Death Valley Germans

The Death Valley Germans (as dubbed by the media) were a family of four German tourists who went missing in Death Valley National Park, on the California–Nevada border, in the United States, on July 23, 1996.[1] Despite an intense search and rescue operation lasting several months after they went missing, no trace of the family was discovered and the search was called off. In 2009, the presumed remains of the adult members of the family were discovered by hikers who were searching for evidence of the fate of the tourists, and conclusive proof of the fate of the male adult was later established.[2]

Background

The family consisted of 34-year-old German architect Egbert Rimkus, his 11-year-old son Georg Weber, Egbert's 27-year-old girlfriend Cornelia Meyer and her 4-year-old son Max Meyer,[3][4] all of whom were from Dresden, Germany. The group had arrived in the United States via Los Angeles, California, in early July, visiting Las Vegas, Nevada, where they stayed at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino.

Wanting more adventure on their vacation, the family traveled to Death Valley National Park on July 22, where they bought a booklet from the Furnace Creek Visitors Center and spent their first night camping out in a canyon near Telescope Peak. The next day, the group continued to travel to various visitor sites, with Cornelia signing the names of all the family members on a visitors' log at an abandoned mining camp[2] and stopping at the geologists' cabin in Warm Springs Canyon.

Disappearance and search

The family had booked a flight to return to Germany on July 27, but never arrived.[5] Rimkus' ex-wife Heike Weber became concerned when her ex-husband and son did not return from their vacation, and she began to inquire about their whereabouts.[6] On July 31, the German travel agency that arranged the vacation contacted the rental car agency the family had used. After the travel agency failed to establish the family's whereabouts, it reported them missing to Interpol.

On October 21, the family's green Plymouth Voyager rental car was discovered in an extremely remote part of the park known as Anvil Canyon by a helicopter pilot involved in the search.[7] Subsequent inspection found all four of the tires were flat and the wheels damaged, and the car had been driven on them for over 2 miles (3.2 km).[7] Over 200 search and rescue workers performed an extensive search of the area near the car. The search failed to yield any clues to the whereabouts of the family except for a single beer bottle that was discovered under a bush over a mile away from the stranded car.[3]

On October 26, 1996, authorities called off the search for the missing tourists.[8]

Discovery of remains

On November 12, 2009, Les Walker and Tom Mahood, two hikers who were off-duty search and rescuers, searching for traces of the family,[9] discovered the skeletal remains of two adults, one male and one female, with identification belonging to the missing tourists found near the bodies.[2] Although DNA was recovered only from the bones of Rimkus,[10][11] authorities claimed they were fairly certain that the bones belonged to the missing Germans.[4] The remains of the children were never officially discovered, although the sole of a shoe, possibly from one of the children, was found.[12] Supposedly, bones resembling those of children were found by searchers near where the adults' remains were found, but no official report was made following up on this discovery.[5]

Mahood speculated that while vacationing in Death Valley, the family, short on money, attempted to take a shortcut to Yosemite National Park through a valley they underestimated the difficulty of traveling through. Once their car became stranded in a wash, the family attempted to travel southwards towards a restricted area of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, where they expected to find a well-guarded and attended perimeter, a much more common feature of military bases in Germany than those in the American southwest. The family eventually succumbed to the hot temperatures and lack of shelter halfway to the base perimeter.[5]

See also

• List of people who disappeared mysteriously
• List of unsolved deaths

References

1. Times, Robin Flinchum Special to the Pahrump Valley (2016-07-22). "Interest continues in 20-year Death Valley mystery". PV Times. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
2. "Remains May Be Tourists Missing 13 Years". Retrieved 2017-09-22.
3. Writer, Occasional (2016-09-11). "The Hunt for The Death Valley Germans — companion reading". Medium. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
4. "Death Valley skeletons solve riddle of missing German tourists". 2009-11-14. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
5. Mahood, Tom. "The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans". OtherHand.org. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
6. Times, Robin Flinchum Special to the Pahrump Valley (2016-07-20). "Twentieth anniversary of one of Death Valley's baffling mysteries". PV Times. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
7. Times, Special To The (1996-10-25). "Van of Missing German Tourists Found in Death Valley Park". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
8. GORMAN, TOM (1996-10-31). "Search Ends for 4 Missing German Tourists". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
9. RiderDownFoundation. "Les Walker Tom Mahood Solve 13 year old missing german Death Valley Mystery". Retrieved 3 February 2019 – via YouTube.
10. Watanabe, Teresa (2009-11-14). "CALIFORNIA : Bones may solve mystery : Death Valley hikers find what may be tourists' remains". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
11. "Egbert Rimkus - The Charley Project". Retrieved 2018-10-17.
12. "Children Still Missing in 1996 German Tourist Case - Sierra Wave: Eastern Sierra News". www.sierrawave.net. Archived from the original on 2016-01-09. Retrieved 2017-09-22.