Image copyright Télévision Suisse Romande Image caption Bernhard Tschannen shows where the bodies were found in the ice

A shrinking glacier in Switzerland has revealed two frozen bodies believed to be of a couple who went missing 75 years ago, Swiss media report. Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin, the parents of seven children, had gone to feed their cattle in a meadow above Chandolin in the Valais canton on August 15, 1942. We thought that we could give them the funeral they deserved one day,” their youngest daughter Marceline Udry-Dumoulin told the Lausanne daily Le Matin. Their youngest daughter, 79, said the news brought her a "deep sense of calm" and she wanted to give them the funeral they deserved. “We all lived in the region but became strangers.”

The Valais cantonal police said that two bodies bearing identity papers had been discovered last week by a worker on Tsanfleuron glacier near a ski lift above Les Diablerets resort at an altitude of 2,615 metres. Local police said in a statement that there were two bodies lying near each other — “a man and a woman wearing clothing dating from the period of World War Two.”

DNA tests have not yet confirmed their identities, but police said the bodies had identity papers, and were perfectly preserved in the glacier. Image copyright EPA Image caption The weathered belongings of Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin were also found on the Tsanfleuron glacier alongside their bodies

Ms Udry-Dumoulin said her mother, a teacher, rarely went on such walks with her husband, a shoemaker, because she spent much of her adult life pregnant and it was difficult terrain. Within two months of the disappearance of her parents, she and her siblings were placed with different families, and lost contact over the years. She told Le Matin that she wanted to hold a long-awaited funeral, but would not wear black. "I think that white would be more appropriate. Udry-Dumoulin said she plans to have a proper funeral for her parents, and wear white to represent the hope she never lost.
A shrinking glacier in Switzerland has revealed two frozen bodies believed to be of a couple who went missing in 1942 and had never been found, despite extensive searches. Swiss authorities said that a DNA test will be conducted in several days' time.