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."

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[Haramburger]

Unless something REALLY weird was going on, no.



View attachment 5240438

https://www.facebook.com/christine.vance.10

NBC article is slightly better.

those hog women were never going to survive 5 days away from a can of Chef Boyardee. They probably should've been watching a few seasons of Survivor and looked for the pitfalls there, isntead of pure instruction from amateurs on YT.

 

[WelfareNiggerQueen]

I was once coming off a nine day hike in New Zealand so was near the trail end. Pissing it down with rain in that special ‘solid water is falling from the sky’ way inly west coast NZ can really do. Soaked to the skin, but all contents of backpack safe and secure in dry bags.
Saw a chopper, oh dear, someone being rescued. Two Israelis wearing flipflops who were four hours into a nine day hike. No waterproofs, no boots, no food and a supermarket 500ml water bottle each. The lads flying the chopper looked like they were about to chuck them back out.
I’ve also seen several people be pulled off even smaller mountains in the UK who set off in bad weather in trainers and a cardigan. People are amazingly dumb about the outdoors, probably because we don’t go in it enough to realise that exposure will kill you fast.
If you ever chat to someone who’s done mountain rescue, they will have dozens of similar stories.

For me, it's German and French tourists trying to go off-road in rental cars during peak summer. No food, probably a thermos in the cup holder, low on gas, spotty cellular coverage, stuck in 105 degree heat, kids in the back.
My shooting hole is a popular sight seeing place for Euro's on vacation.

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

isntead of pure instruction from amateurs on YT.

Becky really "learned" from the worst kooks too, who probably had no survival experience themselves.

She began reading online sites dedicated to conspiracies and off-grid living. The Survival Mom, run by Lisa Bedford, told readers, “Prep more. Worry less.” She said people could learn from her experience that you could “be proactive and prepare for emergencies by doing what moms have always done — taking charge and getting things done!”

Bedford said on her website that you just needed to work hard and be willing to cut ties, and Becky lapped it up. She told her readers that people make two major mistakes when preparing for “The End of the World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI).” Firstly, they wait for disaster to prepare for disaster, at which point it’s too late. Secondly, they share their plans. Tell one person, and he or she tells another person, and you’ll find yourself facing TEOTWAWKI needing to feed not just your family but also “the lonesome guy four doors down who suddenly craves foodstuffs he assumes you might have.” Or “your not-so-friendly garden variety drug-dependent thug.” Don’t do all this prep to protect your family only to attract predation and harm. “As distasteful as it sounds,” the Survival Mom wrote, “I’m afraid that will include crimes against female members in your household. They run the risk of being taken away by said gang members for their ‘entertainment,’ being molested, or raped.”

Their campsite had a huge poop pile really close to the tent and scattered around the site. Also shitty toilet paper everywhere and multiple pairs of soiled women's undies. It was totally trashed. Tons of filthy food wrappers. Their only clean freshwater source was a LifeStraw which users say are destroyed by freezing and then you can't tell whether it even works anymore.

Several pairs of soiled women’s underwear were found camp around the camp, and there was an insulated bag that seemed to be filled with urine. As well as the soiled discarded underwear, there was a large pile of human feces found 10 feet from the door of the tent, and there were several locations around the camp where someone had defecated.

To filter parasites from the water, they brought two LifeStraws, products REI advertises as “ideal for backup filtration, emergency use, and ultralight treks”. Reviewers state that the straws can be damaged by freezing, though if they do freeze, “there will be no indication whether it is still safe to use; instead, you’ll just have to wait for the giardia to hit in a week or two.” If they did not use the LifeStraws properly or kept using them once those straws got damaged, they were likely to get giardiasis with intense stomach pain, chronic and severe diarrhea, an inability to absorb nutrients and malnutrition. The only way to treat it is for a doctor to prescribe the drug metronidazole (Flagyl).

In case you were wondering, the boy died first and then they moved him closer to the tent, then his mom Becky died and her sister died last; she was found in long johns, a beanie, a sweat shirt and pants but no one was wearing socks or footwear.

At some point, Christine cut her hair off for reasons unknown. It seems likely that Talon died first from illness or hypothermia. Becky and Christine moved his body close to the tent on the other side of the tree in the camp. Becky probably died next, and then Christine zipped herself up in her sleeping bag and waited for her inevitable death.

 

[Slap47]

You don't have to be a SERE teacher to figure it out, it's not that hard. Much of the knowledge you need to survive can be obtained by getting your nose out of your phone, observing your surroundings, and rubbing two brain cells together.

Its this type of logic that gets people killed. Survival skills are learned knowledge. You either have to get them through experience or from an expert. Cave man learned from Cave man Sr. who learned from all the dead caveman before him.

 

[PhoBingas]

If Henry David Thoreau and Dr. Theodore Kazinski could not live away from society in a fucking tent, what in the world many them believe they could.

Crystal meth.

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.

Just don't be a bowl-rolling bitch who thinks you can survive in a tent in the Rockies in fuckin' December after watching youtube videos

so they wanna be like "i tried to stop them" yeah ok.
but no call to police to get the kids or detain mom for taking her kids to a tent in the middle of winter?
sounds like a lot of people knew about this going on before anyone died. just saying.

Maybe not the police but CPS for sure. I'm not sure if Colorado has CPS, google says it does, but it seems kind of limited on what it can do unless there's a credible threat to the child... but slumming it in a tent in the woods in the winter, I'd like to think that's a credible threat.

I'm going cautiously give Jara this one.
If your sister says "I'm going to fuck off an live in the woods with no outside contact".... I mean you aren't going to expect a call.

Honestly seems like a cry for attention / poly to fleece money from family members, all: "bloo bloo bloo, you won't gib me monies! I'm a go live in da woods!"

Which made me think of how nuts these people must feel that all the experts did a 180 on whether to be worried or not. The horror stories of "COVID scars your lungs for life!" turned out to be fantasies, but it's not like Fauci has come out saying to not worry anymore as none of the TV experts wants to admit they were exaggerating things.

The only niggas that caught covid were the ones that watched the news.

Becky really "learned" from the worst kooks too, who probably had no survival experience themselves.

Probably watching those "primitive tech" videos with heavy equipment in the background. The CoachCoins I'd pay to get access to her watch history is embarrassing, but I'm sort of curious what garbage she was watching that made her think she'd be able to survive in the Rockies with zero experience.

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

Crystal meth.

Way too fat lol, they look like potheads:

Maybe not the police but CPS for sure. I'm not sure if Colorado has CPS, google says it does, but it seems kind of limited on what it can do unless there's a credible threat to the child... but slumming it in a tent in the woods in the winter, I'd like to think that's a credible threat.

She said the weirdest thing to his paternal grandma when she suddenly took him to live in da woods. I think she was experiencing some kind of break with reality but this sounded sussy: "he doesn't know anything". She thought society would end any day and they would put microchips in them all.

Christine didn’t come inside. She stood by the Hyundai. Just before Marilyn hugged Talon goodbye outside the front door at the top of the stairs, Becky whispered to her, “He doesn’t know anything.” Marilyn thought, Okay, and neither do I.

No one ever called CPS or anything... (Marilyn is the paternal grandmother). She did call many times but never escalated to calling CPS, filing a missing persons report etc.

Marilyn tried to reach the Vance sisters, leaving voicemails, but they didn’t get back to her. Nobody thought to file a missing-person report or to call Child Protective Services.

---

Honestly seems like a cry for attention / poly to fleece money from family members, all: "bloo bloo bloo, you won't gib me monies! I'm a go live in da woods!"

She did get 500 from her father to go to Walmart and get supplies but never contacted her mother in law or Talon's other family again, for money or otherwise.

Probably watching those "primitive tech" videos with heavy equipment in the background. The CoachCoins I'd pay to get access to her watch history is embarrassing, but I'm sort of curious what garbage she was watching that made her think she'd be able to survive in the Rockies with zero experience.

That would be kino. It did share one person she is known to have followed, who sounds like a loony:

She began reading online sites dedicated to conspiracies and off-grid living. The Survival Mom, run by Lisa Bedford, told readers, “Prep more. Worry less.” She said people could learn from her experience that you could “be proactive and prepare for emergencies by doing what moms have always done — taking charge and getting things done!”

Bedford said on her website that you just needed to work hard and be willing to cut ties, and Becky lapped it up. She told her readers that people make two major mistakes when preparing for “The End of the World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI).” Firstly, they wait for disaster to prepare for disaster, at which point it’s too late. Secondly, they share their plans. Tell one person, and he or she tells another person, and you’ll find yourself facing TEOTWAWKI needing to feed not just your family but also “the lonesome guy four doors down who suddenly craves foodstuffs he assumes you might have.” Or “your not-so-friendly garden variety drug-dependent thug.” Don’t do all this prep to protect your family only to attract predation and harm. “As distasteful as it sounds,” the Survival Mom wrote, “I’m afraid that will include crimes against female members in your household. They run the risk of being taken away by said gang members for their ‘entertainment,’ being molested, or raped.”

That all sounds more like conspiracy stuff than any useful skill she could actually use to survive.

 

[PhoBingas]

Way too fat lol, they look like potheads:

Anecdotal, but I have seen more than one fat speed freak. They were natives not Mexicans though. Potheads would be too lazy and forgetful to pull something like this off. Every stoner I've known that said they were gonna live off-grid, lit another joint then didn't mention it again until the next minor setback in their life.

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

They were natives not Mexicans though.

Surprisingly these chicks were actually half Slavic half Korean not Mexican. They do look Mexican if you didn't know though.

 

[High Level Rad Waste]

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.

I bring buddies who want to go hunting on light hikes and outdoor range days, let them experience just how much food, salt and water they'll need when they're not sedentary in air conditioning. They learn quickly, but you don't learn unless you experience it and trying to gain that experience alone and unprepared, or worse from some dipshit influencer who still has the bars to upload from his dad's holler, kills people.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

I got into watching this Russian guy build a small one room cabin that was partially underground this past summer, I was fascinated but a few things stood out;

It's a lot of work cutting down trees and sawing them, as well as setting aside firewood to cure for later (you'd be surprised at how many people are unaware you can't just cut a random tree down for fire right away), take them to your site and then make them fit together. A lot of work.

It's also a lot of work to cut wood for a floor. walls and even just a few steps. You need a stove and pipe for a chimney. Thing you have to buy, and know what to buy, and then know how to fit it into your little shack.

This happened over a several weeks. With power tools. In the summer.

A lot of people, including myself, asked in the comments what happens when there's a lot of rain.

We also wondered if this was his land or belonged to someone who gave him permission.

Also, at no point did this guy even suggest this was his primary home, it was a side project for him. He also never claimed to eat off the land or anything.

If one day he posted a video saying he's going off grid he'd be more prepared than just about everyone I know simply because he has the skills necessary to build a decent shelter but I still don't know what he'd do long term for food/water, or if and when it floods. As far as the goblinas go the older sister probably had serious mental issues that were never addressed and the younger sister and son just couldn't say no to her when she finally has a break with reality. I blame everyone else who saw she went full retard and knew she was taking the boy. His death is the real tragedy here imo.

 

[KiwiFuzz2]

It's a lot of work cutting down trees and sawing them, as well as setting aside firewood to cure for later (you'd be surprised at how many people are unaware you can't just cut a random tree down for fire right away), take them to your site and then make them fit together. A lot of work.

I often think about heading out to the woods with a small chainsaw and building a microshack out of logs, but realistically, I don't think I could do it, especially all alone.

I don't know how much a green, 6" wide, 10-foot log weighs.

I do know that to get something 5 feet tall, you'd need 40 of the fuckers. If there were 10 perfectly optimal trees within 100 feet of the cabin site, you'd be ahead of the game. The other 30, you're dragging through the woods in abject misery.

Pioneers were a hardy breed.

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

As far as the goblinas go

They were hafus not goblinas.

the older sister probably had serious mental issues that were never addressed

100 percent. She sounded fully psychotic. They could have at least reported them missing or called CPS when they were gone for too long. I know she lied that she went to her father's, but still.

 

[clipartfan92]

I often think about heading out to the woods with a small chainsaw and building a microshack out of logs, but realistically, I don't think I could do it, especially all alone.

Just watch this hour long video and you'll have all of the skills needed!

Oh wait, I forgot that I wasn't giving advice to the people in the OP.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

Pioneers were a hardy breed.

The thing is they didn't go at it alone, and even the ones that traveled together were sometimes just as bad as these midwits, like the entire Donner Party.

They were hafus not goblinas.

Around these parts any mystery meat is goblin tier.

 

[TheRedChair]

‘don’t even try to live off grid, slaves.’
These three were clearly having some kind of lockdown induced breakdown. No experience, insufficient kit, in a harsh environment is going to kill you.
Living off grid would be great, but it takes planning and experience and knowledge

IMHO there is NO such thing as fully being off grid. I'll call you a fucking liar is someone said as such.

Because sooner or later you are going to need the basic care and essentials from modern day society.

Such as Dental work for a tooth ache.
Medical care when you get older.
Basic medical needs such as aspirin.

The whole fucking concept is BULLSHIT. This is coming from a former homeless man who had to live in pretty much WORSE conditions than they are.

The best they can do is detach a bit from the hectic pace of society.

Being semi detached from society is perfectly fine. AS LONG AS YOU KNOW YOUR LIMITS.

Unfortunately there are too many retards out there who vision that myth of freedom that is in the Wilderness.

Again in life, people need to know their limits of what they can or can not do. If you do not prepare for the worst, you just may wind up dead.

Just like these people wound up to be... DEAD.

 

[The handsome tard]

Didnt they have a spongebob episode that literally explained why living in the wild with no training or resources is a horrible fucking idea?

 

[glue eater]

I think about this meme every time some chud tells me he's gonna go innawoods.

 

[AnOminous]

That all sounds more like conspiracy stuff than any useful skill she could actually use to survive.

It sounds like some kind of group psychosis that led to insane behavior that got them killed, probably from lack of proper equipment, food, and probably those LifeStraws were destroyed so they were sick from giardiasis and/or other stuff. Those LifeStraws are more for short-term emergency use than long-term use and aren't terribly practical, i.e. you need to be practically lying on the ground. The fact they had shit all over the place also pretty much says they had no idea what they were doing.

Throw in what sounds like legitimate mental illness and it was a recipe for disaster.

And I don't mean mental illness casually like in the sense you could say most preppers are a little nuts. Preppers may be a little quirky but they generally have legitimate survival skills. They wouldn't be in some totally trashed, shit-strewn homeless schizo pad.

A survivalist is going to take care of his physical needs, not have food or waste out in the open to attract predators and cause disease, and is going to have the sense not to just sit there like a retard and die one by one.

People can believe a lot of conspiratorial bullshit without being clinically insane, but that kind of stuff can be seriously bad for people who are legitimately nuts.

It's probable they were also on a bad diet, because if you were innawoods you wouldn't have access to a lot of stuff you take for granted. Think of how Chris McCandless died, probably from eating a high protein low fat diet like small game. Even with some degree of survival skills, you might just fail to realize you can starve to death even while eating meat on a daily basis, so called "rabbit starvation," because this wouldn't happen to you surrounded by McDonalds and modern grocery stores.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

This is coming from a former homeless man who had to live in pretty much WORSE conditions than they are.

What @Sparkling Yuzu said about poop piles next to their tent; I was in shock. I mean, there's a reason cats cover up their poo, A cheap e-tool for digging a hole to put your waste in and then covering it up is something I learned in elementary school. I really felt sick, not because of the poo but because of the appalling lack of hygiene they had.

Those LifeStraws are more for short-term emergency use

You can use chlorine bleach to disinfect drinking water, and there all sorts of ways to filter it that aren't expensive before you do. Since California is so earthquake prone we learned how to do this as kids. I'm really shocked so few people are aware of it. A friend of mine told me his great-aunt died in Yemen from the cholera epidemic which was spread by tainted water. "Didn't she boil the water? Use chlorine bleach to disinfect it before drinking it?" I had to explain it to him and forward a PP slide on using bleach if you need to disinfect water. @Ghoatse is right a lot of people just don't know these things anymore because they aren't relevant to us.

 

[FatalTater]

half Korean

Nobody does crazy like Asian women.