https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10526175/Family-died-California-mountains-desperate-plea.html
another weird comms story
dog red scarf
chinese wife
died from lack of water 1.6 miles from their car
A British Snapchat engineer sent a desperate last text before he and his family died in 100F heat on a California hiking trail but poor cell reception meant the message didn't go through.
Jonathan Gerrish, 45, his wife Ellen Chung, 31, their one-year-old daughter Aurelia 'Miju' Chung-Gerrish, and their dog Oski were found dead on a hiking trail near the Merced River last August.
The Mariposa County Sheriff's Office released information pulled from the cellphone of Jonathan Gerrish after months of work with an FBI forensics team.
One text made shortly before noon on August 15 to a person whose name wasn't released asked: 'Can you help us' and added: 'No water or ver (over) heating with baby,' the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
But the area had bad cellphone service and the text never went through. Neither did five phone calls to various people, investigators said.
Their deaths baffled investigators. The case involved more than 30 law enforcement agencies that had painstakingly reviewed - and ruled out - causes such as murder, lightning strikes, poisoning from algae-tainted water, abandoned mines that might emit toxic gas, illegal drugs and suicide.
Last fall, investigators concluded that the family died of extreme heat stroke. Temperatures that afternoon reached 109F in the steep mountain terrain and the family had run out of water. A wildfire had burned off any shade canopy.
A survival trainer involved with the case wrote an email to detectives that the young couple likely died while attempting to save their infant daughter.
'Sadly, I believe they were caught off guard, and once they realized their situation, they died trying to save their child and each other,' the unidentified trainer wrote.
'It is likely the child began to succumb first, which hurried the parents' efforts up the hill. When one could no longer continue, they stayed behind to care for the child and pet, while the other tried to forge on and get help for their loved ones. It is a tragedy of the highest order.'
Officials found the family two days later after relatives had reported them missing. The family had hiked 6.4 mile with the baby in a backpack-type carrier. They were 1.6 miles away from their car.
The family had an 85-ounce water container with them that was empty.
The cellphone was found in Gerrish's pocket. Beginning shortly after noon, Gerrish and Chung tried to call and text for help several times, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Five phone calls - four of them made in rapid succession - went to several phone numbers but the family didn't call 911, the Sheriff's Office said.
The first call was made at 12:09 p.m. Beginning at 12:35 p.m., the family made the final four calls in rapid succession, investigators said.
However, none of the calls connected.
Dehydration can cause dizziness and ultimately death.
Hyperthermia is abnormally high body temperature caused by the failure of heat-regulating mechanisms.
The cause of death of the family's dog was undetermined, but i is believed the dog was also suffering from heat-related issues.
'Our message to the hiking community is please take into account aquifers as well as geographics,' he said.
He said they did not have water filtration equipment with them.
'Prepare appropriately. The community is resilient, the community is safe, but this is an unfortunate and tragic event due to the weather.'
'The loss of the family is pain beyond words,' relatives said in a statement.
'When that pain is compacted by lack of knowledge about their death, the questions of where, why, when and how fill the void, day and night.'
They thanked the sheriff's office for having 'truly gone the extra mile' in trying to find answers.
'Some questions have been answered, and we will use this to help us come to terms with this.
'They will remain with us wherever we go, or whatever we do.
'In the future when we sit beneath the trees, hearing the wind soar beneath the branches, we will think of them and we will remember.'