When Rebecca Vance went on a camping trip with her 14-year-old son and her sister last summer, she hoped the excursion to Colorado’s Rocky Mountains could be a path for them to “live off the grid” and start a new permanent way of life away from civilization, according to a family member.
But the decision to disconnect turned out to be deadly after three decomposed and partially mummified bodies were identified Tuesday, not long after the remains were found at a remote campsite in western Colorado. The deceased were identified by Gunnison County, Colo., Coroner Michael Barnes as Rebecca Vance, 42; her 14-year-old son, who has not been publicly identified; and her sister, Christine Vance, 41, all of Colorado Springs.
Trevala Jara, the Vance women’s stepsister, told The Washington Post that the group said they were going to live “off the grid” but did not tell loved ones where they were going to be. The two sisters and the boy probably started camping in July 2022 and died sometime over the winter, according to the Gunnison County Sheriff’s Office.
Darwin gang green award?
Democrats – they chose Colorado. Why not off grid in Malibu or Beverly Hills?
Reminiscent of Christopher McCandless. His corpse was discovered less than two weeks after he passed, IIRC.
Dying off the grid.
They were offered an RV by family and turned it down was the part that really floored me. Living off the grid is dangerous even for experienced preppers and outdoorsmen but without ensuring adequate shelter for winter is beyond reckless. Tragic.
Brilliant, just brilliant.
Mother Nature does not nor ever did suffer Fools.
I’m betting these 3 had squat for ANY kind of survival skills or knowledge
Sad, but a totally unsurprising result.
No, Steakman. The article said they had watched a lot of videos about living off the grid. [BIG eyeroll]
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Yup. Tragically and woefully unprepared.
And like LC Bennett, above, I’m a bit flabbergasted because she turned down the offer of an RV so they could ease into off grid living. They could have at least had a shelter while they built their own shelter. Her stepsister sounded like she had a bit of clue.
Shades of the ‘Titan’ incident.
Or earlier, The Donner Party…
https://slaynews.com/news/heart-injuries-covid-shots-3000-times-higher-claimed-peer-reviewed-swiss-study-shows/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-newsletter
Oops…sorry, wrong link! Really wrong…
Into the wild. How could they have not read the book or seen the film? Or did they actually romanticize the kids death. Why is it that non-Christian eco-worshipers always embrace death so closely?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758758/
It’s a death cult.
Well, too bad. But their families can find some solace in the fact that their legacies will live on as democrat voters in elections-yet-to-come.
Huh, no one assumes they were murdered.
I assume they were murdered.
I was thinking an odd form of suicide.
Climate change got ’em. No question.
Mother Nature is just like the Disney movies.
So, certainly contenders for the Treadwell Trophy.
Watching a season or two of ALONE prepared them for this.
Worked well.
Go green for Mother Earth, and she turns around and kills you. Natural justice.
Did they have a tent and sleeping bags?
Yeah, but that isn’t much help in winter.
RIPS (rest in peace stupid)
Sure.. Bark and river water and animals that are very good at not being eaten.. Plant some carrots and wait for the news you didn’t chop enough wood to get through the winter.. Its sad really.. It didn’t need to happen..
City folks mostly have no clue about the wilderness. The RV would not have saved them. In the Rockies, deep snow is the rule, and they would have been totally immobilized by it, unable to get firewood or anything else. The road they drove in on would have been buried in ten or 20 feet of snow, maybe more this last winter.
Going to Mountain Equipment Co-Op and spending money on hiking/survival/winter clothing and gear does not prepare you for “living off the grid.” Having good equipment is not the same as knowing how to survive. This is borne out every year in Canada’s national parks, where inexperienced people sometimes take off into the wild with some or all the right equipment, yet they die because they have little or none of the right knowledge. And they die in the summer!
The Rockies are not anything like your back yard in the winter. This is the sort of situation that experienced frontiersmen avoided back when folks were a lot tougher. They got out before winter fell. “Ordeal by Hunger” is a good book about the Donner Party, a group of pioneer families headed to California in 1846. They got trapped by winter in what is now the Donner Pass. They turned to cannibalism to survive. Only 48 of the original 87 made it.
Exactly. If you want to survive you need a cabin with enough wood and food to get through the winter. You imagine you might be snowed in for six months and plan accordingly. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, but I was a city slicker in a huge metropolis with 30,000 people. We were once snowed in for a week when blizzards hit back to back. I don’t know if our civilization can survive this much stupid.
As P. J. O’Rourke put it:
“If the outdoors is so great, why don’t the homeless like it ?”
A “three-fa” for Darwin.
I can’t even imagine this level of hubris. Gunnison County is rough backcountry. No place for living off-grid.
youtube videos??? There are a lot of great youtube videos and a lot of great preppers on youtube. There are also a lot of fakers and charlatans. Experienced trained preppers and outdoorsmen just give a deep sigh when they hear of someone heading into the bush to live off the land. The land usually eats them inside of six weeks. I don’t feel so bad for the two older women but a 14 year old? What a tragedy.
The other aspect of this is obvious propaganda. Typically living off grid does not mean just a tent in the wilderness. It means homesteading, part of a community of like minded people. This is propaganda to discourage anyone thinking of going off grid or disconnecting from the system. if too many people do it, the elites can’t control us.
But, but Jeremiah Johnson made it, and I watched that movie all the time!
Very much back in the day, one offspring obtained a Rotary exchange to Colombia. A kid from there came here, but ended up in a small town in British Columbia. Serious culture shock but – as I recall – mainly for the family back in Colombia. They even had offspring call to inquire if there would be a bank in said small town. We could reassure them that – not only was there at least one bank – but one of the bankers would belong to Rotary.
As it happened, kid very much enjoyed the relaxed and informal life in small town BC (as opposed to our offspring who found life much more restrictive and living in compounds with armed guards; kid adapted and really had a great experience overall), relishing in just walking to school with classmates. One of the Rotary advisors was involved with the Guides, so kid found herself assisting at a Brownie pack. Outdoor winter activities were a great novelty and good fun (despite a broken wrist while tobogganing), but when it came to winter camping with the pack, the verdict was that sometimes Canadians are just weird.
Meh, the lean-to wasn’t finished, “bad” decomposition – partial mummification, it’s odd. Maybe they didn’t live long enough to see the winter. The reporting is inconsistent with one saying body 1000 ft. away from tent and another says in front of tent.
MSN and Yahoo report “badly decomposed and deceased.”
Apparently there were two more bodies at one point per the Denver Post
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/07/12/5-decomposed-bodies-gunnison-county-campsite/
I’m going with foul play before the full winter set in.
While I agree that this was a bad idea, there is burning stupid reporting, a coroner blabbering before autopsy given decay which may be indicative of more than one seasons’ exposure, the potential reluctance to report the public park is unsafe,… and yeah, “campsite” (cue horror violins). Wondering if the coroner is the coroner-undertaker-mayor-sheriff. Perhaps a banjo is more appropo.
So, how many bodies were there…three or five?
The Mercury News story says five, all the others say three. Based on that, I’m going with foul play of some kind.
Don’t build a lean-to. Build a sod house.
But yeah, probably killed by drug growers or other criminals, possibly because two women and a teenage boy seemed like pushovers.