Missing Tourist Identified Nearly 60 Years Later Through DNA

Experts from the Innsbruck forensic medicine have now found out through DNA examinations that a lower leg and foot found there in 2024 can be assigned to a then 30-year-old German from Baden-Württemberg, the police announced on Thursday.

Police Officers Recovered Bones, Lower Leg and Foot

The man had apparently fallen into a crevasse in the area of the so-called Waterfallferner at an altitude of around 3,200 meters and had since been considered missing. At the end of August 2024, several bones and that lower leg and foot were finally found in the district of Gurgl, in the Rotmoostal at an altitude of 2,459 meters. Police officers recovered the bones, lower leg and foot and handed them over to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Innsbruck.

Expert opinions then provided clarity: While some bones were of animal origin, the lower leg and foot were a human body part. In addition, further DNA examinations were carried out, which proved that the human body part can be assigned to that 30-year-old German, it was said. According to the executive, there are no relatives of the missing ski tourer.

(APA/Red)

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