Modern Mysteries

64-year-old mystery of missing skier solved

By T.K. Randall
July 30, 2018 ·  2 comments

Masne disappeared in the 1950s. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0 Marco Soggetto Back in 2005, authorities discovered human remains and skiing equipment around 3,000 meters up the Cime Bianche in the Valtournenche valley of Italy's Aosta region near the Swiss border.

The unidentified man appeared to have been rather well off given his top-of-the-line equipment (for the time), was determined to be around 1.75 meters tall and was approximately 30 years of age.

Glasses, a watch and a piece of his shirt with initials embroidered on to it were also found.

Unable to determine the man's identity, investigators decided to put out an appeal on Facebook.Incredibly, someone answered.

Frenchwoman Emma Nassem, who had heard about the story on the radio, claimed that the man was her uncle - Henri Le Masne - who had disappeared while skiing near the Matterhorn in 1954.

Masne's 94-year-old brother, Roger Le Masne, also came forward.

A DNA test later confirmed that the remains did indeed belong to Henri Le Masne.

"Thanks to your shares the news has arrived to his family in France and, by means of the extraction of DNA by the scientific police of Turin, we know that the skier is Mr. Henri Le Masne, who had disappeared on the Matterhorn in 1954," the investigators wrote on Facebook.

Vous rappelez le #mystère du skieur disparu? Grâce à vos partages la nouvelle est arrivée à sa famille en France et, au moyen de l'extraction de l'ADN par la police scientifique de Turin, nous savons que le skieur est M. Henri le Masne, qui avait disparu sur le Cervin en 1954 pic.twitter.com/qw4Vzo85JL

— Polizia di Stato (@poliziadistato) July 29, 2018

Source: The Guardian | Comments (2)

Tags: Henri Le Masne