I killed and buried my best friend today ... When authorities found Raffi Kodikian -- barely alive -- four days after he and his friend David Coughlin became lost in Rattlesnake Canyon, they made a grim and shocking discovery. Kodikian freely admitted that he had stabbed Coughlin twice in the heart. Had there been a darker motive than mercy? And how could anyone, under any circumstances, kill his best friend? Armed with the journal Kodikian and Coughlin carried into Rattle- snake Canyon, Jason Kersten re-creates in riveting detail those fateful days that led to the killing in an infamously unforgiving wilderness. Kersten’s well-crafted narrative is light and briskly paced, replete with local desert color - Booklist “A riveting story, a page turner, a book that I couldn’t put down.” - Lawrence Schiller, author of Perfect Murder, Perfect Town “A true American tragedy, beautifully written.” - Tony Hillerman, author of The Sinister Pig “A brilliantly crafted exploration of a profoundly human mystery.” - Victoria Bruce, author of No Apparent Danger “A story that is inherently interesting.” - Rocky Mountain News “Deftly penned by Jason Kersten, a rising star in the journalism world ... resounding [and] unforgettable.” - Denver Westword “A taut, expertly researched true-crime narrative.” - Boston Herald “This book is so addictive, I advise not cracking it until you have enough time to read it straight through…Kersten…has a keen, almost noirish sense of suspense.” - Time Out New York “Addictive.” - Time Out New York “Fascinating” - Oregonian “One of those rare books that the reader will be compelled to read in a single sitting...It’s that good.” - Tulsa World “A powerful story ... one hell of a fascinating ride.” - National Geographic Adventure “A brilliant new book...in the great nonfiction tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild.” - Advertising Age “Five stars. As tough to put down as Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild.” - Maxim “A gripping, readable tale” - Austin American-Statesman “Wholly absorbing...Tells the story of Coughlin and Kodikian with quiet authority, lending unexpected dignity to the whole affair.” - New York Times Book Review “A fascinating case, a fascinating book.” - Anderson Cooper, CNN I killed and buried my best friend today ... When authorities found Raffi Kodikian -- barely alive -- four days after he and his friend David Coughlin became lost in Rattlesnake Canyon, they made a grim and shocking discovery. Kodikian freely admitted that he had stabbed Coughlin twice in the heart. Had there been a darker motive than mercy? And how could anyone, under any circumstances, kill his best friend? Armed with the journal Kodikian and Coughlin carried into Rattle- snake Canyon, Jason Kersten re-creates in riveting detail those fateful days that led to the killing in an infamously unforgiving wilderness. Jason Kersten is a freelance journalist whose articles have appeared in Rolling Stone and Men's Journal, as well as other magazines. He holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and lives in New York City. Journal of the Dead By Kersten, Jason Perennial ISBN: 0060959223 Chapter One There's an old story people still tell their children in New Mexico. It took place in 1598, when the Spanish founders of Santa Fe were forced to cross the hostile Chihuahuan Desert. Stretching from central Mexico to just south of Albuquerque, the Chihuahuan nearly wiped out the two hundred colonists by sapping away their water. They wandered through the cacti and tumbleweeds half mad for a week, and were spared an excruciating death only by a fortuitous rain. Afterward, they came to call the most brutal part of the desert el Jornada del Muerto , "the journey of the dead." Lance Mattson didn't need to hear the old tales about the Spanish to know what the desert could do to people. As a twenty-eight-year-old ranger at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, which sits inside a desiccating arm of the northern Chihuahuan, he had heard far worse stories. Sometimes search-and-rescue crews found lost hikers rambling and incoherent -- often they found them dead. But on the morning of August 8, 1999, as he drove into the park's backcountry to check on a pair of overdue campers, he did not expect to find anything that dramatic. With him was John Keebler, a sixty-eight-year-old park volunteer. That morning, Keebler had been driving along a scenic route called Desert Loop Drive when he noticed a red Mazda Protegé parked at a trailhead. An hour later, he mentioned seeing it to Mattson, who realized that he had seen the car himself, two days earlier. The ranger went into a drawer behind the visitor center's information desk, found a camping permit that the hikers had filled out, and discovered that they were three days overdue. Mattson was hoping the hikers -- a pair of East Coasters in their mid-twenties -- were just extending their stay. Park visitors, after all, rarely lo