The search for answers that spanned almost 75 years, finally came to an end for a Swiss family that has looked for their parents since their disappearance on August 15th, 1942. 

Last week, an adventure resort worker on the  Tsanfleuron Glacier in the heart of the Alps, discovered the remains of Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin. The remains had been given up by the glacier, almost 75 years after they were swallowed up as they had trekked up the slopes of the Alps to feed their cattle.

It had been the mother’s first time accompanying her husband to perform that labor, her youngest daughter, Marceline Udry-Dumoulin recollected. Marceline, now 79, was only four at the time her parents disappeared. She was one of seven children. The father, Marcelin, age 40, worked as a shoemaker, and his wife, age 37, was a teacher when they disappeared.

Local searchers covered crevasses in the over two-mile glacier in the Western Bernese Alps for signs of the missing couple for over two months before giving up. The family on the other hand, never gave up, and Marceline says that she has made multiple trips up to the glacier.

After their parents the children were split up and became additions in different family members homes in the region, and so, grew distant.

“We spent our whole lives looking for them, without stopping. We thought that we could give them the funeral they deserved one day,” Marceline told the Swiss-French newspaper, Lausanne daily Le Matin.

Reuters reports that “Glacier 3000 director Bernhard Tschannen told local media, ‘They were perfectly preserved in the glacier and their belongings were intact.'” It was determined that the couple fell into a crevasse, and remained there until the glacier receded and gave them up. They were found lying near each other.

“We spent our whole lives looking for them, without stopping. We thought that we could give them the funeral they deserved one day,”  Marceline  told the Lausanne daily Le Matin.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]

  alps, crevasse, dumoulin, francine, glacier, marcelin, marceline, swiss