Melting Swiss glacier reveals bodies of two Belgian climbers missing since 1992
Two Belgian mountaineers who vanished in 1992 were recovered from the Trift Glacier in Switzerland and identified through DNA testing.
On July 26, a hiker reported two bodies on the Trift Glacier in southern Switzerland, close to the Italian frontier. Wallis canton police recovered the remains and forwarded them to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Wallis Hospital in Sion, where DNA profiling matched them to two Belgian climbers, aged 39 and 41, who disappeared in the Weissmies region in 1992. Officials note that the retreat of glaciers is repeatedly exposing victims from past decades, a trend also seen with a Swiss mountaineer from 1994, a British researcher from 1959 in Antarctica, and others uncovered on glaciers in Pakistan and Peru.
Climate-induced ice loss is turning the Alps into a repository of unresolved disappearances. The identification offers closure to the families and highlights the forensic challenges posed by melting ice.
Why it matters
Glacier melt due to climate change is revealing long-lost victims, aiding identification and highlighting environmental impacts.
In this story
