A missing couple has been found in a melting glacier in the Swiss Alps, ending the 75-year-old mystery of what happened to them in 1942.
DNA testing has yet to be completed, but authorities believe the mummified bodies are those of farmers Marceline and Francine Dumoulin, who never came back after going to milk their cows in Canton Valais on Aug. 15, 1942, according to the Swiss Broadcasting Corp. international online service Swissinfo.ch.
The area is now near the Swiss ski resort Glacier 3000.
The remains were discovered by a ski resort employee last week during regular inspection at 8,500 feet.
"From afar, it looked like small rocks, but there were too many in the same place," station resort director Bernhard Tschannen told Swiss public radio RTS, according to Swissinfo.ch.
According to The Telegraph, Marceline Udry-Dumoulin, 79, the couple's youngest daughter, told the Lausanne daily Le Matin the discovery helped bring some closure for her family.
"We spent our whole lives looking for them, without stopping," Udry-Dumoulin said to the newspaper. "We thought that we could give them the funeral they deserved one day. I can say that after 75 years of waiting this news gives me a deep sense of calm."
Tschannen said that the bodies were lying next to each in clothing that dated back to World War II.
"They were perfectly preserved in the glacier and their belongings were intact," Tschannen told the Tribune de Geneve, per The Telegraph. "We think they may have fallen into a crevasse where they stayed for decades. As the glacier receded, it gave up their bodies."
Marceline Dumoulin, 40, worked as a shoemaker and Francine, 37, was a teacher before they disappeared, leaving a family of five sons and two daughters.
"It was the first time my mother went with him on such an excursion," Udry-Dumoulin said. "For the funeral, I won't wear black. I think that white would be more appropriate. It represents hope, which I never lost."