Russian police are looking for U.S. grad student Colin Madsen, 25 of Missouri (below), who went missing in Siberia on March 27th.
Madsen, who's doing his postgraduate work at Irkutsk State Linguistic University, was staying "with friends" at a remote guesthouse in Arshan when he allegedly went outdoors in subzero temperatures and vanished without a trace.
Authorities there believe he left the building early Sunday morning between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. without an overcoat, but don't know what preceded this decision.
A colleague of the missing college student posted on Facebook this week that ‘at the moment no one can clearly explain what happened" that morning.
He also said the U.S. embassy in Moscow has been notified of Madsen's missing persons status in the mountainous tourist region of Buryatia and "are taking measures" to help locate him.
Colin Madsen is a slim Caucasian male about 5-foot-6, with blue eyes and brown hair. Anyone with information concerning his disappearance and current whereabouts should alert the Buryatian police or embassy officials without delay.
Helicopters are being deployed in today's "full scale" search for the missing young man, and his mother is said to have embarked to Russia from Jefferson City Missouri to join in the quest to find her son 'safe.'
UPDATE 3/31/16: Searchers and shamans are joining forces in the quest to find a 25yo American grad-student still missing in the frigid foothills of Siberia's notorious "Love Peak."
ReplyDeleteDays after Colin Madsen vanished in thin air, it's been revealed that the 'friends' he was staying with at a remote lodge in Siberia delayed almost 24 hours in reporting him gone without a trace.
They reportedly told police that Madsen left their dwelling while they were both asleep without taking his cell phone and dressed only "in a tee shirt" at around dawn on Sunday.
He hasn't been seen nor heard from since that morning.
Throughout the week, Russian authorities -- accompanied now by mystics who claim the mountain the trio planned to climb together is *spiritually active* and "dangerous" -- have intensified rescue efforts, but there's still no sign of lost hiker Colin Madsen.
Russian media is now saturated with images of the smiling multilingual American postgraduate who has frequently gone abroad before without a single incident.
Foul play hasn't been ruled out in his strange missing persons case and many locals were subjected to police questioning during the past couple days. But, as of this afternoon, no POIs or suspects have been named.
E.R.
Amendment to your second paragraph: The friends called the police but they were not in because it was Sunday (odd). They ended up getting in touch with police back in Irkutsk where they studied and finally getting Arshan police involved. I know these boys. Please check your sources.
ReplyDelete@Unknown 3/31: Very "odd" indeed -- but it's great you can speak for "these boys" because I have some questions:
ReplyDelete1. How well did they know Mr. Madsen and each other, or were they all merely acquainted via school?
2. How do they know what he was wearing (or not wearing) when he allegedly left the guesthouse in arctic temps on Sunday?
3. How do they know he went outdoors without proper clothing around dawn?
Thanks for the inside info, btw, and for dropping by this afternoon - E.R.
UPDATE 4/1/16: Russia has launched a murder investigation into the missing-persons case of 25yo American student Colin Madsen, who suspiciously vanished from a mountain lodge on March 27th.
ReplyDeleteRussian media is reporting that friends there -- including "one American" -- who reported him missing the next day have now been labeled 'suspects' and subjected to polygraph tests.
A forensic team is also examining the guesthouse in Buryatia, where the group was staying in anticipation of a climb, for any "traces of blood."
None so far has been detected, but investigators suspect foul play may be a factor in Madsen's unusual vanishing because he wasn't planning to leave the area and it's unlikely he'd have gone outdoors in subzero weather in just underclothing or without taking his cellphone.
The region continues to experience dramatic weather which is standard for Siberia but hampering the rescue mission.
Yesterday's search effort reportedly involved the use of aerial drones, but produced no additional clues as to Colin Madsen's whereabouts.
E.R.
There is an update in this case. Colins parents had press conference in London last week. US Forensic reported Colin did not die where he wss found. Signs of restraint and other injuries pointed to asphyxia.
ReplyDelete