Military Involvement – Believed but No Hard Evidence
In 2008, a joint conference between the Ural State Technical University (formerly Ural Polytechnical Institute) and the Dyatlov Group Memorial Foundation lay the blame on military testing. According to Igor Dyatlov’s sister Tatyana, Dyatlov’s parents, along with other families of the nine hikers, believe this theory. So does Yuri Kuntsevich, director of the Dyatlov Foundation and lifelong case researcher. Yuri Yudin, the Dyatlov hiker who left the group early for health reasons, also believed his friends were killed on purpose. Despite being an ardent Communist and Soviet patriot, Yudin felt there were government forces at work. But other researchers claim rocket and missle tests were based in Siberia, not the Ural mountains. There is no known evidence that the military was allegedly testing parachute mines in the area. No reported evidence of metallic shards from nearby weapons testing were found in the area.