Swiss glacier yields bodies of couple missing for 75 years

Record ID: 903318

  • 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) VARIOUS OF GLACIER 3000, WHERE THE BODIES WERE FOUND (SOUNDBITE) (English) GLACIER 3000 DIRECTOR BERNHARD TSCHANNEN, AS HE WALKS ON ZANFLEURON GLACIER WHERE THE BODIES WERE FOUND AND SHOWING A HOLE, SAYING: "So here we can see the hole where the two bodies were found on Thursday evening (July 13), between 5 and 6 pm." VARIOUS OF TSCHANNEN WALKING ON ZANFLEURON GLACIER, NEAR AND AROUND THE HOLE WHERE THE BODIES WERE FOUND HOLE WITH GLACIER WATER (SOUNDBITE) (English) GLACIER 3000 DIRECTOR BERNHARD TSCHANNEN SAYING: "But then, when he came closer, he thought that it was strange, big rocks on the glacier, so he went closer, and then he realised that it was two bodies, that there were two bodies, a man, you could see one shoe of a man, and two shoes of a woman, and some parts of the body, some backpack, some water bottle."
  • 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: LVA0016QDWPXJ
  • 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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