Naturalist Dian Fossey was one of three women dubbed the “Trimates,” chosen by famed paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey to study great apes in their natural environments. Birute Galdikas was assigned orangutans, Jane Goodall was chosen to study chimpanzees, and Fossey was given gorillas.

The “Trimates”

Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall and Birute Galdikas

For over twenty years, Fossey studied her assigned apes in the tiny African nation of Rwanda where her research and conservation work helped reduce the downward population trend in mountain gorillas. She also aggressively spoke against poaching and tourism in wildlife habitats.

Sent To Rwanda

In the early morning hours of December 27, 1985, the fifty-three-year-old primatologist was found brutally murdered in her remote cabin in Rwanda’s Viruga Mountains. Fossey’s bludgeoned face had been spilt open by a single machete blow. Her cabin was ransacked, but it was likely a red herring as all of her valuables, including several thousand dollars in American currency and traveler’s checks, were left undisturbed.

Murdered in Rwanda

In 1987, Fossey’s research assistant, Wayne McGuire, was convicted in absentia of her murder in Rwandan court. McGuire was alleged to have killed his boss and stolen the manuscript to Fossey’s sequel to her successful 1983 book Gorillas in the Mist.

McGuire’s penalty was death by shooting, but he was by then living back in the United States, and he was never returned to Rwanda because the two nations do not have an extradition treaty. Many believe the evidence against McGuire was insufficient to convict.

Wayne McGuire

Other theories suggested are that Fossey’s murder was related to illicit trade, as she was alleged to have damaging evidence of gold-smuggling, hence her ransacked cabin. Most, however, believe she was likely killed by poachers for her outspoken opposition to the practice.

The Motive For Fossey’s Murder is Debated

Dian Fossey is buried at the Gorilla Station at Karisoke Research Station in Karisoke, Eastern, Rwanda.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7412313/dian-fossey#

Three years after her murder, Dian Fossey was portrayed by Sigourney Weaver in the 1988 film “Gorillas in the Mist” based on Fossey’s 1983 book of the same name. Weaver was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

The film did well at the box office and received generally positive reviews.

The Movie About the Slain Primatologist