Charles Dean and Neil Sharman were American and Australian citizens, respectively, travelling through Southeast Asia on a backpacking trip in 1974 when they were kidnapped and killed by Communist guerillas.
[3] Dean graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was active in student government and the anti-war movement in 1972.
Together with Sharman, Dean stayed in a bungalow on the Mekong River, planning to meet another friend who was serving in the Peace Corps in Nepal.
[9] A memorial service was held for Dean at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in East Hampton, New York, in the year following his presumed death.
"[11][12] Sharman's girlfriend, Joy Hooper, who had been travelling with the two men, searched desperately for information on the two, questioning government officials across the region for several months before returning home to Australia.
[5] In 2000, accounts given by people who had seen the two young men killed enabled the identification of the site where Dean and Sharman were believed to have been buried.