Police and military personnel in Switzerland are carrying out a search for Sarah Huyghe, a student aged 21 from Ypres in West Flanders.
Sarah disappeared in the area of the Pennine Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy. She had travelled to Zermatt by car at the beginning of the week to join friends for a holiday between exams.
“She parked her car in the nearby village of Täsch, from where she could only travel by train to the Obri Tuftra chalet in Zermatt. She arrived there at 6.50 pm,” her brother Gils Huyghe (25) said yesterday from Switzerland. “The chalets here are quite high in a valley full of dangerous rocks and cliffs.”
Sarah had arranged to meet friends, two men and a woman, but it is not clear if that meeting even took place. What is known is that bloodstains were found in the bathroom of the chalet where she was due to be staying – but not in the surrounding area, including the hallway to the exit.
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“My sister disappeared between 4am and 7am on Tuesday,” her brother said. “All she had with her were the clothes she was wearing. The rest of her luggage was left behind, even her car keys, wallet and telephone.”
Since then, the family has made its way to the region, from where her brother reported on the search operation.
“Sniffer dogs, drones, thermal cameras, even the army is on the lookout,” he said.
“We have already posted messages and telephone numbers on her parked car, helped spread the missing person notice as much as possible and, together with the police, we have been viewing camera images.”
Meanwhile, tracker dogs discovered a trail in a wooded area between her chalet and the station, where the trail stops.
“We've seen countless people passing by on the CCTV for hours, but we keep looking for a first sign of Sarah. All we know of the three friends is that they were questioned by the police.”
