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2023年、コロラド州 : 森で行方不明となった 3人の結末

· 43 min read

要旨​

AI

コロラド州森の悲劇：消えた家族

この情報は、‌‌2023年にコロラド州の国立森林公園で発見された3人の遺体‌‌に関する詳細を記しています。物語は、‌‌レベッカ・ヴァンスが息子のタロンをデイケアに預け、謎めいた別れを告げた2022年8月‌‌から始まります。レベッカと彼女の姉妹であるクリスティーンは、‌‌周囲の懸念をよそに、西バージニア州へ移住するという偽りの理由‌‌を告げ、人々と連絡を絶ちました。

数ヶ月後、‌‌彼らの車が森林で放棄されているのが発見され‌‌、その後、ハイカーが‌‌彼らの遺体がキャンプ地で発見‌‌されることになります。最終的に、検視官の調査により、‌‌3人は栄養失調と低体温症で死亡した‌‌ことが判明し、彼らが‌‌「グレート・リセット」を避けるために荒野で自給自足の生活を送ろうとしていた‌‌ことが明らかになります。

目次​

  1. 要旨
  2. 全体の俯瞰
    1. 1. 事実の概要
    2. 2. 事件の時系列
    3. 3. 主要なテーマと重要なアイデア
    4. 4. その他の注目すべき発見
    5. 5. 結論
  3. 時系列
  4. 主要関係者
  5. 情報源
  6. 文字起こし

全体の俯瞰​

AI

コロラド州の悲劇：森に消えた家族 – 詳細ブリーフィング資料

このブリーフィング資料は、2023年にコロラド州で発見された「コロラド州の悲劇: 森に消えた家族」に関する出来事の主要なテーマ、重要な事実、および関連するアイデアをまとめたものです。

1. 事実の概要​

  • 発見日時と場所: 2023年7月9日、ハイカーのCJマルコムがコロラド州のガンニソン国有林にあるフォッシルリッジ付近で遺体を発見。この場所は、2022年11月にレベッカとクリスティン・ヴァンス姉妹の車が放置されていた場所からほど近い。

  • 遺体の数と身元: 3体の遺体が見つかり、後に42歳のレベッカ・ヴァンス、その妹のクリスティン・ヴァンス、そしてレベッカの13歳の息子タロンであると特定された。

  • 死因: 司法解剖の結果、3人全員が栄養失調と低体温症により死亡したことが判明した。レベッカは死亡時45kg、クリスティンは43.5kg、タロンはわずか18kgだった。

  • 生存期間: 2022年8月初旬から同年12月下旬までの約4～5ヶ月間、コロラドの荒野で生活していたと推定される。

2. 事件の時系列​

  • 2022年8月1日:

    • レベッカ・ヴァンスが息子のタロンをマリリンのデイケアに預ける。この際、レベッカは「安全のために引っ越さなければならない」と意味深な発言をし、タロンの思い出の品が入った箱を渡す。
    • レベッカはマリリンに対し、父親の近くに住むためウェストバージニア州へ引っ越すと嘘をつく。
    • レベッカはマリリンに「彼は何も知らない」とタロンについて囁く。
    • マリリンはその後、レベッカに連絡を試みるが、数日後に電話番号が切断されていることを知る。
    • レベッカの義理の妹であるトレベラも、レベッカとクリスティンから漠然とした「引っ越し」の話を聞いていたが、具体的な行き先については教えてもらえず、不審に思っていた。

  • 2022年11月25日: 米国森林局のレンジャーがガンニソン国有林でレベッカとクリスティン・ヴァンス名義の放棄された車両を発見。

  • 2022年11月28日: 発見された車両は牽引される。

  • 2023年7月9日: ハイカーがキャンプ地で最初の遺体（タロンと推定）を発見し、911に通報。

  • 2023年7月10日: 捜査チームがキャンプ地を訪れ、3体の遺体を発見。

  • その後2週間: 司法解剖と身元確認が行われ、最終的にレベッカ、クリスティン、タロンであることが特定される。

3. 主要なテーマと重要なアイデア​

3.1. 計画的な「社会からの脱却」​

  • 動機: レベッカとクリスティンは、数ヶ月前から「腐敗した社会」や「グレートリセット」と呼ばれるものから逃れるため、オフグリッド生活を計画していた。
  • 「レベッカとクリスティンはウェストバージニアに行くつもりは全くありませんでした。それは人々が彼らを探すのを防ぐための単なる嘘でした。彼らは何か月も前から荒野に逃げ込み、彼らが腐敗した社会、彼らを支配しようとしている社会と見なしたものから離れて、オフグリッドで生活することを計画していました。」
  • 秘密主義: 家族に対しても行き先を隠し、「ウェストバージニアへ引っ越す」という虚偽の情報を与えていた。義理の妹であるトレベラには、具体的な場所を明かさず、彼らが提供したオフグリッド生活に適したマウンテンプロパティの申し出も拒否していた。
  • 準備: キャンプ地からは、生存本、聖書、水の浄化装置、野菜の種など、自給自足を目指したと思われる品々が発見された。

3.2. 無知な子供の犠牲​

  • タロンの状況: 13歳のタロンは、母親と叔母の計画について何も知らされていなかった。
  • マリリンがタロンを抱きしめようとしたとき、レベッカは身を乗り出して「彼は何も知らない」と囁きました。
  • 精神的負担: 事件の様子から、タロンは冒険に行く子供のような興奮もなく、非常に静かであったと描写されている。
  • 最も衝撃的な死: 3人のうちタロンが最初に死亡した可能性が高い。

3.3. 不十分な準備と厳しい現実​

  • 準備不足: 彼らは数ヶ月間生き延びたが、コロラドの冬の過酷さに対する準備が著しく不足していた。
  • 「しかし残念ながら、冬が来たとき、彼らは準備不足でした。彼らのテントは基本的なナイロンテントで、このレベルの冬には設計されておらず、適切な寝袋も持っていませんでした。」
  • 「文明」との近接性: 彼らのキャンプは、道路アクセスのある確立されたキャンプ場であるゴールドクリークキャンプ場からわずか150ヤード（約137メートル）しか離れていなかった。
  • 「彼らのキャンプはゴールドクリークキャンプ場からわずか150ヤード離れていました。彼らは実質的に、道路アクセスのある確立されたキャンプ場、他の人々が行き来する場所、いつでも助けを得られる場所にいました。」
  • 生と死の選択: 物理的な距離は非常に近かったにもかかわらず、彼らは助けを求めることを選ばず、ゆっくりと衰弱していった。

3.4. 家族の苦悩​

  • マリリンの予感: タロンを預けた際のマリリンは、「何かが非常に間違っている」という直感があった。
  • トレベラの絶望: 連絡が途絶えても、姉妹がウェストバージニアで自分たちなりの生活を送っていると信じようとしていたトレベラは、遺体発見の報を受け「崩れ落ちた」。
  • 「彼女は電話を受けたとき、ただ崩れ落ちました。なぜなら、この間ずっと、彼女の姉妹が本当にウェストバージニアにいて、何らかの理由で家族と話したくないだけで、いつもの彼女たちとは違う行動をしているという考えに固執していたからです。」

4. その他の注目すべき発見​

  • 髪の束: キャンプ地から、誰かが自分の頭から切り落として保存していたとみられる長い黒髪の束が発見された。
  • 所持品: 車の鍵、35ドルの現金、聖書、生存に関する本、水の浄化装置（ライフストロー）、野菜の種などが見つかった。
  • タロンの遺体: タロンの遺体はテントの外で胎児のように丸まった姿勢で見つかっており、母親と叔母が移動させた可能性が示唆されている。
  • クリスティンの最期: 最後に残されたクリスティンは、自身の運命を悟り、寝袋のジッパーを上げて「終わりを待っていた」と推測される。

5. 結論​

この悲劇は、社会の主流から離れて生きようとする強い願望が、現実の厳しさや準備不足と衝突した結果として発生した。特に、無知な子供がその犠牲になったという点で、計り知れない悲劇を物語っている。

彼らは「文明」からわずかな距離しか離れていなかったにもかかわらず、外部との接触を完全に断ち切り、助けを求めることをしなかった。この事件は、極端な思想やパラノイアがもたらす危険性と、家族の絆とコミュニケーションの重要性を痛感させるものである。

時系列​

AI

  • 2022年

    • 8月1日：

      • 42歳のレベッカ・ヴァンスが13歳の息子タロンをマリリンのデイケアに預ける。レベッカはマリリンに、ウエストバージニア州へ引っ越して父親の近くに住むと説明し、タロンの思い出の品が入った箱を手渡す。タロンは無口で、レベッカはマリリンに「彼は何も知らない」と耳打ちする。レベッカと妹のクリスティーンは、一度も振り返らずに車で立ち去る。
      • マリリンはレベッカに電話を試みるが、応答がない。約1週間後、電話番号は切断されている。
      • レベッカの異母姉妹トレヴェラは、レベッカとクリスティーンが「去る」と話していたが、具体的な行き先については秘密にされていたことに懸念を抱く。彼女は姉妹が過去1年間で偏執的になっていたことを知っており、夫のトムと共に、オフグリッド生活用の山間部の物件を提供したが、レベッカは断っていた。

    • 8月〜10月： レベッカ、クリスティーン、タロンからの連絡は途絶えたまま。 11月25日： 米国森林局のレンジャーが、コロラド州ガニソン国有林のフォレストサービスロード771沿い、ゴールドクリーク近くで放置された車両を発見。車はコロラドスプリングスのレベッカ・ヴァンスとクリスティーン・ヴァンス名義であることが判明。レンジャーは登録されている電話番号に連絡を試みるが、どちらも切断されている。

    • 11月28日： 放置車両は3日間放置された後、レッカー移動される。所有者の所在は不明で、行方不明者届も出されていない。

    • 12月： レベッカ、クリスティーン、タロンはコロラドの荒野で飢餓と低体温症により死亡したと推定される。彼らは8月から12月末までの4〜5ヶ月間、キャンプ地で過ごした。

  • 2023年

    • 7月9日： ハイカーのCJマルコムが家族とフォッシルリッジ付近を歩いている際に、森の中に荒廃したキャンプを発見。テントの近くに「マネキン」のようなものが横たわっているのを見つけるが、近づくとそれが完全にミイラ化した人間の遺体であることに気づき、911に通報する。キャンプ地はゴールドクリークキャンプ場から約150ヤード東に位置していた。ガニソン郡保安官事務所のロバート・サマー警部は、暗闇での捜索は危険と判断し、翌朝に捜査チームを派遣することを決定する。

    • 7月10日：

      • ガニソン郡保安官事務所の捜査官、郡検視官のマイケル・バーンズ、およびウェスタン捜索救助隊の6人からなるチームがキャンプ地へ向かう。
      • キャンプ地にはゴミ、食料の包装、サバイバル本、聖書、水筒などが散乱していた。ダグアウトからは、冬服を含むバックパックが発見されるが、着用された形跡はない。
      • 奇妙な発見として、誰かが自らの髪を切って保存したと思われる長い黒髪の束が見つかる。
      • 11月にレッカー移動された車と同一の車の鍵、35ドル、野菜の種、浄水器のライフストロー2本が発見される。身分証明書は見つからない。
      • テントの近くで、CJが発見したミイラ化した遺体（胎児の姿勢で緑のロザリオを首に巻いている）を発見。
      • テントの中から、さらに2体の遺体を発見。1体は黒い寝袋の上に黒い服を着て、靴下を履かずに横たわり、木製の十字架とサバイバルホイッスルを首に巻いていた。もう1体は青い寝袋の中にジッパーで閉じ込められ、グレーのスウェットパンツ、スウェットシャツ、長袖下着、マゼンタのニット帽を着用していた。

    • 7月中旬： 検視官が遺体の身元特定を開始。11月にレッカー移動された車の登録者であるレベッカ・ヴァンスとクリスティーン・ヴァンスを特定する。これにより、懸念を抱いていた異母姉妹のトレヴェラと連絡が取られる。トレヴェラは姉妹がウエストバージニア州に行ったという希望を失い、崩れ落ちる。

    • 7月下旬： 最後の遺体（タロン）の身元特定のために、さらに2週間の捜査が行われる。タロンの父親であるエリック・バーデンが特定される。

    • 7月下旬〜8月上旬： 司法解剖により、3人全員が栄養失調と低体温症で死亡したことが判明。レベッカは死亡時45kg、クリスティーンは43.5kg、タロンはわずか18kgであった。彼らは腐敗した社会や「グレートリセット」から逃れるために、オフグリッド生活を計画し、ウエストバージニア州に行くという話は嘘だったことが明らかになる。彼らのキャンプ地は、道路アクセスのある既存のキャンプ場からわずか150ヤードの場所にあった。検視官は、タロンが最初に死亡し、母親と叔母によってテントの外に移動されたと判断。次にレベッカが死亡し、クリスティーンは一人で寝袋に入り、最期を待ったと推定される。

主要関係者​

AI
  • レベッカ・ヴァンス (Rebecca Vance): 事件の中心人物である42歳の女性。息子タロンの母親。妹のクリスティーンと共に、社会から逃れるためにオフグリッド生活を計画し、コロラドの荒野で息子と共に死亡した。マリリンにはウエストバージニア州へ引っ越すと嘘を伝えていた。
  • タロン (Talon): レベッカの13歳の息子。賢く、生前は成績優秀でゲーム好きだったとされる。母親と叔母と共に荒野での生活を余儀なくされ、最も早く命を落としたと推定される。死亡時の体重はわずか18kg。
  • クリスティーン・ヴァンス (Christine Vance): レベッカの妹で、タロンの叔母。姉と共に社会への不信感を募らせ、オフグリッド生活を計画。姉と甥が亡くなった後、一人で寝袋に入り、最期を迎えたと推定される。死亡時の体重は43.5kg。
  • マリリン (Marilyn): コロラドスプリングスでデイケアを営む女性。タロンが赤ん坊の頃から13年間、レベッカの代わりにタロンの世話をしてきた。レベッカの突然の行動と、タロンを預ける際の奇妙な言動に不審を抱き、その後連絡が途絶えたことで心配し続けた。
  • トレヴェラ (Trevella): レベッカの異母姉妹（ステップシスター）。レベッカとクリスティーンの偏執的な言動を心配し、オフグリッド生活を望むならと、夫のトムと共に自分たちの山間部の物件を提供したが、断られた。姉妹がウエストバージニア州に行ったという希望を抱いていたが、最終的に検視官からの連絡で姉妹と甥の死を知り、深い悲しみに暮れた。
  • トム (Tom): トレヴェラの夫。妻と共にレベッカとクリスティーンに山間部の物件を提供した。
  • CJマルコム (CJ Malcolm): 2023年7月9日に、荒野でミイラ化した遺体と荒廃したキャンプ地を発見したハイカー。彼の通報が、事件の解明のきっかけとなった。
  • ロバート・サマー (Robert Summer): ガニソン郡保安官事務所の警部補。CJからの通報を受け、安全を考慮し、翌朝に捜査チームを派遣する決定を下した。
  • マイケル・バーンズ (Michael Barnes): ガニソン郡の検視官。発見された遺体の身元特定と死因究明を担当。遺体がレベッカ、クリスティーン、タロンであることを特定し、彼らの死因が栄養失調と低体温症であることを明らかにした。
  • エリック・バーデン (Eric Burden): タロンの父親。タロンの身元特定のために捜査によって連絡が取られた。

情報源​

動画(22:48)

The Most Disturbing Discovery In Colorado History

文字起こし​

展開

（以下は "The Most Disturbing Discovery In Colorado History" と題された動画の文字起こしです。）

In 2023, park rangers made the most disturbing discovery in Colorado history. What they found shouldn't exist that close to civilization, and it started with a goodbye that made no sense. On the morning of August 1st, 2022, a 42-year-old woman named Rebecca Vance pulled into the driveway of a modest home in Colorado Springs with her 13-year-old son, Talon, sitting quietly in the passenger seat. This was a house that Rebecca knew well. She'd been coming here for years, ever since Talon was a baby, because the woman who lived here, Marilyn, ran a daycare service and had been taking care of Talon while she worked. (00:00:43)

As Rebecca parked and turned off the engine, she just sat there for a moment before getting out. She was holding this small plastic storage box in her lap, staring down at it with an expression that was hard to read. At the time, Marilyn was out in the backyard when she heard the car pull up, and so she went around to greet them, expecting this to be a typical drop-off. She thought that Rebecca needed someone to watch Talon for a few days, which happens sometimes. (00:01:10)

But when Rebecca got out of the car carrying this strange box, Marilyn was confused by Rebecca's odd demeanor and behavior. She seemed almost hesitant as she walked up to the house and kept glancing back at her car where her sister Christine was sitting. Christine, who normally would come inside to chat, just stayed in the vehicle with the windows up, staring straight ahead. When Marilyn opened the door, Rebecca said something that didn't make sense. She said they had to move to be safe. (00:01:38)

Marilyn had a double-take because that was such an odd way to phrase it. Then, Rebecca handed over this plastic storage box, and when Marilyn looked inside, her confusion only deepened. The box wasn't full of things that Talon might need for a weekend stay. They were keepsakes, like t-shirts he'd outgrown from school, and photos, and a stuffed animal from an aquarium trip, and this little flower pot with Talon's footprint in it that he'd made for Mother's Day. Marilyn, as she's processing this, immediately goes to the worst possible place. (00:02:14)

So now she's asking Rebecca where they're moving to, and it gets stranger. Rebecca flat out told her that they're going to West Virginia to be near her father. Now, you have to understand that Marilyn had known Rebecca for 13 years. They'd had hundreds of conversations about family life, everything, and in all that time, Rebecca had never once mentioned her father. So then Marilyn starts asking about Talon. Did he have everything he needed? (00:02:42)

Was Rebecca bringing his iPad? But because the internet wasn't very good where they were going, and they were really only taking what they could, Rebecca even told Marilyn that they were giving away their cat to a stepsister's neighbor, clearly indicating that Marilyn was onto something. The whole time this conversation was happening, Talon was just standing there next to his mom, and he didn't seem so excited like a kid going on an adventure. He was very, very quiet, and when Marilyn went to give Talon a hug, Rebecca leaned in close and whispered, he doesn't know anything. (00:03:10)

Marilyn was so taken aback by the statement that before she could bring herself to ask what it meant, Rebecca was already guiding Talon back to the car. They got in, and they drove away, never looking back once. As she stood on the porch, holding this box, watching the car go down the driveway, she just had this feeling in her gut that something was very wrong. But I mean, what could she do? So over the next several days, she tried calling Rebecca's phone. (00:03:38)

She left voicemails asking how the move went, asking if they made it to West Virginia safely, and if Talon was adjusting okay, but Rebecca never called her back. About a week later, when Marilyn tried calling again, she just got an automated message saying the number had been disconnected. Obviously, disconnecting your phone when you move isn't that unusual because people change carriers, get new numbers, but for this, the timing was way off. Meanwhile, about an hour away in Colorado Springs, Rebecca's sister, Trevella, was having very similar concerns because she had known about this move, but the version she'd been told was completely different. (00:04:19)

For months, Rebecca and Christine had been talking to her about leaving, but they never mentioned West Virginia. In fact, they never mentioned Rebecca's father, and they'd been incredibly secretive about where exactly they were planning to go. The thing was, both sisters had become increasingly paranoid over the past year, and it had gotten to the point to where Trevella and her husband, Tom, had actually offered them their own property to live on, which was a mountain property with an RV and a generator, basically already set up for off-grid living if that's what they truly wanted. (00:04:54)

But Rebecca, for some reason, turned it down. All of this was very, very strange behavior. So, August turned into September, and September into October, and still no word from Rebecca, Christine, or Talon. Everybody kept rationalizing it, that maybe they really were in West Virginia, living some simple life away from all technology. Maybe this is exactly what they wanted, to cut ties with everyone and just start fresh. Then, on November 25th, 2022, a United States Forest Service Ranger was patrolling through Gunnison National Forest in Colorado when they came across an abandoned vehicle. (00:05:36)

It was parked off Forest Service Road 771, near something called Gold Creek. The car had clearly been there for a while. There was snow around it, and pine needles on the windshield, and the ranger ran the plates and discovered that the car was registered to two women from Colorado Springs, Rebecca and Christine Vance. This created an immediate problem because, according to the ranger's findings, these women were supposed to be in West Virginia. At least, that's what their emergency contacts believed. (00:06:03)

So what was their car doing abandoned in the forest, roughly three and a half hours from their home? The ranger tried calling the phone numbers associated with the registration, but both were disconnected. So, they then contacted the Colorado State Patrol to do a welfare check, but there was no sign of the women at the vehicle or in the immediate area. The car was unlocked, but nothing inside to indicate where they might have gone or why they left. (00:06:31)

For three days, the car sat there while authorities tried to figure out what to do. They couldn't locate the owners, they couldn't find any missing person reports, and as far as they could tell, these two women had just abandoned this for unknown reasons. So, on November 28th, they had it towed. Winter came and went. December, January, February, March, nothing. All this time, Maryland continued to try to get a hold of them, leaving messages on a phone that no longer existed. (00:07:00)

Meanwhile, Travella kept hoping they'd reach out that they'd let them know they were okay. But, fast forward to July 9th, 2023, and a hiker named CJ Malcolm was out with his family near Fossil Ridge, not far from where that car had been found back in November. He was walking through the forest when he noticed something off the trail, what looked like an old camp tucked back in the trees. Being curious, he decided to check it out. As he got closer, he could see it was in complete disrepair. (00:07:29)

There was a gray tent that had clearly seen better days, and trash was scattered all around, and it looked like what he later described as a squatter's camp, the kind of setup you sometimes find in the woods where someone's been living rough. As CJ was looking around, he saw a mannequin lying next to this big gray tent. But it was very strange looking, and he kept wondering why the people who stayed there kept a mannequin in their camp. But as he got closer to inspect, he realized it wasn't a mannequin. (00:07:58)

It was a body, perfectly mummified and preserved by the cold and the dry mountain air. He immediately backed away, told his family to stay back, and he pulled out his phone to call 9-1-1. When he got through to the Gunnison County Sheriff's Office, he explained what he'd found. The dispatcher quickly took down the coordinates, and the camp was about 150 yards east of Gold Creek Campground. But by the time CJ made the call, it was already 547 in the evening, the sun would be setting soon, and the woods were not easy to navigate in the dark. (00:08:33)

Lieutenant Robert Summer got the call, and he made a decision that might seem strange, but was actually very practical. He told his team that they would not be going out to the camp that night, that it was too dangerous to try to find this location in the dark, especially not knowing what they were walking into. The following morning, July 10th, a team assembled. You had investigators from the Gunnison County Sheriff's Office, the county coroner, Michael Barnes, and six people from Western Search and Rescue. They all drove out to Quartz Creek Valley, parked, and began the hike to the coordinates CJ had provided. (00:09:06)

What they found there was worse than anyone had prepared for. There was trash everywhere, food wrappers, granola bars, ramen noodles, energy bars, there were water bottles, survival books, a Bible, various supplies, and just stuff scattered everywhere. In a dugout near the camp, they found backpacks full of clothing, including winter gear that apparently hadn't been worn. One of the strangest discoveries was a pile of long, dark hair tied together with a hair tie. It was human hair that somebody had clearly cut off their own head and decided to save it. (00:09:39)

They found the keys to the car, the same car that had been towed back in November. They found $35 in cash. They found seeds for vegetables like someone had been planning to grow food. They found two life straws for water purification, but what they didn't find was any identification. And then there were the missing hikers. The mummy that CJ saw that was lying close to the tent was curled up in a fetal position, and around the neck was a green rosary. (00:10:09)

When the investigators unzipped the tent, they found two more bodies inside. Both were women. One was lying on top of a black sleeping bag wearing all black clothes, no shoes or socks, and she had a wooden cross and a survival whistle around her neck. The other woman was actually zipped up inside a blue sleeping bag wearing gray sweatpants, a sweatshirt, long underwear, and a magenta beanie. While these findings were of course very grim, it would take the coroner several days to piece together who these people were. (00:10:44)

He started making calls, working through missing person databases, trying to match what they'd found with any reported disappearances. Eventually, he found a connection. The car that had been towed back in November, it was registered to Rebecca and Christine from Colorado Springs. More calls led him to Trevella, the stepsister who'd been worried about them all these months. When she got the phone call, she just collapsed because this entire time she'd been holding on to the idea that maybe her sisters really were in West Virginia and were just acting out of character, that they didn't want to talk to their family for whatever reason. (00:11:16)

But they never even left home. They'd been less than four hours from home the entire time, but the coroner still needed to identify one more body. Trevella knew Rebecca had a son named Talon, but she didn't know the father's last name, and so it took two more weeks of investigation before they tracked down Eric Burden, Talon's father. Autopsies revealed exactly what had happened. All three had died from malnutrition and hypothermia. (00:11:46)

Rebecca weighed just 100 pounds at death, Christine 96 pounds, but Talon, the 13-year-old boy who'd been getting straight A's, who'd been playing video games with his half-brother just a year earlier, weighed only 40 pounds. They had survived from August until around late December, four to five months in the Colorado wilderness, slowly starving and freezing to death. It would turn out that Rebecca and Christine had never intended to go to West Virginia. That was just a lie to keep people from looking for them. (00:12:15)

They'd been planning for months to escape into the wilderness, to live off-grid, away from what they saw as a corrupt society trying to control them. But here's the part that makes the story almost unbearably tragic. Their camp was just 150 yards away from Gold Creek Campground. They were practically on top of an established campsite with road access, a place where other people came and went, where they could have gotten help at any time. But unfortunately, when winter came, they were not prepared. (00:12:45)

Their tent was just a basic nylon tent, not designed for winters of this caliber, nor did they have the proper sleeping bags. The coroner determined that Talon likely died first and his body was found outside the tent, moved there by his mother and aunt. Rebecca probably died next, and Christine, alone and knowing what was coming, had zipped herself into her sleeping bag to wait for the end. Probably the most disturbing part of this entire case is that these women weren't just trying to live off the land. (00:13:19)

They wanted to break out of the matrix that we all live in, to put it were trying to avoid the coming Great Reset. Sadly, Talon also had to pay the price. With love and respect, may their family find comfort and resolve through these horrific times. Rest in peace.

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On a quiet afternoon in late September of 2011, a woman named Kathy was doing what grandmothers do best, spoiling her three-and-a-half-year-old grandson during one of his regular visits to her home in Northern California. The little boy, who she'd always called by a special nickname just between them, was sprawled out on her living room floor with a box of crayons, and he's making all kinds of abstract art that only little kids can create. (00:14:03)

Now this was the first time that Kathy had seen her grandson since something had happened only three weeks earlier. Something that had made headlines in the local Mount Shasta news as a rescue story. Her grandson had gone missing during a family camping trip and had been found safe just five hours later. Every parent's nightmare, but with a happy ending. She was in the kitchen getting him some juice and graham crackers, his favorite snack, when she heard him call out from the living room. (00:14:31)

Kathy, he said in that matter-of-fact way that children have when they're saying something that seems perfectly reasonable, he goes, I don't like the other Grandma Kathy. But Kathy couldn't understand what he was saying. She was his only grandmother who went by that name, and that his other grandmother lived across the country. And he called her something completely different. So she walked back into the living room trying to keep her voice light and casual. And she asked him, what do you mean? (00:14:57)

I'm the only Grandma Kathy. But the boy just kept coloring, dragging a green crayon across the paper in big sweeping circles. And without ever looking up, he said something that would transform into the of one of the most disturbing conversations that Kathy would ever have. He told her, no, the other one from the woods. Kathy's mind immediately went where any reasonable person would go. Kids say weird things all the time. I mean, they mix up dreams with reality. They create imaginary friends. This little boy had just been through something traumatic. (00:15:33)

Being lost in the woods for five hours would mess with any child's head. So she sat down on the floor next to him, keeping her voice calm and steady. And she asked him what he meant. He told her that when he got lost, and he said this, like he was describing what he had for breakfast. It wasn't really that he got lost. He said the other Grandma Kathy came out of nowhere and grabbed him. And she took him somewhere. She asked him if maybe he had seen someone who looked like her. (00:16:00)

But the boy shook his head. He insisted that she looked exactly like Kathy. She had the same face, the same hair, the same voice. She even called him by the same nickname that only the real Kathy or Kathy used. And just a few weeks before her grandson's camping trip, she had been camping in that exact same area with a friend. And something had happened to her there. Something that she hadn't told anyone about because it seemed so bizarre. (00:16:31)

She had woken up one morning, face down in the dirt outside her tent with no memory of how she got there. And when her friend had helped her up, they discovered a small puncture wound on the back of her neck, like something had been inserted there. She'd written it off as maybe a weird bug bite, or maybe, you know, she'd rolled onto a stick in her sleep. She was letting a toddler's wild story get to her, thinking that the more he talked, the more obvious it would become that this was just his imagination running wild, right? (00:16:57)

And then he told her about the cave and said that the other Grandma Kathy had taken him to this cave in the woods. And the way he described it, not with fear exactly, but with this kind of matter-of-fact confusion, made the hair on Kathy's arm stand up. He explained there were guns and purses and bags all covered in dust and spider webs, like they'd been there for a long time. Now, this three-and-a-half-year-old boy had never been exposed to anything like that that would put these images in his head. (00:17:26)

Kathy kept rationalizing that maybe he'd glimpsed something in the campground. Maybe other campers had equipment that looked scary. Maybe his mind was mixing up things he'd seen with things he dreamt. But there was one major problem with all of this. He said he knew it wasn't really his Grandma when he saw how the light sparkled on her face. He said that it sparkled wrong like metal, and then decided to add one more detail and said she was a robot. (00:17:56)

Kathy, of course, looked at him and asked him to elaborate that what did he mean by robots? Her grandson explained that robots were things made of metal that had remote controls. Kid logic, you know, the kind of explanation that should have made her relax. But he explained that there were other robots in the cave. They looked like regular people in regular clothes, but they didn't move. He explained that the robot Grandma had been nice at first, and she talked to him in Kathy's voice, used his special nickname. (00:18:24)

But then she'd done something weird. She examined his stomach, lifted up his shirt, and looked at his belly, touching it with her cold hands. Then she'd put this paper down on the cave floor. He described it as white and sticky, like the paper you peel stickers off of, and told him he needed to go poop on it. But he couldn't do it. He was too scared and confused, and he didn't understand why his Grandma Kathy was being so weird. (00:18:54)

She seemed very frustrated, and then she'd taken him out of the cave, walked him through the woods, and he remembered this part very clearly because his feet actually hurt from walking on all the sticks and rocks, until they came to a big bush. She instructed him to get inside and to hide. She said that he would be safe and that somebody would find him soon. Everyone who'd read the news story knew that her grandson had been found by a sheriff's deputy who found him hiding in the bush. (00:19:22)

The deputy's canine unit had heard the boy crying and led them right to him, exactly where this robot grandma had supposedly placed him. Kathy of course stared at her grandson, who had now moved onto a purple crayon, completely unconcerned with the impossibility of what he'd just described. She needed to call his parents. They needed to know about this. So she told her grandson that she needed to make a quick phone call, and he just nodded. She stood in her kitchen where she could still see her grandson through the doorway, happily coloring away. (00:19:50)

And part of her was already rehearsing how she'd phrased this. When the parent answered, she tried to keep her voice light. She said something like, you won't believe what your son just told me. And she even forced a little laugh, like isn't this funny? Kids say the wildest things. And then she repeated the story. She was expecting, or hoping for really, the parent to laugh, but instead there was silence on the other end. (00:20:17)

After a brief moment, they said that he told them the same story, and went on to explain that when the sheriff's deputy had brought their son back to them that night, when everyone was crying with relief and hugging him, the boy had tried to tell them what had happened. And even just hours after it, possibly still in shock, he told them about the other grandma. They'd written it off as trauma, as a child's mind tries to make sense of being terrified and lost. (00:20:40)

Maybe the other grandma was just his way of processing being separated from the familiar. They of course had chosen not to tell anyone about these strange claims. Their son was safe. They just wanted to move on. In fact, they decided it was best if everyone just stopped talking about it, including Kathy. They appreciated her calling, but they didn't want her asking their son any more questions. They just wanted him to forget. Now here's where the story takes a turn from strange to genuinely disturbing. (00:21:14)

Mount Shasta and the surrounding wilderness have a very unusual number of missing hiker cases. And in many of these cases, searchers find something odd. The missing person's belongings are never recovered. Backpacks, weapons, camping gear, items that should be somewhere in the woods simply vanish along with the people carrying them. Where do those items go? And what if this child, with his limited vocabulary and understanding in the world, was trying to describe something that he simply doesn't have words for? (00:21:44)

They sound like someone or something was conducting some kind of medical assessment. But perhaps the most chilling is Kathy's own experience. Was something collecting information from her? Studying her? Learning her face, her voice, her mannerisms? Learning how to become her? What about the puncture mark in her neck? The official story remains what was reported in the news. That a child went missing and was found 5 hours later. A successful rescue op. Unfortunately, we'll never know the truth about what really happened that day in the wilderness of Mount Shasta. And because you guys made it this far into the episode, I want you to all comment below, strangeness in the woods. (00:22:25)

So that way, I know who made it to the end and who didn't. And if you guys enjoy storytelling like this, where we deep dive into strange cases of the mysterious and supernatural, what are you waiting for? Smack that like and subscribe button right now for more content just like this. And never forget, I love you all, keep an open mind, and I'll see you all in the very next episode. (00:22:45)

(2025-09-16)