By Kayla Epstein, The Washington Post
Last week, a picturesque Swiss landscape was interrupted by a grisly sight. A worker stumbled across boots, bottles and clothing protruding from the ice – and, accompanying them, two bodies that police are estimating had been buried there for decades.
The bodies were found Friday on the Tsanfleuron glacier in Switzerland at an altitude of about 8,500 feet.
Police said in a statement that the two were probably victims of an accident that occurred “several decades ago.” Backpack, books, watches also were recovered at the site and have been sent for forensic analyses.
A worker for a cable car and ski-lift company, Glacier 3000, found the pair, the BBC reported. The site is not far from the Les Diablerets village and ski resort.
“Cantonal police have not confirmed the formal identity of the people who were found because DNA tests have not concluded yet,” said Stéphane Vouardoux, a spokesman for the Valais cantonal police, which is handling the case.
Local media speculated that they are Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin, who went missing in 1942 after going to tend to their cows. They left behind seven children.
Le Matin, a paper in Lausanne, Switzerland, spoke to one of the couple’s children , Marceline Udry-Dumoulin. She is 79 and appeared certain that the bodies were those of her parents. “We spent our lives searching for them,” she said.
If the bodies are indeed those of the Dumoulins, it would give their family closure.
“Mom and Dad will finally have their burial,” Udry-Dumoulin told Le Matin.
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The Post’s Bastien Inzaurralde contributed to this report.
