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Search team finds more remains in Death Valley |
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Thursday, 10 December 2009 |
 A desolate road in Death Valley that leads to the area where more remains were found, suspected to be that of four German tourists that disappeared in 1996. Inyo County Deputy Coroner Jeff Mullenhour said the forensics specialists are slowly and meticulously trying to identify the remains. Photo by Art Berggreen By Mike Bodine
Register Staff
12-10-2009 Additional remains have been located in Death Valley, believed to belong to one or more of the four German tourists who went missing in the park in 1996.
The remains were discovered during a search conducted the weekend of Dec. 5-6.
The multi-agency search included members of the Inyo County Search and Rescue, Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit, China Lake Mountain Rescue Group, San Bernardino Desert Search and Rescue, Calaveras County Search and Rescue, the National Park Service and U.S. Customs.
According to a Sheriff’s Department press release, the remains will be turned over to the Inyo County Coroner’s Office for identification.
Jeff Mullenhour, deputy coroner and the man who handles Southern Inyo County cases, said Wednesday that the most important part is to correctly identify the bones – be they human or animal, adult or adolescent. The bones could very well be those of the four German tourists, but they could also belong to one of the other many missing parties to have vanished in the park over the decades.
He said the Coroner’s Office will be taking its time and be as thorough as possible to make sure the remains are correctly identified.
“Right now, we’re not exactly sure what they are,” Mullenhour explained. “They are part of an ongoing forensic investigation, being handled by qualified professionals in forensics.”
It is still premature to determine whether there is enough DNA to be obtained from the pieces, but it will be a huge factor in identifying the bone fragments.
In 1996, an exhaustive search for the tourists resulted in no leads and the investigation being suspended. A handful of other searches, some public, some private, have been conducted in the following years, but with no luck.
Then in November 2009, two Riverside Search and Rescue members, Les Walker and Tom Mahood, took it upon themselves to reinvestigate the case.
Through hindsight and going off the extensive set of notes and data collected from the initial search, Mahood and Walker found remains and some identification that belonged to one of the German tourists.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 07 January 2010 )
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