The couple’s remains were well preserved, according to authorities.
A couple found this week by a ski resort worker on a Swiss glacier are suspected to have been there since 1942, when they disappeared hiking back to their home. It is a mystery that has befuddled the tiny village of Savièse (in the Canton of Valais) for years. First reported by Swiss and French media, and then the New York Times, Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin disappeared one night and were never heard from again, leaving behind seven children and a village perplexed by the mystery.
Authorities haven’t confirmed that the couple is the Dumoulins but their eldest daughter, now 79, is finding some closure as the bodies were found in the same general area where they disappeared. Marceline Udry-Dumoulin, one of the couple’s two surviving children, expressed certainty that her parents had at last been found.
A couple who disappeared 75 years ago have been found 'perfectly preserved' in a Swiss glacier https://t.co/1Pb30Q4V5b pic.twitter.com/OEbX4jrg0P
— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) July 18, 2017
“You can’t understand the relief this means for me,” said Udry-Dumoulin who has a living sister as well. “I didn’t know my parents; I was 4 years old. But to know where they were was always a question in my mind.” The other five brothers have all passed and the children were split up after their parents disappearance between relatives and neighbors in the village.
It’s theorized that the couple was walking to a chalet in Bern, while the family legend has it that they were on their way to milk cows, when they fell into a crevasse. They were found this week by an employee for Glacier 3000, which operates cable cars and ski lifts in the nearby Alps. The bodies, and the pre-war era clothes they wore, were remarkably well preserved, according to reports.
Global warming’s affect on glaciated terrain has exposed many missing persons lately. Apparently, the body of a German skier lost in 1964 was found in the same area last year. Two Japanese climbers that went missing in 1970 were found near the Matterhorn and in 2012, three brothers who had been missing since 1926 were found by a pair of British climbers.
