French skier who disappeared in Italy in 1954 is finally identified

A French skier who disappeared in Italy more than 60 years ago has been identified after his story was shared on social media, Italian police say.

Human remains, ski equipment and glasses had been found in 2005, high in a valley in Italy's Aosta region.

But investigators were unable to identify the victim, and, last month, shared their findings on Facebook.

A French family then matched the glasses to a relative, Henri Le Masne, which sparked a forensic investigation.

The belongings were discovered 3,000 metres (10,000 ft) high in the Alps, near the Swiss border.

There were some clues about the man's identity - such as clothing embroidered with initials and wooden skies, which at the time of use would have been expensive - but the investigators remained puzzled.

They established that the remains belonged to a man who would have been about 1.75 metres tall and aged about 30, with his death likely to have occurred in the spring, said Marinella Laporta, an investigator with the forensic police unit in Turin.
In June, the Aosta valley prosecutor's findings were shared on social media with an appeal for readers to spread the information, especially in France and Switzerland.
The story was then picked up by French media.

Collected
BBC news