Swiss glacier yields bodies of couple missing for 75 years

Record ID: 903317

  • Title: Swiss glacier yields bodies of couple missing for 75 years
  • Date: 19th July 2017
  • Summary: GLACIER 3000, LES DIABLERETS SWITZERLAND (JULY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) HOLE IN GLACIER (SOUNDBITE) (English) GLACIER 3000 DIRECTOR BERNHARD TSCHANNEN SAYING: "So for the first time, the wife went with the husband, because before she was always pregnant, she had seven kids, and we believe that they were walking either in direction of Bern (Swiss capital) or coming back, and that they fell in a crevasse, that they ended in a crevasse, and that 75 years later approximately, the glacier gave them back." TSCHANNEN WALKING ON ZANFLEURON GLACIER, NEAR AND AROUND THE HOLE HAIR THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN THAT OF COUPLE ELEMENTS OF UMBRELLA (SOUNDBITE) (English) GLACIER 3000 DIRECTOR BERNHARD TSCHANNEN SAYING: "Then, at that time, the glacier was much bigger than now, and, to imagine, in winter time, we have 5, 6 meters of fresh snow on the glacier. So the last years, the glacier shrunk a bit. This is now why 75 years later, two bodies came out on the glacier and it took so much time, because they were very deep in the glacier inside." GLACIER 3000 SAVIESE, SWITZERLAND (JULY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) MONIQUE GAUTSCHY-DUMOULIN'S HOUSE VARIOUS OF TROPHEYS ON A SHELF WITH THREE FRAMES WITH PICTURES OF HER PARENTS' FRANCINE AND MARCELLIN DUMOULIN
  • Embargoed: 2nd August 2017 18:12
  • Keywords: bodies Swiss couple Marcelin Francine Dumoulin missing couple glacier
  • Location: GLACIER 3000, LES DIABLERETS AND SAVIESE, SWITZERLAND
  • City: GLACIER 3000, LES DIABLERETS AND SAVIESE, SWITZERLAND
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: Disaster/Accidents
  • Reuters ID: LVA0036QDWPXJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:****EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES****
    Swiss police confirmed on Wednesday (July 19) the identity of a Swiss couple whose frozen remains were found on a shrinking glacier last week, and who had been missing for 75 years.
    Marcellin and Francine Dumoulin, the parents of seven children, had gone to feed their cattle in a meadow in the Valais canton on August 15, 1942.
    Their bodies and belongings including food, a book, umbrella and backpack were found in a hole on Zanfleuron Glacier, on Glacier 3000, by an employee doing maintenance work last Thursday (July 13).
    The disappearance of the 40-year-old shoemaker and his 37-year-old wife, a teacher, shocked the region.
    All their sons are now dead. One of them spent a great part of his life desperately searching the glacier hoping to find the bodies of his parents.
    The two daughters, Monique Gautschy-Dumoulin, 86, and Marceline Udry-Dumoulin, 79, are still alive.
    For Monique, who was 11 when her parents went missing and still remembers details of that day, there is little relief in the discovery of their bodies, and the pain of their absence remains strong.
    The pair were among 280 people listed as missing in the Alps or rivers of the Valais canton since 1925, according to the police who expect to find more bodies as the glaciers melt.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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