Deaths in Death Valley

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Deaths in Death Valley

Postby Anonymizer » Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:11 pm

Originally posted by mrgreenskull 2009-12-24:
I know this is a rather morbid topic, but it might be interesting to compile a list of all the people who have died in or near Death Valley as the result of exposure to the elements (dehydration, heat prostration, hypothermia, etc.). All of us have heard about the four Germans whose bodies were recently recovered who perished during the 1990s. What I'll try to do here (and I hope others will contribute too) is create a list of deaths due to the elements in Death Valley.

Here's a quick joke, just to keep things on the light side:
How often do people die in Death Valley?
ANSWER: Only once! :mrgreen:
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Re: Deaths in Death Valley

Postby Anonymizer » Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:13 pm

Originally posted by ShadyLady 2009-12-25:
The most recent case I can think of is the eleven-year-old boy who got stranded with his mom and their dog in the Owlshead area last summer. They were going on a camping trip and took a wrong turn. The car got stuck and they wound up dying after five days. The boy's name was Carlos Sanchez. Although they were only about 20 miles east of Trona, the driving distance from Trona would have been a lot greater. They were from the Las Vegas area.
News article: Las Vegas Boy Dies After Getting Stranded in Death Valley
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Re: Deaths in Death Valley

Postby Anonymizer » Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:13 pm

Originally posted by panamint_patty 2009-12-25:
August 2005 - A guy named Robert Darmer died of exposure in Saline Valley (about two miles from the hot springs).
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Re: Deaths in Death Valley

Postby Anonymizer » Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:17 pm

Originally posted by desertrat 2009-12-26:
August 2004 - Two fatalities occured between the entrance of 20 Mule Team Canyon Road and Zabriskie Point as the result of a flash flood.
LINK: Survey of Death Valley Flood
Last edited by REPOSTER on Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Deaths in Death Valley

Postby Anonymizer » Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:18 pm

Originally posted by cactuspete 2009-12-26:
August 24, 2009 - Two French tourists were killed when their van rolled over on a desolate stretch of Hwy 190. The driver fell asleep and the rollover occurred when the van drifted off the highway. Four other occupants of the van were injured. The individuals who died were both teenagers. The driver (age 31) who fell asleep wound up with a broken jail and was supposed to have been charged with vehicular manslaughter.
LINK: French Tourists Killed in Death Valley Rollover
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Re: Deaths in Death Valley

Postby Anonymizer » Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:28 pm

Originally posted by cactuspete 2009-12-26:
July 2004 - George Johnston (aka, the Ballarat Bandit) - Shot himself rather than be captured by law enforcement.
INFO: Ballart Bandit Profile
The man known as the Ballarat Bandit, a heavily armed fugitive who killed himself near California's Death Valley two years ago as federal rangers closed in, was once a Canadian marijuana farmer, U.S. documents show.

According to the material obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, George Johnston was 50 when he shot himself in July 2004, and had lived with his children on Prince Edward Island growing marijuana before his arrest in 1997.

SOURCE: Ballarat Bandit From Canada
In an empty wash south of Death Valley, about 100 feet off California Highway 127 on the San Bernardino County side of Ibex Pass, the Bandit ended his career by putting a bullet in his brain. Surrounded in the air and on the ground by law enforcement officials from local, state and federal agencies, dehydrated, exhausted, and out of options, the man whose skills and physical endurance had won him grudging admiration from scores of veteran officers, finally gave up.
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Re: Deaths in Death Valley

Postby Anonymizer » Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:29 pm

Originally posted by JeepNut 2010-01-26:
August 28th 2002 - Brett Kedish (32) Began a hike to the sand dunes near Stovepipe Wells with his wife around ten in the morning. His wife walked back to the car after an hour. He didn't show up in a reasonable amount of time and so she contacted authorities. Kedish was found, but was in such bad shape that he died later from heat exposure. The air temperature in the shade was 113 degrees that day.

July 7th 2003 - Robert Hudson failed to return from a hike out on the sand dunes near Stovepipe Wells. His body was found at the dunes and he later died as a result of heat exposure.

July 23, 2005 - Kinhluan Nguyennogoc (50) Found dead on a day when temperatures reached 117?. Heat is thought to be most likely cause of death.

1984 - Three-year-old child crushed by collapsing adit at Keane Wonder Mine. Although warning signs posted, visitors ignore them and enter unstable tunnels anyways.
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Re: Deaths in Death Valley

Postby Anonymizer » Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:31 pm

Originally posted by pcslim 2010-02-05:
The first documented death of a non-Native American in Death Valley was the death an old guy named Culverwell in 1849. He was already on his way to dying before entering Death Valley. He was traveling with a party destined for the gold fields of California. They thought that going through Death Valley would be a short cut. They wound up being stuck for weeks in Death Valley and while there came up with the name for the valley!
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Re: Deaths in Death Valley

Postby Anonymizer » Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:33 pm

Originally posted by cactuspete 2010-03-18:
There were at least three mysterious deaths in the summer of 1905. One of those involved Edgar Titus, for whom Titus Canyon is named. Titus and his brother-in-law Earl Weller had just moved from Telluride, Colorado, to Bullfrog, Nevada. Accompanied by a guy named Mullin, Titus and Weller headed out from Bullfrog to a rich gold deposit that Titus had recently located in the Panamints. The group set up camp in the Grapevines on the way to the Panamints and Titus and Weller disappeared while out scouting. Mullin was rescued three weeks later in mid-July. There were three bodies found in Death Valley on July 1st that year, but apparently they were not Titus or Weller since Weller's father spent the next two years searching for his dead son and Titus. The fate of Titus and Weller remains a mystery although there is some speculation that they were murdered by miners from Telluride who were mad at them due to some dispute, which might be why Titus and Weller moved to Bullfrog in the first place.
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Re: Deaths in Death Valley

Postby Anonymizer » Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:34 pm

Originally posted by MojaveMike 2010-05-03:
In April of 1908 a guy named Joseph L. "Hootch" Simpson killed a guy named Jim Arnold in Skidoo. Hootch was subsequently lynched by a mob that was angry about Hootch bragging about killing Arnold. Arnold was a storekeeper who did nothing to provoke Hootch, but Hootch being a drunk caused a scene and long story short wound up killing Arnold. So, that was two deaths in Death Valley in April of 1908; one by gunshot, the other by lynching. Incidentally, Hootch was hung from a telephone pole and no one was ever charged for his unlawful death.
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Re: Deaths in Death Valley

Postby Anonymizer » Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:35 pm

Originally posted by pcslim 2010-05-10:
Deaths on Telescope Peak:
1) November 1960: A seventeen year old was hit by a snowstorm on the summit and became lost in a white-out while trying to walk down from the peak. He wound up falling down a gully to his death.
2) December 1966: An inexperienced climber slipped while descending the east slope of Hanaupah Canyon and wound up falling over a thousand feet to his death.

Lesson learned: It's probably best not to attempt to climb Telescope Peak during the winter or during a snowstorm unless you are really good at that sort of thing! Just because the peak is directly above Death Valley proper doesn't mean harsh winter conditions don't exist up there!
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Re: Deaths in Death Valley

Postby Anonymizer » Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:36 pm

Originally posted by WildRose 2010-06-15:
June 1913 - Chester A. Pray allegedly shot himself in the head. However, there is some controversy over if this was actually a suicide or not. Chester Pray was involved in some successful mining projects at the time of his death and so it doesn't make sense that he would kill himself. Pray was involved in developing mines near Galena Canyon.
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