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. In early September 1974, Dean and Sharman took a raft down the Mekong River to Thailand. They were stopped at a checkpoint near a small village called Pak Him Boun, two miles southeast of the capital of Laos, Vientiane, by Pathet Lao communist guerrillas who imprisoned the two, apparently believing they were spies because they were carrying cameras.