Missing millionaire spotted 'living with cannibal people' in old footage, claims wild conspiracy

If you were a millionaire, where would you decide to spend your life? Maybe in a mansion? On a yacht? How about with a group of cannibal people?

I can't imagine many people opting for the latter, but one impressive conspiracy suggests this is what happened to millionaire Michael Rockefeller after he went missing in 1961.

Rockerfeller, who was a member of the famously wealthy Rockerfeller family, was in Papua New Guinea when the boat he was travelling on with Dutch anthropologist René Wassing got into trouble.

Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Rockerfeller is said to have told Wassing he thought he could make it the three miles to shore, but he was never seen again.

Speculation about what happened to Rockerfeller began to emerge following his disappearance, with many believing he was killed by a group of cannibal people who lived in the area where he vanished.

However, resurfaced film footage caught in the same area has now created fuel for another theory. Instead of being killed, it's been suggested that Rockerfeller might have actually joined the group.

YouTuber and podcaster MrBallen discussed the bizarre theory in a YouTube video, claiming Rockerfeller was spotted in the jungles of New Guinea long after he was presumed dead.

“A reporter named Milt Macklin heard from this mysterious Australian person that they had actually run into Michael Rockefeller recently in the jungle of New Guinea not far from where he supposedly disappeared,” MrBallen claimed.

Macklin had no luck in finding Rockerfeller himself, but filmed a lot of his journey and the home of the cannibal people.

MrBallen continued: “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 rumours floating around that Michael was alive.

"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."

The scene appeared to show a white man standing among the group, manning a war canoe.

YouTube/MrBallen

"Amongst these big strong men is one man who totally stands out because he doesn't look like the other Asmat Warriors," MrBallen said.

“He is a naked bearded white man who - even though the quality of the film was poor - totally looked like Michael Rockefeller.”

Though the theory of Rockefeller living among the tribe is an interesting one, it comes in contrast to other reports about what happened to him, most of which claim he met a grisly end.

In the documentary series Ring of Fire: An Indonesian Odyssey, the documentarians met a man who claimed to have eaten Rockefeller.

And Carl Hoffman, a journalist from National Geographic, also reported of Rockerfeller's death as he claimed he was found by three Asmat elders who speared him in the ribs and cut his head off.

So, life with the cannibal people might have been the preferred option, but whether he actually ended up there remains to be seen.

Topics: Conspiracy Theory, Viral, YouTube

Emily Brown

Emily Brown is the Community Desk Lead at LADbible Group. Emily first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route. She went on to graduate with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University before contributing to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems. She joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features, and now works as Community Desk Lead to commission and write human interest stories from across the globe.