"
We are so happy to know that it is her
."
Corina Altamirano is grateful for this opportunity to meet again.
This week, after a wait of more than 40 years, she received the news that she needed to close a painful story.
It was confirmed that the remains found in Cerro Mercedario, in San Juan, belong to Marta "Patty" Altamirano, her sister, who died in 1981 and whose body had never been found.
Now, the procedures have begun so that he finally rests in peace.
Those who recognized the remains were Patty's brothers, who went to the Laboratory and Judicial Morgue of San Juan, where they met with the prosecutor in the case, Iván Grassi.
“The prosecutor explained to us how the procedure was going to be (...) When we entered (the examination room) they presented us with the clothes my sister was wearing and we were able to recognize almost everything.
They were in a state of disrepair;
even some things had changed color,
but they were hers
, ”Corina told La Gaceta de Tucumán.
“We are so happy,
so grateful to life that the four brothers can be
together in this situation and to know that it is her.
No doubts;
and we are also grateful for the scientific work, so painstaking and so meticulous, that the specialists did," he added.
The body, found last week, had been removed by the National Gendarmerie with a helicopter.
He was stuck in a glacier, where he stayed for more than four decades
.
The date was very special.
A day before what would have been another birthday.
This was the rescue of the body.
"As soon as they began to show us everything,
I knew it was her
(...) They all worked in unison and in such a respectful, loving and humane way that we were moved," said the woman.
last wish
Despite having recognized the clothes that belonged to the woman, one of the brothers and the father extracted a DNA sample to
irrefutably corroborate the identity
of the remains found.
After confirming this information, the Altamirano family prepares what will be their last goodbye.
That is why they
plan to transfer his remains to Tucumán,
where the whole family is from.
"So that dad, mom and all her friends can fire her," Corina said.
But his final resting place
will be the same place where he has been waiting for the last 40 years
.
It is that "Patty" had said that her wish was that her body be deposited in the Andinistas cemetery, in Mendoza, that is, left in the place where she died.
“'Patty' had told us that if she ever died on the mountain, to take her to the mountaineering cemetery in Mendoza or leave her where she fell
.
What better place than to return to Mercedario?
I think that is her house, ”said her sister.
That is why she will be cremated and then her ashes will return to San Juan.
how was his disappearance
"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.
This is how La Gaceta de Tucumán reported the disappearance of the climber in San Juan.
That March 27, 1981
they began the ascent to the mountain.
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 a footing and slid hundreds of meters down."
The frustrated rescue of the body Corina Altamirano, her sister, told local media with Sergio, they went down and
found her body "face down
."
Since they couldn't go down with her, they went down and asked for help.
They remembered the point of the accident, but
that night "it snowed like never before"
and the body was buried in snow, Corina told the local outlet sanjuan8.com: "The helicopter that went up could not do anything. We decided to wait for time to pass and produce the thaws".
In December of that year, they tried again, but a new problem arose.
A new crack opened in the hill and the body fell off a precipice.
They were told that nothing more could be done.
"We mourned knowing that the Mercedarian remained in eternity
," said the woman, adding that the news of the discovery of this corpse, 41 years later, is like opening a wound.
But my parents, 71 and 89 years old, are happy."
LP
look also
They confirm that the frozen corpse found on a hill in San Juan belongs to Marta "Patty" Altamirano, who has been missing since 1981
They found a frozen corpse on a hill in San Juan: they believe it is that of a mountaineer who disappeared in 1981
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