Donald Mackenzie: Missing in Turkey

DAY 9

Immediately after breakfast I was handed a mobile phone. 'Hello,' I said.

'Hello, I'm Joannah. [Joannah Lumley] Can you tell me your name please?'
'Derick Mackenzie.'

'Oh, hello Derick, delighted to speak to you.  I'm here making a documentary about the ark.  I've been hearing all about the terribly tragic story of your brother and it would be wonderful if you could speak to us as part of our film.'

I had to say no as I have an agreement with the the documentary makers I am working with.  She was very understanding.

Ah well, never mind.  I spoke to her and her crew in the evening and she was very nice.  She told me that she had stayed in Stornoway about twenty years ago in a B&B owned by a Mrs Mackenzie.

The kids in the above picture live in the village where Donald stayed most of the time.

More revelations tonight.  I spoke to a very experienced mountaineer and guide who knew Donald very well.  He told me that Donald knew what he was doing and had the best of equipment.

He went into great detail about how a bunch of conmen called N.A.M.I. (Noah's Ark Ministries International) brought wood by truck from an old sailing ship on the black sea and paid locals to take the wood up the mountain on horseback and constructed a fake ark in an ice cave high on the slopes.  He is the man who showed them the cave in the first place.  He specifically named the people involved and said all of this on camera.  A very honest man I believe.

I had heard much of this before but this is the first time I have heard personal testimony of it from a man prepared to make himself public.  Remembering that it was to check out whether this reported discovery was genuine or not was why Donald came here the last time.
We now seek to track down one of the key men involved in this fraud.

The thing that has made the difference here is that people care.  They have a conscience.