I've never seen or heard of a case where someone dies of a heatstroke in a seated position.
If this man really got disoriented or exhausted the very last ounce of energy, so can no longer continue, he'd most likely be dead lying on the ground, not sitting with unstrapped stuff beside him.
If he was fine till then and later overtaken by heat like you said,
then it'd be something like he would get up and just wander off to somewhere alone meaninglessly.
I think it's a very unusual circumstance to agree on when someone dying in a seated position is considered natural, because the weight of the head would eventually push down the neck and upper body to one side.
If he was found with face down and upper body forward, maybe he just fell asleep, but who does sleep easy at 100F+ temp?
IDK it just doesn't make much sense to me. MOO
People die in all sorts of positions
He may have sat down because he started to feel lightheaded and/or faint
In order to lessen the strain on his body, the baby and carrier frame was removed from his back
Maybe his wife , who appears in comparison and comparatively against Jonathon , the more agile of the two with less body fat ( from pictures I’ve seen , decided to go and get the truck or to go and try to obtain cell service and as she walked away, and whilst he was seated, Jonathan’s body gave up, still in his seated position and maybe , because she was moving away from him , her back was to him and she didn’t realise this , succumbing very shortly afterwards herself . There are no ‘one size fits all’ for heatstroke victims or those who suffer hypo/hyper thermia.
I understand what you are trying to say about the weight of his body falling forward but again , if he has his feet planted on the floor with quite a width in between them, he is creating a greater area to stay upright ( think triangle). I
Once attended a hanging where a rather tall male of average weight , certainly not slender but not fat, fat if you know what I mean, had used a very thin piece of tie material of quite some length, tied it around the spindle of a staircase and around his neck and then sat on the bottom step of the staircase and literally put his head down toward his chin , so that the material was taut against his throat /windpipe/hyoid and he hung himself , suffocating whilst sat up. Although you could argue that he had a taut tie holding him in the seated position , it was so flimsy that in reality it wasn’t holding his body in position itself, his feet were planted wide apart on the floor . Forensically this was recreated to ensure it was he who had hanged himself ( because believe it or not, we had recently had two hangings made to look like suicide when in actuality, they were strung up and murdered ). Therefore it was important to test this. It was deduced alongside witness statements and the forensic pathologists post mortem that he had committed suicide by positional asphyxia. Rigor Mortis soon appeared and he didn’t move from his position, so not all circumstances are the same and everyone’s body can react very differently in death .
Whilst I understand your thought process and I’m not saying that there haven’t been cases where , as you have stated that you expect the body to fall forward or to the side, I’m not sure why you are so sure in your assertion that Jonathan would have just laid down?
Can I ask, with respect, if you don’t think this is an acceptable account of how he passed in the seating position, what do you think happened when taking into consideration no wounds, injuries or defence marks to the bodies ?
And bearing in mind that they had been in high temperatures for a substantial amount of time as they were on the way back to the truck after walking the trail and exerting themselves substantially due to the nature and challenges of parts of the trail ? Plus adding to this, hyperthermia can bring on rigor rapidly after death .
I ask in all sincerity.
All MOO
