Holiday dream turns to nightmare after French couple die, son survives
A challenging hiking trail in the New Mexico desert where temperatures soared past 100 degrees has claimed the lives of two French tourists, officials have said. But while Park rangers were too late to save the couple, authorities rescued their dehydrated son.
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David Steiner, 42, and Ornella Steiner, 51, had been hiking in the White Sands National Monument on Tuesday afternoon when they suffered a heat exhaustion, detectives confirmed on Saturday.
The couple, both from the small French village of Bourgogne, near Reims had been preparing the hike in the dune-filled desert for months.
"They underestimated the severity of nature's elements," Otero County Sheriff Detective David Hunter explained.
Temperatures had been between 100 and 101 degrees Fahrenheit or just under 40 degrees celsius, and without any shade or water along any of the trails, the couple succumbed to dehydration.
But what would have been a grim recovery operation soon turned into a frantic search, when Park rangers rummaging through the dead woman's camera-who was found first- discovered she had been with two other people.
Authorities followed her tracks and found the body of the father, with the son nearby.
The boy, speaking through an interpreter, told authorities that his mother fell ill during the hike and turned back toward the car. He continued on with his father, who also eventually collapsed from heat exhaustion.
The boy is now being flown back to France along with his grandmother who had flown to New Mexico to collect him.
White Sands National Monument is a popular summer destination, but the extreme environment can prove deadly. Two people have died from exposure there this century before Tuesday's tragedy.
The Steiner couple loved travelling and had visited the United States for 10 days last year, hoping to spend longer next time. Their holiday should have lasted 5 weeks.
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