Mystery of 9 killed, stripped naked and dismembered in 1959 horror blown wide open | World | News

Nearly seven decades after the infamous Dyatlov Pass horror, the bodies of nine hikers must be exhumed to solve the macabre case, a court will be told. Family members are demanding a fresh criminal inquiry into one of the Soviet Union‘s most terrifying mysteries, seeking new forensic examinations on the remains of the young adventurers who perished in the northern Urals in 1959.

The legal move threatens to reignite decades of conspiracy theories surrounding the tragedy, which has been blamed on avalanches, secret weapons tests, escaped convicts, UFOs, yetis, and Cold War espionage. The group, led by 23-year-old engineering student Igor Dyatlov, died after mysteriously fleeing their slashed tent on a freezing mountainside due to an “unknown compelling force,” according to Soviet investigators.

Some of the victims were found stripped naked or in just underwear in temperatures below -20C.

Others suffered catastrophic injuries, including fractured skulls and crushed chests, as if violently attacked.

Two bodies were missing eyes, and one was found completely dismembered of its tongue.

Although Russian prosecutors concluded in 2020 that the group was killed by an avalanche, relatives have never accepted the verdict and see it as a cover-up.

Now, lawyer Yevgeny Chernousov, acting for Dyatlov’s sister Tatyana Perminova and other relatives, says the case should be reopened as a possible group murder investigation.

He told state news agency TASS: “We want to ensure that a criminal case is opened and an investigation is conducted.”

Chernousov argues that crucial forensic procedures were never carried out during the original investigation.

According to him, chemical and histological examinations that should have accompanied autopsies on the nine victims are missing from the case file.

He claims fresh testing could finally determine whether the hikers were exposed to toxic substances or some other previously overlooked cause of death.

The lawyer says exhumation is now necessary, with modern forensic methods used to establish the cause of death.

“After the criminal case is opened, all nine tourists’ bodies will need to be exhumed,” he told Russian outlet URA.RU.

“Then not only chemical examinations but also histological examinations will be conducted. Together, these new studies will help establish the truth.”

The campaign also seeks to challenge the legal basis of the original Soviet investigation.

Chernousov claims the 1959 case lacked essential documentation and should not be regarded as a valid criminal investigation.

The reason could be a cover-up by the Soviet secret services.

The renewed push will be launched in the Russian court system amid continued fascination with the mystery, which has inspired books, documentaries, films and countless theories.

Among the most controversial was a claim that the group was killed by American reconnaissance aircraft conducting secret Cold War missions over the Urals, while others have suggested Soviet missile tests, military experiments or classified intelligence operations.

The relatives also want Russian television channels to stop broadcasting what they describe as unfounded conspiracy theories about the hikers’ deaths.

One of these is the version that a yeti was responsible, while other amateur sleuths have blamed aliens.

A “renowned doctor” alleged the broken ribs of victims Semen Zolotarev and Lyudmila Dubinina were “the result of the squeezing of their chests by some big creature.”

If permission is granted to exhume the victims, it would mark the most dramatic development in the Dyatlov Pass mystery since Russian authorities formally backed the avalanche explanation six years ago.