Death in the Tetons: Eddie "Cola" Fitzgerald's Last 24 Hours

When Eddie "Cola" Fitzgerald, a mail carrier from Queens, New York goes with his ski group to Grand Targhee, little do they know the rope line for the North Boundary Traverse has been removed. While the rest of the ski group heads for the lodge because of white-out conditions, Eddie continues skiing by himself. Skiing past the unmarked resort boundary he realizes he is lost and calls 911. He ends up in a canyon on the boundary of Wyoming and Idaho after dark, putting him smack in the middle of local Search and Rescue politics. An experienced skier on the autism spectrum, Eddie had been diagnosed as a "borderline moron" at age 7 but overcame these obstacles to succeed academically, professionally, and personally. Follow this true story of the search for Eddie as it plays out between the ski group, the 911 dispatch office, the ski patrol, two Search and Rescue teams, and Eddie himself. This roman-a-clef is augmented by actual testimony from the legal depositions taken in the case.