John Leake: Cold a long Time: An Alpine Mystery

CBC Radio: New book warms up cold case

Author John Leake says his new book sheds light on what happened to Duncan MacPherson, the Saskatoon man who died on mountains in Austria. Leake suspects the death was covered up by authorities. [mehr...]

The Star Phönix: Book Facts stranger than fiction

Since writing his shocking book about the death of hockey player Duncan Macpherson and an alleged coverup, John Leake has met with icy silence from authorities in Austria.
“Graveyard silence,” says Leake, author of Cold a Long Time: An Alpine Mystery.
Macpherson, a Saskatoon native who played with his hometown Blades and was a first-round draft pick of the New York Islanders, disappeared in August 1989 while travelling in Europe. [more...]

Cold a Long Time: An Alpine Mystery - What happened to Duncan MacPherson?

Who was Duncan MacPherson? When his mother Lynda contacted me in the summer of 2009 and asked me to write a book about her son, the first thing I did was read his Wikipedia entry, which gives an accurate snapshot of his resume as a sportsman: [more...]

Cold a Long Time: An Alpine Mystery

The 22-year-old cold case of Duncan MacPherson--a Canadian pro hockey player who vanished in Europe in 1989--is finally solved. Canadian readers may purchase the new, print edition of Cold a Long Time here. American visitors may buy it on Amazon. In August of... [more...]

News Talk 650.com: Sports Night - John Leake joins to talk about his book

Radio Interview Sports Night - John Leake joins to talk about his book: "Cold a long tim - Radio Interview mit John Leake, Autor des Buches "Cold a long time"

Background Story/Hintergrund der Geschichte

Fifth Estate CBC: A Cold Case - Now Online Worldwide

WATCH THE WHOLE EPISODE

John Leake: Cold A Long Time: An Alpine Mystery

COLD A LONG TIME by John Leake
In August of 1989, twenty-three-year-old Duncan MacPherson—a pro hockey player from Canada—vanished without a trace in Central Europe. To his parents, Lynda and Bob, nothing about his disappearance made sense. With no help from the police, they drove all over the Alps looking him, and then finally found his car parked near the gondola station of the Stubai Glacier, a popular ski resort in Austria. Thus began their twenty-two year struggle to find out why Duncan had disappeared—a true story as strange and full of unexpected twists as a season of The Twilight Zone.

In 2009 they asked author John Leake to help them in their ongoing search for answers. Now, after a two-year investigation, Leake has finally discovered what happened to Duncan MacPherson, and why his death was covered up by the Stubai Glacier and high ranking officials in Innsbruck, Austria.

Cold a Long Time: An Alpine Mystery recounts the tragic odyssey of the MacPherson family. It is a story about enduring love, perseverance, and the irrepressible desire to know the truth, literally at all cost. It is also the story of an incredibly elaborate and twisted deception. Leake’s findings are the subject of the television documentary A Cold Case, produced by the fifth estate—Canada’s premier investigative journalism program, which will air on November 25, 2011. http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/

Interview with John Leake on Fifth Estate
Amazon-Link  Hintergrund/Background

CBC Fifth Estate: A Cold Case

In the summer of 1989, Duncan MacPherson was setting off to start a new life as a hockey coach in Europe. But the 23-year-old Saskatoon native and former NHL first-round draft pick took a holiday detour to snowboard in the Austrian Alps and then vanished -- for 14 years.

That disappearance plunged his family into a twenty-year search for the truth. Duncan's body was finally discovered in 2003, found frozen in a crevasse on a glacier near a popular ski run. Austrian police and operators of the Innsbruck-area resort have long maintained it a closed case -- claiming MacPherson's death was just an accident, the result of his venturing away from the safety of the designated course and into dangerous terrain. [more...trailer]

CBC Fifth Estate Friday November 25th @ 9pm - "A COLD CASE"

The chilling final chapter in the fifth estate's investigation into the true life mystery of how a Canadian hockey player, missing for fourteen years, ended up frozen in a glacier crevasse in Austria.

Hintergrund/Background:

Nachdem der kanadischen Eishockeyspielers Duncan McPherson 14 Jahre nach einem Snowboardausflug im österreichischen Stubaital vermisst wurde, gab ihm der Gletscher am 18.Juli 2003 wieder frei. Jahrelang hatten seine Eltern aus Kanada nach ihm geforscht. Waren sie doch immer wieder an den letzten Ort, dem Stubaital Gletscher zurückgekehrt, um einen Hinweis auf ihren vermissten Sohn zu finden. 23 Jahre war er, als er 1989 verschwand. Zum letzten Mal gesehen, auf dem Stubaier Gletscher, als er Unterricht im Snowboarding nahm. Das Verschwinden 1989 und das Auffinden nach 14 Jahren, wirft mehr Fragen als Antworten auf.

Die kanadische Fernsehsendung "The Fifth Estate", nahm sich unter dem Titel "The Iceman" dem Thema an, und stieß während ihrer Recherchen auf merkwürdigste Widersprüche, was das Verschwinden, die Untersuchungen und die Verhaltensweise der Ermittlungsbehörden anging.Das Feature über 60 Minuten ist auch im Internet zu sehen.

Die österreichische Presse stellte sich diese Fragen offenbar nicht.

Jetzt berichtete das österreichische Magazin "Datum" in seiner Juli/August Ausgabe 2009 mit acht Heftseiten über diese Geschichte. Florian Skrabal verfolgte die Spur des verschwundenen Kanadiers, und stieß wiederum auf merkwürdigste Widersprüche.

"Auf dünnem Eis" heißt seine Story, die versucht noch mehr Licht in das Dunkel des Verschwindens von Duncan McPherson zu bringen.

Anfrage an das Parlament der Republik Österreich

des Abgeordneten Pilz, Freundinnen und Freunde

an die Bundesministerin für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie

betreffend Tod von Duncan MacPherson

Am 9. August 1989 bereiste der kanadische Staatsbürger Duncan MacPherson Tirol. An diesem Tag nahm er vormittags im Schigebiet Stubaier Gletscher Privatunterricht im Snowboarden, und mietete zu diesem Zweck ein Snowboard, Skikleidung und Schuhe. Er wurde um 14:30 das letzte Mal lebendig gesehen. [more...]