Possible links to two women not confirmed
Twins reportedly did not arrive in Italy with father
Missing Swiss twins, Alessia and Livia Schwepp, age 6, 115 cm tall, blond hair
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The paucity of confirmed information continues in the search for missing Swiss twins Alessia and Livia Schepp, as Italian police in the Foggia district tell Italian media that the father’s GPS car navigation system has provided no new clues. The GPS was found in pieces around the train tracks in Cerignola, southern Italy, some 150 metres from where the girls’ father, Matthias Schepp,committed suicide.
Italian news agency Ansa reports that Italian prosecutor Vincenzo Russo confirmed that initial research to piece together information from the GPS has turned up nothing, but the bits and pieces have now been sent to the manufacturer in the hope of discovering more about the father’s travels.
Russo also told Ansa that he can now confirm the children did not accompany their father when he arrived in Italy. He provided no details but says that despite the mother’s conviction the girls are alive, hope is fading.
Swiss police say no link to rumoured connections with missing woman
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Mother flies over Corsican coast with police
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The mother of missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp flew to Corsica in a private plane Saturday 13 February to help with the investigation there. Shortly after her arrival she flew over several of the island’s beach areas with two Swiss police inspectors and a French police team, reports TF1, French television.
She gave a press conference, looking exhausted, at the end of the flight, saying that the day had been long and fatiguing but that she still hopes her daughters are alive, and given that they were seen on Corsica, she appealed again to the public to provide police with leads.
TF1 ran a lengthy report Saturday morning on the French police investigation.
The two Swiss investigators sent to Corsica, with their French counterparts, used helicopters to check two beaches in the Porto Vecchio area Saturday, for three hours: Santa Giulia and Palombaggia, reports TF1. The request to check the beaches came from Swiss police.
Girls may have been seen with father and 45-yr-old woman on Corsica
Several French media report Saturday that, according to “a person close to the investigation”, which generally signifies a police leak in France, a witness who identified the father and two daughters 1 February in Propriano, Corsica, is being taken seriously by police there.
The woman, Olga Omeck, says she saw the twins eating croissants or pains au chocolat, then walking ahead of the pair, who were discussing something, as if they knew each other.
The woman appeared to be about age 45, with chestnut coloured hair with light streaks.
Search based in northern Corsica
Italian news agency Ansa said Saturday morning that police are basing their activities in Macinaggio, at the northern tip of Corsica, as they try to reconstruct the father’s flight.
French police provided no further details except to say that they are trying to locate all the places on the island that may have been known to the father, Matthias, from previous professional trips but also visits there with his wife.
Italian police hunt for GPS
Italian police said Saturday they have stepped up the search for the GPS used by the father, Matthias Schepp, given the possibility that he may have thrown it away shortly before committing suicide in the south of Italy, throwing himself in front of a train.
The GPS navigation system could provide valuable clues about where he drove, in Corsica and/or in Italy.
Matthias Schepp took his own life in Italy 3 February and sent a letter to his wife, Irina Lucidi Schepp that day, which arrived five days later in Switzerland, to say that he had killed their two six-year-old twins.
The mother was interviewed by news agency Ansa Friday and she said that she believes, in her mother’s heart, that the girls are still alive. She begged for people to continue looking for them.
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Swisstopo's iPhone Swiss map app
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal government’s mapmaking enterprise, Swisstopo, has won the country’s 2009 mapmaking award for its iPhone application that allows users to access maps for the entire country at these scales: 1:25 000, 1:100 000, 1:500 000 and 1:1 million. Swisstopo will now represent Switzerland at the International Cartographers Associaton awards in Santiago Chile 15 November.
Map detail, photo Sean Ecker
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swisstopo, the Swiss Federal Office of Topography announced that maps of Switzerland at 1:25,000 and 1:100,000 detail are available for cell phones with the Windows mobile and Symbian S60 operating systems. Mobile telephones equipped with a GPS receiver and the Swiss Map mobile software will never get lost again. The software works much as Google maps does, but with the cartographic details of the Swiss maps. The addition of the two mobile platforms means that Swiss Map mobile now exists for the the iPhone, Sony-Ericsson and Nokia smartphones, as well as Windows mobile phones.
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – General practitioners in cantons Vaud and Geneva have closed their offices Tuesday 24 March in protest against new conditions under which laboratory fees are reimbursed.
Ed. note: emergency coverage is provided, as always – tel. 144 and other numbers are provided below.
