2003 verdustete ein Niederländer im Damaraland. Nur wenige Wochen später verirrten sich 4 Touristen in der selben Region.

Hiervon handelt das sehr lesenswerte Buch:
"Verschollen im Land der Ahnengeister" - Dirk Schäfer

LbG und ein Gutes Jahr 2018
Matthias

4x4community.co.za
28.12.2017
Thread: Klein Brandberg missing person

The fact that their brother might no longer be alive when he is eventually found was the grim reality that the family of the American man that went missing twelve days ago in the barren landscape south of the Brandberg had to come to terms with.
Roy Mokosso, the elder brother and the twin sister, Marie Nutter and another brother, Brilliant Mokosso, stood in stoic silence as they listened to a senior Namibian police officer going over a search plan that might include the worst case scenario of finding the mortal remains of their brother Mark Mokosso. The possibility that he might have been kidnapped and murdered in the desolate desert mountains was discussed without much ceremony as the plan for the desperate search was laid out.
The helicopter from the Namibian Police Air Wing joined the search for a second time in as many weeks. A small band of Special Reserve Force members have been tracking the missing man relentlessly for the past two weeks and from the tracks a different more horrifying scenario have slowly emerged.

Mr. Joe Bain a prospector and expert on the desert terrain in the vicinity of the Brandberg for many years said at the start of yet another day of searching for the missing man that something does not sit right with him.
“It almost seems as if the person who made the tracks in the barren earth is trying to avoid being found which might mean that someone is trying to lead us on the wrong path. This can only mean that something else has happened here or the man we are looking for does not want to be found.”

After arriving in Namibia on the 23rd December and visiting the place where their brother was last seen alive a day later, the siblings of the missing man spent every day since searching for him alongside the handful of dedicated policemen. They have done so for the past three days from before sunrise until well into the evening, only arriving back at their lodgings in Uis well after sundown.
On Tuesday evening after arriving back at the Brandberg Rest Camp in Uis where he and his siblings stay when not searching for their brother, Roy Mokosso said they all had to come to terms with the fact that the search might well not be about the rescue of Mark but a recovery of his mortal remains.

“We are all glad that we made the effort to travel to Namibia. It gave us the opportunity to see the landscape in which our brother got lost and to help. We feel we can help and being here gives us the best information. We are part of a large family and they rely on us to give them the best possible information.”

He said the best possible outcome of the search would be to find his brother alive and take him home to be with his family.
“Seeing his tracks in the sand and finding small trinkets that he left behind at the spots that he rested has already given us some closure. It also brought us to the realisation that twelve days is a long time to be out in the desert all alone and exposed to the harsh elements. Having to take his remains home to be buried would be very sad,, but not finding him and then having to return home without knowing what happened to Mark would be almost unbearable.”

He said the tracks they followed showed that Mark climbed the Klein Brandberg from the south side. They found his tracks again on the north side and it lead them to the Brandberg more than seven kilometres away. There the tracks could be followed to a smaller dirt track that runs between the C2342 gravel road and the Brandberg.

“You could see that he walked huge distances up and down the smaller road looking for his rental car. Some of his tracks were even followed to the western side of the mountain and then returning back to a small hill that looks almost exactly like the Klein Brandberg along the smaller track. His tracks also went up the Brandberg several times in a different spot where we suspect he tried to use the higher elevation to get his bearings back to his car or civilisation.”

He said they have been sweeping large swathes of land between the spot where the rental car was parked and the Brandberg.
This morning before the police helicopter arrived, the Mokosso siblings, along with the small band of policemen, swept a piece of land between the Klein Brandberg and the Elephant rock camp four kilometres down the C2342. They search by walking in a line next to each other in order to see if the missing man did not crawl under a bush or a rocky outcrop to find shade from the murderous desert sun.

LbG Matthias

In der AZ ist zu lesen

Suche nach Mark Mokosso abgeblasen
Vermisster US-Bürger: Polizei führt Untersuchung fort - Straftat wird nicht ausgeschlossen
Nachdem drei Geschwister aus Amerika angereist waren um bei der Suche nach dem am Brandberg verschollenen Mark Mokosso zu suchen, müssen sie nun unverrichteter Dinge den Weg nachhause antreten. Die Polizei hat ihre Untersuchungen indessen nicht abgebrochen und schließt eine Straftat nicht aus.
Von Frank Steffen, Windhoek/Uis

Zwei Brüder, Roy und Brilliant Mokosso, sowie Marie Nutter, die Zwillingsschwester des vermissten Amerikaners Mark Mokosso, waren in den Weihnachtstagen eingeflogen und hatten seitdem an der Suche nach ihrem Bruder teilgenommen. Bereits seit der letzten Woche vor dem Weihnachtswochenende befanden sich unzählige Helfer und Suchtrupps auf der Suche nach dem 37-Jährigen, der als gebürtiger Senegalese und amerikanischer Staatsbürger, seit dem 15. Dezember 2017 als am Brandberg verschollen galt.

An dem besagten Tag wurde erstmals das verlassene Mietfahrzeug von Mokosso entlang der Sandstraße, auf dem Weg zur Gobobos-Fläche, gefunden. Etwa 10 Kilometer weiter fand man Spuren von einem Mann, die auf eine unsichere, wenn nicht schleudernde, Gangart deuteten und sich in Richtung des kleinen Brandbergs verliefen. Daraus wurde geschlossen, dass der Vermisste entweder verletzt sei oder an extremen Durst litt.

In dem Bakkie wurde eine Kanne Wasser und weitere Kampausrüstung gefunden und nun schien es, als hätte sich der Mann entgegen des ihm vorher gegebenen Rates, nicht allein und ohne Wasser in der sengenden Dezemberhitze den Berg zu besteigen, doch allein auf einen Ausflug begeben hatte. Ob er sich danach verlaufen hatte oder sogar von den teilweise gefährlichen Felshöhen gestürzt war, bleibt unklar.

Abgesehen von den lokalen Suchtrupps, die von Lokalbewohnern und verschiedenen Tourismusbetrieben, bspw. dem Elephant-Camp, gebildet wurden, nahmen ein Flugzeug und zwei Hubschrauber der Polizei an der Suche teil, während die Armee sogar eine Spezialeinheit entsandte, um bei der Spurensuche zu helfen. Das Elephant-Rastlager zündete tagelang große Feuer, die mit schwarz-brennendem Material gefüttert wurden, in der Hoffnung, dass Mokosso in der Nacht die Feuer oder am Tage die schwarzen Rauchsäulen als Lebenszeichen erkennen würde.

Auch die amerikanische Botschaft schaltete sich ein, aber gestern gab Kommissar Andreas Nelumbu, der Befehlshaber der namibischen Polizei in der Erongo-Polizei, endgültig bekannt, dass die großangelegte Suche nach Mokosso eingestellt wurde. In Abwesenheit irgendwelcher Hinweise über den Verbleib des Verschollenen schließt Nelumbu in einem Gespräch mit der Nachrichtenagentur Nampa nicht grundsätzlich die Möglichkeit einer vorliegenden Straftat aus.

Mokosso ist einer von siebzehn Geschwistern und seine beiden Brüder bieten weiterhin einen Finderlohn von 150000 N$, sollte der Bruder lebend gefunden werden, bzw. 50000 N$ für die erfolgreiche Bergung seiner sterblichen Überreste. Mokosso galt als fitter und gesunder Naturliebhaber, der es in der amerikanischen Armee bis zum Rang eines Sergeanten gebracht hatte, ehe er sich in den Privatsektor zurückzog.

Heute in "The Namibian" > www.namibian.com.na/...mericans-last-tracks
Gruß Gina

ALL options are on the table when it comes to the fate of American Mark Mokosso, who disappeared in the Brandberg area three weeks ago.

While the police scaled down the search for him, the family remains hopeful – even if it is just for the recovery of his body.

Dehydration, injury, murder, suicide, and even a 'vanishing act' are considered. In the end, it is about closure – knowing for a fact that Mark is alive, or not.

Mark's brother, Roy Mokosso, said the last time he saw Mark was when he dropped him off at the Minneapolis airport in the US on 9 December – not having seen him any happier.

“He was so excited for this trip. It was a dream vacation. He was most excited for Etosha. The guy was enjoying his vacation, had plans, and had much more to see. Brandberg was a pit stop.

“I think he underestimated the size, got disoriented, and found himself in trouble,” Roy told The Namibian.

“Nothing indicates that he wanted to do anything else except enjoy his vacation and nature, which he loves. He never made his return flight on the 23rd, and there has been no activity with his passport.”

Mark checked out from a Swakopmund guest house on 15 December to go to Twyfelfontein.

On his way, he stopped at an intersection near Uis, where he spoke to some of the stone sellers, enquiring about the Brandberg, and him wanting to climb it. They directed him to the White Lady Camp.

On his way there, he stopped at Klein Brandberg – and has not been seen since.

According to Roy, Mark packed a small pack with water, a US cellphone and camera.

There was no service for his US cellphone, and there is no way to track it because it does not register on cell towers in Namibia.

He left a small compass, maps, water and his Namibian cellphone in the car. The rest of his possessions, including money, were found locked in the car.

“Knowing my brother, he had a five to six-hour drive that day, and wanted to break it up with some exercise or activity.

“He stopped near Brandberg to do some hiking, take photos and collect a few interesting rocks, but his intentions were most likely to spend three to four hours doing that so he could be back on the road to Twyfelfontein by 19h00.

“He enjoys rocks and geology, so I can see why he might have been drawn into stopping at Brandberg,” said Roy after spending time in Namibia searching for Mark.

Roy said being here on the ground, he could see how someone could get confused, and the terrain looks much the same.

He also said the Klein Brandberg rock formation looks similar to many others, and it is almost impossible to judge distance in that space accurately.

“The Brandberg is so big that your distance estimation is thrown off,” said Roy, who spent 23 years in the US Marines, and has had several deployments to Iraq.

“[Mark's] tracks indicate his sole purpose that day after his hike was to find his car. After that, they indicate he went to seek shelter for the night, or get a higher vantage point to see his car.

“His tracks crossed back and forth over each other on the road he thought was the one he parked on,” Roy said, adding that there was no indication Mark made it back to the main road where the rental car was parked.

The vehicle was eventually removed on instruction from the police, who dismissed concerns that it not being where Mark parked it may have disoriented him.

“Everyone is baffled by his disappearance. The absence of a body makes it suspicious. I've looked for lost people in a desert environment before.

“People get dehydrated and do abnormal things, but do some basic stuff. They find main roads and stay on them, either sitting by the road, or following the road.

“If Mark had done that, he would have ended up at some farms 20-30 kilometres away.

“People also go back the way they think they would have come from, trying to retrace their steps.

“Mark would have thought to return to the direction the stone sellers were at the intersection.

“In the most dehydrated and disoriented situations, people walk in circles, shed clothing or drop things.

“Mark's tracks doubled back on themselves, but there has been no hat, shoes, backpack, nothing. Even with an animal attack, there would be something of Mark's found,” said Roy.

Roy's gut feeling suggests his brother made a few errors in his decision-making on 15 December, which led to him getting lost.

“I think that based on his training and physical condition, he should have been able to figure his way out of the situation in 24-72 hours.

“The absence of any sign of him means that he either fell in the mountain looking for shelter or trying to get to an elevated position to try and see his car. Or he possibly was come upon in a weak and vulnerable state, and was taken advantage of.

“If the latter was the case, someone might not want to give up some of the things they found on him, even if they had found him and he was not alive. I would hate to think a person would kill or harm him for those things.

“I don't want to suspect that, but the lack of a body or any sign of him can only point to a fall or snake bite in the mountain, or intentional outside human interaction,” Roy speculated.

There is a reward for N$50 000 for Mark's recovery, and N$150 000 for his recovery alive.

“We want to keep all options open. I would assume that people might also go directly to me on Facebook as well. The hope with the reward is that it brings out new information that ultimately leads to finding Mark, and helps us answer questions that ultimately might help with closure.”

Erongo police chief, Andreas Nelumbu said the search was still on – just on a “smaller scale”.

“We are still searching for leads. We lost his tracks, now we had started from the beginning to see if maybe something happened before he left his car,” he noted.

Nelumbu did not wish to speculate over Mark's health, just saying three weeks in such harsh conditions were challenging to survive in, depending on water and food availability.

“It is very hot there, and one can get dehydrated easily,” he said.

Besides possibly being lost and injured (even fatally), the police are not ruling out murder or suicide.

“All these are possibilities we are looking at,” the officer stated.

Nelumbu said the removal of the vehicle did not play a role in Mark being lost, as his tracks never returned to the car. Instead, his tracks last suggested he may have been at a completely different location, about 20 kilometres from where the car was.

“One can get lost there easily. It is very vast; even if you think you know the area,” he added.

As for the reward, Nelumbu said “reward or no reward”; the police are urging anyone with information to assist.

AZ heute:

Sterbliche Überreste nahe dem Rössing-Berg entdeckt.

???

Cruiser schrieb:
Hallo Cruiser,
bringst du das mit Hrn Mokosso in Verbindung? Ist ja nicht grad um die Ecke vom Ort seines Verschwindens.
Gruß Gina