CA - Jonathan Gerrish, Ellen Chung, daughter, 1 & dog, suspicious death hiking area, Aug 2021 #2

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Smokingun said:
I joined specifically for this case. I cannot get it out of my head. It’s not that far from me, it’s just so tragic, and so many unknowns and twists and turns. You can’t help but try to fill in the blanks to bring some type of explanation to the whole horrendous thing!

I read in a Mariposa mountain community comment thread that the dad had gotten lost (maybe that is speculation because how would someone know that…). Regardless, if you look at the Savage-Lundy trail near Devil’s Gulch on Google Earth, it’s steep terrain headed back up. Our heat here and in Yosemite Valley, is dry dry dry and at 107/109 nobody should be out in it, much less hiking. They were near the river at times while on the trail, but in some places it was inaccessible. And perhaps they were concerned about the algae mats and consuming the water. My first thought was something sinister, but Imo think heat exposure/exhaustion/stroke is very likely. Something happened to alter the hike as others here have said, baby got sick, dog got sick, lost off trail (after fire…terrain looks similar) and they were in the heat longer than anticipated. But so many…what ifs, and assumptions.

You are all brilliant btw! And so respectful and thoughtful in your posts! I should’ve joined sooner.
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Welcome @Smokingun! I think you’ll like it here.

Thank you for the local perspective. It really is a horrendous tragedy.
 
Thx! Actually very old member who stopped following cases the last few years & forgot my log in info so they told me to make a new account.

But, yes, I see heat as most likely. Unless intentionally administered I don't see noxious or poisonous substance, not one that suddenly appeared and affected all of them fatally. It's just not really consistent with my outdoor experience.

That said, conditions are changing rapidly due to climate change and things that have never happened do now. I have to stop reading articles like these:

Climate change, melting cryosphere and frozen pathogens: Should we worry…? - Environmental Sustainability

Permanently frozen environments (glaciers, permafrost) are considered as natural reservoirs of huge amounts of microorganisms, mostly dormant, including human pathogens. Due to global warming, ...approximately 4 × 1021 of these microorganisms are released annually from their frozen confinement and enter natural ecosystems, in close proximity to human settlements. Some years ago, the hypothesis was put forward that this massive release of potentially-pathogenic microbes could give rise to epidemics. The recent anthrax outbreaks that occurred in Siberia, and the presence of bacterial and viral pathogens in glaciers worldwide, seem to confirm this hypothesis....
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happyday said:
Welcome to WS!!

My Occam’s Razor is also heat. But I’ll admit it’s notable that LE has said there were no answers from the autopsies, saying nothing at all about possible signs that it was heatstroke. But I think it could be they’re waiting to get ALL the results back before putting it all together and saying things publicly.
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ilovewings said:
Final calls on Brit dad's phone may hold key to how family died on hiking trip

They are now examining the phone looking for phone calls that might give them a clue.

When I look at this family and that sweet dog, I feel heart sick. I hope that toxicology will give them some type of answer.
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The Mirror article is hard to read because of ads, but there are some interesting statements:

- “Mr Briese said the baby was in a backpack carrier with the dog near her father but attached to him, while her mum was 30 yards away.” So it sounds like the dog was at least leashed, and possibly secured in such a way that he couldn’t leave the father’s side. That might be significant because he was often unleashed on hikes, and if he was dead or incapacitated at the time the father sat down I don’t think there would be a reason to “attach” him to the father.
- The article also noted that they set out in the morning, so LE really needs to clear that up as there is a contradictory statement that they set out in the afternoon. (“The temperature was around 38C during the discovery but the family is thought to have set out walking early in the morning when it would have been much cooler.”).
- The mother being found only 30 yards away (basically the length of a standard swimming pool, or a 15 second walk) is hard to figure out. If she was setting out on her own to get help, she only made it 15 seconds before collapse?
- The article only references the father’s phone, which other articles state was in his pocket. Did Ellen have a phone?
 
woods said:
A family friend said the last contact they had with the family was a photo they uploaded Sunday at 6:45 a.m. of the baby backpack they take with them. Also, it was known to the people close to them that they were hiking every weekend (presumably on this same trail, which is right near their house)
Entire family reported missing, later found dead in Mariposa County
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This particular trail is not on either of their AllTrails accounts, another leg was mapped on his. I am not sure we can conclude they had experience with this particular trail at all never mind weekly.
 
Another heatstroke death. Kansas man becomes 2nd to die on Death Valley trail within days | KTLA

And in the last week, I've received several alerts of hikers in trouble in my general area.
Latest just now....it's not even that boiling hot yet this morning.
08-25-2021 8:08am Runyon Canyon Park MAP: Google Maps
PRELIM: LAFD ground and air response with Park Rangers to an adult male hiker who became suddenly ill (possibly dehydrated) on a remote section of the West Ridge Hiking Trail. The man will be hoisted aboard a hovering LAFD rescue helicopter in fair condition for direct transport to an area hospital.
 
This is tragic, I won't derail this thread, but similar situations have been happening all over the west this summer. Fortunately, they don't make news, because they were found okay, and received treatment.

Maybe more information needs to get out about this, climate change is real, and things that used to be okay in the summer, is completely different now. Especially with the smoke saturation due to wildland fires.
 
bpeterson912 said:
I think the time of departure matters because if the family really did start the hike in the afternoon, then it becomes harder to explain their decision-making that day. It's one thing to start a hike at 7 a.m. (when the temperature is in the 70s) and then to get stuck in severe heat. But it's something else to start a hike--with a kid and dog in tow--when the temperature is already 107 to 109 degrees. That would be a strange thing to do.
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Decision making would/should include forecasting the weather for the day and a good assessment of the difficulty and duration. They also live nearby and were familiar with the recent weather pattern (hot). I agree that it's not likely they departed at noon, but probably between 8-10AM. They posted the photo of the empty backpack at 6:45, but that doesn't translate to initiating the hike at 7....in fact that's highly unlikely. Packing...getting the baby ready...breakfast...transit..etc take time . MMO
 
LifeIsAMystery said:
This particular trail is not on either of their AllTrails accounts, another leg was mapped on his. I am not sure we can conclude they had experience with this particular trail at all never mind weekly.
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Here is something I found:
The family were regular weekend hikers, taking Miju with them in a baby-carrier on their backs.

The bizarre deaths of the Gerrish family in Devil’s Gulch — StrangeOutdoors.com

How often were they posting on their AllTrails accounts, especially since they went hiking every weekend?
 
rahod1 said:
Decision making would/should include forecasting the weather for the day and a good assessment of the difficulty and duration. They also live nearby and were familiar with the recent weather pattern (hot). I agree that it's not likely they departed at noon, but probably between 8-10AM. They posted the photo of the empty backpack at 6:45, but that doesn't translate to initiating the hike at 7....in fact that's highly unlikely. Packing...getting the baby ready...breakfast...transit..etc take time . MMO
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We don't know when the family started to hike, but I don't agree that it's "highly unlikely" they left at 7. They apparently lived just a few minutes from the trailhead. And maybe they took a photo of the backpack at 6:45 because they were about to pack it before heading out. And you're just assuming that they hadn't eaten breakfast yet.

It's certainly possible that the family didn't start hiking until 9 a.m. (or noon or 3 p.m. for that matter), but I don't think we have enough information to say that any specific time of departure is highly likely or highly unlikely.
 
woods said:
Here is something I found:
The family were regular weekend hikers, taking Miju with them in a baby-carrier on their backs.

The bizarre deaths of the Gerrish family in Devil’s Gulch — StrangeOutdoors.com

How often were they posting on their AllTrails accounts, especially since they went hiking every weekend?
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How do they know they were regular weekend hikers? Social media?
Meet up with other hikers?
Who provided this information?
Their local friends? Hiking group?
Nanny?

Where did they hike? That same trail?
For an hour or so? Or all day?
So many questions....
 
My DH read out loud from the San Francisco Chronicle that "they hiked almost every day."

But not the same trail, I don't think.

They left fairly late in the day, but I can't find the exact time. Late in the day is the hottest part. But it's so hard to imagine this as heat stroke, unless we have word on exactly how the bodies were found.

Toxicology report is still at least a week away. At any rate the SF Chronicle reported it was "late afternoon" when they went out.

Where are people getting that it was early morning?
 
mickey2942 said:
This is tragic, I won't derail this thread, but similar situations have been happening all over the west this summer. Fortunately, they don't make news, because they were found okay, and received treatment.

Maybe more information needs to get out about this, climate change is real, and things that used to be okay in the summer, is completely different now. Especially with the smoke saturation due to wildland fires.
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I agree completely. I suspect that not only is the heat more intense this year, such that even heat-hiking-familiar folks are being caught off guard, but that the smoke particulates in the air, visible or not, is reducing people's capabilities beyond their expectations.

MOO
 
Here is a scenerio.. Dad is injuried, maybe sprains ankle halfway towards the end of the hike, Mom leaves to get help and dosen't make it, Dad decides since she didin't come back to go ahead and try to keep going with baby and dog, then stops where he is found from exhaustion and possibly can see his wife ahead where she is already down with heat stroke from racing to get help, that's why maybe she is found ahead of the rest of family and dog
 
Personally, I think that heat is by far the most likely cause.

Other possible causes?

The thought of murder/suicide has crossed my mind—but there’s no evidence of it.

Lightning? I think it’s improbable that two would be killed at the same time—and the separation between the two adults points, I think, to one being disabled while the other tries to go for help.

Algae toxin? I missed seeing whether this can be detected in a post-mortem. I’d hope so. Possibly a combination of toxin making them sick, and the heat killing them?

What else?
 
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robinmay said:
Here is a scenerio.. Dad is injuried, maybe sprains ankle halfway towards the end of the hike, Mom leaves to get help and dosen't make it, Dad decides since she didin't come back to go ahead and try to keep going with baby and dog, then stops where he is found from exhaustion and possibly can see his wife ahead where she is already down with heat stroke from racing to get help, that's why maybe she is found ahead of the rest of family and dog
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Most media reports I've seen state that the mom was found less than 100 feet away from her husband. If she were truly racing to get help, she would have made it a lot farther than that.

I have no idea what happened, but I think the most plausible scenario is that someone in the family was in distress and they all stopped for an extended period of time. Everyone's condition then worsened while baking in the sun. At some point--perhaps several hours later--the wife was the only one of the two adults who was still conscious. In an extremely weakened state, she tried to hike up trail but collapsed after a few seconds of effort.

Again, I don't know what happened, but the fact that the wife only made it a few feet up the trail suggests that she was already extremely compromised by the time she decided to try to go for help.
 
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Personally, I do not subscribe to a murder/suicide theory. By all accounts they were a loving family, had just relocated to a new home, had a baby etc. imo
Leaning to heat and incapacitation (both physical and mental) being the main factors in this awful tragedy.
 
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