Burney purchased a red 1987 Toyota Tercel on June 29, 2007; he planned to drive to Georgia to meet his two daughters. He was last seen at the Jet-Pep gas station and convenience store on Highway 157 in Battleground, Alabama that day. He has never been heard from again.

Kirchner was last seen in Coconino County, Arizona in early April 2007. He worked as a physicist back in Germany and had visited the United States many times before. He was hiking a remote section of the Navajo Reservation. He’s an experienced hiker who was in good physical condition and hiked extensively in the Colorado Plateau area.