Death Valley Deaths

[SuperstitionGuy]

Death Valley Bones May Solve Mystery - DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK

Calif. (Nov. 14) - Skeletal remains found in Death Valley may belong to one or more of the four German tourists who vanished in searing summer heat 13 years ago, authorities said Friday. Two hikers discovered the bones Thursday in a remote area of the famous Mojave
Desert park. The hikers were search-and rescue workers from Riverside County but they were off duty at the time, Inyo County sheriff’s spokeswoman Carma Roper said.

Identification for one of the missing tourists was found near the bones, she said. “We’re fairly certain” that the remains are those of one or more of the long-missing visitors, Roper said. However, formally identifying the remains will be a long process, she said. The cause of death also must be determined. “At this point, it’s being handled like a criminal investigation ... but there is no evidence of foul play at this point,” Roper said.

The remains were found southeast of Goler Wash, a rugged area accessible only by 4-wheel-drive vehicles. The area is several miles south of the spot where an abandoned minivan the tourists had rented was found months after they were reported missing. Roper said it would be a relief to solve a mystery that stretches back to 1996. “I know a lot of people have invested a lot of their time and energy and emotions into concluding the case,” she said.

The park near the Nevada border is considered the hottest and driest location in North America. The four who vanished in the 3-million-acre wilderness on July 22, 1996, were Dresden residents Cornelia Meyer, 27; her 4-year-old son, Max; her boyfriend, architect Egbert Rimkus, 34, and his 10-year-old son, Georg Weber. They had arrived in the United States earlier in the month and were touring in a Plymouth Voyager minivan rented in Los Angeles. They checked out of a Las Vegas hotel room on July 22 and arrived in Death Valley the same day, records indicated. Temperatures in the park that week had topped 120 degrees. The visitors bought an information booklet at the visitor center and then apparently stayed overnight in the park and the next day took a dirt road into a remote area.

An entry in German and dated July 23, 1996, was left in a guest book kept in a box on a metal pole in an abandoned mining camp. It indicated the visitors were going through “the pass” — possibly a reference to Mengel Pass, a dirt trail that crosses the barren Panamint Range, a barren mountain range on the park’s southwestern border. The entry was signed “Conny, Egbert, Georg, Max.” They weren’t heard from again. On Oct. 23, the locked van was found mired in sand in a ravine off roadless Anvil Spring Canyon, amid rolling hills at an elevation of 3,000 feet and far from usual tourists routes. Three tires were shredded and one had come loose from the rim.

Searchers found a beer bottle a quarter mile away that appeared to have come from a package found in the van. Inside the van were rolls of exposed photo film, sleeping bags, empty gallon water containers, the Death Valley information booklet and an American flag apparently
taken from a stone cabin in Butte Valley, five miles away. No tracks that could have been made by the missing tourists were found. No passports or personal effects such as keys, a purse or wallet were found.

A team of 45 searchers, eight horses and four helicopters from California and Nevada law enforcement agencies combed the area but found nothing more.

[PaleoRob]

Interesting!

[Grasshopper]

Very sad but now hopefully final closure after these many years.

Having driven this remote 4x4 only route, what in the world could these people have been thinking trying to drive it in July at 120F temps in a Plymouth Voyager Mini-Van .

This is one of the 4x4 day trips I had proposed to Randal for his upcoming Feb'2010 vist to DVNP:
One very full day outing(On Hwy 178 south of Badwater Basin & off West Side Rd)= Warm Springs Cyn Rd 4x4 to/thru Butte Valley & by scenic Striped Butte by Geology Cabins over 4x4 Mengel Pass/Gravesite to/thru scenic Goler Canyon and out to Ballarat Ghost Town for hwy loop back to Furnace Creek; (Note: this area over Mengel Pass at Goler Canyon is where the unmarked spur road to the old Barker Ranch- the Charles Manson hideout/capture location is.. but it recently burnt down and probably is not worth the precious extra daylight that would be needed for even a short side trip to visit the site);