A
frozen corpse
was found on Cerro Mercedario, in the town of Calingasta, in
San Juan
, and investigators believe that it could belong to a Tucuman mountaineer who disappeared in the area more than 40 years ago.
A group of people who were making a journey through the area discovered the body on Tuesday, January 24, which was attached to a
glacier at an altitude of 5,000 meters
, and notified the authorities.
Members of the Provincial Police, together with the National Gendarmerie, arrived at the scene and had to break the ice to be able to extract the body.
The helicopter rescue was completed on Saturday, with the support of the Prosecutor's Office, Criminalistics and the Geras Group.
As it turned out, the body had remnants of mountaineering clothing.
That is why experts are analyzing whether it is
María Emilia Altamirano
, a woman who was lost in that place during an expedition in 1981.
They found a mummified corpse on a hill in San Juan: it could be that of a mountaineer who disappeared more than 40 years ago
At first, they related the finding to the disappearance of the German
Andreas Colli
in 2002. However, studies later determined that the remains correspond to a woman between the ages of 18 and 30.
The body shows the
detachment of one of its feet
and it is believed that the victim died while trying to climb the most complicated slope of the mountain.
The autopsy found that death was caused by
polytrauma
.
Who was María Emilia Altamirano, the Tucuman climber
María Emilia Altamirano
, nicknamed "Patty" was 20 years old when she began the journey with her sister Corina and her boyfriend, Sergio Bossini.
The three of them left on
March 23, 1981
from Barreal and stopped at the Hornadillas area, at the Álvarez Condarco detachment of the National Gendarmerie.
The next day, they made a base at the foot of a 4,300-meter-high glacier, according to the report prepared at the time by the Club Andino de Tucumán.
They began the ascent to the mountain on Friday, March 27.
Around 7 p.m. that day, they made camp on the ice for the night.
According to Bossini and Corina, "Patty" went to tour the area to do a reconnaissance.
It was then that she "
didn't find her footing and slid hundreds of meters down
."
This is how La Gaceta de Tucumán reported the disappearance of the climber in San Juan.
They both began to go down to look for her, but the darkness of the night made their task difficult.
The next morning, they managed to find her, but it was too late:
she was dead
.
The weather and terrain forced them to leave her there while they returned for help.
It was not until March 29 that they arrived at one of the Gendarmerie posts and told what had happened.
They guided a group of professionals to the scene of the tragedy, but
the body had already been buried by snow
.
Not giving up, Bossini returned the following year with other climbers in search of the body.
But it was not successful.
Since then, María Emilia Altamirano has remained missing, although that could change after the DNA results of the recently found corpse are known.
“
I spoke with 'Patty's' brother and they are considering going to San Juan
.
I am concerned about the emotional situation of all of them.
We are also surprised.
This is very strong for his family, we have to wait for them to make the identification.
But it is also about closing a cycle.
More than forty-one years have passed," said a family friend of the disappeared climber in dialogue with
El Tiempo de San Juan
.
Jorge Prieto, a doctor from San Juan who is currently based in Córdoba and who was part of the search operation in 1982, was optimistic about this finding.
“
There is no doubt that it is her
.
I am absolutely sure.
There is no other missing person, much less a woman.
Everything matches, ”he told that same medium.
IS
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