Frozen remains of Swiss couple missing since '42 identified

July 19 (UPI) -- Swiss police officially identified the bodies on Wednesday of two people found buried in a glacier -- after disappearing 75 years ago.

The frozen and mummified bodies of Marcelin Dumoulin, 40, and his wife Francine, 37, were discovered in a melting glacier last week under a ski lift near Les Diablerets, Switzerland.

A book, a pocket watch and their World War II-era clothing were among clues to their identities. They disappeared on Aug. 15, 1942, as they walked to milk their cows in a Swiss meadow.

Wednesday, officials confirmed their identities.

"They were perfectly preserved in the glacier and their belongings were intact. We think they may have fallen into a crevasse where they stayed for decades," Bernard Tschannen, director of the Glacier 3000 ski resort, told the local newspaper Le Matin.

"We spent our whole lives looking for them, without stopping. We thought that we could give them the funeral they deserved one day," the couple's youngest daughter, Marceline Udry-Dumoulin, now 79, told Le Matin. "I can say that after 75 years of waiting this news gives me a deep sense of calm."