Peruvian newspapers reported that one of the four teams of mountaineers looking for missing Belgian Natacha de Crombrugghe, who disappeared three weeks ago while doing a solo trek in the Andes, found a body during their search.
But this information turned out to be false: police who went to search the area did not find any human remains at all, Belga News Agency reports.
According to the newspaper El Búho, a lifeless body was found on a path in an area called Tapay, but this was a false alarm. The search for the missing woman continues.
As of Monday evening, rescue workers had already covered 90% of the hiking trails that stretch across the western part of the Colca Valley, between Cabanaconde and the village of Sangalle.
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De Crombrugghe’s parents arrived in Arequipa a week ago to join in the search for their daughter.
Timeline of disappearance
The 28-year-old Natacha, a lawyer from Linkebeek, was travelling alone in Peru and arrived at a hostel in the Peruvian village of Cabanaconde on Sunday evening, 23 January.
The next day she would have left on a trek through the Colca Canyon, a deep and wide gorge. She left behind some of her luggage in the hostel before departing alone, and never returned from the trek.
The Belgian police issued a search notice in Dutch, English and Spanish, calling on people with any information on her whereabouts to contact them.
On Tuesday last week, her rucksack and some clothes were found in her Peruvian hotel, but the Crown Prosecutor’s office in Brussels confirmed Peruvian press reports that the search – using drones, police, mountain guides and volunteers – had produced the items but no conclusive information.
An ongoing search involving a group of ten rescue workers was reportedly abandoned on Monday, 14 February, due to a lack of support from local authorities. But around 30 officers are still actively searching, and the Belgian consul is leading efforts to locate the woman.
