Despite missing DNA

1 year after the fire: “No evidence that the man is alive”

One year on, it is certain: the tenant died in the devastating fire in a house in Thörl, Upper Styria, and her DNA has been found. But not that of her husband, a mountaineering legend. However, the investigators do not believe that he is still alive. 

All that remained of the three-storey wooden house at the foot of the Hochschwab was rubble and ashes. It burned down completely in February 2024. From the outset, it was suspected that an elderly couple who had lived there for 50 years had died in the flames. After fire investigators from the Styrian State Office of Criminal Investigation had spent almost two days digging through mountains of burnt wood, sometimes by hand and on all fours, human remains were also found.

It took almost a year, but now the DNA report from Innsbruck forensic medicine is available. It confirms that the woman living in the old farmhouse did indeed die. However, the DNA of the man, an 83-year-old mountaineering legend at the time of the fire, could not be determined from the bone fragments found.

Almost nothing remained of the wooden house.(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

Wanted man wanted
He is therefore still officially considered missing. The public prosecutor's office in Leoben has issued a search warrant. However, investigators confirmed to the "Krone" that there are no indications that the man is still alive. The actions in the run-up to that night in February suggest that the couple deliberately died together. Due to the sheer destruction caused by the fire, it is also not surprising that the Styrian's DNA was not found.

The tragic incident triggered much speculation in the region right from the start. It was said that the couple should move out of their beloved, remote house on the Zwainerberg. Now some are annoyed that new rumors are "tarnishing" the reputation of the renowned mountaineer. 

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