This has almost nothing to do with Yosemite but the story is something right out of CSI. The skeletal remains of a human have been found in a secluded corner of Death Valley and are believed to be one of four German visitors missing since 1996.
Two hikers discovered the bones Thursday in remote Goler Wash, a rugged area accessible only by 4-wheel drive vehicles. The area is several miles from the spot the abandoned minivan of the German tourists was found, the last sign of them until now.
“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. (AP)”
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