Glacier in Swiss Alps melts, revealing couple who disappeared 70 years ago
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In this photo released by the Swiss train company ' Glacier 3000' shoes and clothing are visible at a Swiss glacier where two bodies were found. Police say the bodies of what appear to be two people killed in an accident decades ago have been recovered from a glacier in southwestern Switzerland. Valais canton police say the bodies were found on the Tsanfleuron glacier Friday July 14, 2017 at an altitude of 8,580 feet. They say the equipment found suggests that they died decades ago, and that formal identification with the help of DNA will take several days. (GLACIER 3000/Keystone via AP)
More than 70 years ago, a couple left their home in the Swiss Alps to milk their cows. They were never seen again.
Last week, a melting glacier led to the discovery of two bodies near a ski lift on the Tsanfleuron glacier, by a worker for a resort company.
"The bodies were lying near each other. It was a man and a woman wearing clothing dating from the period of World War II," Glacier 3000 director Bernhard Tschannen told local media, according to Reuters. "They were perfectly preserved in the glacier and their belongings were intact."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}AMERICAN HIKER DIES AFTER FALL IN SWISS ALPS EXCURSION
Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin left their home in Switzerland's Valais canton on Aug. 15, 1942, according to Reuters. They were heading to their cows on a meadow above, but never returned home.
Their youngest daughter Marceline Udry-Dumoulin, now 79, told the Le Matin newspaper of Lausanne, Switzerland, that she and her six siblings never stopped looking for their parents.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Finding the two bodies has brought her a "deep sense of calm," she said.
PILOT'S BODY FOUND AFTER FIGHTER JET CRASH IN SWISS ALPS
Tschannen told the Tribune de Geneve that the couple likely fell into a crevasse, "where they stayed for decades. As the glacier receded, it gave up their bodies."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Udry-Dumoulin told Le Matin that it was the first time her mother had accompanied her father on the trip. "She was always pregnant and couldn't climb in the difficult conditions of a glacier."
She said for the long-awaited funeral, she plans to wear white, not black.
"It represents hope, which I never lost."