Bodies of couple missing since 1942 found in melted glacier

Bodies Of Couple Missing Since 1942 Found In Melted Glacier

Marceline Udry-Dumoulin became an orphan at four years old when her parents disappeared down an icy crevasse in 1942.

She and her six siblings never stopped looking for them, hoping to one day give them a proper burial.

"We spent our lives searching for them, relentlessly," Udry-Dumoulin told Le Matin. "We did not think we could ever give them the funeral they deserved. I must say that after 75 years of waiting this news calms me deeply."

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Udry-Dumoulin, 79, found out Thursday her mother and father were discovered, lying side by side on the Tsanfleuron glacier, a few steps from a ski lift.

"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 Le Matin. "They were perfectly preserved in the glacier and their belongings were intact."

Marcelin, 40, and Francine Dumoulin, 37, went to feed their cattle on a mountain pasture Aug. 15, 1942, when they never returned. There were search excursions for months with no success.

"It was the first time my mother went with him on such an excursion," Udry-Dumoulin told Le Matin. "She was always pregnant and couldn't climb in the difficult conditions of a glacier."

"I climbed the glacier three times afterwards, always looking for them," she said. "I kept wondering if they had suffered and what had become of them. I now have the pleasure of having answers to these questions."

And now the family can bury their parents.

"For the funeral, I won't wear black,” Udry-Dumoulin said. “I think that white would be more appropriate. It represents hope, which I never lost."