With an opening in the weather, three investigators from the Inyo Sheriff’s Office and an ID tech flew into the remote area of Death Valley where searchers had earlier found human remains believed to be those of missing German tourists. The process to identify the remains continues.

Inyo Sheriff Bill Lutze said that the investigators flew into the Death Valley site south of Goler Wash today to retrieve the rest of the remains discovered two weeks ago. The skeletal fragments will go to a forensic anthropologist near San Jose to work toward a tentative identification.

Sheriff Lutze said that his office is still working with Interpol to obtain DNA from the relatives of the missing tourists to try to make a match. That’s assuming DNA can be extracted from the bones exposed to the desert and the elements for nearly 14 years.

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Egbert Rimkus and Cornelia Myer

34-year-old Egbert Rimkus, his 10-year-old son George Weber, 27-year-old Cornelia Myer and her 4-year-old son Max had ventured into the 120 degree Death Valley area in a rented van which was found three months later stranded in a remote area.

It was in November that members of the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit found human remains and photo ID in the Panamint Mountains. Inyo investigators examined the contents of the abandonned van which included exposed film. Inyo Sheriff Lutze said the pictures of the tourists’ trip did not reveal any helpful information.

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