Aeryn Gillern

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Aeryn Gillern as Mister Gay Austria 2006
Aeryn's "private" cabin in the "Kaiserbründl"
"Kaiserbründl" - Last recorded location on October 29, 2007
The Vienna River flows into the Danube Canal behind the Urania , here allegedly the drowning man was sighted by a fisherman

Aeryn Gillern (born April 28, 1973 in Elmira , New York ) is a UNIDO employee. He has been missing since October 29, 2007.

biography

Gillern was born the son of Kathryn Gilleran (* 1952) and a German father. In June 1991 he graduated from the Groton High School in Groton, New York, and in 1997 the Franciscan University of Steubenville ( Ohio ) in theology with a Bachelor of Arts . From 1997 to 1998 Gillern attended the seminary in Graz - Seckau ( Austria ). In 1999 Gillern received a Master of Arts with Honors in Theology and Christian Ministry from the Franciscan University in Steubenville. In 2003 he was hired as a research assistant by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Vienna (Austria).

On November 16, 2002 he was nominated as Mister Gay Austria and also as a model for swimwear under the pseudonym Michael Jackson . In 2006 Gillern was nominated again as Mr. Gay and was one of the applicants for the Mister Gay World in Palm Springs , California . In 2007 Gillern obtained his second master's degree in international relations from Webster University Vienna and was elected to the UNIDO works council.

In September 2007 he flew home to his mother Kathryn Gilleran in Cortland , (New York) to visit his family for ten days. His mother planned to sell her house and temporarily move to Vienna to stay with her son (who lived on Handelskai, on the corner of Mexikoplatz ) for several months. On October 27, 2007, Kathy last phoned her son.

Investigations and theories about the disappearance of Gillern

On October 31, 2007, Kathy Gillern received a call from a UNIDO employee in Vienna that Gillern had not appeared at his place of work for two days. On November 1, 2007, she flew to Vienna to look for Gillern. In Austria, Gillern's friends reported him missing to the police. He was last seen on October 29th in the Kaiserbründl sauna . Allegedly he was only wearing a bathrobe and bathing shoes and left the sauna building with his cell phone in hand.

The Austrian police suspected that Gillern died of suicide shortly after leaving the sauna . He is said to have covered the way from Weihburggasse, past Palais Coburg to Schwedenplatz and Urania , and there he plunged into the water of the Danube Canal . The search for a corpse in the Danube Canal was apparently quickly stopped, but it was unsuccessful.

Kathy Gillern, who does not believe in her son's suicide, criticized the Vienna police after her contact with them as unprofessional, raw and mocking her son's homosexuality. In 2009, MPs Peter Pilz and Ulrike Lunacek from the Greens submitted a parliamentary question to Interior Minister Maria Fekter (ÖVP), which dealt with the details of the search for the disappeared and the alleged anti-gay behavior of the officials.

In 2014/2015 " cold case " experts took up the case again. A two-day diving operation in the Danube Canal near the Urania, where body parts could have got caught under the groynes , did not provide any useful information.

Film documentaries

Filmmakers Gretchen and John Morning made a documentary about the Gillern missing person case, whose main informant is Gillern's mother, Kathryn Gilleran. Since 2008, Kathryn Gilleran has been holding vigils in Vienna's Weihburggasse in front of the portals of the Franciscan Church and the Kaiserbründl on the day of commemoration of her son's disappearance (October 29).

On July 6, 2012, the ORF broadcast another documentary about the case (moderation: Peter Resetarits ), which was also repeated on channel 3sat . A representative of the Vienna police and a number of Gillern's friends and employees had their say, including the witness (a German student) who claims to have seen Gillern naked at the parlor gate on the way to the Dominican bastion together with his girlfriend .

Annual vigil

From 2008 to 2017, Kathryn Gilleran stood at the right side portal of the Franciscan Church, which is opposite the entrance of the Kaiserbründl, on October 29th between 6:45 and 8 p.m. to commemorate the disappearance of her son. She tried to get into conversation with passers-by in order to identify witnesses to Aeryn Gillern's whereabouts.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Gillern is the name of an Austro-Bohemian noble family , but the missing person does not come from this family, as his mother was born as Gilleran .
  2. ↑ According to other sources, Gillern (who appeared under a pseudonym in this case) was born in Augsburg : “Start number 2, Michael Jackson, born in Augsburg, Germany, grew up in the USA, has lived in Vienna for ten years, is 29 years old, Stier, 187 cm tall, 85 kg, green eyes and if he doesn't shave his head, he has dark blonde hair. He already has three masters and is continuing to work on his education at the Webster University in Vienna. He does a lot of sport and attaches great importance to health. He loves classical music, likes to go to the cinema and his favorite actress is Susan Sarandon. ” “ Let's celebrate ”, the gala evening for the“ Mister Gay 2002 ”election
  3. ↑ Gillern was publicly known as a model at the latest since his candidacy for the election of Mister Gay Austria , which he also won. He has been depicted repeatedly in magazines (Xtra) and newspapers. Although he had to have given his consent to the publication of the portraits of him in these sheets, he reacted in part hysterically and tried to collect all copies of these magazines that were accessible to him and to have them disappear. Gillern is also said to have been a member of a conservative student union.

Web links

Commons : Aeryn Gillern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Graz-Seckau seminary.
  2. ↑ Mister Gay Austria election as starting number 2.
  3. ↑ The day Aeryn disappeared. ( Memento of December 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Falter . 47/08.
  4. ↑ The Aeryn Gillern case: The Greens bring a parliamentary question. In: Falter. 04/09, reproduced on Geppektiven (weblog)
  5. ↑ Cobra divers were looking for a body in the Danube Canal. In: wien.orf.at. May 6, 2015, accessed March 7, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Gillern, Aeryn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jackson, Michael (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American employee of a UN organization, Mister Gay Austria 2002
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH unsure: Elmira , New York , United States