For Star subscribers: Searchers are trying to help more families learn what happened to missing loved ones. But laws restrict their access to wilderness areas that are now "open graveyards."
Little Ajo Mountains, Ajo Mining District, Pima County, Arizona, USA mindat.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mindat.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Occasionally, the hikers came across a piece of clothing, a water bottle, a backpack, or a .50 caliber bullet casing leftover from bombing and live-fire exercises at the nearby Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range. But signs of human life are largely absent in this harsh and unforgiving landscape. The southern Arizona sun, 15 miles from the Mexico border, was brutally hot, even in the early hours of a March morning. The intimidating Growler Mountains loomed over the flat and exposed desert expanse from the east. Shade could be found under the sparse trees that lined a sprawling wash that snaked through the Growler Valley. But to reach the trees often meant passing through thickets of dry, thorny brush that surrounded them.