CA - Jonathan Gerrish, Ellen Chung, daughter, 1 & dog, suspicious death hiking area, Aug 2021 #3

[kittythehare]

https://www.sacbee.com/article254080593.html

Sept 8, 2021

[..]

Few clues have been shared by investigators working to determine how a family and their dog died a little over three weeks ago while hiking in Sierra National Forest, in a remote section of Mariposa County southwest of Yosemite National Park.

Known harmful algae blooms in the south fork of the Merced River, near where the family was mysteriously found dead along the Savage-Lundy Trail in Devil’s Gulch, are among the hazards being considered.

[..]

The results of toxicology tests for the Mariposa family have not been shared.

In response to a question during Thursday’s sheriff update, about whether toxicology results were back yet, Briese said, “Some are, yes. But we still do not have an exact cause of death yet.”

Anatoxin A

(2009)
No documented case of human anatoxin-a poisoning has been found in the literature, whereas numerous cases of animal poisoning have been reported. In France, for example, the death of several dogs has been attributed to the consumption of benthic anatoxin-a-producing cyanobacteria (Gugger et al., 2005).

Anatoxin - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics.
Anatoxin-a is a potent nerve toxin that acts postsynaptically. Synapses are a physical gap between nerves, and nerve and muscles, which must be traversed by any nerve impulse. This is achieved by the neurochemical acetylcholine moving across the synaptic junction. On the receiving side of a synapse, one finds acetylcholine receptors in the cell membrane that open when they bind acetylcholine to allow the entry of many ions into the nerve or muscle. Increased intracellular cations depolarize the receiving cell triggering a cascade of events that continue the action potential. Anatoxin-a is a powerful agonist of acetylcholine receptors being many times better than acetylcholine itself in stimulating the receptor to open. Anatoxin-a therefore outcompetes and displaces acetylcholine overstimulating the receptor, impairing its function and incapacitating nerve and muscle.

Acetylcholine receptors can be prepared from a variety of excitable tissues from animals. An example is the electric organ of electric eels, a very dense concentration of excitable tissue and a source of many neuronal receptors. A number of other chemicals competitively bind with anatoxin-a for the acetylcholine receptor (e.g., nicotine, acetylcholine itself, α-bungarotoxin) and have been radiolabeled and used in receptor binding assays for anatoxin-a.

Further reading
Potential developmental toxicity of anatoxin-a, a cyanobacterial toxin - PubMed

Anatoxin-a

https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-06/documents/anatoxin-a-report-2015.pdf

https://www.who.int/water_sanitatio...ls/anatoxin-a-gdwq-bd-for-review-20191122.pdf

 

[kittythehare]

Posting this because it contains numerous links for further research.
I am wondering now whether the drinking water at their home place was ever tested??
First report of ()anatoxin-a and dog neurotoxicosis after ingestion of benthic cyanobacteria in The Netherlands - PubMed

 

[woods]

(0:43) Sheriff Briese: "We don’t have any indicators of how the death occurred so right now we’re treating the coroner investigation as a homicide until we can establish the cause."

Later…

Mariposa County Sheriff's spokeswoman Kristie Mitchell told Fox News on Saturday. "Now that we're five days in, no, we're no longer considering homicide as a cause of death."

A Mariposa County Sheriff's office spokesperson tells PEOPLE that while investigators "haven't ruled out anything," they are not focusing on a potential homicide.

"Murder is not high on our list," the spokesperson said.

So it seems like they developed a working theory (or theories), and they’re just not telling us for some reason.

https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article254080593.html
California authorities relying on dog's autopsy, other forensics for answers in family's mysterious deaths | Fox News
Relatives of Calif. Family Who Mysteriously Died on Hiking Trail Don't Believe They Were Murdered

 

[kittythehare]

Was their swimming pool water tested?
I can easily see the dog dying very quickly from anatoxin a poisoning, the humans, not so much BUT it's quite possible that a combination of anatoxin a with other elements may have brought about a fatal result.
Next problem is to figure out how they contracted it, if not by ingestion, inhalation or intradermal?
Was the baby exposed to the same toxins, if that is the cause of death, as the adults or did the baby pass away from heat exposure alone?
I hadn't seen your article yesterday @Seattle1

But, I ask myself why many others were not affected similarly?
It's the strangest thing.

 

[willyengland]

Safety tip: if you have no cell service and are in an emergent situation, you may be able to change your voicemail to share your location and other details, and anyone who tries to reach you will hear it. Apparently* you don’t need data or service to do it.

How can this work?
There must be some kind of connection. Not?

 

[kittythehare]

How can this work?
There must be some kind of connection. Not?

You are using the device recording facility. Then if somebody calls you and cannot reach you they receive your SOS message.

 

[wary]

You are using the device recording facility. Then if somebody calls you and cannot reach you they receive your SOS message.

But if you’re in an area with no cell service, isn’t anyone who calls you going to get the old voicemail message?

 

[Lex Parsimoniae]

But if you’re in an area with no cell service, isn’t anyone who calls you going to get the old voicemail message?

Correct. You can't update your voicemail message without SOME kind of connection. You MIGHT be able to use a landline, a computer with internet access, or another cell phone that does have service to access your cell phone provider and update your voicemail message. That's the trick. Note that it doesn't help if you are lost in the woods without any of those things.

 

[woods]

I don’t believe we’re going to receive any updates until next week or the week after that.

 

[Newsjunkiejen]

I've read lots of comments in this forum - and in news articles - about how the route the family were on was one of the toughest hikes in the area...

Can anyone local to the area advise what it is specifically that makes it so tough? Is it the exposure and temperatures in that part of the country? Is it threat from snakes or mountain lions (I live in a small country village in Northern England so forgive my ignorance when it comes to snakey-liony things!)?

When I hear about a hike being tough, my mind automatically thinks 'steep' - perhaps this is a wrong assumption.

I did Google image 'Devil's Gulch' and a couple of other areas adjacent to it and I couldn't really see any images at all of steep, rocky climbs which is how I'd visualised it in my head when I first heard the news story, but maybe I just got unlucky with the selection of images that the search results provided.

Any info on this would be interesting so we could see what potential challenges they'd face with the topography of the route itself even before other factors were thrown in such as heat exhaustion, possible poisoning from toxic algae, lightning strikes etc.

Also, in relation to the switchbacks (here in the UK we just tend to call them winding roads or paths with 'hairpin' bends), is it possible that the family didn't realise a section of the trail was switchbacks? Maybe they thought they could get from eg; section A to B of the trail in a straight line as the crow flies, but it's only once they were on the trail itself they realised it was really steep and therefore contained many switchbacks which considerably lengthened the distance they were having to walk uphill all whilst exposed to the searing temperatures?

 

[jonjon747]

I don't think it's helpful to underestimate the couple's hiking ability
while over-rating the difficulty of this particular switchback trail they were on.
Heat might've definitely slowed them down from time to time but there's no sign of any struggles or illness from the autopsy report.
LE may haven't completely ruled out overheat as the possibility yet but now I see an updated article about lightning as a possibility of COD.
I still think it's a little too far-fetched story to blame lightning without any proof.
There are simply no other cases like this that can be compared to and anything out there that could give us a clear answer to rest this case for good once and for all.
I'm still sticking with the theory of breathing related death like getting choked, put to sleep you see in mma fighting matches.

 

[Officer Dibble]

A first-hand account of experiencing algal blooms:
Commentary: My firsthand experience with an algal bloom | Coastal Review

Woah! Thank you for sharing that. I'm open mouthed here (forgive the unintended pun).

 

[UnderstandBlue]

Bumping this article that @MaryG12 posted last week about lightning leaving no marks on victims’ bodies.

Even in this article though it says things like "most" show evidence, and in the four golfer example, at least one of the four did (they don't talk about the two who were unconscious). So yeah, it's possible. Probable? Not sure about that. The body positions as described make me doubt that. Fascinating about it traveling underground. Thanks for the bump!

 

[MsBetsy]

Correct. You can't update your voicemail message without SOME kind of connection. You MIGHT be able to use a landline, a computer with internet access, or another cell phone that does have service to access your cell phone provider and update your voicemail message. That's the trick. Note that it doesn't help if you are lost in the woods without any of those things.

Wouldn't they still be able to text even though the message won't go through? I'm surprised they wouldn't try to document what happened if they were held up because of illness. If they knew there was any chance they might not make it, they could have sent final messages to their loved ones.

Then, as soon as the cell phone was in an area with service, family members would get their messages.

But LE has made no mention of this so I'm assuming they never had the chance.

 

[Newsjunkiejen]

Even in this article though it says things like "most" show evidence, and in the four golfer example, at least one of the four did (they don't talk about the two who were unconscious). So yeah, it's possible. Probable? Not sure about that. The body positions as described make me doubt that. Fascinating about it traveling underground. Thanks for the bump!

I do still think a ground lightning strike may well be a plausible theory but actually BECAUSE of the body positions.

If they were in an exposed position there's every chance they saw a lightning storm coming on the horizon, and knowing they were at risk, perhaps took steps to mitigate their chances of being struck. Ellen was found a distance away from her husband, baby, and dog. Did she distance herself because it is advised to spread out in a lightning storm? There's no way they could've spread out any further than being in two 'groups' because the baby and dog will have had to stay with one or the other of the parents.

Also, Jonathan was found in a seated position with their baby placed next to him. It's a common misconception that sitting down (or getting low to the ground) can help prevent a direct lightning strike. Maybe he had done this thinking it would help reduce the chance of them being struck, especially if his mass was potentially increased with the baby carrier on his back?

I understand that the way the bodies were found would likely rule out a direct hit from a lightning bolt - yes, a lightning bolt can knock a person a distance off their feet but definitely not as far as Ellen was found uphill away from the rest of the family - but maybe this was a ground lightning strike. Because ground current covers a much larger area than a direct strike by lightning, it is ground current lightning that causes more lightning deaths than any other type.

Maybe lightning struck the ground they were all on, resulting in them all being killed, and it was one of those rare occasions where there were no visible signs of the strike at all, either on the ground afterwards, or upon postmortem of the bodies?

This link explains the different types of lighting: Lightning Science: Five Ways Lightning Strikes People

MOO

 

[MsBetsy]

I don't think it's helpful to underestimate the couple's hiking ability
while over-rating the difficulty of this particular switchback trail they were on.
Heat might've definitely slowed them down from time to time but there's no sign of any struggles or illness from the autopsy report.
LE may haven't completely ruled out overheat as the possibility yet but now I see an updated article about lightning as a possibility of COD.
I still think it's a little too far-fetched story to blame lightning without any proof.
There are simply no other cases like this that can be compared to and anything out there that could give us a clear answer to rest this case for good once and for all.
I'm still sticking with the theory of breathing related death like getting choked, put to sleep you see in mma fighting matches.

Authorities haven't released any information from the autopsy report. They are waiting for toxicology reports before determining cause of death.

There are usually pretty clear signs of asphyxiation so I doubt they would have eliminated homicide as the manner of death if they suspected foul play.

It could be that the ME found signs of organ damage, or cardiac arrest, but is waiting for results to rule out other factors.

Or, if they found that one of them had an underlying disease they might list that as a contributing factor.

Either way, they would still need to rule out any drugs or toxins found in their system as a contributing cause of death.

Time of death is important, too. They can't tell the exact time a person died, but if one died several hours before the others they might be able to tell.

IMO

 

[Newsjunkiejen]

I don't think it's helpful to underestimate the couple's hiking ability
while over-rating the difficulty of this particular switchback trail they were on.
Heat might've definitely slowed them down from time to time but there's no sign of any struggles or illness from the autopsy report.
LE may haven't completely ruled out overheat as the possibility yet but now I see an updated article about lightning as a possibility of COD.
I still think it's a little too far-fetched story to blame lightning without any proof.
There are simply no other cases like this that can be compared to and anything out there that could give us a clear answer to rest this case for good once and for all.
I'm still sticking with the theory of breathing related death like getting choked, put to sleep you see in mma fighting matches.

A choke hold performed on all four of them, including the dog and the baby!?
I assume you weren't meaning a literal choke hold, but simply referencing the MMA move as a possible example of airways being cut off but leaving no obvious trace? Even choke holds can be detected at autopsy stage by way of haemorrhages in the neck muscles, though. I can't think of a breathing related death that could've befallen two adults, a baby, and a dog, that wouldn't have been picked up during post mortem.

 

[MsBetsy]

Even in this article though it says things like "most" show evidence, and in the four golfer example, at least one of the four did (they don't talk about the two who were unconscious). So yeah, it's possible. Probable? Not sure about that. The body positions as described make me doubt that. Fascinating about it traveling underground. Thanks for the bump!

If the bodies were outside for two days, there may not have been any clear signs due to decomposition.

 

[Newsjunkiejen]

Wouldn't they still be able to text even though the message won't go through? I'm surprised they wouldn't try to document what happened if they were held up because of illness. If they knew there was any chance they might not make it, they could have sent final messages to their loved ones.

Then, as soon as the cell phone was in an area with service, family members would get their messages.

But LE has made no mention of this so I'm assuming they never had the chance.

Interesting point. It's almost as if their deaths happened very quickly, and took them by surprise, because, as you say, if they knew in advance they were in a situation they weren't going to survive you think they'd try to leave some kind of message or markings or signs for others to receive or discover afterwards.

It's a long while since I've been as bamboozled by a case as I have with this one.

 

[Newsjunkiejen]

Wouldn't they still be able to text even though the message won't go through? I'm surprised they wouldn't try to document what happened if they were held up because of illness. If they knew there was any chance they might not make it, they could have sent final messages to their loved ones.

Then, as soon as the cell phone was in an area with service, family members would get their messages.

But LE has made no mention of this so I'm assuming they never had the chance.

Just thought again about this... Here in the UK, if a text message can't be sent due to poor signal, it won't keep trying to send it so that once clear signal is resumed it automatically reaches the recipient's phone.

On my phone at least, it tells me my message has failed, and it gives me an option to resend. So, action would be required from the sender in order to get that message through to the recipient's phone once mobile phone (cell) signal and reception was strong again.

However, even if the sender had already succumbed by the time the phone signal had resumed, (and therefore the message wasn't able to be sent to the recipient), the message would be saved as a "draft" and still be readable on the senders phone, but just showing as a "failed to send" message, if that makes sense?

I'm not sure if it differs from provider to provider, or if it works differently in the USA.

Either way, I'm so curious to know if LE found anything on the mobile phones of Ellen and Jonathan.