The mummified bodies of a couple were recently found near the summit of Les Diablerets in Switzerland by an employee of the 3000 Glacier lift operator, according to Le Matin.
© Belinda Wu | Dreamstime
The two bodies, found together, revealed signs of where they were from and when they perished. The style of their clothes suggested they had been there for many decades. An empty wine bottle, identified as coming from the canton of Valais, suggested they were from there.
The bodies were located on the Tsanfleuron glacier next to the Dome ski lift shown on the map above. This location, in the canton of Valais, is close to a point were the three Swiss cantons of Vaud, Valais and Bern meet. The pair were thought to be heading for the canton of Bern.
After being flown to lower ground by helicopter the police started work trying to identify the bodies.
It turns out the unfortunate pair were the parents of seven children from the village of Chandolin, the first town below the glacier. One of them, 79 year old Marceline Udry-Dumoulin, told Le Matin “Mum and day will finally be laid to rest.”
Udry-Dumoulin, who was orphaned at 4, said she and her siblings had spent their lives looking for them. She said discovering them after 75 years came as a relief. Her father Marcelin, a shoemaker, and her mother Francine, a teacher, were 40 and 37 when they disappeared.
On 15 August 1942 the two set off from Chandolin for an alpine meadow in the canton of Bern, with plans to return the same evening. They were feeding their animals as they usually did. This time however they didn’t return. Teams of people from the village spent two and half months looking for the couple but found nothing.
Marceline went to live with her aunt and she and all of her siblings continued to live in the region.
According to 20 Minutes, a funeral service for the couple took place on Saturday at the église de St-Germain in the town of Savièse.
Instead of black Marceline said she would wear white. She said this colour represents hope, the hope she never lost.
More on this:
Le Matin article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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