Ice hockey star found entombed in glacier ‘was secret CIA agent’

Canadian ice hockey player Duncan MacPherson vanished in Austria in August 1989 before signing with Dundee’s Tayside Tigers, and his body was discovered in a melting glacier 14 years later

The enigmatic case of a Canadian ice hockey player who vanished without trace continues to baffle investigators decades after his frozen remains were discovered in an Austrian glacier.

Duncan MacPherson disappeared in August 1989, just days before he was set to join Dundee’s Tayside Tigers as their new signing.

The 23-year-old’s corpse was unearthed 14 years later, bearing multiple fractures and a mangled leg, preserved within a glacier in the Austrian Alps, according to The Courier.

Duncan had boasted of being recruited as an operative for the CIA, whilst his relatives alleged Austrian officials orchestrated a cover-up, exhausting their finances with 10 separate trips to Austria in their quest to unravel the puzzle surrounding their son’s death.

They pursued the matter through the European Court of Human Rights, reports the Mirror US.

Dundee hockey fan George Carr said: “It definitely is a strange scenario and leaves a question mark over his disappearance. MacPherson going missing must rank as one of the most unusual episodes in the history of ice hockey in Dundee.”

MacPherson grew up in Saskatoon and was selected by the New York Islanders in 1984 but never managed to feature in a single NHL match.

Following the expiry of his Islanders deal in 1989, Duncan agreed to take on a player-coach role with the Tayside Tigers.

Prior to his vanishing, Duncan contacted millionaire Ron Dixon, who was poised to acquire the Tigers, informing him he would reach Dundee within 48 hours.

He stopped for a snowboarding break in Austria and was last spotted on August 9, 1989 on the Stubaier Glacier in south Tyrol.

For days Duncan’s loved ones were left in the dark about his whereabouts. A motor parked at the glacier’s base was eventually linked back to a mate who had lent it to him in Nuremberg.

Without help from Austrian police or Canadian diplomatic services, the MacPhersons distributed 2,500 missing person flyers in several languages across four nations.

Duncan had previously alleged the CIA had tried to enlist him as an agent – adding to his family’s bewilderment over his vanishing.

In 1994 a man suffering memory loss, initially believed to be Duncan, surfaced in Austria but was swiftly ruled out as the missing person. Heartbreakingly, during summer 2003 Duncan’s remains were found by a worker operating snow-clearing equipment.

He had been entombed beneath thawing snow and ice on a busy ski slope in Neustift. Authorities stated he died after plunging into a crevasse, though a Canadian forensic expert questioned this explanation given the pattern of bone fractures.

She proposed there had also been contact with heavy machinery, with the MacPhersons claiming Austrian officials actively worked to suppress the real facts.

Austrian authorities insisted they exhausted every avenue to uncover what occurred and assist Duncan’s parents during an exceptionally challenging inquiry. The pair took their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, alleging breaches of the right to life and the right to effective remedy.

The court ruled that the authorities had exhausted all possible measures.