Iolaire Champa Massacre
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| Date | June 23–24, 1982 |
|---|---|
| Location | Iolaire Island, Dallhausey Fjord, Fiordland National Park |
| Type | Massacre |
| Cause | Unknown |
| Motive | Unknown |
| Target | Staff and Campers at Private Youth Camp |
| First reporter | Counselor Maina Steyn |
| Casualties | |
| 26 | |
| Deaths | 14 |
| Non-fatal injuries | 9 |
| Missing | 3 |
| Property damage | 126,000 SLK |
| Inquest | Conducted by Fiordland Territorial Police |
| Arrests | 3 |
| Convicted | 2 |
| Charges | Endangering the Welfare of a Minor, Negligent Homicide |
| Verdict | Guilty |
| Sentence | 3 years |
The Iolaire Champa Massacre is an unsolved cold case that took place in 1982 in Paleocacher's Fiordland National Park. The bodies of 14 campers and counselors were found on the island following a night of terror, survivors suffering from a variety of injuries provided little detail. To this day the cause of the deaths and the identity of the culprits responsible is unknown.
Contents
Background
Iolaire Champa, or Camp Eagle was a private youth summer camp owned and operated by Seamus Findleagh from 1960-1982. Findleagh leased Iolaire Island from the National Park, so named because of the twin eagle nests on the North and South shores, and built a summer camp there. The camp had a capacity for forty campers in four cabins and ten staff. It hosted groups of campers in ages 11-15 and 16-19 for two week sessions during the summer. In the second session of June 1982 the camp was full to capacity with 51 people on the island, forty campers and eleven counselors and other staff. On the morning of June 23rd Camp Director Findleagh took the youth group of 11-15 year old campers to the town of Rathcullen for a night hike along with the youth counselors. Left behind on the island were the 18 16-19 year old campers and 8 counselors and maintenance staff.
Events of 23-24 June
At 3pm local time on the 23rd of June a young couple on honeymoon in the National Park sailed by the island headed east up the fjord. They recalled hearing bizarre screeching and hollering noises but couldn't make out anything unusual happening due to the fog. At four pm local time the island's shortwave radio attempted to make contact with the National Park Ranger Station in the town of Rathcullen but the transmission was cut off abruptly after only a few words were spoken. According to the ranger on duty, nothing that was said gave him any cause for alarm. At nine pm campers on a nearby headland across the fjord from the island saw a flare go up followed by several firecrackers. They heard the detonations from all the way across the fjord. Fearing the consequences of reckless youth shooting off fireworks in the dry summer brush they reported the sighting to the Rathcullen Ranger Station. At twelve-forty am on the 24th the campers across the fjord were woken by pounding on their tent. Seventeen year old Tricia Annen MacDougal reported that she had swum across the fjord and escaped from Iolaire Island. She was bleeding from lacerations to her face and shoulders and told the campers that "they were all dead." The camping group contacted the Rathcullen Ranger Station again by shortwave radio. The Rathcullen Volunteer Fire Brigade and the two duty rangers from the ranger station arrived at Iolaire island by boat at one-fifty six am. The volunteer searchers discovered the bodies of two campers at the boat dock and summoned additional help. By two thirty in the morning more than forty volunteers from the town of Rathcullen were scouring the island for victims. The Fiordland Territorial Police arrived by helicopter at eight am. Fourteen bodies in total were found scattered across the island but were concentrated around the two fire pits in the campground. Eight wounded campers were found barricaded in the kitchen and a storage shed in the campground. One was found hiding amongst rocks on the north shore. All had suffered injuries ranging from lacerations to broken bones and were in states of shock. Two counselors and one female camper were not found.
Investigation
Friction between the Territorial Police and the Park Rangers Service complicated the investigation as did the fact that volunteer rescuers from the town of Rathcullen had thoroughly trampled the campground in a frantic search for survivors. Little physical evidence was apparent. Three of the survivors refused to give statements as to what happened, claiming they didn't remember a thing. Four of them claimed that the camp had been attacked by ape men, the legendary Fear Muncaidh monster. This legend of an eight foot tall ape man that lives in the remote mountains of the Fiordland is unsubstantiated. Seven of the fourteen deceased were determined to have been killed by blunt force trauma to the heads or serious intenral injuries to their torsos and four were determined to have died by overdoses of narcotics with serious trauma contracted post mortem. The causes of death of the remaining three were undetermined as autopsies were refused by the families. The coroner's inquest eventually ruled that the deaths of all fourteen were the result of a drug and alcohol fueled party that erupted into some sort of brawl and the case was closed. Since none of the survivors had injuries or gave statements that could suggest any of them were involved in causing the death of another no charges were filed against any of them.
Local legends
The massacre is held by the locals to be the work of the Fear Muncaidh, a legendary apelike monster that stands eight feet tall and lives in groups. According to locals who participated in the rescue party they found fourteen inch long bare footprints on the island in the vicinity of the dead bodies around the fire pits and found handprints and hair on cabin doors. However since the volunteer searchers trampled all over the scene of the incident and took few if any photographs, the details of what was found on the island prior to the belated arrival of the police is largely lost. Jurisdictional arguments between the two investigating agencies didn't help with both the Territorial Police and the Park Rangers refusing each other access to certain pieces of evidence and witnesses. The crew of a Park Ranger helicopter claimed that the day after the massacre they tranquilized and netted a bipedal gorilla on another island six miles up the fjord from the crime scene, but when the creature was slung under the helicopter for transport the ropes came loose and the creature fell into the fjord and sank. This claim is denied by the Park Ranger Service who report that all they did was accidentally drop a bear they were relocating.
Criminal proceedings
Charges were filed against the owner of the camp and the two surviving staffers for allowing the teenage campers to be supplied drugs by their counselors and for neglecting to maintain proper communications equipment and safety gear. The camp owner and his wife were both convicted and sentenced to three years. Following their sentences they emigrated from Paleocacher abroad and their whereabouts are currently unknown.
