Im not a big poster here but wanted to add something... I have been lost in the woods before with another person. It was during the day and it was warm but we were not dressed for the night. For us our main thought was to keep moving and try to find something.. anything.. to give us direction. When you are lost in the woods everything looks the same and it is so easy to get turned around in a second. You think it would be easy to find your way back but its not. We tried everything even to trying to position the sun for direction. We could see nothing but trees and woods.
The same thing happened to my dad and his friends when they were adventurous 20-something fellas on a camping trip in northern Ontario. They took a a walk into the woods -- on a path, then off; up a rise, then down; over a creek, up another rise, then down; that kind of thing. Then they said, hey, I'm hungry, let's head back. They turned around -- and absolutely nothing looked familiar. All of them became disoriented almost immediately.
They weren't unfamiliar with hiking in woods. They hadn't gone very far. The trees were not particularly dense. It wasn't dark. They weren't on drugs. They weren't mentally ill. They weren't panicking. They just thought, "What the hell...?" and kept walking back the way they
thought they came. But it wasn't the same way. So, all they could do was keep walking and hope they happened on something familiar or useful.
Eventually they got to a logging road, or some such thing, then back to their cars and campsite. Dad said, "It was just luck. Once we were lost, we had no idea which way to walk. And if we'd gone a different way, taking ourselves further into the woods without knowing it, we'd probably be dead." ...And I wouldn't be writing this post, because I wouldn't exist, ha.
I realize we don't know how this family died yet, so this might all be a moot point. But it really would be easy to get lost in the afternoon, say, then wander around for hours trying to find your way back, even
with a bad back and a 6 year old to carry. They would believe the road just HAD to be nearby -- so they'd keep walking as long as they could.
This situation (if it is what happened) might
easily have taken place during more than the one day/night, too, and they just kept walking but never finding the road. Even in hilly woods, 3 miles is not really very far; I imagine most anyone with the use of their legs could accomplish several miles if highly motivated -- lost, hungry, thirsty, afraid.
Reading the Brandon Swanson threads here at WS is really enlightening re: the confused behavior of lost persons, and the possibility of hypothermia in not-really-that-cold weather.
