Rebecca Vance, 42, set out with her teenage son and sister about a year ago to “live off the grid,” disconnected from a failing and scary world, as she saw it.
When she made the announcement, her stepsister, Trevala Jara, wasn’t exactly thrilled, reported The New York Times. After trying to stop her, Jara told Vance, “I’m going to worry about you,” to which Vance replied she would live off the land.
“She went for good intentions,” Jara told the Times. “She thought she was protecting her son and our sister, Christine, because she didn’t want them to get wrapped up in what the world was coming to in her eyes.”
Jara had no idea where the trio went until recently.
Vance, her 14-year-old son and sister, Christine Vance, 41, were all found dead this week near a remote Colorado campsite in the Rocky Mountains, the Gunnison County coroner told the Colorado Sun.
Due to the severe decomposition and partial mummification of the bodies, their identities were not released until days later, per the Sun. The first body was found by a hiker, about 1,000 feet from the “basic camp” where the other two bodies were found in a zipped-up blue tent.
“I wonder if winter came on quickly and suddenly they were just in survival mode in the tent,” Gunnison coroner Michael Barnes told The Associated Press. “They had a lot of literature with them about outdoor survival and foraging and stuff like that. But it looked like they supplied at a grocery store.”
At the campsite, there were empty food cans, and the only other food found there was a pack of ramen, Barnes told the Times.
It was a “significantly harsh winter,” Barnes told the Sun. He suspects that the cold temperatures and snow at such a high altitude, along with malnutrition, contributed to their deaths.
“We’re suspecting they were there under the snow all winter long,” Gunnison Country Sheriff Adam Murdie told the Times.
Jara told the Times that she hopes this acts as a cautionary tale to have others think twice about choosing to live off the grid.
“I know this world is scary,” Jara said. “But don’t let that fear, that doubt, all of that take over.”