exclusive content, you can join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. If you prefer to watch our episodes, head over to our YouTube channel. And if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform, Sam.