What happened to this California family?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The sheriff said in the NYT article that it’s the most mysterious case he’s seen in his career. If it was as simple as heat stroke, he wouldn’t have called in the FBI and laboratories around the country to work around the clock on this case. My theory is that the illegal growers’ fertilizer run-off and the high temps contributed to a higher than usual amount of toxic algae making it even more poisonous than usual. They were well prepared for the hike so wouldn’t have suffered from heat stroke but for being weakened or even killed by the algae. Perhaps they got overheated and took a dip in the water to cool off. Perhaps Oski went in first and stirred up the blooms. The toxin can be ingested, inhaled, or dermal. Maybe the baby died from heatstroke after the parents were incapacitated. I doubt they would have given the baby the water to drink or even put her in the water.

Or the dog went in first and had it all over his fur so it got on them when they tried to carry him or help him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The sheriff said in the NYT article that it’s the most mysterious case he’s seen in his career. If it was as simple as heat stroke, he wouldn’t have called in the FBI and laboratories around the country to work around the clock on this case. My theory is that the illegal growers’ fertilizer run-off and the high temps contributed to a higher than usual amount of toxic algae making it even more poisonous than usual. They were well prepared for the hike so wouldn’t have suffered from heat stroke but for being weakened or even killed by the algae. Perhaps they got overheated and took a dip in the water to cool off. Perhaps Oski went in first and stirred up the blooms. The toxin can be ingested, inhaled, or dermal. Maybe the baby died from heatstroke after the parents were incapacitated. I doubt they would have given the baby the water to drink or even put her in the water.

Why are you assuming they wouldn't have drunk the water? They had the bad judgment to undertake an 8+ mile hike on a 97+ degree day. You think the bad decisions stopped there?

They had water left over in their pack. Maybe they drank the water too saving the clean water for the baby. That’s why I said maybe the parents and dog succumbed to the poison and baby died of heatstroke. But anatoxin can be inhaled so maybe getting in the water (they themselves or Oski) stirred things up and they inhaled it. You keep saying they had bad judgment. I don’t know if hiking in that heat, by itself, without toxin, would have killed them. I myself have hiked or run in pretty extreme conditions and was no worse for the wear. I always went prepared (as the sheriff said they were) and have years of conditioning and acclimating under my belt.

I doubt you've ever done a 9 mile run over steep terrain in 109 degrees and no shade, while carrying a baby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't it say they just moved to the area? Or just bought a brand new house? What if the presumably well water (?) they got from the new house is actually contaminated? Presumably that's what they filled all their gear up with, which would be fed to dog and baby bottle?

No, they moved to the area at least a year ago.

Reports said he just bought a new investment house? Like some shack looking airbnb property? A place like that is certainly on well water.

[Anonymous]

The sheriff is a politician, like all politicians, they love mugging for cameras. I wouldn't trust a thing out of his mouth, he's loving the attention and sensationalism.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Going for a recreational hike anywhere when it's 95+ outside is not a good idea. Look at all the people they have to rescue from bill goat trail near the Potomac every year.

95+ here with humidity is 1000x worse than 105+ with no humidity.

Except that, as has been posted multiple times on this thread, it was unusually humid as well as unusually hot when they set out on 8/15. The relative humidity was 47% at 8:00 am that day. By 11:00 am it was 99 degrees and 22% relative humidity. The lowest humidity point during the day, at 3:00 pm was 16%, when it was 109. Absolutely miserable, beastly weather anyway you slice it.

Huh? That’s is a dry heat.

https://www.weather.gov/epz/wxcalc_heatindex

99 & 22% feels like 96.9
109 & 16% feels like 107.3

Or maybe even less according to this chart:

I mean it's only "Extreme Caution" or "Danger" ... practically a cool spring day.

The point was dry heat is better than swampy DC humidity, which is what the graph shows. The air temp actually feels COOLER with low humidity.

I was the one who posted the humidity numbers, and the graph supports the point I was making, which is that the weather this family faced was not a bearable dry heat that so many people on here are speaking of. To use PP's example of a 95 degree day in August in DC, given that the average afternoon humidity here is 55%, that is going to feel like a beastly 110 degrees if you look at the chart. The high temperature this family faced, 109 degrees and 16% humidity, is going to feel like a beastly 108 degrees. Had it been low-humidity day, that 109 degrees might feel as pleasant as a (still not very pleasant) 99 degrees.

Basically, I think anyone who says that the temperatures they faced were not so bad because it was a dry heat are wrong anyway you slice it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The sheriff is a politician, like all politicians, they love mugging for cameras. I wouldn't trust a thing out of his mouth, he's loving the attention and sensationalism.

He waited four weeks to address this report. I wouldn't call that 'mugging for cameras'.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So it wasn't FA, it wasn't heat related, they weren't unprepared for the hike, they aren't bad parents.

Something killed them, maybe the toxic algae, maybe something related to growers.

That's not what they said at all.

Please tell us what they said.

They said the pathologist is awaiting complete toxicology results before releasing any conclusions.

Concluding it was toxic algae and only toxic algae based on its existence in the river is not different from saying it was heat and only heat based only on it having a high temperature of 109. Actually the latter conclusion would be more logical given many people die every year from heat and there is maybe one death attributed to algae.

Oh, you're back to blaming the victim. "Bad parenting" killed them.

Oh no.. I'm back to you're a hypocrite

Your first sentence was useful. Your second paragraph was pure victim blaming.

You need to work on your reading comprehension.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Mariposa Sheriff gave a brief update on Facebook, it starts at around the 12:30 mark. He mentioned many agencies are involved in the case including the FBI. They also tested the water which came back positive for high levels of Anna Toxin A. Not sure what that is.
But before that update, he mentioned a really huge marijuana bust.

https://m.facebook.com/mariposacountysheriff/videos/inside-the-office-with-sheriff-jeremy-briese/225952372690500/?refsrc=deprecated&_rdr

I watched it. It wasn’t clear if he meant the water in their bottles or water in the river. It sounded like the latter. He goes from the poisonous algae blooms to the test results.

Wow so it WAS THE ALGAE BLOOM. Holy crap.

The toxin, called anatoxin-a (ATX) or Very Fast Death Factor (no, we're not kidding), does what it says on the tin - kills things fast. If you are unfortunate enough to be exposed it can cause a loss of coordination, paralysis, or death in humans and other animals.

"ATX is one of the more dangerous cyanotoxins produced by harmful algal blooms, which are becoming more predominant in lakes and ponds worldwide due to global warming and climate change," explains first author James Sutherland from the Nantucket Land Council.

No, it may not have been the algae bloom. ATX is all over the world and "maybe" 1 person has died from it. That person was sick for 2 days before they died. Obviously they may have ingested it (maybe tried to filter the water?). But it is still unheard of for someone to succumb to ATX much less more than one and quickly.

I bet the reason they closed the area is mostly because of the wacky tabacky bust. They got in there and found a ton of grow operations.

They went hiking on Sunday and the bodies weren't discovered until Tuesday. That fits the timeline of your person who was sick for 2 days and died.

Horrible to think of them lying out in the hot desert, paralyzed on the ground, and dying of thirst + cyanotoxin but it seems they did.

[Anonymous]

They went hiking on Sunday and the bodies weren't discovered until Tuesday. That fits the timeline of your person who was sick for 2 days and died.

Horrible to think of them lying out in the hot desert, paralyzed on the ground, and dying of thirst + cyanotoxin but it seems they did.

For the last time, it's not a freakin desert. They get 54 days and 35" of rain per year. The area lies within a National Forest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

They went hiking on Sunday and the bodies weren't discovered until Tuesday. That fits the timeline of your person who was sick for 2 days and died.

Horrible to think of them lying out in the hot desert, paralyzed on the ground, and dying of thirst + cyanotoxin but it seems they did.

For the last time, it's not a freakin desert. They get 54 days and 35" of rain per year. The area lies within a National Forest.

California is in the midst of a hideous drought and the forest burnt down years ago.

[Anonymous]

The fentanyl posters at WS who discussed the illegal grows are making more sense now. Say it was touch based exposure to the toxin and the parents and dog stepped into it, fell exposing baby to it or dog rolled in it, shook off onto the baby and dad or the mom and the other parent touched it to see what was wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't it say they just moved to the area? Or just bought a brand new house? What if the presumably well water (?) they got from the new house is actually contaminated? Presumably that's what they filled all their gear up with, which would be fed to dog and baby bottle?

No, they moved to the area at least a year ago.

Reports said he just bought a new investment house? Like some shack looking airbnb property? A place like that is certainly on well water.

The rentals were in addition to their family home. They didn’t live in the rental homes he purchased. They moved from very HCOL San Francisco and had high paying tech jobs so were probably seeking to diversify.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

They went hiking on Sunday and the bodies weren't discovered until Tuesday. That fits the timeline of your person who was sick for 2 days and died.

Horrible to think of them lying out in the hot desert, paralyzed on the ground, and dying of thirst + cyanotoxin but it seems they did.

For the last time, it's not a freakin desert. They get 54 days and 35" of rain per year. The area lies within a National Forest.

California is in the midst of a hideous drought and the forest burnt down years ago.

You are right on both counts but that still doesn't make that area a desert. By the way, forests start to regrow almost immediately after a wildfire.

[Anonymous]

My guess is dog overheated first, so dig refuses to walk, thus stalling their pace, then maybe the Dad tried to carry the limp dog. Everything goes down hill from there in a hurry when you're in literally 109 degree blazing heat.

08/15/2021 06:00 73 DEG F
08/15/2021 07:00 77 DEG F
08/15/2021 08:00 85 DEG F
08/15/2021 09:00 92 DEG F
08/15/2021 10:00 99 DEG F
08/15/2021 11:00 103 DEG F
08/15/2021 12:00 107 DEG F
08/15/2021 13:00 108 DEG F
08/15/2021 14:00 109 DEG F
08/15/2021 15:00 107 DEG F
08/15/2021 16:00 105 DEG F
08/15/2021 17:00 101 DEG F

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't it say they just moved to the area? Or just bought a brand new house? What if the presumably well water (?) they got from the new house is actually contaminated? Presumably that's what they filled all their gear up with, which would be fed to dog and baby bottle?

Her IG account shows them spending a winter in the area in 2016-2017. The husband bought rental homes in the area around that time too. They had a greater familiarity with the area and they lived at the foot of the trailhead.