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Pro-Hockey-Player-s-Case-Was-A-14-Year-M · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ten thousand feet up deep inside of the beautiful Austrian
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Alps lies a very unique and not well known tourist destination.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: The only way you can get to this destination is
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  Speaker 1: to ride a gondola, or if you're feeling really motivated,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: you could, in the theory, hike up to it, but
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: very few people do that. Once you reach this tourist destination,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: you walk over to the string of buildings and right
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: away you start to see all these warning signs about
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: this area, telling you that while of course it's stunning
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and beautiful, remember it's also very dangerous. Today I'm going
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: to tell you a horror story that happened at this
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: unique location, and make sure you stick around till the
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: end because there are actually two plot twists at the
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: end of this story. The first one you might see coming,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the second one you won't. But before we get into
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: that story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and mysterious delivered in story format, and you come to
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the right place, because that's all we do, and we
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: upload once a week. So if that's of interest to you,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: please go to the Light Button's big garage sale and
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: proceed to haggle with them. Really aggressively over the prices
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: of their most expensive items, to the point where they
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: have to basically ignore their other customers just to deal
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: with you. And then, finally, when they relent and offer
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: you a fair and decent price for these prized items,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: just say I'm actually not interested, I actually don't have
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: any money, and then just leave. Also, please subscribe to
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: today's story. On August ninth, nineteen eighty nine, twenty three
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: year old Duncan McPherson pulled his little red car into
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: a parking lot inside of a lush green valley in Austria.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: After parking his car, Duncan reached across his middle console
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and he grabbed an apple out of a bag, and
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: then he took a bite and just admired the unbelievable
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: landscape all around him. He was near the Austrian Alps,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: and so there were literally just mountains jutting up everywhere. Duncan,
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  Speaker 1: who was originally from Canada, had been this highly touted,
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  Speaker 1: unbelievable first round draft pick by the New York Islanders
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: back in nineteen eighty four. The Islanders are a professional
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: ice hockey team in the United States, but despite Duncan's
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: incredible promise and athleticism, he just couldn't ever get it together,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and so he never actually made the New York Islanders
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: big league roster. And so in nineteen eighty nine, Duncan
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: started to realize that maybe his hockey career was coming
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: to an end. But instead of just hanging up the
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: skates in frustration, Duncan decided he would pursue a different
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: type of career that kept him still within the hockey world.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: He would become a coach, and so in nineteen eighty nine,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Duncan had agreed to coach this small time professional hockey
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: team in Scotland. And for Duncan, his thought was, you know,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I'll go there, I'll learn how to be a good coach,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: and then down the road I'll maybe have the opportunity
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: to coach much more prominent and prestigious teams. But before
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: moving to Scotland and beginning this new career, Duncan decided
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: what he really needed right now was just to take
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: a break because for basically his whole life, Duncan had
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: been playing hockey around the clock practically seven days a week.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: You don't get to become a first round draft pick
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: unless hockey is your life. And so Duncan thought, you
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: know what, before I begin this huge life transition, I'm
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: going to just kick back and relax and go on
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: a huge European vacation. And one of the first stops
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: of this vacation was going to be the Austrian Alps
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: right in front of him. However, he wasn't just going
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: to look at these incredible mountains. He was going to
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: snowboard down them, or more specifically, he was going to
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: learn how to snowboard on these incredible mountains. And so
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Duncan finished eating his apple and then chucked the core
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: into the bag, and then he hopped out of his car,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: shut the door, locked it, and then began walking across
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  Speaker 1: the parking lot towards the White gondola station. A gondola
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  Speaker 1: is like a ski lift, but much bigger. It's kind
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: of like a small bus with lots of windows, and
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: it's connected to a cable, and that cable, which is
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: elevated off the ground, pulls you up and down mountains. Now,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: typically people ride gondolas just for the incredible view of
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the mountain from up high. But some gondolas are actually
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: in place to take people to specific locations in the mountain,
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  Speaker 1: and typically these locations are areas that are not accessible
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  Speaker 1: otherwise you need a gondola to get there, and in
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  Speaker 1: Duncan's case, the gondola that he was about to hitch
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  Speaker 1: a ride on was of the latter variety. It carried
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  Speaker 1: passengers from the station near this parking lot high up
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  Speaker 1: into the Austrian Alps, up to about ten thousand feet
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  Speaker 1: of elevation, where there was another gondola station called the
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  Speaker 1: Igrot Mountain the station, and right next to the Issgrot
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Mountain gondola station was a very unique ski resort called
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: the stew By Glacier, and overwhelmingly this ski resort was
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the reason why people were taking this gondola. This ski
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: resort was unique not only because it was very hard
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: to get to you basically had to take a gondola
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: or hike up to it, but also because the actual
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: slope that skiers and snowboarders would use at this resort
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  Speaker 1: was not just a snowy mountain side like virtually all
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: other ski resorts around the world are no Instead, the
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  Speaker 1: steu By Glacier Ski Resort was a glacier, and so
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: people were literally skiing and snowboarding on a glacier, hence
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: the name, and a glacier, in simple terms, is just
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  Speaker 1: a huge swath of thick, permanently frozen ice. And so
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: in the warmer months, when other ski resorts around the
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: world were not able to continue operations because there was
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  Speaker 1: no snow or it was too warm to make snow,
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  Speaker 1: the stew By Glacier Ski Resort did not have that
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  Speaker 1: problem because in those warmer months they could just drive
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: their huge snow cat tractors with their big rakes behind
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  Speaker 1: them all over the slope the glacier and their rakes
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  Speaker 1: would basically chop up the top layer of the ice,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: turning it into powder for people to ski on, which
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: allowed them to basically stay open every day of the year.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: And so duncan back down in the parking lot, he
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  Speaker 1: walked over to the gondola station, he bought his gondola
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  Speaker 1: ticket and then he hitched a ride on the first
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  Speaker 1: gondola that swung through the station and after a slow
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: but beautiful ride up into the mountains where all that
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: lush greenery down below in the valley was replaced by
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: jagged snow and ice. Up in the Alps, Duncan finally
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: saw the stew By Glacier Ski Resort and the glacier
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  Speaker 1: itself right behind it that stretched up to the top
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  Speaker 1: of the mountain. A few minutes later, the gondola Duncan
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  Speaker 1: was on arrived at the Issgrot Mountain Gondola station and Duncan,
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  Speaker 1: along with the others inside of the gondola, hopped off
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: and then dunk and immediately walked over to the resort
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and headed into the equipment rental store, and after getting
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: a snowboard and his boots and all the other equipment
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: he would need, he headed right back outside to wait
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: for his instructor to arrive. Duncan had previously purchased a
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: lesson with an instructor at the resort. It was set
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: for eleven am and so Duncan he's out there at
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  Speaker 1: the foot of this glacier, and right at eleven an
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: instructor walks over and introduces himself, and Duncan and the
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  Speaker 1: instructor immediately start getting into the basics of snowboarding. You know,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: how to put your boots into your bindings, how to
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: use the edges of your board. And then for a
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: little while the instructor and Duncan didn't go up the glacier. Instead,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: they just kind of worked on some basics on the
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: flat ground right there, and then after the instructor felt
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: like Duncan was ready to go, they both walked over
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  Speaker 1: to the tow rope, which is a way to get
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  Speaker 1: to the top of the slope. There's a cable that
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: kind of rotates from the top to the bottom of
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  Speaker 1: the mountain, and there are all these bars attached to
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  Speaker 1: the cable, and skiers and snowboarders grabbed the bar while
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: standing on their snowboard or their skis, and they literally
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: get pulled up the mountain. And so Duncan and the
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  Speaker 1: instructor grabbed onto the tow rope. They made their way
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  Speaker 1: to the top of the glacier and from there they
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  Speaker 1: pushed over to the start of the run, and once
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  Speaker 1: they were there, the instructor strapped into his snowboard and
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  Speaker 1: then Duncan strapped into his, and then they were off
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  Speaker 1: very slowly, making their way kind of like a falling
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  Speaker 1: leaf pattern. Duncan was not just going straight down the mountain.
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  Speaker 1: He's a beginner and so it's very slow, very controlled,
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  Speaker 1: and as they went down, you know, the instructors giving
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Duncan tips how to stay more on his edge, how
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: to slow down, how to speed up, and very quickly
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: the instructor saw that Duncan was so good at balancing
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: his legs were so strong, likely because he was a
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: professional hockey player, And so the instructor was telling Duncan
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the whole time they're going down how unbelievably good he
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: was doing for his first lesson. And so finally, after
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: about an hour of very slowly making their way all
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: the way down this glacier, they reached the bottom where
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: they had first been doing some flackground stuff. And when
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: they got there, it had started to rain, and it
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: was raining bad enough that lots of people on the
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  Speaker 1: mountain were abandoning the mountain and running inside of the
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: resort to get out from under the rain. And so
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the instructor he looked at his watch and he realized
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: they were almost at one pm, which was the end
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: of their lesson, and he said to Duncan, you know,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: I don't think we have time to go back up.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Plus it's raining. Duncan said he didn't care about the rain,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: but he also understood that, you know, it wasn't ideal conditions.
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  Speaker 1: And so they decided that even though there was a
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: few minutes left, they would just cancel the lesson right
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: there and they would actually just go inside and grab
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: lunch together. And so they made their way out of
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  Speaker 1: the rain into the resort, and when they went inside
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the resort, the instructor noticed that Duncan's sweater, which was
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: underneath his yellow rain jacket, was totally soaked. And so
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: we offered to Duncan, you know, hey, do you want
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: to take your sweater off and I'll hang it up
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  Speaker 1: inside my office and you know, by the end of
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the day it should be dry. And Duncan thought, great,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: that's fine, So he took off his wet sweater, he
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: gave it to the instructor, and while the instructor was
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: going to his office, Duncan went into the gift shop
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  Speaker 1: and he just bought a new sweater for the day.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: And after that, Duncan had his new sweater on with
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: his rain jacket over it, and then he met the
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: instructor in the cafeteria where they both sat down and
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: had a nice meal. They got to know each other
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: a little bit better. After they were done eating, both
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: of them looked out the window and saw the rain
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: had subsided, but in its place was lots of fog
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: that was rolling in, and so very few people were
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: going back onto the mountain. But the instructor told Duncan that,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: you know, hey, you did so good today that you
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: should really go back out there on your own this
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: afternoon and practice. Do some runs, go nice and slow,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: same as I was teaching you, and then tomorrow when
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: we have our follow up lesson, we can maybe you know,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: get into some more advanced things. Duncan thought that was
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: a great idea. He said he would definitely go out
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: there and practice on his own. And then the two
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: men cleaned up, and the instructor made his way to
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: meet his next client, and Duncan had it right outside,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: grabbed a snowboard and began walking towards the tow rope.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Last week, me and old Siaga Lung were one through
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Montreal when we turned onto the side street, and immediately
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: we both stopped because right there in the middle of
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the road, laying unclaimed was a fresh blue whale carcass.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Now Lung and I knew it was only a matter
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: of time before somebody else came along, spotted this incredible
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: treasure and took it for themselves. And so, without any hesitation,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: met Ol Siga Lung whipped out our portable meat smokers
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: and we got to work, and ninety nine hours later
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: our pockets were filled to the brim with glorious smoked
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: street whale. However, when we tried to feed our smoked
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: street whale to our friends and family at our annual
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: summer barbecue, they took one bite and said, this is
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: kind of gross. What is this smoked street whale? And
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: so naturally we were crushed by this, but luckily we
• 11:48
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• 11:52
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• 11:53
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• 11:56
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• 12:12
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• 12:15
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• 12:23
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• 12:30
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• 12:36
  Speaker 1: at checkout for fifty percent off plus free shipping. Okay,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: back to the story. The next morning, Duncan's snowboard instructor
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: arrived a little bit early to work, and so after
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: getting off the gondola, he made his way over to
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: the resort and he grabbed a cup of coffee in
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the same cafeteria where he and Duncan had eaten the
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: day before, and then after finishing that coffee, the instructor
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: grabbed his snowboard and the rest of his gear and
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: then headed outside to meet Duncan in the meeting spot
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: they had both agreed on. But when it was time
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: for the lesson to start, Duncan didn't show up, and
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: so the instructor for a second thought, you know, was
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: there somewhere else we were going to meet? Did I
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: get the time wrong? But he checked the time and
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: he remembered the conversation he had with Duncan. They were
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: going to meet at the foot of the toe rope,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: and he was right there and Duncan wasn't and so
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: we thought, okay, you know, maybe Duncan's running late. But
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: he waited and waited and waited, and Duncan never showed up.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: The instructor was bummed because he and Duncan really had
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: kind of become friends the day before and he was
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: looking forward to teaching Duncan some more today. But the
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: instructor knew it was pretty common for tourists to cancel
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: their follow up snowboard or ski lessons. It's like they
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: show up for that first day, they get really into it,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: they plan on going the next day, but then other
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: distractions in their vacation pull them elsewhere and they know
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: show for the lesson. And so the instructor didn't take
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: it personal. He just assumed that, you know, Duncan had
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: found something else to do that was more fun. But
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the instructor knew he would see Duncan again because Duncan's
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: sweater was still sitting in the instructor's office. One week later,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Duncan's parents, who were back home in Saskatoon, Canada, got
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: a very unexpected phone call from the Dundee Tigers hockey team,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: which was the professional hockey team in Scotland, that Duncan
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: was going to go coach after this big European vacation.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: The team rep for this hockey team asked the parents
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: if they knew where their son was because he had
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: not shown up for his first day of work, and
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Duncan's parents they immediately were like, that doesn't make any sense.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: He was so excited about this job. This is a
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: really big deal for him. He would never miss the
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: first day. And so the parents told the team rep
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: that they would try to get in touch with Duncan
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: and as soon as they did, they'd be in touch
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: with the team, and the team rep said they would
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: do the exact same thing for the parents. However, after
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: this call, the parents quickly realized that trying to get
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: in touch with their son was going to be nearly impossible.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: They knew Duncan had gone on this big European vacation,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: but they didn't have his itinerary. They didn't know what
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: countries he was going to in what order. They really
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: only knew that he was really excited and he was
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: just going to be on vacation. That was kind of it.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: And remember this is nineteen eighty nine. They can't just
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: call Duncan. There weren't cell phones, they didn't have the
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: easy modern ways that we all communicate instantly, and so
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the parents are like, who do we even call, where
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: do we go, what do we do? And so ultimately,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: even though this felt kind of dramatic at the time,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: the parents decided to file a missing person report with Interpol,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: which is an organization that connects police across international lines. However,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: the parents quickly learned that this missing person report was
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: not going to become a high priority item for any
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: police anywhere in Europe because their son was twenty three.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: He's healthy, he's strong, he's smart, he's of sound mind.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: And really all that had happened was Duncan had missed
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: a single day of work on the back end of
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: a huge vacation. So there's lots of reasons why that
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: could have happened. Maybe he extended his vacation. Yeah it's
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: not professional, but it's totally possible. Or maybe he doesn't
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: want to take the job after all, or maybe he's
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: just running late. I mean there's a lot of very
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: logical explanations for why Duncan didn't show up, and so,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: in short, the parents were told that if you want
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: to find your son right now and not just wait
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: for him to reappear, well you better go looking yourself.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: And without hesitation, that's exactly what Duncan's parents did. They
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: packed up a couple of suitcases and they headed to
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Europe to go find their son, because to them, it
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: felt like something was wrong here and there was no
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: time to waste. But again, the parents have no idea
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: where their son would have gone in Europe, and so
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: they don't really have a good starting point. They don't
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: know who to talk to. But they just began chasing
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: down every single seemingly insignific lead they came across, and
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: as they traveled all over Europe, they hung up thousands
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: and thousands of flyers that showed their son's face, said
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: he was missing, and you know, here's a number to
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: call if you know where he is. But despite these efforts,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the parents really got nowhere. That is until about a
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: month into their search, when still they have not found Duncan.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: They have no idea where he is. They've chased down
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: all these leads, they've all dead ended. And at this
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: time the parents convinced several news outlets around Europe to
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: air a segment on their news about Duncan, and one
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: of those missing person segments aired in Austria, and the
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: news anchor in Austria when they were doing the segment,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: they described the car that Duncan was almost definitely driving
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: when he went missing. It was that little red car.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: The parents had discovered in chasing down their leads that
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: their son had borrowed the little red car from a
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: childhood friend who used to play hockey with him, and
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: the friend had told the parents that he had lent
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: it to Duncan, and Duncan had told him he would
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: have it for a week and then return it. But
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Duncan had never returned the car, and so the anchor
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: in Austria does this segment about how Duncan is missing
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: and if you have information, come forward. They described the
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: little red car, and sure enough, not long after this
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: segment aired in Austria, somebody found Duncan's car. It was
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: still sitting in that parking lot right near the Stubai
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Glacier gondola. Immediately when Duncan's parents heard about this. They
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: flew to Austria and they met with police who brought
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: them out to look at their son's car. They hadn't
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: moved it, it was still just sitting where he had
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: left it. And then also police showed the parents what
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: they had found inside of the car, which included Duncan's passport,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: a letter to his girlfriend where he talked about how
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: excited he was to go to Scotland, and also a
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: bag of rotten fruit. The police also told the parents
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: that now with the discovery of this vehicle, they were
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: going to really lean into this missing person case to
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: try to find their son, and that the next day
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: they were going to launched this huge search of the
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: area near where his car was to hopefully find Duncan.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: And so the parents, who were now cautiously optimistic that
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: they might get some answers, they left the police and
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: they went to a local hotel to rest up before
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: the next day when they would be up early and
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: join this huge search party. But when they got to
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: that local hotel, they did what they always did everywhere
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: they went in Europe. They began handing out all these
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: missing person flyers with Duncan's face on them to everybody
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: they saw in the lobby. They began hanging them up
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: all over the hotel, and sure enough, just by completely
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: random chance, they handed one of these flyers to Duncan's
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: snowboard instructor. They handed it to him. He looked at
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: it and he did a double take and he was like,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I know him, and he explained how he taught Duncan
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: how to snowboard, and then Duncan didn't show up the
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: next day, and he just figured, you know, okay, he
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: blew it off to go to something else, but he'd
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: come back for a sweater. But he never came back
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: for a sweater. And he never heard from Duncan again.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: And so the parents they have been searching all of
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Europe for a month and they haven't talked to anybody
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: who knew Duncan. They've gotten nowhere, and now they've just
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: randomly stumbled on probably the last person to see Duncan
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: before he went missing. And so they kept asking the instructor,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: you know, give us more information. You know, what was
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: his attitude like, was he stressed out? Was he scared?
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Was he worried about something? Where did he go give
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: us anything. But the instructor really didn't have that much
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: more information to offer, and so he tried to answer
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: all their questions, but really just finally said, look, I'm sorry.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: All I know is after we ate lunch together on
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: the ninth Duncan said he was going to go out
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: and do some practice runs. But I never actually saw
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: him go up. I didn't see him come down. I
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: just assumed he went up there and was kind of
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: on his own for the day. And then of course
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: the next day I didn't see him and he never
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: came back. And so I'm sorry. That's all I know.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: And so the parents finally said, you know, thank you
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: so much for the information. Please get in touch with
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: us if you remember anything, and the instructor said he would,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: and then after that the parents made their way to
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: their room and they went to bed. The next morning,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the parents got up early and they headed to that
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: parking lot where Duncan's car was, and there were all
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: these people, police officers and volunteers that were there to
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: be a part of this big search party. And so
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: after the parents explained to the leaders of the search
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: party what the instructor had told them, that very likely
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: their son had been up at the Steu By Glacier
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: ski resort when he went missing. The entire search party
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: quickly hopped on gondolas and made their way up there.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: And all day this search party combed this glacier up
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: and down. They walked all around to the backside of
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: this mountain. They were peled down cliffs, and they hiked
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: all over this entire segment of the mountain. But nobody
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: found anything that gave away where Duncan had gone. And
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: the next day it was the same story, huge search
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: party looking everywhere, expanding the search not just stue By Glacier,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: but basically all over this entire swath of mountain range.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: But still they found nothing. And so at the end
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: of the second day, the authorities went up to Duncan's
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: parents and they told them that unfortunately, we can't continue
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the search. We're calling it off. But Duncan's parents they
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: didn't call off the search. They continued searching for another
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: fourteen years, and over that timeframe they went back to
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Steu By Glacier over and over and over again. They
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: searched it up and down. They knew all the staff members,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: they knew all the nooks and crannies of the entire place,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: but they never found any sign of their son. Fast
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: forward to July of two thousand and three, so fourteen
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: years after Duncan had gone missing, and a stu By
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Glacier ski resort employee was riding the toe rope towards
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: the top of the mountain when they noticed there was
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: a bright yellow piece of trash right in the middle
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: of the slope. And so the employee rode the toe
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: rope just a little bit higher, and then he let
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: go and skied down to this yellow thing. He reached
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: down and he began pulling on this piece of yellow
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: and suddenly he stopped and absolutely horrified, he realized this
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: was not trash. While no one knows for sure what
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: happened to Duncan, here is the leading theory that Duncan's
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: family and authorities for the most part agree on. Back
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: on August ninth, nineteen eighty nine, after having lunch with
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: his snowboard instructor, Duncan was feeling motivated to go back
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: out and take some practice runs, and so he headed outside.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: He looked up at the glacier. There's all this fog
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: rolling in, but it's not raining, and so nobody's on
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the slope, and so it's perfect for a beginner. He's
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: going to have this place to himself, and so he
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: grabs his board, he makes his way over to the
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: tow rope, he straps in, he grabs onto a bar,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and he makes his way to the top. Once he
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: gets off, he makes his way over to the start
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: of the run. He puts his other foot into its binding,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: he makes sure he's all set, and then he stood
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: up and began slowly kind of waffling his way down
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: the completely vacant and very foggy slope. And as he
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: was going along, he got more and more confident and
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: began going a little bit faster and a little bit faster,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: until finally he was basically just bombing it down the mountain,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: relying on his natural balance and strength to kind of
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: keep him up. And then all of a sudden, he
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: caught an edge and flipped forward and smashed into the ground,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: and when he did, he broke his leg. The unique
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: danger to humans when it comes to glaciers is something
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: called a crevass. Basically, cracks form in the ice, and
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: sometimes these cracks can be massive, like mind bogglingly massive
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds of feet that if you fall into
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: this thing, you're done. No one's getting out of there.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: You are falling either to your death or you're falling
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: so far down that no one can get to you.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Or like in the case of Steubai Glacier Ski Resort,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: they had the issue of little crevasses forming kind of
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: all over the place, especially if it rained, the rain
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: would begin to crack the ice, or if maybe it
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: was warmer than usual, the ice would crack here and there.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: And so the resort was really good about constantly patrolling
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: their slope to make sure no crevasses had formed anywhere
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: on the slope. And so when you got to stew
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: By Glacier Ski Resort, you were warned that there is
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: such a thing as a crevass. This is a real glacier,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: so make sure you're looking around and don't fall into one. Well,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: because it had rained, a crevass had formed, a small
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: one like a pothole in the slope, but because it
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: was so foggy because of the rain, as Duncan was
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: bombing down, he didn't see it, and that's what he
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: caught his edge on, causing him to fall and break
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: his leg and so duncan He's now stranded in the
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: middle of the slope. He's not close enough to the
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: bottom to where he could pull himself into the resort.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: He's not close enough to the top or he could
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: get himself up there and talk to the toe lift operator,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and so he's just kind of stranded. There's nobody on
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: the mountain. It's so foggy, nobody can see him from
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: the resort, and so he's just stuck in agonizing pain,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: wondering what he's supposed to do. At the same time
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: this was happening, another ski resort employee was climbing into
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: one of those big SnowCat tractors at the top of
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: the glacier. These tractors were what the resort used to
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: chop the top layer of ice and turn it into snow.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: And because it had rained that day, a lot of
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: the snow had melted, and so this employee needed to
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: basically go over the entire slope from top to bottom
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: and grind up the ice and make some new snow.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: And so the employee hopped in the cab of this tractor,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: shut the door, turned on the engine, turned on the
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: back rake, which in your head picture a long stretch
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: of metal dragging behind this tractor that had rotating blades
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: that cut into the snow as it moved along. And
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: so this employee, after turning on the rake and making
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: sure everything worked, they drove the snow cat and the
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: rake onto the start of the downward slope and they
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: began crisscrossing back and forth across the entire slope, turning
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: it all into fresh snow. And as this employee drove,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: they were very careful not to go too quick because
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: they knew they couldn't see very far with all of
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: the fog, and so they're going like one or two
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: miles an hour, being very cautious, and then suddenly, at
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the last second, they see something in the snow. It
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: kind of appeared out of the fog, and so the
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: employees swerved as fast as they could to avoid hitting it,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: and they did narrowly miss it. Their big tank like
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: treads that are on these tractors just missed running this
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: thing over. However, the back rake with the rotating blades
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: did not miss this object. It went right over it.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: The employee immediately parked the snow cat and then leapt
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: outside and ran over to see what this thing was,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: and when they got there, they could not believe what
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: they saw. It was Duncan, and all those rotating blades
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: that had crossed over him had basically mutilated him. One
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: of his arms had been cut off, one of his
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: legs was nearly cut off. But it's believed Duncan was
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: actually not dead. The injuries were horrible, but they would
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: not necessarily have killed him outright. He would bleed to
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: death without help, but in theory he could have been saved.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: But the employee, even though this was a total accident,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: totally panicked and decide that because it was so foggy,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: no one must have seen this. No one was around,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: and so no one would know that they were the
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: ones who ran this guy over. And so instead of
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: helping Duncan, they just tied him up and dragged him
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: behind the SnowCat off of the glacier over to this
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: area where this employee knew there was a very deep crevass,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: and they chucked Duncan, who might have been alive at
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: this point, into the crevass, along with his arm and
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: his severed leg, and then the employee used the SnowCat
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: tractor to rake over the crevass. They filled it all
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: in and packed it down, and then they drove down
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: the rest of the way and just hoped no one
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: would ever know. But over the course of the next
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: fourteen years, the glacier would melt more and more each year,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: until finally Duncan's yellow jacket popped through the ice. And
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: that's what the resort employee saw as they were going
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: up the toe lift and thought it was trash. It
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: was actually Duncan's jacket. They skied over they tried to
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: pull it out of the snow to then see literally
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: in the ice Duncan McPherson looking right back up at them,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: and Duncan still looked like he was twenty three years
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: old because he had been frozen this entire time. According
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: to the stew by Glacier Ski Resort, Duncan must have
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: just fallen into this crevass and died. That's what they
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: say happened, and some authorities say that is what happened.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: But when they pulled Duncan out of the ice and
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: they found his body had been chopped apart, and his
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: snowboard had even been chopped apart, that told a very
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: different story. As for the SnowCat driver who drove over Duncan.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: They were never actually officially identified or charged with any
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: crime because there was a statute of limitations that had
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: run out by two thousand and three, and so no
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: one has ever been held accountable for Duncan's death. So
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: that's going to do it. If you got something out
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: of today's story, be sure to check out our podcast
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: called The Mister Ballen Podcast, where we literally have hundreds
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: more stories just like like this one, but many of
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: them are only available on the podcast. Again, it's called
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the Mister Ballen Podcast and it's available exclusively on Amazon Music.