The Foreign Service Journal, October 2007

chancery for physical evidence, taking photos to be pouched back to Wash- ington, D.C. Most importantly, we found the murder weapon, a pair of long, pointed scissors. The FBI later complimented us on our investigative skills. Once Amb. Hoffacker arrived in Santa Isabel on Friday, Sept. 3, 1971, and talked with President Macias, we were able to evacuate the Erdos fami- ly, Mrs. Leahy and her husband’s body to Douala for onward transportation back to Washington. Picking up Erdos at the Nigerian residence, Lannon Walker found him lucid and con- cerned about his fate, asking if he would be charged with murder and put on trial. Erdos was accompanied to Wash- ington by the regional security and medical officers from Lagos, while Walker accompanied Mrs. Leahy and the body from Douala to Washington on a USAF C-141 diverted from Ascension Island. After a brief respite in Douala, I returned to Santa Isabel after Labor Day with my wife Christine to pack out Erdos’ personal effects and gener- ally clean up the mess at post. When the DCM returned, he told us that the Washington autopsy had revealed O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 53 Complicating the investigation, the Guinean authorities adamantly refused to recognize our authority to act on behalf of the U.S. government.