Massive police search for missing Swiss twins
• Girls, 6, last seen with their father, who is now dead
• Father's 'suicide' possibly due to marriage break-up
• Father's 'suicide' possibly due to marriage break-up
Italian, Swiss and French police were searching for missing six-year-old twin girls who disappeared after their father died in an apparent suicide in southern Italy.
Matthias Kaspar Schepp, a Swiss resident of Canadian origin, collected his daughters Alessia and Livia from his estranged wife in Lausanne, Switzerland on 28 January, and agreed to drop them off at school a week ago today.
Schepp, 43, was found dead on rail tracks near Cerignola in Puglia, southern Italy, on Thursday, said police, who are using helicopters and sniffer dogs to search the area for the twins.
"We are putting all our resources at the disposal of the search operation," said Alfredo Fabrocini, the head of the flying squad in nearby Foggia. "The girls may be anywhere, we hope alive," he added.
Investigators tracing Schepp's steps said he first took his daughters to his apartment in St-Sulpice, Switzerland, where he has lived since separating last year from his Italian wife, Irina Lucidi, 44. Both worked for Philip Morris in Switzerland, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
"Matthias had not accepted that the marriage was over and was looking for any way to convince Irina to get back with him," said Lucidi's cousin Roberto Mestichelli. "He was really close to his daughters," he added.
From Switzerland, Schepp drove into France on 30 January before withdrawing €7,500 (£6,300) from cashpoints in Marseille the following day. He also sent a postcard to his wife from Marseille, reportedly stating: "Now it is time to finish it."
Police in Marseille said that Schepp bought three tickets to Propriano in Corsica on a ferry leaving on Monday night.
"This news of the ferry trip to Corsica is very strange since neither Irina or her husband had friends there," said Mestichelli, who said he was also surprised by reports that Schepp was found with only €100 in his pockets. "He was really careful about money," he said.
Police reportedly found a will in Schepp's apartment.
Schepp was found dead on tracks near the station of Cerignola, but police said he was not filmed by security cameras at the station, which suggests he parked his car at the station and approached the tracks on foot.
After finding earth caked to the wheels of the car, police have focused their search for the girls on rural wells in the area, using clothes they wore to assist sniffer dogs.
