Swiss find remains of 2 Japanese climbers missing since 1970

DNA tests on human skeletal remains have recently shown them to belong to two climbers who vanished 45 years ago, the Valais regional police said in a statement. They were taken for forensic examination, and experts put together DNA profiles.

DENIS BALIBOUSE/REUTERS The remains of two young Japanese climbers missing on the Matterhorn mountain in Zermatt, Switzerland. since a 1970 snow storm have been identified through DNA testing of their relatives, police said on Thursday.

The pair disappeared in a snowstorm, and search and rescue attempts at the time failed to find them.

Police didn’t release the names of the Japanese climbers, who were reported missing on August 18, 1970.

In 2009, the Swiss parliament approved a preliminary measure to redraw its border with Italy near Matterhorn mountain due to melting glaciers, caused by warming temperatures, that have shifted a frontier fixed more than a century ago, Bloomberg News reported.

“Research undertaken by cantonal police in cooperation with Japan’s consulate in Geneva led to finding members of their families in Japan”.

The first victim had been officially identified on June 11 and the second on July 20, police said, adding that it has a database of all missing climbers in the mountainous Swiss canton of Valais stretching back to 1925.

Japanese authorities said they were making the necessary arrangements to have the remains repatriated.

Over 500 people have lost their lives climbing the Matterhorn, according to Reuters. The resort and peak remain especially popular with Japanese and American tourists.

The remains were found at about 2,800 meters (9,200 feet).