Couple Found Dead With Baby On California Hiking Trail Sent Final Desperate Text

Couple Found Dead With Baby On California Hiking Trail Sent Final Desperate Text

A couple who died along with their 1-year-old child on a California hiking trail sent a final text message asking for help, it has been revealed. Jonathan Gerrish, 45, his wife, Ellen Chung, 31, and their daughter Miju were found dead on the remote path in Sierra National Forest along with their dog, Oski, in August 2021.

  1. Phone records were released this week. The Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office revealed on Thursday that Gerrish tried to send a text to an unnamed recipient just before noon on August 15. The message simply said: “Can you help us.” It continued: “On dangerous lundy trail heading back to Hites cove trail. No water or ver (over) heating with baby.”
  2. Sadly, the text never went through. The trail the family was on was so remote that there was no cell service in the area, meaning the person Gerrish reached out to never received the message.
  3. None of the calls Gerrish made were able to be connected either. Phone records show that they reached out to five different people, not including 911, but none of those calls were connected and no one was able to come to their rescue.
  4. Authorities have used the phone records to retrace the family’s last steps. Investigators were initially lost when it came to what happened to the family but used the data on Gerrish’s device to put together a picture of what happened. Two days after they were reported missing, the family was found dead on August 16, having died of extreme heatstroke.
Jennifer Still is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience. The managing editor of Bolde, she has bylines in Vanity Fair, Business Insider, The New York Times, Glamour, Bon Appetit, and many more. You can follow her on Twitter @jenniferlstill
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