Though most of his body was found, it had been dismembered by the glacier, so not only had Dr. Straathof examined injuries caused by all manner of violence, he had seen what flowing ice can do to a body. He studied the radiographs of Duncan’s body and said that the fractures on his arms and left leg indicated contact with machinery. They did not resemble the damage he’d seen on the Canadian Ice Man’s corpse, nor did they appear to have been caused by a fall. However, based on the images alone, he could not say whether the fractures had occurred at the time of death or at the time the body was extracted from the ice fourteen years later.
On February 12, 2004, Lynda emailed Dr. Rabl, expressing her and Bob’s growing concern that Duncan had been struck by a Snowcat. She said she was sorry to bother him, but still greatly hoped he would be able to clarify the issue, given that he’d seen Duncan’s body directly. Dr. Rabl replied the next day with the following emaiclass="underline"
Hi Lynda, hi Bob,
Again I have to remind you that you really are my Canadian friends (as you wrote) and that friends cannot bother me. I read your letter with increasing interest and understand your remaining questions. Let me make some remarks…
In my opinion the main damages of the body of Duncan were not produced during the recovery of the corpse in 2003, because the fractured surfaces of the bones were dark brown and grey colored—fresh fractures would have been much lighter.
The possibility that Duncan was hit by a snow-grooming machine in 1989 or such machine run over him has to be discussed as accurately as possible. I saw persons who were injured by a run over of such snow-grooming machines. None of them had an amputation of a limb or a decapitation. They all had severe and lethal injuries of inner organs and multiple bone fractures—especially ribs, pelvis and limbs. If one supposes that Duncan was run over by such a machine in 1989 then someone would had to drive the machine back and push the body into a crevasse in a second step. If he was just hit and pushed into a crevasse in a single machine-movement, then the machine normally could not run over him. The fact that there were no serial fractures of the ribs and no pelvic fractures argues against a run-over mechanism by a snow-grooming machine.
On the other hand in crevasses the limbs of a person are more supposed to shearing injuries (better: damages) by the glacier movement—in the past I saw torsos (corpses without limbs) that were found in glaciers. On the other hand there are found single limb bones in glaciers too (the last case was a fibula found on the end of a glacier on the Nanga Parbat—supposed to be a part of the body of the brother of Reinhold Messner—a famous alpinist from southern tyrol).
I hope that my remarks can help you. Again and again and again I have to remember you, that you never will be a nuisance or bother for me. That’s what friends are for!! (singing with Steve Wonder). Best regards, sincerely yours Walter
Lynda didn’t know what to make of Dr. Rabl’s reply. It was too bad, she thought, that he hadn’t mentioned the need to discuss with her “as accurately as possible” the nature of Duncan’s limb injuries, and what could have caused them, before he sent the body to the crematorium. She also kicked herself for deciding to cremate the body in Innsbruck instead of flying it home to Canada for an autopsy.
Chapter 22: Banana Republic
She wanted more information about how the authorities had handled Duncan’s case, so she applied to Canadian Foreign Affairs for a copy of its file, and in June of 2004, she received 707 pages of memos and cables, as well as the “Request for Notification of Next of Kin” from the Tyrolean Security Directorate to the Canadian Embassy. This document contained a narrative of how the Innsbruck authorities had handled Duncan’s case on July 18, 2003.
As Lynda read the narrative, it struck her that the most corrupt banana republic would have treated the discovery of his corpse in a more lawful manner. First of all, Inspector Koch in Neustift lied to the public prosecutor about the body’s location, stating it was found off-piste. The examining magistrate in charge of Duncan’s missing person case was not informed of the discovery. The public prosecutor released the body for burial without even knowing the cause of death. After the body was released, Inspector Koch contacted the district medical officer, who then examined the frozen and clothed corpse in the funeral chapel of the Neustift church, which presumably lacked lighting and equipment for the procedure.
What in hell is going on here? Suddenly Lynda thought of something that had never occurred to her before. Going back to Air Officer Jungmann’s report, she noted the following passage:
Jungmann went with one of the lift employees to the discovery site and found the glacier corpse in an unaltered state. Photos were taken of the discovery site and corpse. …As the Dragonfly [Jungmann’s chopper] had to be called away for search and transport duties, the lift employees were given the task of freeing the corpse.
She and Bob again studied the aerial photos of the discovery site, and realized, for the first time, the significance of the fact that the only men at the site were two slope workers. With the air rescue officers in the chopper overhead, there were no policemen at the scene. Viewing the photos on a CD, Bob checked the file properties and saw that the pictures on the ground had been taken between 4:57 and 5:06, and the aerial shots at 5:07. In other words, Jungmann was present for only ten minutes, and by the time he returned at 6:20, the body was already packed in a bag.
“Jesus Christ,” Bob said. “No cops, no coroner—just a couple of maintenance guys to pick him up off the slope like road kill and throw him into a bag.”
Why hadn’t they realized this before? Lynda wondered. Her mind flashed back to sitting in Dr. Rabl’s office while he called to inquire how the snowboard had been recovered. He didn’t phone the police; he phoned the Stubai Glacier. Having taken for granted that at least one police officer had supervised the recovery of the body, she hadn’t noticed the myriad indications that none had.
Next Lynda wrote to Dr. Knapp at the Innsbruck District Government office, requesting a copy of his file on Duncan. In a letter dated August 2, 2004, he enclosed a one-page document titled Anzeige des Todes. She had it translated, and saw that it was a “Report on Death.” At the top was an instruction to “pay attention to reverse side,” but this, she noticed, was blank. Her suspicion piqued, she again wrote to Knapp, requesting the other pages of the report.
She then studied the Canadian Embassy’s communications with Knapp. On July 23, 2003, he called the Embassy and explained that the body had been transferred to the Innsbruck Institute of Forensic Medicine “for dental and pathology.” Two days later, Vice-consul William Douglas noted:
Spoke with Dr. Knapp in Innsbruck at 0945 hours. Knapp stated that the parents visited the Gerichts Medizin (sic) [forensic medicine] yesterday (July 24) and returned today July 25. They have not decided as yet whether they will have the remains cremated or whether they wish to have an autopsy.
Judging by this memo, Knapp had not mentioned to Douglas that the body could not (for some reason) be autopsied in Innsbruck, but would have to be flown back to Canada. By omitting this detail, he implied that the MacPhersons had been offered the option of an autopsy in Innsbruck. In fact, Dr. Rabl had told them he couldn’t do an autopsy without an order from the public prosecutor.