Human Remains Found on Glacier Identified as Mountaineer Who Disappeared 31 Years Ago

NEED TO KNOW

• Swiss police said that mountaineers found human remains during their climb of the Ober Gabelhorn mountain in October

• Subsequent investigations led to the positive identification of the remains

• Police said the mountaineer was a Swiss citizen who was born in 1969 — and vanished with another mountaineer in November 1994

Authorities said that human remains found on a Swiss glacier last month belong to a man who went missing in 1994.

The discovery was made on Oct. 15, when a group of adventurers climbing the Ober Gabelhorn, a mountain in Switzerland’s Pennine Alps, found bones on the Obergabelhorn glacier above Zinal, the Valais Cantonal Police stated in a recent press release.

“Upon receiving the report, officers from the Valais cantonal police were flown to the site by helicopter to secure the remains and personal belongings,” police added.

Following the discovery, the public prosecutor’s office opened an inquiry and an investigation led to the remains being positively identified.

Police said the mountaineer was a Swiss citizen who was born in 1969, but did not share any additional information.

Authorities said that earlier investigations revealed that two mountaineers vanished in the same area in November 1994.

The remains of one of the two victims was earlier found in 2000, but the “discovery of the second mountaineer’s remains has now fully solved the mystery of their disappearance,” police said.

According to Switzerland’s tourism website, the Ober Gabelhorn has an elevation of over 13,000 feet and is regarded as “the most beautiful mountain” in the Alps.

Increasing global temperatures connected with climate change has led to rapid glacier melting, which in this case, resulted in the discoveries of the remains of missing hikers and climbers, CBS News reported.

A similar case took place in August, when the British Antarctic Society announced that remains of Dennis “Tink” Bell, a 25-year-old researcher who died on a glacier near the Antarctic Peninsula in July 1959 were located and identified.

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That same month, it was reported that the body of a man who vanished nearly three decades ago was found intact in a melting glacier in Pakistan’s Kohistan region.

A shepherd came across the well-preserved body in an area known as Lady Valley, according to the BBC.  An identification card was also found with the name “Naseeruddin,” and authorities were able to link that information to a man who vanished in the region in 1997 after falling into a glacier crack amid a snowstorm. 

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