Mummified remains of Colorado Vance family living off grid found in forest

The remains of Rebecca Vance (second from left) and Christine Vance (second from right) were found in Colorado wilderness. Photo / Trevala Jara

The mummified remains of a Colorado family who decided to “live off grid” after watching survivalist YouTube videos have been found in a forest.

The bodies of sisters Christine Vance, 41, Rebecca Vance, 42, and Rebecca’s son, 14, were found in and around a tent near a campsite in Gunnison National Forest near Ohio City, the county coroner said.

The partially decomposed remains were discovered earlier this month by a hiker who initially spotted a single body outside the tent. Two more bodies were found inside.

Their bodies showed signs of malnourishment. It is thought the trio started camping late last summer and died during winter.

Coroner Michael Barnes said empty food cans had also been found, suggesting they had been surviving on canned goods. Books on survival and foraging had also been discovered.

The pair’s stepsister, Trevala Jara, said the family had been determined to escape civilisation and could not be persuaded otherwise.

“We tried to stop them,” Jara told the Gazette, a local newspaper. “But they wouldn’t listen. Their minds were made up.”

A cause of death has not yet been recorded but it is suspected they may have starved or frozen to death, or a combination of the two, or been poisoned by carbon monoxide from trying to make a fire to stay warm.

“You need years of practice before you go off the grid,” Ms Jara told the Washington Post. “They watched some YouTube videos, but doing it is totally different if you have no experience.”

Coroner Barnes told the Colorado Sun that “exposure to the elements” could have led to their deaths.

“It was a significantly harsh winter for us this year, and it always is here,” he said. “We did have more snow than we have had in the past couple of winters.”

“I wonder if winter came on quickly and suddenly they were just in survival mode in the tent,” Barnes said. “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.”

Jara said Rebecca was “overwhelmed” by fear of the state of the world following the pandemic. She also emphasised her sisters believed they were doing the right thing, even if they were unprepared.

“I don’t want people to assume or think that they were crazy, because they weren’t,” Jara told the Washington Post.