FOUND FOOTAGE fuels decades long MYSTERY (*WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT*)

In 1969, an adventure magazine reporter named Milt Macklin flew to New Guinea with his film crew to shoot a documentary about a missing person who had gone missing in that area. Milt's hope was he was actually going to find this missing person and capture it on film, really pushing his documentary over the top. But despite shooting all this footage and looking all over the place, they never found the missing person. And so Milt ultimately went back home and just put all the footage in storage, never even watched it. Well, 40 years later, that footage got pulled out of storage because another crew wanted to make a documentary about this missing person. And when they watched this footage, they found something totally unbelievable on it. And so today, I'm going to tell you the story of what they found, and then more importantly, what it revealed about this missing person. And I will say right now, it is highly disturbing. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark & Mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do, and we upload once a week. So if that's of interest to you, please gift the like button the complete set of Where's Waldo books, but make sure you cut all the Waldos off of every page first. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. On the morning of Saturday, November 18, 1961, a 23-year-old man named Michael Rockefeller reached down and grabbed the pull cord that was connected to the outboard motor that was on the boat that Michael was riding in. And Michael, he pulled and pulled on that cord, but he could not get this engine to restart. It just sputtered and wouldn't turn over. And without power, that meant that Michael and his small crew just continued to drift farther and farther out to sea. But that wasn't even the worst of this situation. The boat that Michael and his crew were on, which was a 40-foot-long catamaran, it was two handcrafted canoes tied together, well, it was starting to sink. Minutes before, Michael and his crew had been happily traveling along the beautiful green jungled coast of New Guinea when they had to cross over this area where the water was particularly turbulent. There was this river in New Guinea that was feeding out to the Arafura Sea, which is where Michael and his crew were. And where this brown river met the blue water, it became very choppy with lots of rough waves. And so as Michael and his crew tried to cross that area, the waves came on board, they flooded the engine, it shut off. And then as more and more waves landed inside the boat, the boat began to sink. The reason why Michael and his crew were even out here and taking these chances to begin with is because Michael wanted to go see this tribe called the Asmat's that lived in New Guinea, basically right past this area where this river was. They lived right on the coast. Michael was obsessed with the artwork that the Asmat tribe created. In particular, the very unique bispol. These poles are created by the master carvers within the Asmat tribe. What they do is they take a single piece of wood and they etch it away until it looks like it's a bunch of men standing on each other's shoulders. Now, these bispols are totally beautiful and intricate and wonderful to look at, but the Asmat tribe doesn't make them for art. They make them because they believe they contain the souls of the warriors from their tribe who have been killed in combat. And until the Asmat's avenge these downed warriors, basically until the tribe kills their enemies, these souls remain trapped in these bispols, which means the Asmat's don't really ever get rid of these poles. They don't sell them. They don't throw them away. They are just part of their culture and society. But months ago, Michael had come and visited the Asmat tribe. He had learned about these bispols and what they meant, and he believed he had successfully negotiated a deal where he would barter some of his own goods in order to get one of their bispols. But even though Michael gave them all the things he had offered, they had not in return sent the bispol. And so now Michael was coming back to hopefully be able to claim the bispol and take it with him. But as Michael sat in his sinking catamaran watching the muddy shores of New Guinea get farther and farther away as he drifted farther and farther out into the Arafura Sea, the last thing on his mind was the bispol. He needed to figure out what they were going to do. Michael's crew consisted of three other people. There was a French anthropologist named Rene, and there were two teenagers who were actually Asmat guides, and their names were Simon and Leo. And so after Michael was unable to start the engine up, all three of them took their turn yanking on the cord, but they too could not get it to start. Finally, Simon and Leo spoke up, and they said to Michael and Rene that at this point they believed their only hope was abandoning the catamaran, jumping into the ocean, and swimming to shore, which for now was about a half mile away, but they were drifting so quickly out to sea that if they waited any longer, they might be too far away to actually make that swim. But Rene was not a good swimmer at all, and Michael was just not ready to totally abandon ship and leave this thing out here to sink, because on board the catamaran was all this stuff he had brought along, like tobacco and fishing line and clothes and candy and all this different stuff that he knew this tribe wouldn't have, and he could use it as leverage to continue bartering to get his vispol and to get other artwork they might be offering. And so even though Michael understood that obviously this catamaran and everything on it is going to sink into the ocean at some point, he just wasn't there mentally to jump off now and just kind of abandon all this stuff. And so a decision was made that the two Asmat guides, the two teenagers, Simon and Leo, they on their own would jump out, swim to shore, and try to get help, while Michael and Rene stayed back and waited for that help to come. And so a few moments later, the two teenagers jumped into the water and began their long swim to shore, and as they did, Michael watched, and it suddenly dawned on him just how far away he was from his own home. It had been months since Michael had last showered, so he smelled terrible, he was totally sunburned and caked in dirt, and his hands were rough and calloused from all the rowing he was doing. But this was not really Michael's real life, because Michael was not from New Guinea or from anywhere near here. He was actually from America, where his family was one of the most well-known, influential, and richest families ever. Like in the history of humanity, the Rockefeller family are in like the top 10 of the most powerful people ever. Michael's grandfather was the oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, who at the time was literally the richest man in the world, and Michael's father, Nelson Rockefeller, was at the time the governor of New York and the future vice president of the United States. But despite having these unbelievable resources at his disposal, Michael was not compelled to kind of be a Rockefeller. Instead, he found his calling in the wilds of New Guinea. He had first come here seven months earlier with a team of Harvard University filmmakers who were looking to document a very remote tribe, and Michael just fell in love with the adventure of this trip. Even though on this trip, while they were filming a battle between this remote tribe and another tribe, Michael got shot accidentally in the shoulder with an arrow. So despite being wounded effectively in combat, Michael just loved being in New Guinea. In fact, Michael actually never told his family about getting shot in the shoulder with this arrow because he was worried if he told his family, the all-powerful Rockefeller family, they would respond by seeking out retribution against one of these tribes that had inadvertently harmed Michael Rockefeller. And so Michael was just very respectful and protective of the people he came in contact with in New Guinea, and in many ways he viewed them as more like his people than his family. And so after the Harvard University filmmakers wrapped up their documentary and went back to America, Michael had stayed in New Guinea. And in the meantime, his father, Nelson Rockefeller, had opened up a museum back home in New York called the Museum of Primitive Art, and what it displayed was artwork from places like New Guinea. Now this was the early 1960s, and so many Westerners viewed natives of New Guinea, like the people of the Asmat tribe, as being very primitive and backwards. And so as a result, there was a lot of people that were drawn to this new museum in New York just for the spectacle of it, to see what these primitive backwards people were creating. But Michael felt like he had a deeper understanding of the natives of New Guinea, and he felt like it was his responsibility to go out and find the incredible artwork all around New Guinea, including like the abysspoles from the Asmat tribe, and send that artwork back to his father to be put up in this museum, so that it was more than just a spectacle. Michael wanted the people of the West to appreciate and respect the natives of New Guinea the same way he did, and he believed through art he could do that. And so Michael had teamed up with René, the French anthropologist, to go all around New Guinea to find this artwork to send back to his dad. A few hours after Simon and Leo had leapt off the sinking catamaran and began their swim to shore, Michael and René had no idea if they'd even made it to shore. They hadn't seen anybody show up to rescue them, and so as far as they knew, they had no idea how close they were to being rescued or not. And as they looked down, they saw their catamaran was sinking lower and lower in the water. And so at some point, Michael and René just grabbed buckets and began bailing the water out of the catamaran, which was totally useless. The water was coming in way too quickly, but they had nothing else to do, and so they're bailing the water out, and then a rogue wave comes through and flips the entire catamaran over, sending Michael and René into the sea. And so luckily, Michael and René were able to swim to the surface. They swam over to the now upturned catamaran, but there was an air pocket kind of trapped underneath it, and so it was staying afloat. And so Michael and René grabbed onto the catamaran, and Michael actually grabbed a gas canister that had come off the boat, and he attached it to his belt like a flotation device. And so he and René just kind of held on to this upturned catamaran. Michael was also supported by this gas canister, and they just continued to wait, hoping that Simon and Leo had made it to shore and that help would be arriving soon. But in the back of Michael's mind, he knew that if help didn't come soon, Michael might have to do something drastic, like attempt to swim himself, which now was way farther than half a mile away. By the next morning, when the sun came up, Michael and René were still in the water, holding onto that catamaran, waiting for help to arrive, but no help had come. Now, Michael was a very good swimmer, but by this point, he knew they were at least five or maybe even ten miles from shore, so this would be a gargantuan swim in pretty rough waters. But, you know, Michael, he's a Rockefeller. He had a lot of confidence, and he began telling René that, hey, I'm gonna do this swim. I know I can do it. I can swim the whole distance. Even if it's ten miles, I can do it. You know, you're gonna have to just hang tight. It's gonna take a while, but I'll get us help. René begged Michael not to go, but Michael said, I have to do something, otherwise we're gonna die out here. And so all René could do was watch as Michael stripped off some of his clothes and attached another gas canister to his belt to give him a little bit more flotation, and then Michael shook René's hand, and then right around 8 a.m. on Sunday, November 19th, 1961, Michael began the swim. About 12 hours later, so that night, while René is still just holding on to this catamaran, hoping help is going to come soon, suddenly, kind of without warning, the sky suddenly erupted with this incredibly bright flame. And what it was was a plane flying overhead that had spotted René and the upturned catamaran. They had fired a flare into the air to be like, hey, we see you. We're gonna send help. And then, just a couple of hours later, a boat came around and picked René up. And when René climbed on board, he was so relieved, and he asked the captain, you know, hey, did Michael Rockefeller tell you I was out here? Is that why you knew I was here? And the captain said, no, we were told by two teenagers, two guides, Simon and Leo, that you were out here. No one's heard from Michael. Now, you need to remember that Michael Rockefeller was a Rockefeller. And so as soon as René heard, oh my goodness, we don't know where Michael is, and he told the captain that Michael had begun this unbelievably long swim to shore to get help, it was like suddenly a bomb had gone off in the Rockefeller family, and they committed all of their money and their resources and their influence to launch the biggest manhunt basically ever to find Michael. They dispatched ships and helicopters and planes. They got in touch with the U.S. Navy and got them to be fully involved. I mean, they looked everywhere for weeks, but they could not find Michael. This search for Michael would continue for years. Now, it wouldn't be as intense as the first few weeks, but there was always somebody or some entity looking for Michael around the area where he had begun that swim. But by 1964, so three years after Michael had begun the swim to shore, the Rockefeller family finally accepted that Michael had to be dead, that he had to have drowned on that five or ten mile swim to shore. For the last 60 years, I've been a hardcore whale mail enthusiast. Every morning I wake up and I break out my quill and parchment, and I draft up the various messages I need to send to my team, and then after slapping those in my backpack, I dive into the ocean, and I swim out until I encounter a whale, and then I jump on its back, and I spend 45 minutes wrestling with it until I've secured my packages to its hefty trunk, and then I leap off that beast, wish it good luck, swim to shore, and wait for my mail to get delivered. But, despite how glorious this shipping system sounds, unfortunately, in the past six decades, not one whale has understood it was my courier, and so as a result, all of my mail has gone undelivered. So, after 60 years, I finally decided to give up on whale mail and join the future, and entrust all of my shipping needs to Stamps.com. For 25 years, Stamps.com has been helping businesses save time and money. With Stamps.com, all you need is a computer and a printer. They even send you a free scale, so you'll have everything you need to get started. Stamps.com automatically tells you your cheapest and fastest shipping options. Also, you get access to all the USPS and UPS services that you need right from your computer, anytime, day or night, no lines, no traffic, no waiting. So, even though I know whale mail has a place in all of our hearts, it's time to free willy and join Stamps.com. Set your business up for success when you get started with Stamps.com today. Sign up at stamps.com slash mrballin for a special offer that includes a four-week trial, plus free postage, and a free digital scale. No long-term commitments or contracts. Just go to stamps.com slash mrballin. And when the family finally kind of accepted that that is what happened, that became the story in America about what happened to Michael Rockefeller. In fact, his sister even wrote a best-selling book about grieving his loss. But in New Guinea, a very different story began to spread about what happened to Michael. Rumors about his fate were whispered along trade routes and between visiting missionaries and gossiped about in tabloid and adventure magazines. In 1969, so five years after Michael was declared dead by his family, an adventure magazine reporter named Milt Macklin heard from this mysterious Australian person, who was a source for this magazine, that they had actually run into Michael Rockefeller recently in the jungle of New Guinea, not far from where he supposedly disappeared. And Milt would actually follow up on this tip, despite how not credible it was, and he would go to New Guinea with a film crew and he would go to this area and he would look everywhere for Michael. He would talk to locals. I mean, he really scoured the area, but there was no sign of Michael. And so Milt, feeling very let down by this, he came back home and he actually wrote a best-selling book about his quest to find Michael Rockefeller. But crucially, even though he had shot all this footage, both at a distance and up close of all these tribes in the area where Michael supposedly was, he and his team never really reviewed the footage. They basically shot all this footage while they were there looking for Michael, couldn't find him and said, meh, and put the footage aside. But 40 years later, another documentary film crew decided they were going to go to New Guinea and look for Michael because there were still all these rumors floating around that Michael was alive and living in the jungles of New Guinea. And before they actually went to New Guinea to go looking for Michael, they uncovered this unwatched footage from Milt Macklin and they watched all of it and they discovered something unbelievable. Amongst the hours and hours of footage, there is this brief shot taken from a distance where the film crew was shooting on land out towards the water and you see this canoe come into frame and it's full of Asmat tribe warriors. This is a war party and they're making their way, presumably, into battle with some other tribe. But amongst these big strong men is one man who totally stands out because he doesn't look like the other Asmat warriors. He is a naked, bearded, white man who, again, even though the quality of film was poor, he totally looked like Michael Rockefeller. And so as soon as word got out about this footage, very quickly rumors began to spread all around the world about how this heir to a billionaire's fortune had decided to turn away from his family and just live amongst the Asmat tribe as one of theirs. Now, again, we have no idea if that really was Michael Rockefeller. It could easily have been, you know, a missionary or some other white person that happened to be in New Guinea. But the story was incredible and so it spread everywhere. In 2012, so four years after this unwatched Milt Macklin footage came to light, and over 50 years since Michael Rockefeller actually went missing, a National Geographic journalist named Carl Hoffman, who had grown up totally fascinated by the mystery surrounding Michael Rockefeller, he decided that he would go to New Guinea and finally get to the bottom of what happened to Michael Rockefeller. And after Carl and his interpreter went to New Guinea and lived with the Asmat tribe for months and gained their trust and gained their respect, they began to tell him a brand new story that he had never heard before about what happened to Michael. The real story. And they gave him a dire warning that if he ever told anyone what actually happened to Michael, that the whole village would likely be killed and maybe even he too would be killed. But Carl didn't listen. After hearing what really happened to Michael, he left New Guinea and wrote a book about it called Savage Harvest. And from his book, here is what happened to Michael Rockefeller. On the morning of November 19th, 1961, so roughly 24 hours after Michael had jumped into the water and began this five to ten mile swim to shore to get help, three Asmat tribe elders named Finn, Ajem, and Pep sat amongst 50 other tribe members in eight long canoes. And they weren't going anywhere. They were just kind of resting at the mouth of this river, the same river that dumped out into the Arafura Sea, which is exactly where Michael and his crew had ran into all those rough waters and overturned, causing their whole situation. And so all these tribespeople are just sitting there in their canoes. Some of them are smoking loosely wrapped cigars. Others are chewing on flour made from a palm plant called sago. And they're all naked, minus a couple of bands around their knees and their elbows. And some of them had very intricate piercings in their noses and their ears. But they're all just kind of sitting there. It was a long day and they're enjoying some peace and quiet. But then suddenly, Ajem, one of the elders, noticed something making its way into the river from the sea. It was this white thing kind of slithering towards them. And immediately, Ajem called out to the others to look. There's something over there. It's a white crocodile. It's a serpent. It's something. And they all look and they're watching. And slowly, this white thing is moving its way closer and closer to them. And so not wanting to be caught off guard, the entire group got ready and began paddling over to see what this thing was. Because if it was a threat, they could deal with it. If it wasn't, you know, so be it. And so as these eight canoes converged on this white thing, some of them had their spears up, ready to attack. But when they finally saw what this creature was, they realized it was not some serpent or crocodile or something. It was a white man. And he was floating on his back and he had these weird flotation devices on. But he was not a threat. And so right away, you know, all the tribesmen, they put down their spears. They kind of laugh, you know, thinking that they were in danger for a second. And this white man, who was Michael Rockefeller, he rolled over and he looked up and he couldn't believe what he was seeing. You know, he's just swam like 10 miles to get here. And he's seeing the tribe that he had come to see in the first place. They've come here to rescue him. And so practically crying with relief, he turned around and grabbed one of their canoes. And as soon as he did, one of the elders, Pep, looked down at Michael holding onto his boat. And then Pep looked up at the other two elders, Finn and Ajem, and they just stared at each other, then back at Michael, then back at each other. And then they nodded in agreement. And then Pep helped Michael into the boat. Michael immediately just laid in the middle of the boat. You know, he was so exhausted from that swim, but he was so relieved. And he just laid there while the tribe kind of got back into position. They turned their canoes around and began paddling back up the river, back inland. And as they paddled, they began this very strange chant. All eight canoes, all 50 plus members of the tribe, all in unison, began this chant. And Michael, you know, he had studied the Asmat tribe and felt like he knew a lot about their culture, but he had never heard this particular chant before. And so he was enchanted by it. And he tried to ask them, you know, what does this mean? But they just completely ignored Michael and just continued to paddle and chant. And so Michael just laid there listening, getting carried along to safety, when all of a sudden the chanting stopped and the canoes turned and kind of made their way into this little inlet that led to a clearing right on the shore. And so Michael noticed they were slowing down. And so he kind of barely got up and looked over the edge of the canoe to see if they were at their village. But when he looked up, he saw there was no village in sight. It was just this clearing out on the shore. And right away, Michael's like, well, I hope we're going to the village soon because I have to find someone who can get in touch with the authorities, who can then go and rescue Renee and hopefully find Simon and Leo as well. And so Michael began trying to ask the men in his canoe if they would help him. But there was, of course, a massive language barrier and neither side really understood the other. And then at some point, one of the men from the Asmat tribe just began laughing at Michael. And when he did, the majority of the rest of the tribe looked over, saw what was going on, and they too began laughing at Michael. And so Michael had no idea what was going on. And then before he could do anything else, the entire tribe stopped laughing. And it was like in an instant, they were back into that rhythmic chanting as they slowly began making their way out of their canoes, making their way on the shore. And so Michael began to sense that something was wrong. And instead of getting out of the canoe with the rest of the tribe, he kind of instinctively laid back down on the canoe, almost like he was trying to get away from them. And when he did that, the tribesmen who had first laughed at Michael, he stood right over Michael as he's doing this chant. And he smiled at Michael. And then he raised his spear and he drove it into Michael's side. And the second he did that, other members of the tribe raised these horns they were carrying and began blasting into their horns. And so Michael, he's screaming out in pain, but he's got no strength to defend himself. And so he kind of like rolled over onto the other side on this canoe, kind of trying to protect himself. And when he did that, the guy just lifted his spear again with a big smile on his face and drove it into Michael's other side. After the man pulled the spear out, Michael, who's in horrible pain, managed, perhaps with his adrenaline, to pull himself up and over the side of the canoe. So he kind of fell out onto the mud and he tried to stand up to get away from them, but there was nowhere he could go. And so as he's kind of fumbling in the mud, two of the tribesmen walked up behind him, grabbed him under the arms, and they began carrying him across the clearing towards the jungle. And as they walked, that rhythmic chanting continued, and periodically Michael would hear someone blast on their horn. And so Michael was dragged across the shoreline, into the jungle, and then finally to another clearing in the jungle, not anywhere near their village. And Michael was positioned in the middle of this clearing and put on his knees. And so Michael, he's kind of guarding his sides with his arms. He's incredibly weak. He's on his knees. The tribe kind of formed a circle around him, continuing this chant. And then at some point, one of the tribesmen walked up to Michael, grabbed his head and pushed it forward, exposing the back of his neck. And then another tribe member walked in. And again, the whole time this chanting is going on, horns are being blown, and this other tribesman comes up and he raises an axe and he brings it down on the back of Michael's neck. It would turn out the Asmat tribe knew who Michael was. They remembered him from his visit several months earlier, when he had attempted to barter for their bispols. And they had been totally offended that this rich white man had shown up and thought he could just buy one of their sacred artifacts, like it was some trinket, to be put on display in a museum. And so they had held on to a deep hatred for him. That was why they didn't send their bispol to him. They weren't going to give it to him. But when Michael had kind of magically floated into their river, and suddenly the Asmat tribe has him sitting in their canoe, the three village elders, Finn, Ajim, and Pep, they all just kind of looked at each other and nodded in agreement that they were going to ritualistically kill Michael to avenge the deaths of many of their fallen warriors that those bispols apparently contained the souls of. Because many of their warriors had been killed by white men in the past, and so Michael was going to be their way to avenge their souls. And so that chant that Michael heard them all saying, that was the chant they did when they performed this execution ritual. Except they didn't just kill Michael. After one of those tribesmen brought the axe down on the back of Michael's neck, another tribesman walked up and grabbed Michael's hair, pulled his head back, and used a knife to slash at his throat to actually remove his head. And then after his head was removed, again with all the chanting continuing in the circle the whole time, members of the tribe came up and began cutting Michael's body absolutely to pieces, separating his organs and his flesh and his bones into different piles. And then very quickly, they got a fire going and cooked and ate Michael. And of all the parts of his body that were eaten, his brain was apparently the most important. And so only Finn, Ajim, and Pep, the three elders, were allowed to eat the brain. And then finally, after they had finished eating and took all the remaining meat that had not been consumed and they put it into their pouches to eat later, Finn, one of the elders, took Michael's skull and he would bring it back to the village and he would cover it in banana leaves and he would paint it and treat it like a trophy. A few days later, when that huge search party came through the area looking for Michael, the Asmat tribe knew they could never whisper a word about what happened to Michael because if it got out, you know, it's very likely that Westerners would want to retaliate against them. And so for decades and decades, their secret stayed safe until Carl Hoffman of the National Geographic heard the story and then wrote the book about it, Savage Harvest. But despite publishing this book and lots of people reading it, there was always some question about the credibility of the story. Because remember, there's all this intrigue and mystery around Michael's story to begin with, and now we have this account coming from the Asmat tribe, and so no one really knew how legitimate it was. And so to this day, the Rockefeller family and, generally speaking, authorities at large still say that Michael Rockefeller drowned on his swim to shore trying to get help. And that's it. So that's gonna do it. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to check out our podcast called the Mr. Ballin Podcast, where we have literally hundreds more stories just like this one available for you to listen to right now. And many of them are exclusive to the podcast, so you can only get them on the podcast, not on YouTube. You can find that podcast exclusively on Amazon Music.