Overview
- The family's babysitter noted the house empty and search teams later found their car before locating the bodies on Savage Lundy/Hite's Cove trails on August 18, 2022.
- Data extracted from the father's phone showed multiple failed call attempts and desperate texts including 'Can you help us' and a message saying they had no water and were overheating with the baby.
- Investigators, assisted by the FBI, tested for poisons, carbon monoxide, lightning, drugs and other causes and reported no evidence supporting those alternatives.
- The coroner and Mariposa County Sheriff's Office concluded the deaths resulted from environmental exposure due to lack of water and shelter after autopsies and scene evidence, including one empty hydration bladder and baby formula.
- The case highlights risks of long hikes in remote, high‑temperature terrain without water or shelter and shows how phone‑data extraction can reconstruct final movements and inform search decisions.