Monday, June 24, 2002 

                 Chile investigates
                 missing professor
                 Boris Weisfeiler taught
                 math at Penn State
                 before disappearing in
                 1985.

                 By Erica Zarra  
                 Collegian Staff Writer 

The State Department and CIA have reopened the case of missing Penn State math 
professor Boris Weisfeiler, whose 1985 disappearance in Chile remains unsolved. 
Recently declassified state and CIA reports indicate that Weisfeiler was most 
likely kidnapped by Chilean state security forces, who reportedly turned him 
over to a secretive and heavily armed pro-Nazi religious faction based nearby. 
The reports indicate that he did not drown while crossing the Los Sauces River, 
as the Chilean government had concluded. The United States never formally 
disputed Chile's version of the events.                 
The New York Times reported that American records prompted the case's 
reinvestigation. The records showed that diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in 
Santiago remained skeptical of the Chilean government's explanation of 
Weisfeiler's disappearance. However, these efforts were reportedly blocked by 
State Department officials in Washington, D.C., who were unwilling to finance 
the search.                 
"I put a lot of effort into the reopening of this case. It was me and my lawyer 
in Chile, not the American government," said Weisfeiler's sister, Olga. "I don't 
feel this case has been handled well at all (by the U.S. government) and I hope 
they (officials) will now be active participants in finding him."                 
Years of investigations and contradictory reports continue to fuel confusion and 
concern about what really happened to Weisfeiler that winter day 17 years ago.                 
It was 1985 and the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet was at its height.                 
Weisfeiler, an experienced hiker, was backpacking through Chile and nearing the 
end of his trip. He was approximately 10 kilometers away from his final 
destination of San Felipe de Alico, where he would take a bus back to Santiago 
for his flight home to Pennsylvania. Weisfeiler had hiked from Los Angeles and 
was moving down the north side of the Nuble River.                 
Weisfeiler camped with locals on Jan. 3, 1985 and was seen on Jan. 4. No trace 
of him was found until the discovery of his backpack and gear 11 days later. 
Missing from the pack were his American passport, which listed his place of 
birth as Moscow, and the battered backpack, which had Cyrillic lettering on it. 
He also had on khaki pants that could be confused with military dress and might 

have looked suspicious to the locals of this anti-Semitic apocalyptic religious 
area, according to the Times report.                 
"I think it was the Nazis because he's Jewish and Russian," Olga said.                 
Born to a Jewish scientist who escaped from Nazism, Weisfeiler immigrated to the 
United States in 1975 and became an American citizen in 1981.                 
Considered an algebraic genius with a passion for travel, nature and the 
environment, Weisfeiler has taught at Princeton University and Penn State. 
During this time he also made trips alone to Alaska, Nepal and Peru.                 
"I knew Boris very well and remember his interest in mathematics and the 
outdoors," said Penn State math professor George Andrews. "I have accepted the 
idea that after this much time he must be dead."                 
Another report places Weisfeiler camping outside with a local herdsman on Jan. 
3. The herder's brother later told police there was a "foreign extremist" in the 
area and he sent for a patrol.                 
Two months after Weisfeiler vanished, the Chilean government concluded that he 
drowned while trying to cross a river barely four feet deep. The United States 
never publicly disputed that claim, but friends familiar with his skills as an 
avid naturalist and outdoorsman do not believe it. The 5-foot-7, 140 pound 
Weisfeiler, then 43, was traveling with extensive maps and a compass at the time 
of his disappearance.                 
The New York Times reported that according to declassified documents and sworn 
statements in Chilean court records, local residents and members of the police 
and army patrols were told by their superiors that Weisfeiler was either a 
"Soviet spy" or a "Jewish spy."                 
One military informant even reported a year later that Weisfeiler was held 
captive in Chile, interrogated, tortured and finally executed.                 
Olga does not believe this account either because in 1987 another anonymous 
informant who wanted to "clear his conscience" told the U.S. Embassy that he had 
seen Weisfeiler in a camp, alive and living in animal-like conditions. Olga said 
this person described her brother's appearance, personality and behavior so 
accurately it had to be him.                 
New evidence has caused the case to be reopened and turned over to Juan Guzman 
Tapia, the same investigating judge dealing with charges of human rights 
violations against Pinochet. As part of the case, Guzman revisited the site 
where Weisfeiler was last seen and has been collecting depositions from people 
who might have been there in 1985. Based on the status of his current findings, 

Guzman told the New York Times that he does not have enough evidence yet to rule 
out any cause of disappearance.                 
"Yes, we remain concerned for Weisfeiler and are willing to give Juan Guzman 
help in the Chile case, but Chile has not requested assistance from us," said 
Charles Barclay, spokesman for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
Still, Olga remains optimistic about the condition of Weisfeiler.
 "My hope is to someday find my brother or what happened to him, when and by 
whom," she said.