Every town has a dark side.

This one's for the people listening from behind the wheel right now.

The road trippers who like to cruise around and check out all the sites that this wonderful country has to offer.

Because this story starts the way a lot of trips do.

With a map, the open road, the quiet confidence that things will work themselves out along the way.

Because they always do, right? I chose this case because it's familiar to all of us, which makes it extremely uncomfortable.

Does it ask you to sit with the idea that sometimes doing what feels normal and reasonable in the moment

can still lead you somewhere you can't get back from?

Hey guys, it's Andrew. It can still lead you somewhere you can't get back from.

Hey guys, it's Andrew.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Everytown War today.

We're checking out a cautionary tale from deep in the desert.

Let's head on over to California now and explore the tragic story of the Death Valley Germans.

July 8, 1996, Frankfurt International Airport.

Egbert Rimkiss stood in the departure terminal with his 11-year-old son, George Weber, waiting aboard a flight bound for the United States.

Egbert was 34 years old, an architect from Dresden, and he approached travel the same way he approached work, confidently, with

big plans and very little hesitation.

And traveling with them were Igbert's girlfriend, 27-year-old Cornelia Meyer, and her four-year-old

son, Max.

Together, they were setting out on a three-week trip across the western United States,

a sweeping itinerary that promised the Pacific coast, big cities, and eventually the desert southwest.

They flew first to Seattle and then immediately connected down to Los Angeles.

...