A Dutch priest named Hubertus von Peij was living as a missionary in Asmat at the time of Rockefeller's disappearance. He claimed that one day, four men from the surrounding villages came to him with a confession.
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They said that while on a trading trip, a group of local men spotted Rockefeller swimming to shore. They argued about whether they should headhunt him or not, and in the end, all but one decided they should kill him.
"While they tried to lift [the white man] into a canoe, Pep speared him in the ribs. It wasn’t fatal. They rowed him to a hidden creek, the Jawor River, where they killed him and made a big fire."
The priest wanted to make sure that the man they had killed was indeed Rockefeller, so he asked them what he had been wearing.
"The white man was wearing shorts, but shorts they’d never seen before and that you couldn’t buy in Asmat—shorts that ended high up on his legs and had no pockets. Underpants." They went on to describe how his body had been distributed: "Pep had one thigh bone, Ajim the other. A man named Jane had one tibia, Wasan the other. On the list went: who had his upper arms, forearms, ribs, shorts, glasses, a total of 15 men."
Shocked, but convinced that the men had just clearly outlined Rockefeller's fate, von Peij notified the Dutch government of the horrifying discovery. However, they chose not to act on his evidence.