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?

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

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!

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.