Missing person - Death Valley

[gkainz]

I'm going to attempt to copy/paste from a Facebook post from my daughter, who shared a post from her aunt. ... this is my daughter's uncle.

----------- Facebook Post -----------------
Renee Burton Charlan is with Nathan Charlan and
2 others

This is my uncle. Here are the details written by his wife

Family and Friends:
Many of you know my husband, Dennis Burton or me, Donna Burton.
https://www.facebook.com/InyoCountySheriffsOffice/
Feel free to distribute the mail, post the link, and/or spread the word as the more people who are aware the better the chances of locating Dennis.
If Dennis is found, I will spread the news, but at this point talking about it is difficult for me.
Thank you,
Donna

 

[Sac Arrow]

Getting stuck or lost in Death Valley is no joke, especially in the summer. I used to live out that way. Hope all goes well.

 

[ElPaso Pilot]

Getting stuck or lost in Death Valley is no joke, especially in the summer. I used to live out that way. Hope all goes well.

My son did a multi-hour vehicle crossing on a mid 120's degree day in a car without air conditioning. Ground temps reach 200 degrees there.

He was very sobered by the experience, for a guy who spends much time in the desert.

At those temps, windows down is harder on the body than windows up -- windows down turned the car into an active convection oven.

So windows up it was, dipping into heat stroke management.

He is much more reserved now there.


I hope all works our for your Uncle.

 

[kmacht]

Do they know if he went to Death Valley on purpose or did they just find his car there? It says he was reported missing in San Diego. That’s quite a drive to Death Valley unless he was going there on purpose to hike or something.

 

[cowman]

I’m not familiar with the area but is this a situation where our bugsmashers could help flying by over the area and seeing if anything/anyone is visible?

 

[Dan Thomas]

I’m not familiar with the area but is this a situation where our bugsmashers could help flying by over the area and seeing if anything/anyone is visible?

He might be hunkered under some rock overhang, something that will give him shade. Hard to see him then. Besides that, people are tiny from any altitude at all.

 

[Albany Tom]

Wish you the best of luck on this.

 

[Arm3]

That Facebook post is dated more than two weeks ago. Are they still searching? Seems like a tough place to survive over two weeks.

Hopeful for a good outcome though.

 

[SoonerAviator]

That Facebook post is dated more than two weeks ago. Are they still searching? Seems like a tough place to survive over two weeks.

Hopeful for a good outcome though.

I had the same thought. 2 weeks in Death Valley seems like a long shot. However, crazier things have happened. Hope they find him alive and well.

 

[gkainz]

Hi all,

I don't have a lot of answers and neither does my daughter.

Her uncle is from Ramona, near San Diego, so originally reported missing from there, sometime around Sept 25th or so. His truck was discovered near Death Valley, as noted in the report. My daughter was told that search and rescue resources were mostly all allocated to the Hurricane Ian rescues/clean up efforts in Florida.

Per the 10/6 update above, they've expanded search resources and I believe some of the search and rescue canine teams have become available there.