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A German tourist who went missing after going hiking in Russia’s troubled Caucasus region is suspected to have been murdered, investigators said on Monday.
Frank Alfred, 69, was on a family holiday in the North Caucasus resort of Dombay in the Karachayevo-Cherkessia region in September when he went with a group to climb the summit of local mountain Semenov-Bashi.
However he went off the path and disappeared, with his daughter alerting police three days later. No body has ever been found.
“A criminal investigation has been opened according to the first part of article 105 of the criminal code — murder — in connection with the disappearance of the German tourist,” the investigative committee of prosecutors said in a statement on the RIA Novosti news agency.
Dombay is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Northern Caucasus and the local mountains are popular in winter for alpine skiing and summer for hiking.
However the number of foreign tourists has been kept down by the ongoing militant insurgency in the Northern Caucasus which claims dozens of lives every month.