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StrangeOutdoors 10/27/17 StrangeOutdoors 10/27/17

The strange disappearance and death of Myles Robinson in Switzerland’s Wengen Ski resort

Myles Robinson, Disappeared Tuesday, 22 December 2009, Wengen, Switzerland. Body found December 28, 2009, Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.

Revised September 2024

Myles Robinson was a 23-year-old maths and economics graduate, who lived in Wandsworth in southwest London. In the early morning of Tuesday, December 22, 2009, Myles mysteriously disappeared from the famous ski resort of Wengen, in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland.

The village of Wengen is famous as it is at the foot of the Eiger, the scene of many tragic deaths caused by mountaineering including the famous case of Toni Kurz and his group in 1936.

Six days later Myles’ body was found in a wooded area near the village of Lauterbrunnen. The authorities said he had just succumbed to the cold and fallen down a wooded slope over a cliff. But how on earth did Myles end up there in the early hours of the morning and way out of Wengen? Was it hypothermia and the effects of too much alcohol, or did something more sinister happen near the Eiger that morning?

The trip to Wengen and the night out

Myles and his family arrived on Sunday, December 20, 2009, and for much of the following day, he was skiing around the Männlichen and Kleine Scheidegg on a new pair of skis. The next evening, December 21, they had a family dinner with two other friends, and at around 10.30 pm, Myles left to go for a drink with his sister Cara. They first went to the Crystal Bar and later on to the Blue Monkey Bar with no evidence that anything was amiss.

By all accounts Myles was in great form, playing pool and enjoying seeing his old Wengen friends, both locals, and holidaymakers.

Robinson Family Wengen December 2009 — Robinson family

Cara left the bar at about 1.30 am and said goodbye to Myles, who decided to stay on. He was seen on CCTV leaving the bar at 2.19 am with some friends and escorting one of the group members, Amy O’Brien, back to her apartment building. Upon reaching the apartment, they talked for 20-25 minutes, sitting outside on a bench. Amy then went inside to bed and assumed Myles would be walking back to his apartment at the Hotel Eiger. That was the last time anyone saw him, as Myles never returned.

The search for Myles Robinson

Later that day, on December 22, Michael, Sarah (Myles’s parents) and Cara were surprised that Myles had not returned to the apartment and could not reach him on his cell phone. They quickly informed local hospitals and friends but with no luck. At 11.30 am, they contacted the police based in Lauterbrunnen in the valley below, as Wengen has no police station. Two policemen arrived in Wengen at 2.15 pm, followed by further police and two detectives. There was extensive questioning with the family, Amy, and other friends who had been in the Blue Monkey bar on Monday evening.

Myles Robinson location of disappearance

Following this, the police started an official search and arranged for a sniffer dog to be sent from the Swiss capital, Bern. A mountain search and rescue team and a Swiss Army helicopter with an infra-red heat-seeking camera called FLIR were also deployed.

However, nothing was found during the Tuesday evening searches. That day, many friends in Wengen had also arranged for posters of Myles to be put up all over the village, Lauterbrunnen, and all villages as far as Interlaken.

On Wednesday morning, the police released the story to local Swiss radio. The family gave their consent for this, including written press. The family continued to help the detectives with possible footprints and bank withdrawals and visited the police station in Lauterbrunnen to identify a possible sighting of Myles in the car park. A further visual helicopter and sniffer dog search were carried out that day. On Wednesday evening, the local tourist office in Wengen printed new ‘Missing Person’ posters, and a volunteer group of over 50 people distributed these across the village.

On Thursday morning, the story had broken in the Swiss press and it wasn’t long before the British media picked up the story. They were encouraged to cooperate with the media to increase awareness of the issue and to hopefully put pressure on the Swiss authorities to step up the search. The coverage in the British media was extensive.

On Christmas Day, the family did a television interview with a Swiss TV station. Myles’ toothbrush and razor were taken for DNA and his phone records were tracked through the mobile provider Vodafone. Michael and Sarah had to go to the police station in Lauterbrunnen to give DNA samples.

On Boxing Day, December 26, the police were back in Wengen with sniffer dogs at the area around the Eiger and the village. The family felt sure that Myles would never have left the village. Indeed, it wouldn’t have been possible to do so as the only way up or down is by train, and they do not operate in the early hours of the morning. They desperately wanted the Swiss police to search the village but the privacy laws in Switzerland prevent forced entry into people’s homes unless there is evidence that a crime has been committed and there is reasonable suspicion to enter a particular house. The family employed a Swiss lawyer to increase pressure on the Swiss authorities.

On December 27, some close family friends arranged for volunteer search parties to cover Wengen on a house-to-house search. The search had to respect Swiss law; the only way a house could be searched was if the owner gave consent. Over 70 people joined in this search operation. A well-known Psychic from Bern also arrived to lend his help. He sat in Myles’ room and also on the bench where Myles had talked to Amy. The physic stated that ‘Myles did not leave with the intention of not coming back’, something the family had been sure of. He then had a strong feeling that Myles could be found in an area between the old Mannlichen cable car station and the swimming pool, and up the mountain 200 meters. In gathering darkness, 10 or 12 people initially searched the area to no avail. Another search of the same area was arranged for 9.00 am the next day.

Myles Robinson’s body is located

On Monday, December 28, a bigger search party of some 30 people, including some local guides, searched the area again with no success.

In the afternoon, more search parties started looking at other areas of the village and surrounding areas. One party descended to the Lauterbrunnen valley.

An individual of the search party was an employee of Swisscom and had mapped out the triangulation of Myles’ last reported mobile phone use. The ‘footprint’ of the area included not only Wengen but also the valley below.

Subsequently, this search party found Myles’ body in a woodland area to the northern end of Lauterbrunnen.

The body was found in a hazardous area, and four rescuers were sent to retrieve the body with boulders, rocks and ice falling from the mountain above them. The police advised the family that they could either identify the body in a tent they had erected in a field near where Myles was found, or they could go to the forensic department of the Bern University Hospital the next day, where Myles’ body would be better presented to the family. They would also learn the preliminary findings from the forensic doctor. They chose the latter.

On Tuesday, December 29, the family was driven to Bern by the police, where they confirmed the body was indeed that of Myles. The forensic doctor informed them that no suspicious details were found on his body and that all the injuries would be consistent with a long fall through wooded areas followed by a long drop. There was no evidence of foul play, with nothing suggesting a struggle with an attacker, for example, some human skin under his fingernails.

On Wednesday, December 30, the family was summoned by the police in Lauterbrunnen to give them the findings from their inquiries. The police informed them that on the evening of Tuesday, December 22, the sniffer dog had picked up Myles’ trail from The Residence, which led to a lookout point overlooking the Moench and Blick (somewhere that none of the family had ever been before).

They accepted their explanation that they couldn’t have told them this at the time due to the dangerous terrain of the surrounding area. The lookout point is a 20-minute walk from the village, opposite the Robinsons’ rented apartment. Myles’ scent ran out at the lookout point, and the police believe he would have started walking back to Wengen and either took a wrong turn or fell into the steep sloping woods leading to the cliff face.

The police assured the family that the surrounding area had been searched by the helicopters, but perhaps due to the frigid surroundings Myles was in and the dense woodland area, they hadn’t been able to pick him up. Mountain rescue teams had not physically searched the area due to the potential dangers they could have faced. The police also reported that nowhere on the route to the lookout point did they find any evidence of a crime or struggle - nothing. The police verdict was that this was a tragic accident.

What happened to Myles Robinson at the Moench Blick?

Why did Myles walk to the Moench Blick lookout that night? Why did he stray so far from the resort in an area he had not previously visited? The Robinson family has been skiing in Wengen for the last 15 years, so Myles knew the area extremely well, raising doubts that he could have simply gotten lost.

On Facebook, Jennifer Jackson-Strage wrote, “I can't imagine how he ended up so far from Wengen. I've walked that path in the summer and it took hours; have also been a frequent visitor to Wengen and would never have considered doing it in the winter let alone at night. It makes no sense.' Elaine Darby added: 'I hope we hear how this tragedy happened.... It's a mystery.”

Was Myles abducted and murdered or forced to run for his life and succumb to the terrain and cold? Was it a cover-up by the authorities to avoid the bad publicity that something sinister was happening in the area?

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