The Weekend Post

Hidden gold, Jesus lured American to remote death

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THE young American adventurer killed by tribesmen on a remote island harboured an intense obsession with the secluded people and “lost his mind” shortly before he was murdered, a friend says.

The New York Post reports that Remco Snoeij, who runs a dive shop in India’s Andaman and Nicobar island chain, said Mr Chau seemed to be intensely interested in the North Sentineles­e tribe, an isolated people living on the North Sentinel island that is off limits to visitors.

“He shared a deep interest in researchin­g and knowing more about them,” Mr Snoeij told The Washington Post.

Mr Snoeij told Mr Chau (above) about two fishermen who breached the island in 2006 and were strangled by islanders and about rumours that the Japanese military had buried gold there in World War II.

“It must have struck a chord,” with Mr Chau, he said.

On November 14, Mr Chau paid fishermen to take him to the island by boat at night. According to his diary, he saw men armed with bows and arrows and yelled “My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you.”

He returned the next day and the tribe fired arrows at him, piercing his waterproof bible. “He lost his mind, definitely,” Mr Snoeij said.

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