The trail is cold, very cold -- and it's been cold for 500 years. The trail of the story has dead ends, innocent girls, brilliant scientists and powerful forces. Nobody quite knows what happened, but everybody seems to have a theory. It's up to you to sort it out.

You and your partner(s) have been asked to write an article for National Geographic magazine on one of the greatest murder mysteries of all time, the Ice Maiden. Like most great honors, it's a lot of work. Your magazine spent a lot of money assisting with the research. Now they want you to write a great story to publicize it. Make sure you answer the standard reporter questions, "Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?"



Who was she?

Who killed her?

Who found the body?

Who should control the body?

What happened to her?

What made it possible to find her?

What will happen next?

What has her body taught us about the past?

When did the murder take place?

When was the body discovered?

When will we find out more?

Where was she from?

Where was she murdered?

Where was she found?

Where was the body taken?

Where is the body now?

How was she killed?

How do we know?

How was she found?

How did we learn about the past from her?



Your editors want you to especially feature these aspects of the story:



Dr. Reinhard was definitely lucky to find the ice maiden. But an old saying says luck goes to those who are well prepared. What training and past experiences prepared Reinhard for his discovery?



The Ice Maiden is considered to be more important than earlier ice mummies for three main reasons. What are the three most important reasons?



Who should own the Ice Maiden? Tell some of the people who might claim her and what they would want done with her. Try to represent all their claims without taking sides.



Fortunately you have at your disposal the excellent photographic resources of your magazine, National Geographic. For our purposes we will consider your pool of available images to be those available on the web sites below. Insert some of them in your article and wrap your text around them. Make sure you explain the pictures you use and remember to credit your sources.



The Mountain Institute

http://www.mountain.org/zicemaiden.html



Ice Treasures of the Inca

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/96/mummy/



Andes Expedition: Searching for Inca Secrets

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/andes/index.html



The Mummies of Peru

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/97spring/reinhard.html



NOVA: Ice Mummies of the Inca

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/peru/



Dr. Johan Reinhard's Journeys

http://www.mountain.org/reinhard/



Your editors will judge your story as they judge all their stories:

Is it accurate?

Does it tell the full story?

Is it attractive to readers?

The answers to these questions will determine which article they will actually publish.