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

[whirrledpeas]

Thanks! What do you think though of them saying it will be long & tedious? I find it interesting that they’re not suggesting the toxicology might answer all their questions, or even say something like, “we’ll see what toxicology says & then decide on a course of action”? I’m so curious why they are saying it will probably be long & tedious?!

To be honest, there's really not anything I can deduce from that with any certainty. Every jurisdiction/locale has its own way of handling investigations. We don't know if they are doing the forensics in-house or outsourcing it to another agency and/or lab. They may know something they have not yet released to the public OR they could just be speculating that it will take a while because they want to be slow and thorough.

I am sure the CADOJ (I think I read that they are the ones handling the investigation) are on top of it, but I am not sure they are the ones who are also releasing information to the news outlets. Things tend to get a little confusing if one agency is doing the work and another is doing the speaking if that makes sense.

 

[Figuring]

To be honest, there's really not anything I can deduce from that with any certainty. Every jurisdiction/locale has its own way of handling investigations. We don't know if they are doing the forensics in-house or outsourcing it to another agency and/or lab. They may know something they have not yet released to the public OR they could just be speculating that it will take a while because they want to be slow and thorough.

I am sure the CADOJ (I think I read that they are the ones handling the investigation) are on top of it, but I am not sure they are the ones who are also releasing information to the news outlets. Things tend to get a little confusing if one agency is doing the work and another is doing the speaking if that makes sense.

Thanks, your comments are really helpful!!

 

[annpats]

What do you think though of them saying it will be long & tedious? I’m so curious why they are saying it will probably be long & tedious?!

Well, they'll have to test 3 different people: man, woman and baby.

Each will take a while to get the results from, and will also probably have slightly different results due to sex, age, genetic make-up. They need to ascertain they all died from the same thing, and be sure of it. They may need to do several tissue, blood and fluid tests and cross-check results etc.

 

[RickshawFan]

I'm going with lightning strike.

Several years ago while staying at a finca that was mostly cattle ranching we discovered aprox 40 heads of cattle deceased. No signs of anything. They were found under a big tree and the previous night we had huge thunder and lightning.

I'll re-post these government articles, just so everyone has basics. I was surprised that you an have, like, "rogue" lightning strikes, miles away from the center of the action. Out west, they also have a lot of dry lightning.

Lightning FAQ

An illustration of @Seni 's cows:
Understanding Lightning: Ground Current

There was a lightning strike like that one that killed 300 reindeer.
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weat...ng-and-only-1-involves-a-direct-strike/434820

 

[GrimonTV]

Exactly. When I had heat stroke I was a triathlete, rock climbing, kayaking. When it hit me it hit me quickly, no time to get to safety. I had some water with me so I wasn’t dehydrated. But the physical exertion and heat got to me. I collapsed, my muscles stopped working and I basically could not walk. Even if the safety of my car was a few yards away I could not get up and walk. It was as if I was paralyzed.

How did you manage to survive, were others around to help?

 

[RickshawFan]

They were found on the trail approximately 1 1/2 miles from their truck. LE believe they were returning to where it was parked. The father was found in a sitting position wth his child and dog next to him. His wife was found close by, further up the trail. LE mentioned their clothing, but nothing specific.

LE said they were ‘well prepared’ for the hike, but the SFC reported that they had little water left in their container. I haven’t heard any mention about food.

Why they were hiking in the heat is a mystery, IMO.

ETA: A rough timeline:

• The last contact was a photo they uploaded Sunday at 6:45 a.m. of the baby backpack they took with them. Many articles refer to the hike as a ‘day trip’.

From the SF article:

• 11:00 pm Monday a missing persons report was made for the family
• A curious sheriff’s deputy had a hunch: he knew the family recently purchased a property near the trailhead for Hites Cove Trail. He drove out to search.
• He found their truck at the trailhead at 2:00 am (early Tuesday). A SAR team was called in.
• At 3:20 a.m., the sheriff’s office reserved a search helicopter for daybreak.
  
• He called for backup & additional SAR, and they found the family 9 hours later at 11:00 am, Tuesday. (I’m not sure if this is an indication of the challenging terrain, scope of search, and/or time needed to call in SAR).
• They were located 1.5 miles down the switchbacks in the middle of the trail. “the child beside him along with the dog, and the wife just a little farther up the hill. Briese said they believe the family was returning to their truck.
  A cell phone was in Gerrish’s pocket. There is little to no cell coverage on that section of trail.”
  
  
• It was 107°-109°F (about 42°C) during their hike

'Not one clue': The mystery is only deepening around the family found dead on a Sierra trail

That map seems to have been produced by the Chronicle. Are we certain that's where the car was parked? How do we know the family was doing a loop and not out-and-back?
Upthread, at least one poster said something about gates and parking. Where are the gates and parking areas on this map?

 

[woods]

Was the mom’s body found closer towards the vehicle than the rest?

 

[GrimonTV]

That map seems to have been produced by the Chronicle. Are we certain that's where the car was parked? How do we know the family was doing a loop and not out-and-back?
Upthread, at least one poster said something about gates and parking. Where are the gates and parking areas on this map?

Think the positions of the car and where they ended up are correct. I don't think anyone knows if they were doing the loop or a quick trip down the switchbacks, hopefully data on their phones might help solve that issue, then if they can calculate time of deaths this should go a long way to finding out what went so terribly wrong.

 

[Satchie]

Thanks! What do you think though of them saying it will be long & tedious? I find it interesting that they’re not suggesting the toxicology might answer all their questions, or even say something like, “we’ll see what toxicology says & then decide on a course of action”? I’m so curious why they are saying it will probably be long & tedious?!

My guess is that not investigating it as a homicide, puts it on the back burner. Homicides will always take precedence.

MOO.

 

[RickshawFan]

I've been following this case since the beginning, and I am trying to figure out why the family wasn't found until mid morning. If the truck was found at 2 a.m. did the search not continue then or did LE wait until morning? I would think it would be a simple matter with good flashlights to search during the night, and that they would've been found fairly quickly.

SAR/LE has very specific protocols. If you can assume recovery, the timeline is very different from a rescue. They don't let just anyone go out there. They use grids. They have to set up so none of their OWN members gets injured or killed in the process. SAR safety is priority. It also takes a while to muster searchers.

Also, have you ever hiked at night with a headlamp? Basically, you can just see where the beam lands. When you're moving, that means where you're going to move in the next instant; if you're cooking, it's the pot. You can sometimes hit a boost if you need a broad look, but headlamps are not good at all for searching. A few feet off a trail, and the family might as well have been invisible. It turns out, they were on the trail, but this was a very low-odds scenario, so, in the absence of a PLB, LE/SAR had to make some practical and prudent choices, as well as use some guesswork.

 

[Seattle1]

A couple, their baby and their dog died on a California hiking trail, and officials don’t know why

Updated Aug. 23, 2021 at 1:19 pm PT

The Mariposa, Calif., home of John Gerrish and Ellen Chung was quiet on Aug. 16 when their 1-year-old daughter’s nanny arrived. The family – including the dog, Oski – was nowhere to be found. Their truck was missing, too. As the hours wore on without a word from Gerrish or Chung, who had set out for a hike the day before, a sense of panic began to set in.

The couple’s house sat near the head of Hites Cove Trail, and hours after the family was reported missing at about 11 p.m., the trailhead is where police started looking. A sheriff’s deputy found the couple’s truck parked near the trail’s entrance around 2 a.m., the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Nine hours later and 1.5 miles from the family’s truck, in an area known as Devil’s Gulch, a search-and-rescue team found Gerrish, Chung, their daughter, Miju, and the dog.

They were all dead.

Gerrish was in a seated position with the baby and dog beside him, according to the Chronicle. Chung was a little farther up the hill.

Authorities still don’t know how it happened. An autopsy recently completed on the bodies yielded no conclusive results about the cause of the deaths, CNN reported. A toxicology report, which could take several weeks, is pending.

 

[Noelscat]

... CUT FOR EMPHASIS

• Heat-related death: This one is tricky, because heat strokes or heat-related deaths do not always show up in the initial autopsy and toxicology must be relied upon - especially when time of death is unavailable. How long someone survives after a heat-stroke would also affect these findings. But for three autopsies not to reveal that heat played a factor would be extremely rare...

Exactly.

 

[SophieRose]

I'll re-post these government articles, just so everyone has basics. I was surprised that you an have, like, "rogue" lightning strikes, miles away from the center of the action. Out west, they also have a lot of dry lightning.

Lightning FAQ

An illustration of @Seni 's cows:
Understanding Lightning: Ground Current

There was a lightning strike like that one that killed 300 reindeer.
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weat...ng-and-only-1-involves-a-direct-strike/434820

Don't you think the sheriff would have mentioned there was lightning that day?

 

[RickshawFan]

This is not the same brand of baby backpack (as I believe I’ve seen a photo of the actual pack on SM), but just to give an idea of how the baby would likely have been placed on the ground in her pack, as described by MSM:
Google Image Result for https://www.babycantravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/best-baby-carrier-backpack-for-travel-2.jpg

That's a good example. Made by Deuter. Osprey is another popular brand in this niche.

 

[mickey2942]

Don't you think the sheriff would have mentioned there was lightning that day?

Lightening can occur completely randomly, even on a nice sunny day, without any warning. It is very strange.
5 myths about lightning strikes you should know

 

[McSpy]

Exactly.

I definitely think it is possible because of the 109 temp. I also think it is possible the parents died because of another reason which led to the dog and child to die from heatstroke. The dog and child were dependent on the adults for the water.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

For example, a common thing to test in suspected homicides is bile/contents of stomach, but they do not generally test for that in suspected suicides.

Quote respectfully snipped by me.
If they don't test stomach contents in suspected suicides, how do they determine if something toxic that was recently ingested was the means?

 

[SophieRose]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed>

Mariposa County is really small, less than 18,000, so they don't have the resources for unusual cases so the California DOJ was called, not the Federal.

When the three women went missing from the El Portal lodge back in 1999, the FBI was quickly called to help, they really botched it though. In the Yosemite murders one of the first things they did was search the mines. Just some more TC trivia.

 

[Sunny Day]

This case haunts me. I can't get it off my mind. Even during my fitness class this morning my mind kept going back to what happened.

 

[whirrledpeas]

Quote respectfully snipped by me.
If they don't test stomach contents in suspected suicides, how do they determine if something toxic that was recently ingested was the means?

I should have been more specific, sorry. It is generally not tested for suicides when the cause of death is clear i.e. gunshot, hanging, etc.