After almost 60 years

Bones discovered: mystery of missing man solved

The police combed the area and the site where the bones were found.

(Bild: Polizei)

For many decades, it was an unsolved mystery as to what happened to a 30-year-old German man who had set off on a ski tour in Sölden. Now this mystery may well have been solved.

In 1967, a 30-year-old German from Baden-Württemberg set off on a ski tour in Rotmoostal together with a colleague. Since then, there has been no trace of the man - until now.

As the police have now announced, several bones and a lower leg including a foot were found in August last year in the municipality of Sölden, in the district of Gurgl, in the Rotmoostal at an altitude of 2459 meters. A shepherdess found the bones and reported this to the police at the time.

The man must have been hiking in these mountains. He fell into a crevasse.

(Bild: Peter Freiberger)

Further investigations
Officers from the Sölden and Imst police stations brought the bones and the supposedly human lower leg down to the valley and handed them over to the Innsbruck public prosecutor's office for examination and DNA testing.

Further DNA tests have now confirmed that the lower leg and foot could be attributed to a 30-year-old German citizen from Baden-Württemberg.

Die Polizei

Animal and human bones
The bones were examined at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Innsbruck. It is now clear that some of the bones are animal bones. However, the lower leg and foot belong to a human. "Based on further DNA examinations, it is now clear that the lower leg and foot could be assigned to a 30-year-old German citizen from Baden-Württemberg at the time," the police explain.

The bones were recovered in Rotmoostal.

(Bild: Polizei)

Man fell into crevasse
The man had been missing since 1967, when he fell into a crevasse in the area of the so-called Wasserfallferner at an altitude of around 3,200 meters in bad weather and has been missing ever since. A large-scale search operation was called off after several days due to the persistent bad weather.

When the bones were found last summer, it was initially unclear who they belonged to. As parts of a ski were also found during the recovery, the investigators rummaged through the archives and became aware of the 1967 case. A DNA test was then ordered.

The bones were found around 700 meters below the site of the accident in the In Kirchen area. There is no exact date of death. There are no relatives of the deceased.