The mysterious disappearance and death of NY Islanders draft pick Duncan MacPherson

A 1984 draft pick of the NY Islanders at the start of their post-dynasty years, Duncan MacPherson went missing in the Austrian Alps, with his body being discovered 14 years after disappearing.

The Tragic Tale of Duncan MacPherson
The Tragic Tale of Duncan MacPherson | Beyond The Bench
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After attempts by MacPherson's parents and Austrian authorities to locate Duncan, he or his body were never found - that is, until 14 years later.

In 2003, a snow groomer at Stubai Glacier noticed a glove sticking out of the snow. Thinking it was just a lost glove, he pulled it out of the snow, only to find a hand still attached.

MacPherson's body was found frozen in a crevasse along the glacier, with an arm and leg amputated and another arm severely broken.

According to John Leake, author of Cold a Long Time: An Alpine Mystery, the damage to MacPherson's body and snowboard is consistent with rotating machinery.

One theory of what happened to MacPherson that day was a snow groomer was unable to see the former NHL draft pick through thick fog, accidentally hitting and killing him. Panicking in the situation, the groomer dumped MacPherson's body in a crevasse and took off. Another theory is that he was a CIA operative. Shortly before he left his home in Saskatoon, MacPherson mentioned to his parents that he was being recruited by the CIA - something the family never took seriously.

"We're just starting to deal with the pain of his death," MacPherson's mother Lynda told Eric Adelson of ESPN in 2004. "I didn't give myself permission to grieve. I thought if we worked hard and long enough we would find the answer and know what it is we're grieving. I see all that as wrong now. It was all a big mistake."

The cause of MacPherson's death was never determined and we may never know what happened but his mystery goes down as one of the Islanders and hockey's most peculiar stories.

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