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 23 July 1996.[1] Despite an intense search and rescue operation, 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
Green '96 Plymouth Voyager 4-Door similar to the van rented

The family consisted of 34-year-old German architect Egbert Rimkus, his 11-year-old son Georg Weber, Rimkus'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 arrived in the United States on 8 July 1996 at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, immediately flying on to Los Angeles International Airport, where they rented a green 1996 Plymouth Voyager minivan. They spent some time in the San Clemente area of Southern California, then drove to Las Vegas, Nevada, where they stayed at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino.

The family then drove to Death Valley National Park on 22 July, where they bought two copies of the "Death Valley National Monument Museum Text" (in German) at the Furnace Creek Visitors Center and spent their first night camping out in a canyon near Telescope Peak. The next day, the group traveled to various tourist 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 Geologist's Cabin in Warm Springs Canyon.

The family had booked a flight from Los Angeles to return to Germany on 27 July 1996, but there was no evidence that they boarded the flight or departed the United States.[5] Rimkus's 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 21 October 1996, the family's rental minivan was discovered in an extremely remote part of the park (35.9272°N 117.0249°W / 35.9272; -117.0249) known as Anvil Canyon by a Death Valley National Park (DVNP) ranger aboard a helicopter conducting a routine aerial surveillance mission looking for illegal drug manufacturing labs.[5][7] Subsequent inspection found three of the four tires were flat and the wheels damaged by driving over rocky terrain, and the vehicle had been driven on them for over two miles (3.2 km).[5][7] Over 200 search and rescue workers performed an extensive search of the area near the minivan. 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 vehicle (35.9289°N 116.9980°W / 35.9289; -116.9980).[3]

On 26 October 1996 the 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 rescue personnel looking for traces of the family,[9] discovered the skeletal remains of two adults (35.8674°N 116.9747°W / 35.8674; -116.9747), 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 on 23 July 1996, the family, short on time and wanting to visit Yosemite National Park on their way back to Los Angeles, attempted to take a shortcut to Yosemite on a route whose difficulty they underestimated. Once their vehicle became stranded in a wash, the family traveled on foot southwards to seek help at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, where they may have expected to find a well-patrolled fenced perimeter, a common feature of military bases in Germany but not of military bases in the desert areas of the Southwestern United States. The family likely succumbed to heat stroke (average high temperature of 116.5 °F (46.9 °C) in July), dehydration and lack of shelter halfway to the base perimeter.[5]

See also

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 - CBS News". Retrieved 2017-09-22.
  3. Writer, Occasional (2016-09-11). "The Hunt for The Death Valley Germans — companion reading". Medium. Archived from the original on 2017-09-22. 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.
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