In May 2006, a young couple from Dallas, Brandon Day, 28, and Gina Allen, 24, attended a convention in Palm Springs, California. They took the nearby Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to the top of Mount San Jacinto to have drinks and a brief walk of the area. They expected to return within a few hours and prepared accordingly, wearing only light clothing and tennis shoes and taking no food or water. Crucially, they left their cell phones in their hotel room.

Instead of returning as planned, they got lost in the Mount San Jacinto wilderness for four days, and when hope was fading, the death of a man called John Donovan and his belongings in the same area the year before did much to save their lives.

Even when the mountain was done with John Donovan, who died in May 2005, he seemed to gain a sort of afterlife and the ability to help others survive, even when he couldn’t. Indeed, in getting lost and facing his darkest nightmare of a solitary death in the wilderness, he would be doing the best thing he possibly could for two people he would never meet.

Read the full story by logging in or becoming a member here: The Dead Man Who Saved Brandon Day and Gina Allen on Mount San Jacinto

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