The Gulf News reports on the latest in sseries of "mysterious" deaths associated with the discovery of the 5,300 year old hunter's corpse in an Alpine glacier:

An Australian molecular biologist who carried out research on the Stone Age hunter known as Oetzi the Iceman has died, renewing speculation that the tribesman's remains are cursed.

Tom Loy, 63, is the seventh person connected with Oetzi to have died prematurely since the 5,300—year—old hunter's corpse was found entombed in an alpine glacier on Austria—Italy border in 1991.

Loy was diagnosed with a rare blood condition 12 years ago, shortly after he became involved in research into Oetzi, that caused his blood to clot.

He is believed to have died two weeks ago but his body remained undiscovered for several days. He was divorced.

An inquest into the death was inconclusive, ruling out foul play but unable to determine if he had died of natural causes, an accident, or both.

The others:

Helmut Simon (67) The amateur climber who found Oetzi. He was killed during an unexpected blizzard in the Alps last year.
Dieter Warnecke (45) The head of the mountain rescue team sent to find Simon. He died of a heart attack within hours of Simon's funeral.
Rainer Henn (64) A forensic pathologist who handled the body. He was killed in a car crash in 1992
Kurt Fritz (52) The mountaineer who led Henn to the body. He was killed in an avalanche shortly after Henn died
Rainer Holz (47) A filmmaker who made a documentary about removing the body. He died of a brain tumour
Konrad Spindler (66) An archaeologist who was a leading expert on the body. He died of multiple sclerosis complications

Eric Schwappach   11 06 05