Mikaela Kupfer woke up in the desert on the morning of Thursday, January 13, 2022. The 21-year-old was in Joshua Tree National Park, a few hours outside Los Angeles, where she was camping with friends. She looked at her phone: still no service. One of the last calls she’d been able to get through was one she made the night before, to her elder sister, Brianna. The two talked or texted every day, always ending their calls with an “I love you.” Friends envied the sisters’ bond. “She was more than a sister to me; she was my best friend, my person,” Mikaela says. “It’s like we were extensions of each other.”
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Brianna was getting ready for work. She put on an oversize cozy white sweater, black pants, and her favorite white tennis shoes; twisted her long, wavy brown hair into a loose bun; and packed her snacks for the day: some fruit, nuts, and raisins.
