Protestant cemetery Pike's first marriage to Jane Alvies had ended in divorce in 1941, although Pike claimed it had been annulled. He then had married Esther Yanovsky in 1942; they had four children, two boys and two girls. Pike officiated at her funeral. In 1968, in defiance of C. Kilmer Myers, the Bishop who succeeded him, he married Diane Kennedy, a Methodist student twenty-five years his junior, with whom he had collaborated on
The Other Side. In August 1969, Pike and Diane traveled to Israel, to do research for a proposed book on the
historical Jesus. Wanting to have a feeling for the landscape where
Jesus went into the wilderness to fast and meditate for 40 days, on September 2 they drove into the
Judean Desert outside of Jerusalem, planning to drive to
Qumran, where the
Dead Sea Scrolls had been discovered. Despite Pike having visited Israel before, they were unprepared for what they assumed would be a short drive, buying only two Cokes along the way and taking no water or a guide with them. Using an Avis map they'd been given at the airport with their rented
Ford Cortina, they took several wrong turns before their vehicle became stuck in a deep rut on a tertiary dirt road. The Pikes vainly attempted to use the car's jack to free it, believing it was missing its base (it was a one-piece European model they were unfamiliar with). After an hour of stressful efforts to get the car to move, they decided to walk what they thought was north toward
Qumran, where they knew there would be water. What they did not know was that they were far south of Qumran, and heading farther south into Wadi Mashash (Hebrew names: Wadi Dargot or מצוקי דרגות - Metsoke Dargot/Dragot, which translates to 'steep cliffs'). After two hours of walking in the tremendous heat, and with night approaching, a dehydrated and exhausted Pike could go no farther, and they found a relatively flat rock under a bit of an overhang that gave them some shade. Diane was concerned that if she lay down to die with him and their bodies were found together, it might be assumed their death was a suicide, whereas if her body were discovered partway to Qumran it would be obvious she had attempted to get help. After ten long hours of climbing on the walls of the canyon and stumbling upon a road under construction (now the road to
Mitzpe Shalem), she came to a camp of Arab laborers. They gave her tea to drink until the foreman came and took her to the nearest army camp, but the search for Pike did not start until well into that day. The news that Bishop Pike was reported missing in the Judean Desert was immediately given front page coverage in the
New York Times. Diane Pike, in spite of her exhaustion and injuries, participated in the rescue attempt. While their car was soon found, there was no sign of her husband. As the number of search efforts began to dwindle on the third day, she relied on many mediums and seers, including the one who had worked with Pike in trying to contact his son, who offered visions of where her husband's body might be. After five days, Pike's body was found on September 7, 1969, south of the route his wife had taken. He had found a large pool of water in a shaded area of the canyon bed, but instead of remaining there, continued to follow what he thought was his wife's route, leaving a trail of a map, undershorts, sunglasses, and her contact lens case, to indicate the path he had taken. Pike was apparently climbing a steep canyon wall in Wadi Mashash when he slipped and fell more than 60 feet to his death. The date of death on the burial certificate is "(?) September 2, 1969"; some sources cite it as between September 3 and 7. He was buried in the Protestant cemetery in
Jaffa, Israel, on September 8, 1969. ==In literature==