After 45 years, the remains of two missing Japanese hikers were found on the slope of a melting glacier in the Swiss Alps.
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Swiss forensic scientists established two DNA profiles from the bones found, police said.
“They had invested in the previous night within the stand as they desired to rise northern facial features of the Matterhorn”.
Working with the Japanese Consulate in Geneva, DNA tests were used to compare the remains with samples from the victims’ family members in Japan, Vouardoux said.
The two climbers, identified by the Japanese consulate in Geneva as 22-year-old Michio Oikawa and 21-year-old Masayuki Kobayashi, were reported missing on August 18, 1970, it said.
“They were probably surprised by a snow storm when they disappeared”.
Police in the mountainous region say they maintain a list of climbers who’ve disappeared since 1925. “The snow storm lasted a few days which prevented the rescue teams from searching”.
The investigation that led to recovery of remains of missing climbers was started in September last year after a climber spotted skeletal remains and climbing equipment at the foot of the Mattherhorn glacier.
Asked whether their remains were being repatriated to their homeland, the Japanese official, who declined to be named, said only: “We are making the necessary arrangements according to the wishes of the families”.
More than 500 people have lost their lives on Matterhorn since the first climb, which took place 150 years ago.
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As Alpine glaciers melt because of global warming, the remains of long-lost climbers have increasingly been emerging from the shrinking mountain ice.
