Daniel James Brown

But Stanton went snowblind and died relatively early in the trip.

And it was very clear that the Miwok boys didn't really know where they were.

It was impossible.

The snow was so deep that landmarks weren't there.

So they got lost relatively quickly, started to wander down into the canyon of the North Fork of the American River, and things just went terribly wrong.

And that's actually where the first cannibalism happened was amongst that party that was trying to hike out.

I don't think it was terribly rational.

I think it was emotionally driven.

So the snowshoe party, the Forgorn Hope Party, got bogged down on Christmas Eve.

Another, a second giant snowstorm bogged them down.

And for days, they couldn't go anywhere.

And they began to die.

Well, several of them began to just lose it mentally, the raving and stripping off their clothes and running out in the snow and just acting insane.

And so several of them died within the first 24 hours or so of getting bogged down there.

The thing is, they believed that they were starving to death, but I don't think they were.

People can go weeks and weeks without eating.

They can't go without water, but they can go a long time without eating.

People were dying of hypothermia and exposure.

But they thought they were dying of starvation.

They were terribly hungry.