A couple who went missing almost 75 years ago have been found in the Swiss Alps as glacial ice has receded near the Glacier ski slopes of Les Diablerets.
Francine Dumoulin, a school teacher, and her husband Marcelin, a shoemaker, vanished on August 15 1942 when they went up to the mountain to feed their cattle.
Searches at the time failed to find them and the current theory is that they both fell in to a crevasse near the Tsanfleuron glacier.
The couple were found by a ski lift maintenance manager at the Glacier 3000 ski area close to the swiss resorts of Gstaad and les Diablerets about 50 metres from the end of the glacier as snows melted.
“They were lying there, close to each other. The ice has preserved them, “Bernhard Tschannen, director of Glacier 3000 told local media, adding, “It was a mummified man and a woman wearing clothes from the pre-war period.”
The couple left seven children orphaned who became estranged as they were separated and raised by different families, it is not clear yet if any are still alive.
The couple are the latest in a growing number of missing people being recovered years after their disappearance due partly to glacial movement and partly to the rapid thaw of glaciers due to climate change. Three Swiss brothers who had disappeared in 1926 were found in 2012, a missing climber who was lost in 1954 was found in 2008.