Missing twins - GPS microchip found
2011-03-05 23:20
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Rome - Italian police on Saturday found the microchip from the satellite navigator used by the father of missing Swiss twins, but said it was not clear whether the information on it could be salvaged.
"We found the microchip buried under stones," near the tracks of the station in southern Italy where Matthias Schepp threw himself under a fast train, local police official Alfredo Fabbrocini told AFP.
The chip, made by the company Garmin, has been sent to the firm's Milan branch before it is sent on to America to be analysed, Fabbrocini said.
Police hope the chip will help them retrace Schepp's steps since his January 28 departure from Switzerland and lead to the missing six-year-olds, Livia and Alessia.
"It looks in better condition than the navigator, but we can't be sure what, if anything, they'll find on it," Fabbrocini said. "We can't say this is the turning point in the case."
In February, police found crushed pieces of the global positioning system (GPS) used by Schepp at the station.
Before he committed suicide, Schepp, a Swiss engineer, sent a letter to his estranged wife in Italy in which he told her he had killed the fair-haired girls and that they were "resting in peace in a quiet area".
