>>9613586In a former thread of this subject, there was link to a crude translation of the actual coroner's report. It stated traces of scavanging animals, but didn't directly mention it in case of the missing eyes and tounge. They probably thought it was obvious, which it really is. There are very good articles about animal scavanging under different climate conditions, and one just needs to compare. (I only have German ones here, though: For example a chapter in Steffen P. Berg, Renate Rolle, Henning Seemann: Der Archäologe und der Tod: Archäologie und Gerichtsmedizin. C.J. Bucher, München 1981; or B. Madea, J. Preuss, F. Musshoff: Vom blühenden Leben zu Staub - der natürliche Kreislauf von Werden und Vergehen. In: A. Wieczorek et al. (Hrsg.): Mumien - Der Traum vom ewigen Leben. Mannheim 2007.) If you read about it a bit, you will find it quite common that under certain conditions the traces animals leave on human bodies can look very strange.
It would be nice if someone could post that link again.
Mice and rats survive cold temperatures like that. Especially under thick covers of snow, otherwise there would be no mice or rats in northern countries, and you know there are. The corpses where found in May under four meters of snow in a stream. This could also mean that it was very warm some time between February and May and a lot of the original snow thawed, leaving the corpses open to scavangers and weather for a limited time until they froze again.
If you ask me, it would have been stranger if the bodies would have been completely intact.