Michael Rockefeller — Heir to American Dynasty Vanishes Off Coast of New Guinea

On November 19, 1961, 23-year-old Michael Rockefeller — the son of New York Governor and future Vice President Nelson Rockefeller — disappeared in the Arafura Sea off the coast of what was then Dutch New Guinea. His catamaran had capsized and he attempted to swim approximately 12 miles to shore. He was never found.

Michael had been in New Guinea as part of a Harvard Peabody Museum expedition, collecting artifacts from the Asmat people — a tribe known for their exceptional woodcarving and for a tradition of headhunting and ritual cannibalism. He had made a previous trip and was highly dedicated to the fieldwork.

A massive search organized by his family including an aircraft from the US Navy and personal involvement by Nelson Rockefeller found no trace of his body or the improvised flotation device he had used. A local fisherman reported seeing a swimmer far offshore, but this was never confirmed.

In 2014, journalist Carl Hoffman published extensive research in the book Savage Harvest, which concluded, based on years of fieldwork with the Asmat, that Michael had successfully made it to shore only to be killed and cannibalized by Asmat men seeking revenge for the earlier killing of Asmat tribesmen by Dutch authorities — a killing that tradition required be avenged. Dutch colonial documents and Asmat oral histories supported this conclusion. The Rockefeller family has never publicly confirmed this account.