Swiss identify glacier bodies as couple missing since 1942

BERLIN (AP) — Swiss police say they've formally identified two bodies found on an Alpine glacier as those of a couple missing for nearly 75 years. Valais canton (state) police said Wednesday that forensic experts using DNA analysis identified the two as Marcelin Dumoulin and his wife, Francine. They were 40 and 37, respectively, when they disappeared on Aug. 15, 1942.

The couple's daughter, now 79, has said her parents set off on foot to feed their animals but never returned. Police were alerted on Friday to the bodies on the Tsanfleuron glacier at 2,615 meters (8,580 feet) above sea level.

Regional police have a list going back to 1925 of missing people. They note that, because of climate change, bodies of people missing for decades regularly emerge from receding glaciers.

At least their families finally know what happened, LL, and can lay their parents to rest properly.

bb1 wrote:At least their families finally know what happened, LL, and can lay their parents to rest properly.

Indeed. It also happens in the Austrian Alps. LL

'I can say that after 75 years of waiting this news gives me a deep sense of calm,' added the 79-year-old.
Searches were carried out for more than two months but ultimately the seven orphans - five boys and two girls - were placed in foster homes.
'It was the first time my mother went with him on such an excursion. She was always pregnant and couldn't climb in the difficult conditions of a glacier,' Udry-Dumoulin said.
'After a while, we children were separated and placed in families. I was lucky to stay with my aunt,' she said. 'We all lived in the region but became strangers.'
'For the funeral, I won't wear black. I think that white would be more appropriate. It represents hope, which I never lost.'
The couple, who will be buried in a joint service at their local church, left five sons and two daughters.


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It will mean an awful lot to the family, after all these decades of just not knowing.