Who is Whittlesey from The Relic and what is their importance? Relic_(novel) English & Literature Whittlesey | The Relic

Whittlesey is a scientist. He works for the Museum of Natural History. In 1987, he led an expedition into the Amazon, where he secretly hoped to find evidence that the Kothaga Indian tribe still existed. Instead, he disappears.

Gregory Kawakita later establishes that Whittlesey was taken captive by the Kothaga. After which, he was forced to eat a plant infected with a strange virus that changed him into a violent animal. It was in this form that Whittlesey followed his crates from the expedition back to the Museum, where he continued to haunt the halls until he was caught and killed by Pendergast.