Disaster Family Who Died Trying to Live 'Off the Grid' Told Loved Ones About Their Plan: 'We Tried to Stop Them' - Before leaving, they "watched some YouTube videos" about "how to live off the grid," a family member said

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Photo:
RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

A family member of two sisters and a teen whose bodies were discovered "fairly mummified" in a remote Colorado campsite earlier this month said their deaths should serve as a warning: living in the wilderness without proper experience can be deadly.

On Tuesday, the Gunnison County Coroner's Office identified the individuals as Rebecca Vance, 42, Christine Vance, 41, as well as Rebecca’s 14-year-old son, according to a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

Trevala Jara, Rebecca and Christine's stepsister, told The Washington Post that the decision to "live off the grid" was made as Rebecca's fears about the world intensified.

"She didn’t like the way the world was going, and she thought it would be better if her and her son and Christine were alone, away from everybody," Jara, 39, told the newspaper. "She didn’t want the influences of the world to get to them. She really thought she was protecting her family."

Although Christine wasn't always planning on going, Jara told The New York Times she decided to come along "because she thought that if she was with them, they had a better chance of surviving."

“We tried to stop them. But they wouldn’t listen," she said while speaking with The Washington Post.

Not knowing where they planned on going, Jara told The Los Angeles Times that she asked Christine to send postcards to let her know they were safe, but the postcards never came.

Gunnison County Coroner Michael Barnes told The Colorado Sun that he believed that possibly malnutrition and "exposure to the elements" through a harsh winter last year contributed to their deaths, though current analyses on their cause of death are still pending.

The autopsy reports are still incomplete, and the office is awaiting a toxicology report, per The Los Angeles Times. Barnes also expressed concern about carbon monoxide poisoning, citing evidence that the family attempted to stay warm by burning materials, including vegetation in soup cans, inside their tent.

"At this point it appears that these three individuals began long term camping at the location near Gold Creek Campground in (approximately) mid-late July last Summer 2022 and attempted to stay through the winter," he told The Colorado Sun and CNN. He did not say when he believed they possibly could have died.

A hiker discovered one of the "heavily decomposed" bodies about 1,000 feet from a site near the Gold Creek Campground around 4:57 p.m. on June 9, according to the sheriff’s office. The bodies were discovered in a dark patch of timber, Gunnison County Sheriff Adam Murdie told The Colorado Sun.

The Gunnison County Sheriff’s Office went on to note that investigators “located the campsite and discovered two additional heavily decomposed deceased individuals within the campsite.”

Speaking with The New York Times, Jara said that Rebecca had "good intentions," but she was plagued with fears, which worsened during the pandemic.

"The fear overwhelmed her, most definitely," Jara told The Washington Post. "I did feel a shift in her."

Before they left, Jara told The Washington Post that the family "watched some YouTube videos" about "how to live off the grid" but had "no experience."

“YouTube and the internet is not enough,” Jara added while speaking with The Los Angeles Times.

She went on to tell the newspaper that she and her husband even tried to persuade them to use their RV and generator in the mountains as a test run. The idea appealed to Christine but not to Rebecca, who was certain they could "live on their own," Jara told the newspaper.

"[Rebecca] really thought she was saving her son and Christine by living by themselves and being off the grid," Jara added. "I really did not think it was going to get this far."

Article Link

Archive

 

[AnOminous]

If the carbon monoxide didn't kill them, it would have been something else as a direct result of their retarded decision to live off the grid.

Unless a wendigo or something got them, that sounds like the most likely explanation. I'm not sure if they can really tell with an autopsy at this point, or are just assuming because of the remnants of a fire on the scene.

 

[beautiful person]

inside their tent

These people tried to live through a Colorado winter in a fucking tent?! How retarded do you have to be? The rest of the family clearly wasn't being blunt/mean enough about how ignorant they were being. Literally "you're being a retard and I'm going to call CPS on your ass for daring to plan on dragging your kid into that."

The amount of asinine stupidity I've seen from people about basic outdoor skills is mind-blowing. I've seen groups of people going out on long high desert hikes with only a couple tiny bottles of water for the whole group, going camping in the winter with no idea how to start a fire or gather firewood, going camping in the winter with Walmart sleeping bags, keeping food in the tent because it's bear county, starting bon fires or setting off fireworks in grassy areas on hot windy days, and drinking water from a still pond to name a few. I'm fucking amazed our species has not only managed to survive, but thrive.

People's lack of basic outdoors sense pisses me off on a regular basis. I wish we would stop rescuing them.

 

[ZazietheBeast]

These people should have consulted wilderness survival experts and professional campers before embarking on this biz. Lesson to be learned here is that before embarking on anything drastically different from your current life, do your research first. Saves you from headaches and death.

Pretty much. You'd think they be pushing the opposite programming, just to get the homeless to migrate out of their neighborhoods.

Anyway, I'd like to see how many people die from trying to live in "Tiny Homes" that they built themselves for $250K.

The reason they don't is because the homeless provides a great excuse for further tyranny, useless programs that are glorified money laundering schemes and ultimately distracting people from the shitshow the bought out politicos are running. See L.A. Only time the elite ever considers is when one of their fellows get stabbed by these vagrants.

That being said though, a guest in California Insider mentioned the best way to detox the hobos is to unironically take them away from L.A and put them through a rehab camp as it cuts them off from the malign influence that led them down that shitty path.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

These people tried to live through a Colorado winter in a fucking tent?!

I wonder if things would have been different had they lived with the Amish? They live off the grid if am I correct?

 

[kurosawa]

If you're living in a tent, in someplace like Colorado you need a 4 season tent or possibly one of those pop up fishing huts. You can also buy this magical thing called a tent stove although you wouldn't cook on it in bear country. You'd also bring several CO detectors and batteries.

The plan would be live in the tent until you get a cabin constructed. The smart thing to do would be to do that during spring/summer/fall, not winter.

Throw in enough food, several water purification methods (UV, filters, tablets), an understanding of what you can forage/how to store it, hunting or fishing, basic first aid skills/medicine and emergency communications - ham radio, personal locator beacon or Iridium sat phone if you're wealthy.

However I'm not surprised two women didn't understand what the fuck they were doing. Dick Proenneke had no issues in the 70s when technology for the outdoors was nowhere near as good as it is today so just keep that in mind.

 

[HackerX]

Please don't do this if you go camping.

While true and funny, when you're cold you do dumb things.

One of my frames of references is the good ole US Army field exercise. The vehicles exhaust pipe is excellent to warm the hands, but I can only imagine how many people set up their cot and/or sleep system right beside it. (I am retarded, but not that retarded.

IIRC, there was a story a few years ago about some soldier who slept behind the vehicle and uhh, a life-ending, head splitting headache occured.

 

[Blacklight]

I"m amazed more of you aren't picking up on the 'don't leave the hive, don't leave your pod, don't even try, you will die, you need the system' messaging sprinkled through this entire thing.

 

[AnOminous]

IIRC, there was a story a few years ago about some soldier who slept behind the vehicle and uhh, a life-ending, head splitting headache occured.

Just a couple days ago three Marines died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a truck.

 

[Doseferatu]

I remember another family that tried to live off the grid - most of this family was killed, although not by nature.



It seems that living seperately is dangerous for one's health - whether that be from nature itself or from bureaucracies.

People must stick together if they are to survive - don't go off on your own, it's too dangerous.

 

[Meat Target]

I"m amazed more of you aren't picking up on the 'don't leave the hive, don't leave your pod, don't even try, you will die, you need the system' messaging sprinkled through this entire thing.

TPTB have recently been trying to vilify the idea of living away from their control.

"You're useless, baby. And if you leave me, I'll kill you". Liberalism is political BPD.

 

[Fanatical Pragmatist]

I"m amazed more of you aren't picking up on the 'don't leave the hive, don't leave your pod, don't even try, you will die, you need the system' messaging sprinkled through this entire thing.

It's hard because like, yes, there is an obvious POD LEAVERS = KILL message in here; and honestly quite a deceptive one since this was more "two dumb broads underestimate the wilderness" worthy headline.

But of course, they were fucking dumb and did a lot wrong, and their arrogance got the better of them and a kid. So its hard to defend them - ESPECIALLY if you know a bit about how to actually survive in the wilderness.

 

[behindyourightnow]

So it's a story about two women that went camping and died of a stupid mistake that has nothing to do with the wilderness, and the journalist is making it an attack story on the concept of being off-grid and escaping city hellscapes?
Really makes you think.

If it wasn't CO it had to be a murder-suicide or something else that killed them all at once. People slowly starving to death wouldn't all just sit around in the same place when they had a reasonable hope of obtaining help.

Poor people without heating and people in homeless encampments die from CO poisoning all the time. Dozens of people died that way in the Texas snowstorm in 2021 for example. But they don't get news coverage like this.

 

[Duke Nukem]

This just seems more like a puff piece to scare people out of leaving a society that is getting increasingly worse every single week.

Living off the grid, or at least away from the big cities and on your own, sounds like a dream come true, but it takes planning and patience and knowing what the fuck you're getting into.

 

[Super Guido]

Literally "you're being a retard and I'm going to call CPS on your ass for daring to plan on dragging your kid into that."

It's a herculean effort getting CPS to take any action unless it's a feral child scenario. It doesn't hurt to try, but I wouldn't expect much.

I"m amazed more of you aren't picking up on the 'don't leave the hive, don't leave your pod, don't even try, you will die, you need the system' messaging sprinkled through this entire thing.

I see it as just another Darwin Awards sort of thing, personally. You don't need to have outdoor experience to understand that burning a fire in an enclosed area is the absolute stupidest thing you could do, next to eating unidentified mushrooms you find in the woods.

 

[pylosurf]

I'm reminded of Ishi. He was a 50 year old Indian in California, the last of his tribe. He had lived his entire life "off the grid", he knew how to start fires and hunt, and what to eat. The environment was not inhospitable, but when he finally came out of the woods, he was starving to death. Humans are social animals, and we depend on each other as much as honey bees or ants.

 

[MightyMorphin'Willbender]

We sharing dumb outdoor stories? I got an interesting one.

Was coming down a mountain hike when at like 3/4 on the way down there was a man just lying down in the middle of the path.
Wtf, is he dead?
No, just extremely exhausted because he "woke up late and didn't have time to pack food and water". He had a big bottle that was like almost empty.
Since our group was just about done with the hike and still had plenty snacks and water we kindly parted with most of what was left. He said he didn't need much anyway since he was going to base jump.

Must be hard being a complete retard.

 

[The Feline Solution]

At least learn how to build bombs and how to mail them to politicians before you march innawoods. Maybe they should start doing Youtube tutorials on that.

Bitch thought she was Chris McCandless, and even he ended up dead despite almost certainly having more of a clue what he was doing than this dimwit did, and brought her kids along for.

You think? That dude didn't even have proper footwear when he marched into the Alaskan wilderness. McCandless always struck me as a Saint Terry kinda guy, maybe not full blown schizophrenia yet when he marched off but definitely paranoid and seemingly on the run from something. The accounts from the people he last interacted with paint that kind of picture.

 

[Burd Turglar]

Off the grid living is highly discouraged by the powers that be. Shit, even building relatively self sustainable earth berm housing is damn near impossible a lot of places.

 

[Betonhaus]

I wonder if things would have been different had they lived with the Amish? They live off the grid if am I correct?

The Amish also have infrastructure and housing, along with a whole community who have established a farm. A bit different from just having a tent in winter.

That being said, I'd love to just have a cabin deep in the woods. But that presupposes I know how to hunt or trap and get a steady food and wood supply.

 

[smartypants302]

If people don't know, Gunnison county is one of the coldest place in the United States because cold air settles in the valleys during the winter months and get trapped with little light piercing the day to warm it up. I spent time years ago off the grid during winter there at a research outpost. The only other person nearby was a old hermit that lived in a smaller cabin then mine and took snow core samples each day for over 40 years. Not a place for even non-experience hiker in the winter especially to live off the grid by just watching youtube video. I wonder where they from that they would choose the worst spot in the lower 49 to try it. If people are interested in getting in that life style, first try camping by your car on back forest roads around BLM and National Forest land away from other people for a week, then go to move on the backpacking and developing skills for a few years first. I past hours after the work day was over watching and recording data on marmots.