What happened to this California family?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably murder suicide by poison.

Pp please name a poison that would kill them all so quickly and with no outward signs? Also something that is also poisonous to dogs, kills them in the same way, and doesn’t require a different enough dosing to make it even more implausible?

+1. What poison would take effect in this way? No sickness, vomiting etc.

Also, so strange that the dog died laying beside them.

[Anonymous]

Some dogs will guard a master’s dead body but it’s incredibly unlikely that a dog would die of heat stroke or dehydration that quickly.
I also think heat stroke is incredibly unlikely. I’m from someplace where the summer temperatures are regularly over 100 or 110, so I know what heat stroke looks like. Really unlikely it would kill two people that still had water so close to contemporaneously and the dog would likely have survived to the next day and/or broken free to drink at the river.
The cops sleeping at the scene does not rule out either the toxic algeE bloom or a sudden gas cloud—that would be quickly dissipated. But i can’t understand why they would not have taken the bodies back for autopsy after photographing the position—-don’t they have to test relatively quickly for tox screens?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It will be important to hear eventually if the dog was covered with algae -- someone above posted a scenario where the dog might have gone into water with toxic algae in it and the adults somehow got poisoned via the wet dog. That actually sounds plausible, if the algae work that fast at second hand. But it's all just speculation for now

This scenario crossed my mind. Dog gets in water, maybe drinks, starts to seize. Family tries to help dog gets toxic stuff on them. Thing is, would have to be enormously toxic to kill that way and I'm not sure that is realistic.

Honestly I thought of the series the leftovers when I read about this.

Doesn't explain the baby.

The baby could have died of exposure (I hope not) if the parents and dog had died. But no way would mom be leaving without the baby in that scenario. That scenario implies they knew something was wrong and if that was the case she would have taken the baby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It will be important to hear eventually if the dog was covered with algae -- someone above posted a scenario where the dog might have gone into water with toxic algae in it and the adults somehow got poisoned via the wet dog. That actually sounds plausible, if the algae work that fast at second hand. But it's all just speculation for now

This scenario crossed my mind. Dog gets in water, maybe drinks, starts to seize. Family tries to help dog gets toxic stuff on them. Thing is, would have to be enormously toxic to kill that way and I'm not sure that is realistic.

Honestly I thought of the series the leftovers when I read about this.

Doesn't explain the baby.

The baby could have died of exposure (I hope not) if the parents and dog had died. But no way would mom be leaving without the baby in that scenario. That scenario implies they knew something was wrong and if that was the case she would have taken the baby.

And more importantly perhaps her phone. If mom is fleeing due to dad succumbing then she is, even if weak, is grabbing for her phone. The phone is her only real chance at saving them at that point (if saving was possible). So the idea that mom flees with neither baby nor phone seems very far fetched to me.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it was foul play by either parent. I suspect CO but now with the increased scrutiny I wonder if there was foul play from an outside party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it was foul play by either parent. I suspect CO but now with the increased scrutiny I wonder if there was foul play from an outside party.

Unless an unknown assassin met them on the trail and pressed a hypodermic needle into the flesh of two adults, a dog, and a baby with no restraints or marks from defensive wounds - I'm going to go with nature or one of the parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It will be important to hear eventually if the dog was covered with algae -- someone above posted a scenario where the dog might have gone into water with toxic algae in it and the adults somehow got poisoned via the wet dog. That actually sounds plausible, if the algae work that fast at second hand. But it's all just speculation for now

This scenario crossed my mind. Dog gets in water, maybe drinks, starts to seize. Family tries to help dog gets toxic stuff on them. Thing is, would have to be enormously toxic to kill that way and I'm not sure that is realistic.

Honestly I thought of the series the leftovers when I read about this.

Doesn't explain the baby.

The baby could have died of exposure (I hope not) if the parents and dog had died. But no way would mom be leaving without the baby in that scenario. That scenario implies they knew something was wrong and if that was the case she would have taken the baby.

If she was disoriented by heat or dangerous chemicals, you cannot assume she was acting rationally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably murder suicide by poison.

Pp please name a poison that would kill them all so quickly and with no outward signs? Also something that is also poisonous to dogs, kills them in the same way, and doesn’t require a different enough dosing to make it even more implausible?

+1. What poison would take effect in this way? No sickness, vomiting etc.

Also, so strange that the dog died laying beside them.

we don’t know if there was vomiting etc. that would be withheld from media.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The drank the water in the lake and something in the water killed them. That's the only explanation for why the dog died too.

Who is going to feed a baby lake water?!? That’s nuts. That’s didn’t happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It will be important to hear eventually if the dog was covered with algae -- someone above posted a scenario where the dog might have gone into water with toxic algae in it and the adults somehow got poisoned via the wet dog. That actually sounds plausible, if the algae work that fast at second hand. But it's all just speculation for now

This scenario crossed my mind. Dog gets in water, maybe drinks, starts to seize. Family tries to help dog gets toxic stuff on them. Thing is, would have to be enormously toxic to kill that way and I'm not sure that is realistic.

Honestly I thought of the series the leftovers when I read about this.

Doesn't explain the baby.

The baby could have died of exposure (I hope not) if the parents and dog had died. But no way would mom be leaving without the baby in that scenario. That scenario implies they knew something was wrong and if that was the case she would have taken the baby.

And more importantly perhaps her phone. If mom is fleeing due to dad succumbing then she is, even if weak, is grabbing for her phone. The phone is her only real chance at saving them at that point (if saving was possible). So the idea that mom flees with neither baby nor phone seems very far fetched to me.

The reports say he had his phone, but not whether she had her phone. She could have been moving to higher ground to try for reception. It seems clear she was closer to their truck and at a higher elevation than the rest of the family.

[Anonymous]

Do most posters here hike? It seems like they don't. It is not uncommon at all for one person to go ahead for 10, 100, 500 feet. Especially mom, if dad is carrying the heavier load (baby). I go out ahead all the time, stop, take a drink, wait. Sometimes my husband and kid go ahead, and when they don't see me they wait for 30 seconds, then see me again, and I catch up. People don't hike hip to hip or hand in hand in these settings like they might on the Billy Goat Trail or Old Rag. And that's not unsafe, it's just because there is more space to navigate.

It's a gas cloud. Maybe they were all together and mom tried to outrun it. Maybe they were a bit apart and it got them before they could process it. Nothing else is going to kill them and the dog and the baby and leave no signs of distress or struggle or movement.

Ya'll are making up Dateline stories because you love a mystery, or because you are afraid a gas cloud is too scary and will come get you. But it's a gas cloud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could it be a weird case like the California surfer, Matthew Taylor Coleman, who killed his children?

The cause of death was pretty apparent in that tragic case.

[Anonymous]

What would the gas in question be?

[Anonymous]

But a gas cloud that only kills 4 living things related to each other? Doesn't kill a lizard or bird or bug in the vicinity?? A gas cloud makes sense if everything near the "cloud" dies, but only 3 humans and a dog? What kind of gas is this toxic enough to kill people and canines, but harmless to every other form of life?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do most posters here hike? It seems like they don't. It is not uncommon at all for one person to go ahead for 10, 100, 500 feet. Especially mom, if dad is carrying the heavier load (baby). I go out ahead all the time, stop, take a drink, wait. Sometimes my husband and kid go ahead, and when they don't see me they wait for 30 seconds, then see me again, and I catch up. People don't hike hip to hip or hand in hand in these settings like they might on the Billy Goat Trail or Old Rag. And that's not unsafe, it's just because there is more space to navigate.

It's a gas cloud. Maybe they were all together and mom tried to outrun it. Maybe they were a bit apart and it got them before they could process it. Nothing else is going to kill them and the dog and the baby and leave no signs of distress or struggle or movement.

Ya'll are making up Dateline stories because you love a mystery, or because you are afraid a gas cloud is too scary and will come get you. But it's a gas cloud.

Except it sounds like she was behind (or disoriented) not ahead. The sheriff discovered their car 1.5 miles away and back-tracked up the path to find them. He found the husband and the baby first. Then the mother further up the trail - presumably farther away from the car.

As for the gas cloud - out of all the theories it makes the most sense. Without access to the toxin screens or geographic layout.

Now I'm curious if they phenomenon can be sourced and recorded for future scientific research.