A family that died of heat exhaustion during a grueling summer hike in Northern California sent a last, desperate text pleading for help, authorities said Thursday. The Mariposa County Sheriff's Office released information pulled from the cellphone of Jonathan Gerrish after months of work with an FBI forensics team, the AP reports. One text made shortly before noon on Aug. 15 to a person whose name wasn't released asked: “Can you help us” and added: “No water or ver (over) heating with baby," the San Francisco Chronicle reported. But the area had bad cellphone service and the text never went through. Neither did five phone calls to various people, investigators said.
Ellen Chung, 31, her 45-year-old husband, their 1-year-old daughter Aurelia “Miju” Chung-Gerrish, and their dog Oski were found dead on a hiking trail near the Merced River last August. Last fall, investigators concluded that the family died of extreme heat stroke. Temperatures that afternoon reached 109 degrees Fahrenheit in the steep mountain terrain and the family had run out of water. A wildfire had burned off any shade canopy. Officials found the family two days later after relatives had reported them missing. The family had hiked 6.4 miles with the baby in a backpack-type carrier. They were 1.6 miles away from their car. They had an 85-ounce water container with them that was empty.
The cellphone was found in Gerrish's pocket. KMJ Now has a rundown of what was found on the phone: various photographs of the scenery were taken between 7:44am and 10:29am, including several family selfies. They attempted to send the above-mentioned text at 11:56am, and took a screenshot showing their location at 12:25pm. At 12:09pm, they tried to make a phone call, and then tried to make four more in rapid succession between 12:35pm and 12:36pm, to various numbers but not 911. None of them connected. (More on the family's deaths here.)
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