DNA analysis has formally identified human remains found on a Swiss glacier as two Belgian mountaineers who disappeared 34 years ago in the Weissmies region, authorities confirmed after bodies were discovered on the Trift Glacier on July 26.
A hiker reported finding the remains on the melting glacier in southern Switzerland near the Italian border, and the bodies were transported to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Valais Hospital in Sion for examination. Direct DNA profile comparison established the identities of the two men, who were 39 and 41 years old at the time of their disappearance.
The case adds to a growing list of glacier recoveries as ice retreats worldwide, including a Swiss mountaineer missing since 1994 whose bones were found last year in the Obergabelhorn massif. Wallis cantonal police maintain a missing persons registry dating to 1925, primarily covering high mountain and waterway disappearances.