her son Max Meyer, 4.

Further investigation showed the group left Frankfurt and arrived in the United States at Seattle on July 8, then immediately flew to Los Angeles where they picked up their rental van. Because Egbert could not produce his driver’s license, Cornelia was recorded as the driver. The van was due back on July 26th and the group had tickets on TWA to return to Germany on July 27th. They were not on that flight, nor was there evidence of them leaving the USA.

For the first week or so in the USA, the Germans based themselves in the San Clemente area of Southern California, doing normal tourist things. On July 12th, Egbert made a call to his bank in Dresden requesting $1,500 be wired to aBank of America branch in San Clemente (the money ended up being sent to a Bank of America branch in Los Angeles).

At this point their travels become a bit vague, but the images on their recovered camera suggest they traveled the California coast a bit, before ending up in Las Vegas and staying at the Treasure Island Hotel. On July 21st, Egbert faxed a request from the hotel to his ex-wife and son’s mother, Hieki Weber, requesting additional funds be sent to him. These funds were never sent. The party checked out of the Treasure Island hotel on July 22nd, and proceeded to Death Valley.

Receipt records at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center show that on July 22nd, two copies of the booklet, “Death Valley National Monument Museum Text”