British hiker missing for a week found dead in Italian Alps
Matthew Hall, 33, from Hull, began a walking holiday in northern Italy on July 5 and had been due to return to England a week later. He went missing on July 9 after sending a text message to a friend saying he had taken a wrong turn and was having a rest.
He sent a photo to the friend of the Cross of Daloo, a mountaintop viewpoint above the town of Chiavenna, where he had been staying. Rescuers found his body on Wednesday evening after being alerted at 7pm by a local who spotted his backpack in a deep crevice.
He had apparently fallen just a few hundred metres from the cross that featured in his photo. Rescuers said the dangerous rugged terrain required the use of a helicopter to recover the body. 'All the circumstances point to an accidental fall,' a spokesman for the police in Chiavenna said.
It was likely that Hall, who worked for the broadband firm Quickline, had been killed instantly by the fall but it would be up to doctors to establish the cause of death, the spokesman said. 'The crevice was very deep, so it's probable that he died immediately,' he said.
Police were due to accompany Hall's mother, Sara Foster, to the hospital in Sondrio where his body had been taken. She arrived at Milan's Malpensa airport on Wednesday evening and was due to be joined by her husband on Friday.
Five of Hall's work colleagues had arrived in Italy earlier to support the search efforts of the Italian authorities, backed up by the use of drones and dogs. Hall had been staying in a B&B in Chiavenna and his hosts noted that he had not been collecting his breakfast but did not raise the alarm until he failed to return for checkout on July 11.
A search by police and Alpine rescue teams was not launched until July 13. Friends and family said Hall was a confident walker with experience of managing rugged terrain. Jacob White, the friend who received his last message at 1.37pm on July 9, said he had sounded relaxed as he had asked him about his own holiday in Cornwall. 'It sounded as if any danger he might have seen was over,' he said.
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