One of the last known photos of Michael Rockefeller with the cannibal peoples believed to have killed him

Michael Rockefeller went missing in 1961 and one of the last known photographs of him shows him with a cannibal tribe.

To this day, what happened to 23-year-old Michael Rockefeller - the son of New York Governor and later US Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and grandson of American financier John D. Rockefeller - is a mystery.

In 1961, Rockefeller and Dutch anthropologist, René Wassing, went on an expedition in the Asmat region of southwestern New Guinea - now a part of the Indonesian province of Papua.

However, seven months into the trip, crisis struck and the 40-foot canoe the pair were on overturned, tossing both Rockefeller and Wassing into the waves.

While Wassing clung to the boat, Rockefeller allegedly began to swim to shore but he was never seen again.

The death and disappearance of Rockefeller remains to be a mystery, even to this day. (Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo)

Wassing was later spotted in the Arafura Sea and was rescued, but searches for Rockefeller showed up nothing.

And it didn't take long for theories to begin to develop - one rumor was that he got to shore, whether conscious or not, and ended up being killed by the cannibalistic Asmat tribe.

And when the National Geographic did a project on the tribe around 10 years later, other theories developed.

Michael C. Rockefeller (1934-1961) adjusting his camera in New Guinea, Papuan men in background. This is one of the last pictures of him alive. (Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo)

One photograph from the project seemed to show one white man rowing with the tribe and it didn't take long for people to question whether it was Rockefeller.

Malcolm Kirk, the photographer who captured the footage, has given his take on the mind-boggling theory and he's a little sceptical.

He said: "I can’t say I was particularly aware of a light-skinned figure in one of the canoes, but I do recall coming across a reference to an albino male when I glanced through my journal a few weeks ago."

Documentary maker Fraser Heston, whose 2011 film The Search for Michael Rockefeller investigated the disappearance, is more open minded however.

Another theory is that Rockefeller lives amongst the tribe. (Malcolm Kirk/National Geographic)

He says in the documentary: "This shot of a bearded, light-skinned Caucasian paddling in a canoe full of naked Asmat warriors begs more questions than it answers.

"The resemblance to Michael Rockefeller, an accomplished canoeist who wore a beard, is obvious."

Commenting on the photo on social media, one person wrote: "Too good to be true, but I really want to believe it."

Although, someone else thought: "I believe they killed him. I don't know if they ate him, but it was known they did that sort of thing."

Speaking about Michael's last photos, Carl Hoffman, who wrote the book, Savage Harvest, on Rockefeller's disappearance, said: "So in that crazy, eerie, strangeness, Michael had photographed the people who would later kill him."

I guess we'll never know for sure what really happened.

Topics: Celebrity, Travel, World News

Anish Vij

Anish has an MA in Multimedia Journalism and is passionate about delivering sarcastic/mildly amusing content. After studying business at undergrad, Anish realised that he’d much prefer getting paid to rant about a topic, rather than to find a solution to it. Apart from that, he loves the ‘Four F’s’, as he calls it - family, friends, football and food. Email: [email protected]

@Anish_Vij