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Remains of a British climber identified on Swiss glacier after over 50 years

Photo of a glacier
The British alpinist was found on the Chessjen glacier near the village of Saas-Fee in August 2022. © Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

More than 50 years after the disappearance of a British climber in the Valais Alps, in southern Switzerland, his remains have been identified.

In August 2022, two mountain hikers discovered the bones of a man on the Chessjen glacier near the village of Saas-Fee.

After the human remains were found, they were taken to the forensic medicine department of the Valais hospital in Sion for examination.

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One year later, a DNA analysis revealed that the remains belonged to a British climber who had gone missing at the end of July 1971, the Valais cantonal police announced on Thursday.

+Remains of long-lost German alpinist found on Swiss glacier

Last year, various dossiers of missing persons from the Saas-Fee region were analysed. After an anthropological examination of the bones, the experts were able to narrow down the number of potential missing persons.

+Debris from 1968 plane crash found on Swiss glacier

In cooperation with specialists from Interpol Manchester and the authorities of Police Scotland, a relative of the victim was identified. A direct DNA comparison made it possible to prove that the bones found were those of the British climber.

The Valais police have a list of people who have gone missing since 1925. As a result of melting glaciers, bodies of people who have been missing for decades are increasingly being uncovered.

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate them into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here

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