by The remains of a British researcher who disappeared in Antarctica in 1959 when he was 25 years old were discovered in the midst of rocks near a receding glacier and identified using DNA analysis, said the British Antarctic survey on Monday.
Dennis “Tink” Bell had worked as a meteorologist for the Falkland Islands dependencies Survey, the predecessor of the British Antarctic Survey, when he died on July 26, 1959, in a crack on a glacier in Admiralty Bay on King George Island, located on the Antarctic Peninsiland. His body has never been recovered.
Bell and another man, Jeff Stokes, left the basis in which they stayed to investigate a glacier using a dog sled, according to the survey. The snow was deep and the dogs began to show signs of fatigue, so Bell walked up to encourage them, but wore no skis. He suddenly disappeared in a crack.
According to accounts in the British Antarctic Survey records, CBS News Partner Network BBC News reported, Stokes lowered a belt to Bell and was pulled to the lip of the crack. While he reached the lip of the hole, the belt broke and Bell fell again. He no longer responded to his friend’s phone calls.
The Polish team that found Bell’s remains, also found more than 200 personal items, including a registered watch, a Swedish knife, radio equipment and ski stalls.
“When my sister Valerie and I were informed that our brother Dennis was found after 66 years, we were shocked and surprised,” Bell’s brother David told the British Antarctic Survey.
Dennis Bell (left) is shown with his colleagues and dogs who helped them work in Antarctica in 1959 on the Base of Admiralty Bay. / Credit: British Antarctic Survey
David Bell said that the work of the British Antarctic Survey, the British Antarctic Monument Trust and the Polish team that brought Bell’s remnants home “helped us to come to terms with the tragic loss of our brilliant brother.”
“I had given up for a long time to find my brother. It’s just remarkable, amazing. I can’t get over it,” David Bell, now 86, told BBC News.
Jane Francis, the director of the British Antarctic Survey, called the Discovery a “moving and in -depth moment”.
“This discovery brings mystery for decades and reminds us of human stories embedded in the history of Antarctic science,” said Francis.
Bodies exposed by melting glaciers in recent years
As glaciers melt and deteriorate all over the world, there has been an increase in Discovers of the remains From missing skiers, climbers and walkers.
Last year, the preserved body of one American mountaineer was found in Peru, 22 years after he had disappeared a snow peak there.
In 2023, the Remains of a mountaineer who had been missing for 37 years, were recovered from a glacier in the Swiss Alps.
In 2017, a shrinking glacier in Switzerland unveiled the bodies of a couple who was missing in 1942.
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