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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[Badungus Kabungus]

Up where I think they were it's rocky and the ground freezes pretty good. Old timers didn't bury people up there until late spring if they died in winter. In any case those two weren't up to the manual labor a dugout house would take, that's for sure.

Bad planning, then. Going up into the mountains without a plan is generally a bad idea.

 

[Amin Yasister]

Luke from YouTube channel "Outdoor Boys" shows how someone born and bred in Alaska copes.

Sometimes he will quit when he realises he is getting into trouble setting up his camps in the wilderness in winter. And that you need 7000 calories a day to survive, and how very expensive decent sleeping bags, tents and clothing, etc., costs.

Glad to see he is teaching his three boys the art of living off grid (but not quite) for a few days in mid winter in Alaska.

 

[Badungus Kabungus]

Luke from YouTube channel "Outdoor Boys" shows how someone born and bred in Alaska copes.

Sometimes he will quit when he realises he is getting into trouble setting up his camps in the wilderness in winter. And that you need 7000 calories a day to survive, and how very expensive decent sleeping bags, tents and clothing, etc., costs.

Glad to see he is teaching his three boys the art of living off grid (but not quite) for a few days in mid winter in Alaska.

It's all about planning in advance. Picking the site is key. You want to be near water, but not somewhere prone to floods or with poor drainage so the first rain wrecks all your shit. Not too exposed to wind, not near any widowmakers, near possible sources of fuel and food, etc. I definitely agree with the whole "pick up and move" strategy if the site/situation turns out to be shit, can't be lazy about that and hope for the best.

For me a few days is just enough to set up and get comfortable. I only feel comfy in the woods when I have at least a week's worth of grime on me.

And don't forget having the right vehicle for the job.

 

[William Murderface]

They also needed to understand that once you step off of the pavement, they're no longer in a position to be helped WHEN it goes sideways. That's where not being alone or in a tiny group of just the three of them might have saved their lives. They could have done everything absolutely right and still gotten dead if they were walking back to camp or their hut or whatever and by pure happenstance ran into a mama grizz and her cubs one spring. Or gotten a small cut on a finger or a blister that broke and ended up dying from an infection. Or an ember from their campfire catches the wind just right and blows onto their tent or lean-to and starts a fire. Or lost their matches somewhere and needed to start a fire but didn't know how to get the flint and steel to work.

It isn't just knowing what to do and how to do it...in theory. It's knowing how to actually do it over and over and over again. Anyone can read a survival manual but it's putting the ideas to the test that matters. I'm comfortable using flint and steel because I've done it a bunch of times. I've built lean-tos. I've made spears for fishing out of branches. It isn't enough to have watched Survivorman. I'm comfortable in the woods, but I know enough to know I don't know everything and that bad stuff WILL eventually happen. At the very least when I go camping, I go with someone and I tell other people where I'm going and when they can expect me back so if I don't show up they can tell the authorities where to start looking. It's the same reason they tell pilots and sailors to file flight and float plans. Can I survive for a few days until found? More than likely, but I also don't put myself in a position where I need found in the first place because I know my limitations and know when I'm at that point. I'm not living a fantasy after all, which is what too many people who wander off into the woods are doing. They have this fantasy about being free but don't have a clue just what that means in the practical sense when it comes to wilderness survival.

The more I read about them, the more I respect the mountain men and the pioneers who went West into the unknown just so they could come back into towns back East and guide those people into the Frontier. Not only did those people need to know those survival skills, but they had to learn them the hard way and contend with Indians and wildlife like bears and wolves and mountain lions.

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

Around these parts any mystery meat is goblin tier.

They definitely had that phenotype.

probably those LifeStraws were destroyed so they were sick from giardiasis and/or other stuff.

Yeah, that's what they think they had. There was even a bag filled with urine and several soiled women's underwear. The Life straws apparently stop working in freezing conditions, excellent planning lol.

The fact they had shit all over the place also pretty much says they had no idea what they were doing.

I feel bad for the camp site. It would have been a good place in the summer but now it's the "a retarded biracial family died here and shidded all over it" camp site.

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.

Yes, I think she was either full blown psychotic or suffering some kind of delusion and/paranoia. The sister and son went because they didn't want the schizo mom going alone and now they're all dead.

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.

My step grandma is like this with Q Anon and Trump stuff and I'm afraid it's a symptom of dementia. A lot of the older conspiracy and Q types remind me of how people with dementia can get paranoid. There's a Tiktok trend Qs were doing where you drink Borax (the cleaner) and hydrogen peroxide to kill parasites that apparently cause every single disease known to man.

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.

Yeah, it's fucking nightmare inducing. They were never in any shape to build a home or outhouse though, both sisters were obese, out of shape, had only worked retail and other sedentary jobs except for the computer chip plant years ago and hadn't even done casual camping before.

They're the two dark haired ladies.

These women should've read his book.

I read the whole The Hatchet series in middle school. It was mandatory. I found it mostly boring.

My Side of the Mountain
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/41667 Read it in middle school lol.

Was it more entertaining than The Hatchet?

“Hi, we’re going forever camping and we don’t need no man”

It's empowering n shite. The way she conceived her son was pretty fucking gross:

Then, their mother got cancer in 2006 and died in 2007. Becky took her death very hard and felt guilty she hadn’t spent more time with her and given her a grandchild.

The Vance sisters continued living with their stepfather. In 2008, Becky got pregnant. The father was Eric Burden, someone she had met at work with two children from a previous relationship. Becky was okay with his divided attention and told Eric she did not want him to be a partner and did not want to co-parent. Few people even knew Eric was the father of Becky’s baby, and she hadn’t even named him as the father on the birth certificate.

---

I don't care how crazy you are, how the fuck do you not get not shitting in your fucking camp?

We live in a dysgenic society. Mutts like her are part of that.

You ever dump a giant load of shit-smelling watery mucous in your pants? I have.

They did, they said there was not just shit everywhere but a whole bag full of urine and "several pairs" of shitty women's underwear:

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.

---

>I drink some water to make my stomach swell so I'm not so hungry
They should've read hatchet and a lot of Will Hobbs too.

I remember The Hatchet being mostly boring but the only good part was when he crashed and dived for survival stuff in the sunken plane. It was gripping.

Read the whole story and I'm kind of glad these people removed themselves from the genepool.

All mixed race people should be removed from the gene pool.

On matters like this, a few Youtube videos are about as helpful as hiking in Bear country covered in honey.

She didn't even watch a useful Youtuber, instead she was into a conspiracy woman who told her the world is going to end soon and kids will be raped and people will take all their freeze dried food.

Crazy people should not be planning your vacation, got it.

Sad thing is, family begged them to use their trailer with a toilet and electricity but they wouldn't.

It does astound me how many people aren't thinking about how they are going to do stuff like pay their property taxes or go into town and buy food or go to the doctor or pay for a PO Box or buy seeds for farming or even buy paper and stamps to write to loved ones. I guess they figure the good fairies are going to handle that stuff.

She only brought a single pair of boots and said she would figure out how to make her own boots if they got a hole, lol. That was her level of planning.

The Kyle Hates Hiking channel did a video on their deaths, and he notes that the nail in their coffin was the rangers finding their car, designating it as abandoned, and then removing it. After that there was no way out.

I bet she made them run and hide like schizos lol. We know they did use the car to go to Walmart once to get survival stuff.

That is the part that I find very odd. Did they not hear the massive tow truck coming into their area to tow the car away?

Becky the mom was a fucking psycho who convinced her sister of her bullshit. She was very scared of the government. They probably ran away and hid like their lives depended on it. She was trying to protect her son from getting the mind control microchip in the COVID vaccine.

It's not even that cold in Colorado, can still make a dugout house without too much difficulty.

They were too unfit and obese, and the boy was 14. They couldn't do shit. Look at the picture I posted. They never even did casual camping before this.

I daresay that either they were still under the dominant sister's control and were convinced that they would die of covid if they had contact with strangers, or else were too far away to hear.

I don't think she was scared of COVID, she thought the vaccine had microchips that would control them. The weird sister dynamic was definitely a thing. Just fucking weird people and situation all around.

Here, the sisters believed that Talon would not get corrupted or microchipped and would not grow up and leave.

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.”

 

[BelUwUga]

I remember The Hatchet being mostly boring but the only good part was when he crashed and dived for survival stuff in the sunken plane. It was gripping.

I personally liked My Side of The Mountain more. Thematically it was more similar to the later books in the Hatchet series. It was by choice, and focused on thriving more than simple survival/escape. It does have similar levels of description that might get tedious if Hatchet was a bore.

 

[KiwiFuzz2]

The thing that was funny about My Side of the Mountain is that he hollows out the base of a living tree for a "house."

Makes total sense if you're thinking about a big redwood.

Are there trees back east big enough to fit a toddler?

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

The thing that was funny about My Side of the Mountain is that he hollows out the base of a living tree for a "house."

Makes total sense if you're thinking about a big redwood.

Are there trees back east big enough to fit a toddler?

Maybe Eastern Hemlock which can grow up to about a 1 metre wide but they're being eaten to death by hemlock woolly adelgid (an invasive Asian insect).

 

[KiwiFuzz2]

Maybe Eastern Hemlock which can grow up to about a 1 metre wide but they're being eaten to death by hemlock woolly adelgid (an invasive Asian insect).

I was thinking more like 3 meters.

 

[WhiskeyJack]

Given all the interest people seem to have in how to properly filter/purify water and other such stuff, folks might be interested in some old books by John Seymour that cover how people ran farms a few centuries ago, as well as old crafts. The Foxfire books are great for that as well.

The thing that was funny about My Side of the Mountain is that he hollows out the base of a living tree for a "house."

Makes total sense if you're thinking about a big redwood.

Are there trees back east big enough to fit a toddler?

In the book it's a rotting base of an exceptionally old and large Hemlock. The largest are a little shy of 6 foot in diameter at breast height, but those are very rare. Were probably more common 60 years ago, of course.

For a 12 year old boy, it might be big enough, but it would be cramped. The Catskills have White Oak (and maybe even a few Burr Oak) so that would've made a better choice. They can be like 10 feet across or more at the base.

It's hard to see, but the original book edition's map shows the tree as a big stump, as it's depicted on the film's poster.

God, I miss the days when books had hand drawn maps in them, really sold the adventure feeling on a rainy day. I'd swear half the success of the Hobbit/LOTR is from those original maps Tolkien penned.

 

[Mango Cobra]

Think of how Chris McCandless died

I was watching a thing where Les Shroud / The Survivorman was talking about Chris and he basically said that going by Chris' own journals, he was constantly putting himself into bad situations but was basically rescued repeatedly by pure luck alone, with actually skilled people saving his ass, and he never developed any real survival skills but developed a mindset that he would be okay. Even when he put himself into the situation that finally killed him he had a fucking bear die and leave him a lot of meat but, surprise, since he had no actual survival skills, the bear meat went rancid in two days because he didn't know how to keep it from going bad.

That isn't even getting into the fact that his survival books he had on him about edible plants are very hard for even seasoned survivalist to understand (Are the veins on the leaf lateral or medial?) without having someone show them. And on your own in a desperate situation? Forget about it. That's how he got poisoned.

The guy basically had a 10 in luck and a 9 in charisma, that can work for a while but eventually it'll run out. And when his luck finally ran out, he died. But he was charismatic enough that years later people still romanticize his stupidity.

 

[Shroom King]

I love topics like this, especially on other websites where NEETs, of all people, jerk themselves raw about going innawoods and surviving indefinitely like Jason Voorhees.

While I know how to use tools, I am not exactly Bob Vila, and I can tell you first hand how much it sucks dealing with water ingress, roof damage, broken glass and all the other shit that will eventually happen to your secret magical cabin in the middle of nowhere. I had to quarantine in my summer cabin in 2020 during the off-season. If I didn't already have a heat pump installed, it would have been a no-go staying there. It gets very dark and very quiet when you are there all alone. Your mind plays tricks on you. There's a reason why the "crazy old hermit" stereotype exists.

 

[AnOminous]

The guy basically had a 10 in luck and a 9 in charisma, that can work for a while but eventually it'll run out. And when his luck finally ran out, he died. But he was charismatic enough that years later people still romanticize his stupidity.

Charisma doesn't matter when you're alone.

I admit this, I have a sympathy for dudes like that. I have to admit it's irrational. Because look at what happened.

Same with Grizzly Man. Timothy Treadwell. Thought just hanging out with grizzly bears was a great idea. He and his girl got eaten by a grizzly bear. Was this amazing? Did this surprise anyone?

I still somehow admire his naivete and wish it actually worked out in reality better.

Can't we live in a world where people like this are right?

Apparently not.

 

[CowPox]

Slaves give birth to slaves
Unless you walk in the woods
Until you are dead

Etc.

 

[AnOminous]

Slaves give birth to slaves
Unless you walk in the woods
Until you are dead

Etc.

But what if you're so nutbag crazy that you're dying in a bizarre hovel where you're surrounded by your own shit because you don't even have the primal animal understanding that maybe you move your shit to somewhere outside where you're living?

I mean even animals understand that.

 

[glass_houses]

Same with Grizzly Man. Timothy Treadwell. Thought just hanging out with grizzly bears was a great idea. He and his girl got eaten by a grizzly bear. Was this amazing? Did this surprise anyone?

I still somehow admire his naivete and wish it actually worked out in reality better.

It wasn't naivety. It was a screaming personality disorder.

I've read a couple of books on the man and watched documentaries by/on him. He was a very, very strange individual who was empty inside. He tried to become an actor and when that didn't work, he appointed himself king of the grizzly maze. He wasn't naive. He was a raging narcissist who utterly refused to listen to a single word anyone said, and as a result, he- and his girlfriend- suffered a horrific and 100% preventable death. And chances are good that he also spent most of his time in the bush off his tits on narcotics, too.

He had a death wish, and he got that death wish.

 

[AnOminous]

He had a death wish, and he got that death wish.

You can't just say that and not break my dreams more by not saying what you think about the weird documentary by Werner Herzog.

It's not like I have many dreams left anyway. Just break another. You horrible monster.

 

[Fried-Rice12]

This is basically what would have happened to the woman's team on that Bear Gryllis survival island show if the film crew did not step in to help them.
And that was a tropical island.

 

[glass_houses]

This is basically what would have happened to the woman's team on that Bear Gryllis survival island show if the film crew did not step in to help them.
And that was a tropical island.

Yeah, but keep in mind that women on reality shows are chosen first by tits and secondly by their histrionic personality disorder. I have a lot of farmers on both sides of the family, and while the women aren't as physically strong, they use what they do have very effectively.

 

[TowinKarz]

God, I miss the days when books had hand drawn maps in them, really sold the adventure feeling on a rainy day. I'd swear half the success of the Hobbit/LOTR is from those original maps Tolkien penned.

In much the same way I was part of the last generation that had to be taught to type instead of picking it up on their own since everything now has a keyboard interface? I believe I was also the last generation that was taught not only how to read road and topographic maps, but, how to properly draw one, and the right symbols and shorthands to denote rivers, swamps, hills, structures, railroads, etc.

It was an invaluable skill in the days before GPS and smart phones where you'd have to conceivably guide yourself, or others, over 10 miles of unfamiliar ground with NO outside assistance available. You'd have to essentially fly VFR on the ground by knowing cardinal directions and landmarks.

I used to draw maps as a kid of everything from my own neighborhood to fictional towns/counties just to keep my skills sharp. Still do to this day out of appreciation for what's becoming a lost art.