© Noah Berger/AP@dani_anguianoSearch crews found the family's vehicle near a gate to the Sierra national forest, above.
Investigators were searching for clues in the unexplained deaths of a California couple, their baby and the family dog in a remote area of the Sierra national forest.
John Gerrish, his wife, Ellen Chung, their one-year-old daughter, Muji, and their dog were found dead on a hiking trail in Mariposa county.
A family friend had reported them missing Monday evening.Search crews had
located the family's vehicle near a gate to the Sierra national forest on Tuesday, and found the bodies of the family and the dog a little more than a mile away. The remote area had no cellphone service.
The cause of the family's deaths remained unclear on Thursday. "We haven't ruled anything out yet," Kristie Mitchell, a spokesperson with the Mariposa county sheriff's office, told the
Guardian.
The area where the family was found was briefly treated as a hazmat site on Wednesday. Investigators were exploring whether carbon monoxide, exposure to gas from mines in the area or toxic algae could have been responsible for the tragedy.The Mariposa real estate agent Sidney Radanovich, a friend of the family, told the
San Francisco Chronicle that Gerrish was a San Francisco-based software designer who "fell in love with the Mariposa area" and bought several homes there.
The Gerrishes were avid hikers. "They were such a loving couple, they loved each other quite a bit," Radanovich told the newspaper.
Comment: UPDATE: 22/08/21 @ 12:14 CETSputnik reports that the mystery deepens as autopsy results fail to provide any cause of death:
Experts did not find any visible damage on the bodies and suggested that the cause of death was the fumes of toxic algae that filled the abandoned mines in the area.
"Investigators have considered whether toxic gasses, toxic algae and carbon monoxide from abandoned mines near in the area may have contributed to the deaths," Fox News cited Mariposa County Sheriff's spokeswoman Kristie Mitchell as saying. "We're not focusing on one specific cause at this point," she said. "There's just still so many that we can't rule out. We've looked at lighting strikes in the area. We've looked at storms... the weather, animals. We're looking at the entire area as a whole."
© AP Photo / Jonathan Cooper
According to reports, the family took a walk along the hiking trail accompanied by their dog. A family friend reported the family missing Monday after they hadn't return from the one-day hike, and Gerrish, who was a software engineer, hadn't showed up at work.
The police said that the family died under "strange" and unexplained circumstances, in connection with which an additional investigation was launched.
"This is a very unusual, unique situation," Mitchell was quoted by the KTLA as saying. "There were no signs of trauma, no obvious cause of death. There was no suicide note."
Currently, the Mariposa County Coroner is awaiting toxicology results from the bodies, which could take several weeks.
See also:
Comment: UPDATE: 22/08/21 @ 12:14 CET
Sputnik reports that the mystery deepens as autopsy results fail to provide any cause of death: See also: