The couple had backpacked in the Himalayas, ridden camels through the Gobi Desert and checked off Burning Man, even creating their own hashtag, an amalgamation of their first names: #jellonadventures.
So a day of hiking in the Sierra National Forest, even with the demanding switchbacks and triple-digit heat, would not have been unusual for Jonathan Gerrish and Ellen Chung, husband-and-wife transplants from San Francisco who had recently become parents to a little girl, Miju, during the coronavirus pandemic.
But the trek would be the family’s last: Search teams found all three of their bodies on Aug. 17, one day after the family was reported missing not far from Yosemite National Park. The family’s dog, Oski, an Aussie-Akita mix, was also found dead.
More than two weeks later, investigators are still confounded by what caused their deaths.
Augustine L
Mysterious for sure. Only thing that comes to my mind is either CO or CO2. I wonder if there is a map of vents.
theresa m
Great sadness. I wonder if algae blooms might show up in the lungs of all four victims. Prayers for the families..
Stephen W
Oh this is sooo sad. A family just starting off.What a downer.Early this morning I was watching a video about Robin Williams man that made me depressed and have been a little down most of the day and now this……..oh well.
Donna R
This is a sad downer. I, too, loved Robin Williams, and was so sad when he died.
Augustine L
wait. They have now closed ALL the national forests in California. Might be the fires, might be something else. ?
Miss Kendall S
Crazy right smh.. The whole thing is Heartbreaking
FlagStaffer
“Devil’s Gulch”…..just like Dave Paulides has documented so many times, but in this case they didn’t disappear.
“ The Mariposa couple, their baby and dog were found dead in a remote area of Devil’s Gulch, north of Jerseydale in Sierra National Forest, near the south fork of the Merced River and Hites Cove.”
Richard H
Really does make one wonder, also as good old Dave Paulides said, how that draw, ravine or area got that name in the first place. They look like great people and sure were a beautiful couple together. I bet they were much loved and are dearly missed.
FlagStaffer
the most recent MSM news is suggesting that they ingested toxic algae. I looked at Devil’s Gulch topo and the trail does require fording both the south fork and the Devil Gulch creek several times which would bring them into contact with water. however algae bloom water is “unappealing” so I can see maybe the dog ingesting some on a hot day but not not healthy, intelligent, experienced outdoors people and you most certainly wouldn’t give it to a 12 month old baby. algae bloom is more likely in ponds or lakes than in moving water but maybe the water levels are so low now that the “river” is composed of pools of standing water. and the news doesn’t mention if there actually is existing algae bloom conditions on the south fork Merced.
FlagStaffer
yes it’s a very tragic event, what we can learn is to NOT have this conversation:
“hey honey, it’s extreme fire conditions with extensive smoke and airborne particles, very hot weather and year long extreme drought conditions. what do you want to do to relax?”
“hmmm…let me think, oh I know! let’s find a really remote area with the word “Devil” in it’s name and take our 12 month old there!”
“Oh, that’s a great idea!”
john p
Followed by David paullidis talking bout this place alot smh people never seem to amaze me. Sadly
Denise F
I find it strange that I can’t find another case in the area of someone ‘just dying’ on these trails…..let alone a family.
Now strange things do happen but I’m finding all of them dead at the same time…..in the same place….more than odd.
I would love to know the exact location/placement of the bodies because I bet that tells an interesting tale.
May they rest in peace.
Melissa K
So sad, beautiful little family, even the dog..
I am far from the fires, Ohio. Last month our news said to limit outdoor activities because the smoke from the fires was coming our way and it did! It looked like fog for a couple days here and smelled really strong of smoke outside.
The strange thing was we had the house all shut up and our carbon monoxide detectors kept going off in the basement.
We have them for the furnace in the winter and have nothing else in our home to set them off!
It must have been from the smoke outside?
Teresa V
I’ve been following the news about this incident because it just seems so strange. If you didn’t have contact with the water, how could the algae blooms have effected the family. I’ve read nothing that said the toxicity could have effected the air. Hopefully their will be something in the toxicology tests that they ran. Very sad indeed!
Bonnie I
They were so quick with the toxic algae story, just makes no sense to me at all. So very sad for the families.
Knobby
The toxicology report on the possible cause of death still has not come back yet. But maybe soon. None of them had any physical trauma; so, it must have been something toxic/poisonous.
Knobby
Just speculating. If they used water purification tablets or a hand pump (I have one) to filter out bacteria from local water that might not effect toxins in the water. That would be one way the couple and the dog could have ingested the toxins. They baby could have died from exposure after the couple and pet were deceased.
It would be interesting to know if they had water purification tablets or a filtering device to extract clean drinking water.
S R
The government is hoping we all will forget. The west entrance to Yosemite NP is approx 10 miles as the crow flies from this location. I hope we all find out more on this terrible situation.
Cali H
When I read this story, I was thinking earthquake activity or volcanic activity releasing toxic gases. I checked the USGS data, something small east of Yosemite, in Nevada on 8/17, seems unlikely to be related.
Very tragic.
Eli K
The thing i find most strange, a 1 year old?? Wouldn’t they most likely have a toddler of that age, drinks already made up for the hike. I would assume they wouldn’t suck up any type of water for their baby to drink. This entire case is super sad and strange.