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Death Valley National Park, California

The Death Valley Germans

● Remains Recovered Presumed Accidental Deaths Unresolved Identification
Missing/Deceased
4 (2 Confirmed, 2 Unidentified)
Last Seen
July 22 to 23, 1996
Location
Anvil Spring Canyon, Death Valley, California
Cause of Death
Presumed Heat Exposure and Dehydration
Remains Found
2009, Goler Wash
Nationality
German, Dresden
Discovered By
Amateur Searcher Tom Mahood
Status
Egbert and Cornelia Identified, Georg and Max Never Confirmed
01
Victim Information

Egbert Rimkus, Cornelia Meyer, Georg Weber & Max Meyer

Cornelia Connie Meyer and her son Max Meyer
Cornelia and Max

Cornelia "Connie" Meyer was 27, from Dresden, Germany. She was traveling with her four-year-old son, Max Meyer, from a previous relationship. Connie was the group's designated driver on the trip. She and her boyfriend, Egbert Rimkus, had been together for a relatively short time before the trip and were using the vacation as an opportunity to bring their two families together.

Max was four years old, the youngest of the group, and was on what should have been a memorable family vacation exploring the American West with his mother, her boyfriend, and his new stepbrother.

Egbert Rimkus and his son Georg Weber
Egbert and Georg

Egbert Rimkus, 34, was an architect from Dresden, Germany, and Connie's boyfriend. He organized much of the trip, which was planned as a three-week tour of the western United States following the end of a previous marriage. Egbert's eleven-year-old son, Georg Weber, traveled with him.

Georg was described by those who knew the family as an easygoing child who got along well with his new stepbrother, Max. The trip was intended in part to give the two boys a chance to bond as their parents' relationship grew.

02
What We Know

A Wrong Turn Into the Desert

Egbert Rimkus, Cornelia Meyer, Georg Weber, and Max Meyer arrived in the United States from Dresden, Germany, on July 8, 1996, flying into Seattle before continuing to Los Angeles, where they rented a green 1996 Plymouth Voyager minivan. Over the following two weeks, the family toured Southern California, including the coastal area around San Clemente, before traveling to Las Vegas and checking into the Treasure Island Hotel.

On July 22, 1996, the family checked out of their Las Vegas hotel and drove to Death Valley National Park, purchasing a booklet at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center that afternoon. From there, they drove toward the Panamint Mountains on a rough, unpaved backcountry route, steep and covered with loose rock and sand.

The family stopped overnight at a remote cabin along the route, where Egbert left an entry in the site's log book dated July 23, 1996, writing in German that the group intended to continue through what investigators believe was Mengel Pass, at the southwestern edge of the park. Instead of continuing on that route, the family turned off about a mile short of the pass and drove east into Anvil Spring Canyon, an isolated, closed-to-traffic area that was not a typical stop for first-time visitors to the park.

Temperatures in Death Valley that week reached as high as 124 degrees Fahrenheit. What happened to the family after they entered Anvil Spring Canyon was unknown for more than a decade. Their rental van was not returned to the agency by its due date of July 26, and they never boarded their scheduled return flight to Germany.

The rental company waited more than thirty days before reporting the vehicle stolen. On October 26, 1996, park staff located the abandoned Plymouth Voyager stuck in sand in Anvil Spring Canyon, with three flat tires and no sign of the family. The vehicle contained camping gear, beer bottles, a camera with exposed film, and empty water containers, but the family's passports, wallets, money, and airline tickets were gone, indicating they had left the vehicle intending to find help on foot.

03
Case Timeline

From Vacation to Discovery

July 8, 1996
Family Arrives in the United States
+

Egbert Rimkus, Cornelia Meyer, Georg Weber, and Max Meyer fly from Frankfurt to Seattle, then continue to Los Angeles, where they rent a green 1996 Plymouth Voyager minivan from Dollar Rent A Car for a three-week tour of the western United States.

July 12 to 21, 1996
Touring Southern California and Las Vegas
+

The family tours the San Clemente area of the Southern California coast. On July 12, Egbert calls his bank in Dresden to request $1,500 be wired to a Bank of America branch, which is later found to have been sent to a Los Angeles branch rather than San Clemente. Photos later recovered from a camera in the van indicate the family continued along the coast before checking into the Treasure Island Hotel in Las Vegas.

July 22, 1996
Family Enters Death Valley
+

The family checks out of the Treasure Island Hotel in Las Vegas and drives to Death Valley National Park. A receipt shows they purchased a booklet at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center that afternoon before continuing toward the Panamint Mountains on a rough backcountry route.

July 23, 1996
Final Known Message, Log Book Entry
+

The family stops at a remote cabin, where Egbert writes in the site's log book, in German: "7-23-96. Conny Egbert Georg Max. We are going through the pass," believed to refer to Mengel Pass. Instead of continuing on that route, the family turns off about a mile short of the pass and drives into Anvil Spring Canyon, an isolated area closed to regular traffic. This is the last documented trace of the family's intended path.

July 26 to September 1996
Missed Return Date, Vehicle Reported Stolen
+

The rental van is not returned to Los Angeles by its due date of July 26. The family fails to board their scheduled return flight to Germany. Dollar Rent A Car reports the vehicle stolen to the Los Angeles Police Department on September 10, 1996, after waiting the standard grace period.

October 26, 1996
Abandoned Van Located in Anvil Spring Canyon
+

Park staff locate the family's Plymouth Voyager stuck in sand in Anvil Spring Canyon, three tires flat, with no sign of the family. The vehicle's contents, including camping gear, beer bottles, a camera with exposed film, and empty water containers, are recovered, but passports, wallets, cash, and airline tickets are missing, indicating the family left on foot.

1996 to 2009
Case Goes Cold
+

Official search efforts fail to locate the family. Investigators had not considered the possibility that the family attempted to hike toward the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, visible in the distance, believing it might offer help, and search efforts near that area are never conducted. The case remains unsolved for thirteen years.

2009
Remains Discovered in Goler Wash
+

Amateur searcher Tom Mahood, working from his own theory about the family's likely route toward the naval base, and his search partner Les Walker locate skeletal remains in Goler Wash, roughly eight miles from where the van was found. DNA testing confirms the remains belong to Egbert Rimkus and Cornelia Meyer. Additional smaller bones recovered nearby, believed to belong to Georg and Max, are too degraded from sun exposure to be positively identified. To this day, INTERPOL continues to list both boys as missing.

04
The Investigation

Piecing Together a Thirteen-Year Mystery

When park staff located the abandoned Plymouth Voyager in October 1996, the vehicle itself became the primary source of evidence. It was found stuck in sand roughly eight miles from where the family's remains would eventually be discovered thirteen years later, with three flat tires and no sign of the family nearby.

A German-language log book entry left at a remote cabin along the family's route, a beer bottle found half a mile from the abandoned vehicle matching bottles recovered from inside it, an evidence marker placed at the eventual discovery site, and a map of the route between the two locations together helped investigators reconstruct the family's likely path.

Front of the family's rental Plymouth Voyager, found abandoned in Anvil Spring Canyon
1 / 8
Front of the Abandoned Rental Van

Case documents and archival news footage:

05
Case Update

A Mystery Solved, and Left Unfinished

For thirteen years, investigators and volunteer searchers were unable to explain what happened to the family after their van became stuck in Anvil Spring Canyon. Official search efforts had ruled out the theory that the family attempted to walk toward the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, a military facility visible in the distance, believing it would not have been staffed or safe to reach.

Tom Mahood, an amateur investigator who had spent years independently researching the case, reached the opposite conclusion: that the family had likely mistaken the naval facility for a source of help and attempted the roughly eight mile trek toward it on foot, in temperatures that reached as high as 124 degrees Fahrenheit. Working with search partner Les Walker in 2009, Mahood located skeletal remains in a remote area known as Goler Wash, southeast of the naval facility.

DNA testing confirmed that the remains belonged to Egbert Rimkus and Cornelia Meyer. Additional smaller bones recovered near the same site are believed to belong to the two boys, Georg Weber and Max Meyer, but decades of sun exposure had degraded them too severely for DNA identification. Neither child has ever been positively identified, and both remain listed as missing persons with INTERPOL.

This case involved no crime and no suspect. Investigators and the medical examiner's findings are consistent with the family becoming stranded after their vehicle became stuck, and subsequently dying of heat exposure and dehydration while attempting to reach help on foot in extreme desert conditions. No forensic or criminal investigation into a perpetrator was ever opened, as none was warranted by the evidence.

In Memoriam

Egbert, Cornelia, Georg & Max

Egbert Rimkus and Cornelia Meyer set out on that trip to build something new together, blending two families into one, giving their sons Georg and Max a chance to become brothers. They wanted to see the American West, and instead they found themselves stranded in one of the harshest landscapes on earth, making a decision born of desperation that cost them everything. For thirteen years their family in Germany waited without answers. Egbert and Cornelia were finally identified in 2009, but Georg and Max never were, two young boys still listed as missing to this day, their identities lost to the same desert that took their lives. They set out on a family vacation and never came home, and they deserve to be remembered not for how that trip ended, but for the family they were trying to become.

Cornelia Meyer and Max Meyer, memorial photo
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