JC man’s traveling companions agree with his mother that their friend likely was murdered

Friends of a Jefferson City man who died in Russia have joined his mother in her belief that he was murdered.

According to the Siberian Times, the friends said law enforcement officers sought to ‘force confessions from students’ in the case of Colin Madsen, found dead on April 4.

Two Russian friends of Madsen have made allegations about the handling of the search for Madsen, who was missing for eight days in the tourist village of Arshan before his body was found.

He went missing while on a hiking trip with the friends.

They claim that during interrogations they were wrongly accused of his murder, and told they had committed sexual acts on his body, as they were pressured into making confessions.

The allegations from his fellow students at Irkutsk State Linguistic University came in an online newspaper post.

“When Colin went missing, for the whole day we tried unsuccessfully to contact the police for help,” they were quoted as saying. “Despite this, the investigators immediately began to push the theory that his disappearance was our fault or his own fault.”

Rescuers only appeared after Madsen’s mother, Dana Madsen-Calcutt, arrived from America to search for her missing son.

“She was kept in the police station for about four hours and brought to tears with their unethical questions about the personal life of her son,” according to the online newspaper.

Madsen-Calcutt has made her own criticisms of the rescue operation while also suggesting she believes it is likely he was murdered. The newspaper report continued, “When Colin was found, within an hour an official report had been written that there was no visible signs of violence and that Colin had used drugs before he disappeared.’

The Times reported since his body was found, there has been no disclosure of the results of toxicological tests, nor any further details released by the authorities.

“The friends believe that nothing is clear in this story,” the newspaper reported. “They cannot understand why police and investigators try to persuade them — and Colin’s relatives — that Arshan is an absolutely safe place and nothing untoward could happen here. This is a place where many tourists come and some of them drink a lot; also local residents could be aggressive and murders have (previously) occurred in this place.

“After all, if Colin really froze to death, a search promptly organized on 27 March could have saved him,” the friends told the newspaper. “Why, as soon as we were able to get to the police, did they begin to make us confess to his murder, although it was less than a day after he was gone?”

Maden’s family said he was interested in Russian culture, and had a special passion for Buddhism. The republic where he died is one of the main centers of Buddhism in Russia. His dream was to work later in Russia for the U.S. embassy or the United Nations.

Russian authorities have not commented on the allegations from Madsen’s friends.