The friends and family of a Christian missionary who was ‘shot dead’ with bows and arrows on a remote Indian Island believe he could still be alive.
John Allen Chau, 26, was on a mission to introduce Christianity to the most isolated tribe on earth.
But police believe he died on November 16 in a deadly bow and arrow attack by tribesman desperate to keep him off their remote North Sentinel home off the coast of India.
Fishermen who took Chau to the island say they saw tribespeople ‘dragging and burying his body’ on the morning of November 17.
Chau’s close friend and fellow missionary John Middleton Ramsey said he believes there is still a chance his friend may have survived the attack as his body has not been found.
“I think there’s a possibility he may have survived - I wouldn’t rule it out," he told The Sun.
“His mother is a Christian too and she has said that in her prayers that she had feelings that John might still be alive.”
He says authorities shouldn’t rule it out and points out the fishermen are the only source being cited in the reports.
“There weren’t a whole lot of eyewitnesses and so since his body hasn’t been found we shouldn’t rule it out - even if it is a small chance.”
Authorities have been trying to recover his body and believe they know where it is buried but their attempts have been thwarted by the armed tribesman, according to The Sun.
The Sentinelese have been known to attack anyone who goes to the island, seeing them as a threat.
John says if Chau is dead he wouldn’t want anyone to risk their life to bring his body home.
“Knowing John, I don't think it would be that important for him to be buried back at home,” he said.
“So if it was to endanger other people, I think he'd prefer being buried there.”
The young missionary hoped to spend time living with the Sentinelese people, learning their language, converting them to Christianity and even translating the Bible for them.
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