They were found under the cedar. Dyatlov Pass.

The cedar... This is the key word in the Dyatlov group trek. The word and place, which has become a cult, although there are rumors that the real cedar is no longer there, that it cut down. Why? So it doesn't become a place of cult and to confuse the tourists who come every year to this place.

Witnesses' testimonies. A participant in the serach in 1959 Moisey Abramovich Akselrod: "As you know, 2 corpses were found near the cedar: Krivonischenko and Doroshenko, but a thorough study of the fire suggests that there were more people around the fire. I have the following reasons:
1) Judging by the work done, the two cannot cope with the amount of work that has been done there.
2) A small burnt handkerchief was found near the fire, it belonged to a woman.
3) A tattered cuff of a dark-colored sweater was found, which is not from the clothing found on any of the frozen bodies we have so far discovered."

The first photo of the frozen bodies. There is almost no snow.

Atmanaki: About two meters from the place of their death, behind the cedar, traces of a fire were preserved, quite large, judging by the fact that the preserved fire log up to 80 mm in diameter burned out in half, everything was powdered with snow, but under the cedar were found checked shirt, handkerchief, a few socks, cuffs from a jacket or sweater, and a few other small things. Slightly closer to the cedar were picked up eight rubles, in denominations of 3 and 5 rubles. Twenty meters around the cedar, there are traces of how someone from those present near the cedar cut a young spruce trees with a knife, about twenty such cuts were preserved, but we did not find the trunks themselves, with the exception of one. There was a lot of dry wood. In addition, there was no need to cut or chop, because all these young shoots easily broke even with a little effort. You might think that people who were very weakened or with a clouded mind did this. On the cedar itself, several broken branches were visiable. Most of the dry branches were broken to a height of up to 5 m. In addition, the side of the cedar facing the slope on which the tent stood was cleared of branches at a height of 4-5 m ...

Photo when part of the snow was removed. Looks like a draped blanket (cover) on top of the bodies. Then it disappeared somewhere. There is no mention in the case files either.

Maya Piskareva: Vladimir, near the cedar, where the bodies of two dead guys were found, the searchers said that branches up to 8 cm thick were broken off. Is it possible to simply break off such thick branches with your bare hands?

V. Askinadzi: The cedar is a fragile tree even in summer, and in winter all trees, except for birch, are easily breakable due to the frost. A branch 8 cm thick in winter can be easily broken only if you hang on it. You can't break it just standing on it with your foot. And you can’t cut such branches with a knife, for this you need an ax.

M.P.: And if you drop something heavy on top of such a branch, will it break?

V.A.: If you throw something heavy, it will not break, the branch will spring back. You will never break a branch of 8 cm with your feet, only with an ax, and not with a knife. Try it - and everything will be clear. When you hang, the weight is 60-70 kg, under this weight, not only a branch of 8 cm, but a large branch (knot) can be broken.

There were no saws and axes found with the bodies of the Dyatlov group.

Member of the search Sogrin witness testimony: ...On the first of March, I, Akselrod, Tipikin, and Lev Ivanov were dropped off at the scene of the accident. We were met by a large group of people heavily wrapped in balaclavas. The wind threw snow in the face and tried to throw it off the plateau. Dyatlov's belongings and several people were quickly loaded into the helicopter. Behind a large outlier lay 3 corpses already pulled up to the helipad. Despite the bad weather we went in search. We started probing the slope, but due to the bad weather and the inexperience of the search participants, the search was not effective. We passed the place of death of Kolmogorova, Dyatlov and approached the cedar. Near it lay Krivonischenko in a shirt and underpants. Near the cedar, we could see the remains of a fire that burned for two hours (changed to "2-3" - ed. note) due to the lack of a sufficient amount of firewood. The camp fire was not large and could not warm people, moreover, undressed. From the inspection of the place, it became clear that there were not two people, but more, because. a colosal work has been done on the preparation of firewood, spruce branches. This is evidenced by a large number of cuts on tree trunks, broken branches and fir trees, this was later confirmed by things found by the fire: a shirt, a cuff from a sweater, a scarf.

Photo of a cedar tree with broken branches and some piece of cloth. Maybe - a trace of Mansi?

Member of the search Slobtsov Boris Efimovich witness testimony:

Question: What can you add to your testimony?

Answer: I will not tell how and where the corpses were found, because this is known from the testimony of other persons, but I can note that near the cedar, under which the bodies of Doroshenko and Krivonischenko were found, I saw Mansi Bahtiyarov find 8 rubles in the snow in bills of 5 and 3 rubles folded, but without me they found a coin of 5 kopecks, a whole checked shirt, a few simple cotton socks, a piece of a sweater, a handkerchief. Personally, I saw how a dark-colored cloth belt with lanyards at the ends was found under this cedar. I don't know who this item belongs to. The length of this item was about 80cm, the width is about 10cm, it looked like a belt or strap that Mansi use to pull loads, but it was too weak to be used for this purpose.

This "belt", as well as the "Mansi strap" and winter soldier's windings, were not recorded by the case files. Why?

A number of arguments suggest that Dyatlov could not have pitched the tent on the slope of 1079 under any circumstances:

1. According to the plan, they were not supposed to to go height 1079. According to the notes of the diaries and according to the expedition plan (which have not yet been published - although they were found it in a tent), it was planned to climb Mt Otorten along the upper reaches of the Lozva River, overcoming the Pass from the Auspiya River valley to the Lozva River valley.
2. Ski track of the hikers, discovered from the camp site on Auspiya to the Pass along the only possible Mansi trail in that area.
3. No ski tracks of the hikers were found from the pass to the tent.
4. It did not make any sense, no reason, elementary logic to place a tent on an open wind blower just 1.5 km from the previously arranged overnight camp in the forest and near the cache site.
5. The tent on the slope of the height 1079 is an obvious staging by "strangers". And rushed in poor quality.
6. "Strangers" left at the scene of the staging and there were also many different traces left round the Cedar. There was a "colosal work" for the preparation of firewood (witness Sogrin).
7. A checked shirt was found by the fire, Krivonischenko and Doroshenko covered with a blanket. Someone cut off the pants from the body but did not take away the blanket and the checked shirt lying nearby, this is nonsense.
8. There was a lot of dry wood next to the fire. Why was it necessary to climb a cedar naked and break branches there for a fire?

Kolmogorova, Dyatlov and Slobodin could not have been returning to the tent in a straight line from the cedar, there is a deep ravine full of snow between the cedar and the tent...

An inconvenient witness

Mihail Sharavin, the first to discover both the tent and the dead, claims that the bodies under the cedar were covered with a blanket. There is no record of his official interrogation in the materials of the investigation, although he states that the investigators took his testimony. If Sharavin is right, then the picture of events changes dramatically. The surviving hikers could not have covered the dead with a blanket, because they themselves were in dire need of clothes.

Looks like Sharavin is telling the truth, look at the photo.

The bodies seem to be really hidden in the chest area, but this is snow, it was caked and took the form of folds of matter, it is also visible on the lower leg of the first body. This is possible only in one case, when the bodies covered with soft snow were covered with a heavy cloth (blanket) and under the weight of the matter the snow took the form of the natural folds of the blanket. Then someone removed the blanket, but the imprint of the folds remained.

This means that the bodies were not covered immediately after death, but later, when 5-10 centimeters of snow covered them. Why do this? It can be seen that someone, violating the instructions, took pity and covered them according to custom. And after the searchers found the bodies, someone removed the blanket.

These Sharavin's testimonies basically could not get into the materials of the open investigation, they are stored in a completely different place. This means that immediately after the events and before the arrival of the searchers, this area was under covert surveillance.

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"Based on this, it was not difficult to assume that something serious happened to them and we are unlikely to find them alive. But we, young guys, optimists by nature, still had hope. In the evening we drank from a flask of alcohol, which we took from Dyatlov's tent. We drank for their successful rescue, we had hope we will find them. Only our guide, local hunter Ivan Pashin, said that we better drink not for health, but for peace.
— Why?
— I believe that Pashin, even before our group, visited with someone there, on the spot. He knew what happened there. Later we went to the sons and grandsons of Pashin. They told us his recollections. Pashin told them: "I was the first to be there, on the spot, found a tent and found people near the cedar." There was no point in taking the credit of the discoverer in such a situation. I am sure that he was actually there first, and then he simply pointed us to the tent." Mihail Sharavin

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Допрос свидетеля Atmanaki Georgiy Vladimirovich:

"About two meters from the place of their death, behind the cedar, traces of a fire were preserved, quite large, judging by the fact that the preserved fire log up to 80 mm in diameter burned out in half, everything was powdered with snow, but under the cedar were found checked shirt, handkerchief, a few socks, cuffs from a jacket or sweater, and a few other small things. Slightly closer to the cedar were picked up eight rubles, in denominations of 3 and 5 rubles. Twenty meters around the cedar, there are traces of how someone from those present near the cedar cut a young spruce trees with a knife, about twenty such cuts were preserved, but we did not find the trunks themselves, with the exception of one. There was a lot of dry wood. In addition, there was no need to cut or chop, because all these young shoots easily broke even with a little effort. You might think that people who were very weakened or with a clouded mind did this. On the cedar itself, several broken branches were visible. Most of the dry branches were broken to a height of up to 5 m. In addition, the side of the cedar facing the slope on which the tent stood was cleared of branches at a height of 4-5 m. These damp branches were not used and partly fell on the ground, partly hung on the lower branches of the cedar. It looked like the people had made something like a window so that they could see from a height that side of the cedar from where they came and where their tent was.

The sheer volume of work done near the cedar, as well as the presence of many things that obviously could not belong to the two dead comrades, suggests that most, if not the entire group gathered around the fire, and then some decided to stay, and some decided to return back, to dig out the tent and bring warm clothes and equipment, and the remaining comrades began to make something like a den, where the prepared spruce branches were used to wait out the bad weather and wait for the dawn. The question of why Krivonischenko and Doroshenko were undressed is not clear, because in winter treks, and even in the condition of a cold overnight stay, it is not customary to undress to such an extent. It is possible that the misfortune happened either at the time of changing clothes (evening or morning), or they were undressed later, since the version that they could lose their clothes while running or walking is not very probable."

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Case files 273-274: "The same students say that the fire near the cedar went out not from a lack of wood, but because they stopped feeding it. This, obviously, could also be either because the people who were at the fire did not see what to do, or because they were already dead. They say that a few meters away from the fire there was a dry tree, and under it there was dead wood that was not used. If there was a fire, it was possible not to use ready-made wood without seeing it, that is, being blind, it seems to me that it was so. Both hikers found by the fire gradually lost their sight (but very quickly), and although they had the opportunity to maintain the fire on piled up supplies, they could not do it, because they did not see what to do. Or were dead. Just my guess."

This is the version where the hikers were not able to adequately perceive the environment, because there were blind. I think they were most probably dead.