What happened to this California family?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know there was toxic algae in the water. We know it was incredibly hot. We don't know to what degree either or both of those conditions contributed to their deaths.

My personal theory is that the toxic algae weakened or sickened at least one of them, which weakened the group overall. The stronger one(s) tried to stay with and help the affected one(s) until they all suffered heat stroke. It was a cascading failure, not a coincidental 'all at once' thing.

To those who say that's not possible because the mom was only 30 yards away on the trail: we know that people in the final stages of heat stroke get disoriented and wander. Normally this results in them wandering in circles off their intended path. But the terrain there wasn't really conducive to that - she'd have been physically constrained to the trail. She was probably already well into heat stroke before she left the rest of the family, but she may have wandered up and down the trail for a while, repeating the same switchback, before she keeled over.

That isn't how it works. The delirium is why they find people NOT on the trail, in the woods, down a steep slope, far away from each other, etc. To find 4 living beings all near each other where multiple died of heat stroke would be unusual. 30 yards is 90 feet. Not that far away.

Again, the baby wasn't going to wander off. Yes, I know you have seen movies where a one year old went for help. Neither was the dog going to leave as it was tethered to the father.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It's looking more and more likely that the water was the culprit.

I was reading a forum with biologists and scientist trying to figure this out, and they came to the conclusion that they plan well enough and didn't bring enough water with them for an 8 mile hike in 109 degree weather (that is insane with a baby, and I'm an avid hiker!).

They would have walked the majority of the way with 107-109 degree sun at their backs, if you look at the trees they look incredibly unhealthy, so there wasn't much shade at all on the entire thread.

As they didn't plan for that much heat or that long of a hike, their original water source had been spent and they chose to refill with the river water, while allowing their dog to drink directly from the river.

By the time they'd stopped, they realized that either the dog or the baby or both, was either in distress or had already succumbed to the toxic water, which would explain why she was further up the trail from him, as she was attempting to use her cell phone to call 911, but couldn't get a signal in time.

Again, all speculation, but it is increasingly looking like this is the most likely culprit.

Very sad.

https://people.com/human-interest/river-near-where-family-of-3-mysteriously-died-closed-toxic-algae/

The trailhead has warning signs posted about the algae. And the river looks bad. Not sure the dog would have touched it.

If the dog was in distress, it would definitely would have drank the water.

Yep if dogs are hot enough they'll drink anything and they'll also wade into the river to cool off. Chances are the dog drank a lot of the water and also had the water all over his fur. Which is another reason why the dog's autopsy will be important.

[Anonymous]

This story was posted over in websleuths, but it contains a similar situation. It has some interesting statistics about deaths in national parks.

https://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/10/us/new-mexico-french-deaths/index.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So putting aside the Princess Bride discussion, it's been narrowed down to: family began to suffer heat stroke, drank toxic water, realized they were in trouble from the heat/toxic water, and decided on a suicide pact to relive their suffering. That pretty much covers the theories.

You forgot lightening, grow operations and aliens.

and boulders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This story was posted over in websleuths, but it contains a similar situation. It has some interesting statistics about deaths in national parks.

https://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/10/us/new-mexico-french-deaths/index.html

My takeaway is to not go to the National Parks in August, and maybe stick to the pool (cue drowning stats )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t read this whole thread but does anyone know if the sheriff’s office has ruled out homicide/suicide? Like, on purpose poisoning? Heat stroke makes some sense, as does the toxic algae, but sadly, despite how attractive this family looked, statistically it’s usually the dad.

It’s not clear. In a previous article, the sheriffs office said that murder was “not high on their list”, but I interpreted that to mean from an attacker on the trail. Others on this board have said that they think it would mean any kind of murder (including something like family annihilation).

The biggest confusing factor to me is apparently no one hikes this trail in the summer. And there were much nicer places they could have gone. It’s just hard to understand why they chose to do this hike at all. It seems unavoidable that they would have known there would be no other people on the trail.

Dopamine chasing thrill-seekers; so they could brag about it after.

[Anonymous]

Holy crap when are they going to figure out what happened to these people already

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holy crap when are they going to figure out what happened to these people already

an article on google news popped up the other day and said the theories they're exploring at the moment are lightning and the algae bloom. Seems like heat stroke is the most plausible answer to me, but guessing they'd know that already if that were the case. Such a mystery!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy crap when are they going to figure out what happened to these people already

an article on google news popped up the other day and said the theories they're exploring at the moment are lightning and the algae bloom. Seems like heat stroke is the most plausible answer to me, but guessing they'd know that already if that were the case. Such a mystery!

We've already discussed the algae bloom. Sometimes lighting happens independent of storms. Any meteorologists out there that can weigh in?

[Anonymous]

Lightning can strike 100 miles from a thunderstorm.

[Anonymous]

Lightening could strike any of us at any time and not leave a trace! Woo wooo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holy crap when are they going to figure out what happened to these people already

More snd more looks like FA to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy crap when are they going to figure out what happened to these people already

an article on google news popped up the other day and said the theories they're exploring at the moment are lightning and the algae bloom. Seems like heat stroke is the most plausible answer to me, but guessing they'd know that already if that were the case. Such a mystery!

We've already discussed the algae bloom. Sometimes lighting happens independent of storms. Any meteorologists out there that can weigh in?

On Websleuths they are talking about ground lightening, I guess the current can travel through the ground to hit people. However, no one has said that the bodies had burn marks.

[Anonymous]

I think they all ate or drank something that was tainted and killed them. That’s the most likely answer. And on a long hot hike, they likely all drank tainted water, or maybe shared a tainted snack of some sort. Secondly, I think maybe heat stroke could have taken them out as well. One of those two scenarios.

[Anonymous]

Lightning can cause a dendritic pattern but it seems like they would have noticed that. They could have eaten mayo or sushi that went bad in the heat. I also wonder if it was inadvertent FA. The dad could have chosen a tough hike to be macho, and she had a brain injury so might not have had the best judgement and went along with it. And then karma got him back for picking too hard of a hike for August. Another theory-a subterranean metallic ore deposit conducted lightning to strike in that area, might also be why it's called Devil's Gulch.