Warm weather and melting ice have meant that several sets of human remains have been uncovered in recent months, as glaciers in the Swiss mountains recede. Most recently, police from Valais have identified an Englishman who vanished in 1974, after his body was uncovered from a glacier in September 2022.
The Swiss police have discovered a number of human remains throughout the course of 2022. Due to the unseasonably warm weather throughout the year, the retreating glaciers have revealed a number of bodies that have been identified as missing persons, many of whom lost their lives a number of years ago.
The latest to be identified is the body of an Englishman who vanished on December 31, 1974. The man was identified thanks to help from DNA provided by British police, who confirmed that the man was 32 at the time of his disappearance.
Remains were also found on the Stockji and Chessjen glaciers in late July and early August of 2022. The police worked to connect the Stockji remains to a missing German man who vanished in the Swiss mountains in 1990.
Cantonal police in Valais told 20 Minuten that while they were not looking for specific people during their searches, they had decided to carry out more search flights as the glacier melted during the summer. "As part of the search for missing persons, the cantonal police are constantly looking for new possible leads", a spokesperson said in the summer of 2022.