MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: The Jamison Family

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Investigative journalists Kylie Lowe digs into cold cases and missing persons from New England. Working closely with families and communities to advocate for the truth. If you care about justice the way we do, this podcast belongs in your queue. Listen to Dark Down East now, wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, Crime junkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers, and I'm Britt.

And before we jump into today's episode, you guys, we have officially hit 500,000 subscribers on YouTube, which is like a very huge milestone.

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“Which I mean, not that I'm like fully dressed up right now, or I think there were pajamas in the early days. I never imagined that we were going to be on camera every single week.”

And it means so much to us that so many of you show up and listen to us each and every week. And it means so much that now, a lot of you are tuning into watch every week. So if you have not subscribed to us on YouTube yet, today's episode is a great one to check out. Because this is truly a case with elements that you won't believe until you see them. And I bet that this is a story that is going to sink its hooks in you the way it has me. It's one of those where nothing makes sense. And there are so many rabbit holes in red herrings involving real-life struggles and supernatural beings that the lore of this story starts to become bigger than the facts of the case.

But if you ask me, the hard, cold facts tell a story of a family looking for a fresh start, a family who was this close to getting it when something or someone intervened. And if that's true, then someone is getting away with murder. Because these undetermined deaths are no longer being actively worked, making me wonder if there will ever be justice for the james and family. [Music]

October 17, 2009, isn't when the james and story begins. But that is when everyone around them first realizes that something's wrong.

Because October 17th is when the latter county sheriff's office gets a call about an abandoned pickup truck on Panole Mountain, which is a small part of the larger San Bois Mountain in latter county Oklahoma. This truck had been spotted there a few days earlier, but today was the day that someone noticed a dog trapped inside the locked truck. By the time sheriff Israel Beacham and a few of his deputies arrived, it's already dark and they have to break a window to get the small emaciated dog out.

“Now it's clear that she had been in there for days and was on the verge of honestly death, but the dog was maybe one of the least strange things found in the vehicle.”

According to the Oklahoma, the keys are still in the ignition, even though the car was locked, someone's blackberry was left behind, along with a few coats and other items of clothing, like a purse, 32 thousand dollars in cash in a bag under the seat, and IDs belonging to Sherylin and Bobby Jamison. Then there's a seven-page letter signed by Sherylin to Bobby, who it becomes clear, is her husband. Now I have highlighted some of these parts, but if I'm having read it. Bobby Jamison, I'm writing you this letter with a spirit of truth and shame. I'm asking you forgiveness forever coming into your life for everything that I have done to you that is hurt or offended you.

I also ask that you forgive me for the things that I have done to you that has offended God and the Holy Spirit.

“You have broken my heart and called me names like, "Hor, bit, and I review you and pray for your soul." You are a very toxic person. You need to find happiness.”

You contaminate everyone that you are around. It breaks my heart and saddened my soul that you have turned into the monster that you are. Thank God for kind of cuts off. Yeah, maybe you and me both that with the force that you beat me on the spine that I did not have a heart attack or being paralyzed from the neck down. You have tried to take my life on more than one occasion. I would not wish my daughter to be raised in foster care because of you being in prison for attempted murder and her mother dead.

Thank you for my daughter that's all God intended to happen. We were never meant to be together. I fear for your soul. Signed Sherlin.

“Now, Legion and his team know very little about the James and family at this point. So what this letter means or why there's so much cash in the car, they don't know.”

I mean, all that attempted murder talk in a letter like that would have me scared that this is sort of kind of like family and annihilator situation. That would be worst case scenario, but they haven't found anything to prove that. Like there's no letter from Bobby back to her. There's no suicide note. Though Deputies had been able to piece together that it was Bobby who brought them up there. It turns out he's spoken to a realtor about some land that was for sale up there on the mountain. And the realtor said that she usually takes people to go out and look at the properties because they are pretty hard to find. This is a super undeveloped rugged area like rugged terrain.

But Bobby was pretty insistent that he was going to take his family, his wife, Sherlin and their six-year-old daughter Madison up there alone. Like if she could just give him the coordinates, they'd be fine.

So she did. That was back on October 8th. Now, when they look at the blackberry that was left behind, it has GPS.

The coordinates for the land are in it. It looks like they got up there on the 8th that around 2015 PM. But I'm not sure everything that comes after fits in with a plan for Bobby to do something to his family. Because based on the GPS, it looks like they spent a little time just kind of like walking around and exploring. I mean, they were looking at nearly 40 acres. And at one point, they actually ended up taking a photo of Madison that has become infamous in this case. The picture was taken at 251 PM on the 8th. And she's in front of this cluster of rocks like in the woods.

Now, it's clearly a candid photo. Her arms are like crossed. Her mouth's like a little bit open like maybe she was about to smile or say something or it's in the middle of saying something.

“And this is important to me because authorities found this phone in the truck, meaning that the Jamesons had the phone with them while they were out and walking around.”

Exactly where this picture was taken, but they had come back to the truck.

Even the way the truck was facing, it's almost like narrow one lane road with three foot drops on either side. And it's pointed like they were about to head down the mountain. Yes, so what stopped them? Now, there's nothing in the immediate area around the truck that would suggest something happened to the family there. No sign of a struggle, no blood. But I will say there had been big rainstorms the last few days there that could have washed away evidence if there was any to find. Either way, all signs point to bad.

And authorities need to get boots on the ground and find the Jamesons because they're already days if not a full week behind. And this isn't going to be an easy search. This area on the mountain, I said, rugged terrain and I do not mean that lightly. This isn't a developed area with fully built homes or walking trails. This is middle of nowhere country and the people who live up there are living off the grid.

“In fact, that was Bobby and Sherylon's plan. They were going to buy some land and live out of a shipping container and homeschool Madison, which honestly when I heard the story years ago back when I first learned about this case.”

Like, I couldn't even wrap my head around that off grid. I don't know these days is kind of sounding more like the way to go, but they were excited about this plan. So over the next week or so, massive searches start getting underway to find the family. They're combing the mountain up from the base through the north side into an area called Smoke Stack Hollow. And not only are they dealing with the harsh environment as it normally is, but those rainstorms that they had earlier make it so that they're slogging through mud and wet brush along the way.

But they search and search and there is just not so much as a sign of this family or what happened to them on the mountain. But that might be because the biggest clues are actually buried in what was happening with the Jamesons before they ever even got to the mountain. The wilderness is meant to be a place of peace, but for some it became the setting of tragedy. The podcast Park Predators explores true stories of people who encountered danger where they least expected it, deep in forests along remote trails or while camping under the stars.

Each episode examines a different case with the same careful research and storytelling you get here on crime junkie. You can start listening to Park Predators now wherever you get your podcasts.

But many people didn't approve.

“I actually spoke to a source who knew Bobby before and after Sherlin and they say that Bobby completely changed after getting with her.”

Before they said he was smart and creative, but they watched as he seemed to slip into addiction alongside Sherlin. Now she had bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and ADHD, all of which she was prescribed meds for.

Though she didn't always take them and the addiction she had to pain killers may have at least started as a way to self-medicate.

Then in 2003 Bobby suffered a bad back injury like from a car accident and so he began managing the chronic pain with pills, which was a slippery slope. Before he knew it, he was addicted to pills too. With neither of them working money was getting tighter and tighter. Their nice lake house and you follow Oklahoma was getting tougher and tougher to afford. And their financial troubles were putting a lot of stress on an already-strained marriage.

It seems like Bobby and Sherlin may have turned to lawsuits to solve some of their money problems. We know that Bobby sued the people involved in his car accident. That was resolved in 2007. And there's other documentation showing that he and Sherlin were plaintiffs in a pair of civil suits. Then Sherlin told the Oklahoma that just before Bobby and Sherlin disappeared,

they were planning to sue the U.F. school district. But he didn't know what for. Assuming it had something to do with Madison, people online do a lot of guessing.

“But the truth is that we weren't able to talk to anyone who really knows what that was about.”

But there is one more documented lawsuit that I found really interesting. Because it was ongoing at the time that they disappeared. And the person that Bobby was suing was his own father, Bob Jamison. The claim started in 2008, and it all boiled down to this gas station, Bob owned. Bobby claimed that he worked for his dad at the gas station for free,

because his dad always told him that he would give him an ownership stake of the station when he sold it.

But apparently that never happened. And then it just got uglier from there. We spoke to Bobby's uncle Jack, and he told us that Bob warned him, Sherlin was quote unquote dangerous. And Jack took that to mean physically, because Bob told him this story about her pulling a gun on someone.

But she may have seen dangerous in other ways to him too, because I spoke to someone who said that Sherlin was spreading rumors that Bob was in the mafia,

“which from Bobby's POV made his dad the dangerous one.”

And at one point during the ongoing legal battle, he filed for a protective order against his father, claiming that he had tried to kill him on at least two occasions. Once in November 2008, when Bob allegedly hit him with a car,

and again, in April 2009, but I don't know what happened in that second incident.

But a protective order was issued following that in May of 2009. This is just five months before the Jameson's went missing. So maybe because of all of this going on, or in spite of it, it seems that by the end of the summer, at least Sherlin had gone off her meds, and clearly the effects were having a major impact.

Now she had another child, an older son from a previous marriage, and he told author Jake Anderson, in his book The Vanishing at Smoke Stack Hollow, that Sherlin had started physically abusing him. So in August, he was removed from her care and sent to live with his dad. And then in September, Sherlin attempted suicide, and was hospitalized for three weeks.

That same month, something strange started happening. The shipping container that the family plan to live in was sitting near the driveway at their late house property. And Sherlin started spray painting it with messages, things like three cats killed to date by people in this area.

And witches don't like their black cat killed. Did she claim to be a witch? So this is a thing. I've heard a lot of different things, but her friend Nikki told people that she did this because a cat of hers had died.

She thought it was the neighbors, and she just wanted to scare them, to make people think that she was someone that they wouldn't want to mess with. I didn't see any sign of her actually practicing witchcraft. In fact, in the time leading up to their disappearance, there's evidence that they were gravitating to more traditional religious outlets,

but still with a really dark focus. You see, inside their house, investigators found pamphlets and books about death and the end of the world. There were biobiles around the house that had highlighted verses that talk about the apocalypse. Deputies learned that recently, the Jameson started going to this seventh day event

as church and a month before they disappeared. They apparently reached out to the pastor asking for help with a really concerning problem.

He said Sherylen told him that Madison was speaking to two children

and then Sherylen's sister Marla who had died two years earlier. And Bobbie told the pastor that he was looking for some kind of like special bullets to kill demons and he was reading a satanic Bible to learn how to get rid of spirits.

“So his Bobbie, like, hearing Sherylen or is he like all in unbelieving that?”

It seems like he really believes it because as easy as it would be to write this all off as just like nonsense from someone who was off their meds, there are some weird things that I have to tell you. So we talked to Sherylen's friend Nikki. I mentioned that earlier and she says that they told her about the spirits too

and she says that she definitely believed that the Jameson's house was haunted

because every time she visited them over the summer of 2008

there was just this heaviness in the house that she said made her sick to her stomach. And there was one moment in particular that really freaked her out. Nikki says that she and her husband were sitting with Sherylen in the Jameson's living room and Nikki could see this like huge gray mist floating down the stairs slowly. And she said literally the hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up

“and then she just watched it until it disappeared near the bottom of the stairs.”

I'm sorry, like Beijing Russia and even did this just turn into so super natural. She was so like, "Why? I don't know." Listen, I know people will roll their eyes whatever this is. These are people's own experiences, but it's really hard to write off the next thing. Which brings me all the way up to October 8th.

The day that the family goes missing. Police talk show that Bobby called the realtor, whose name is Peggy to ask about the land for sale at around 8 a.m. Her written statement from her, Bobby told her that they were really interested in living off the grid. They spoke for like two hours.

And in this conversation he talked about Madison and how smart she was and how he was excited to home school her. And he assured Peggy that he knew what they were getting into. And she said that he sounded excited. But nothing really jumped out at her.

“It was like many of the conversations she had with people about selling land.”

So that call ends at 10 a.m. A 10 30 things get weird. The Jamesons had a surveillance system set up around their home. And when police pull the footage from that morning, it shows the family loading up their truck from like 10 30 to 11.

Except they're not really loading much. It's like the most eerie thing, Brett. Now there are only clips of this video that live online today. As far as I could tell, the full video that captured multiple angles during this time. Has never been released.

And when we tried to FOIA them, we were told that the original no longer exist. Because apparently a flood at the department where it was stored ruined it. But in the little bit that was released to the media and that has survived. You can see Bobby and Sherylen walking back and forth to the truck over and over and over. But no one can figure out why.

Like the truck doors appear to be open, but it's not like they're loading it up. Most of the time they're walking back and forth with nothing in their hands. Though at one point authorities say that they see Sherylen take what looks like a brown briefcase type thing. Like a bag to the pickup truck. Now I don't see a clear moment of that in the short clips we have.

If it is included in what we're looking at, I'm thinking it might be right here at this moment. You can kind of see like I don't know if you see that like a shadow right like on the side of Sherylen by like by her legs. Yeah, but the footage just like isn't great quality. So like it's it's really hard to tell. Now this video has become hugely sensationalized because this idea has kind of gotten perpetuated that the way they were walking was like they were in a trance.

Which makes for good TV when you've got talk of witches and demon killing bullets. But I'm a little reluctant to go all in on that based on what I've seen. I mean I can hardly tell anything from this like kind of really short loop footage. And I don't know what's been manipulated or cut right or even if like these are like consecutive. Right we can't even see timestamps.

So I don't know what to make of it. After a full half hour of this that's when they set off to make the about one hour drive to the coordinates that they've been given.

But they make a few stops first to go look at some other land.

Which suggests to me that this idea of buying the land and the reason they're going up there isn't some rules right like it's legit.

He lived on the mountain just a quarter of a mile from where the Jameson's truck would be found. And in Dan's written statement he said that he talked to the family for like 45 minutes before they headed up to the property. He was like telling them you know about what it's like to live up there. Whatever the land type. Yeah and he told them to stop by on their way out.

But he says they just never did.

Now we know they arrive at the 40 acre property at 211 that photograph of Madison was taken and then poof. The entire family is just gone. All of their stuff just left behind. But all their stuff that is except one thing. The brown bag that authorities say Sheryline was seen carrying to the truck in the surveillance footage is not found.

I mean, did they know what was or what might have been in it? No that's like that's the question. And no one is ever going to know for sure because spoiler alert to this day that bag has never been found. But Sheryline told the Oklahoma back in the day that he thinks the bag could have had money in it. Now how much and what was the money for?

This is where we can spiral.

“Remember how there was like almost $32,000 under the seat like when the car was found?”

Yeah because that's like a lot of cash.

Right. So like that's the kind of thing that will make you think that this isn't something involving foul play. Like at the hands of a stranger, right? Because like who is going to kill an entire family and not take the $32,000 in cash? Right.

Well, Sheryline when return our calls. But I did catch a recent interview that he did on a podcast called "I Don't Drink Coffee." Where he dives into his theory a little bit. So remember the lawsuit that Bobby filed after he was hurt in the car accident? Yeah.

So Bobby's mom star apparently told investigators that he got a $64,000 settlement for that. And that he and Sheryline split it down the middle. So $32,000. Correct.

“So the theory that kind of gets floated is that maybe someone did make a way with $32,000 or something around there?”

And the purse or the bag?

They just didn't know that there was a whole second bag of money kind of hidden away in the truck.

Now the only issue I have with that though is that is a lot of cash to just be sitting on from 2007 when that lawsuit settled to October of 2009. Especially if they're really were all these substance use problems. Not that it can't be done, but I don't know. They're having financial troubles yet they're like just sitting on this like cash. Well, how long, like it just, it's weird to me.

Yeah. Now others have speculated that maybe it was drugs that was in the brown briefcase. And that's usually from the camp of people who see the surveillance footage. And they don't think that they're in a trans, but rather they think they're going to be drugged out, which is what a psychologist that the sheriff's office brought in believed and told them. Which is just as if not more plausible.

And when you think about it, like how this all played out, there's a half an hour between when Bobby gets off the phone with Peggy. And then when he is seen on the camera. And I say that because like she doesn't make any indication that he is speaking strangely that he's sounding intoxicated. Right, like it's a very normal conversation with her with like a possible buyer. So I'm saying if you're going to say then like half hour later, he's like in a trans or so drugged out that he's acting weird.

Like there's a short wind of time where like something might have happened. Like after he got off the phone. Right. There's like this gap. Right.

And he could have taken something.

“So like she doesn't know what he's like high or not, right?”

Like right. For sure. Like I mean, he could have been high functioning. I think the thing that I take issue with is there's to me a big difference between having an hour's long conversation with someone. And like I said, and then behaving in a way that some people would characterize it as being in a trans.

Right. Like there has to be like something that has a shift between those two times. Both is it drugs, otherwise like whatever, which makes me go back to questioning even the basis of this. Like that video. Again, I'm not seeing weird movements or actions from the short clips that we have.

I'm kind of taking law enforcement at their word here that the way they were moving was super weird. If there is a world where there are movements over the full video weren't all that weird. And this is something that has just gotten blown up over the years. Then they might have been in perfectly fine condition. And then nothing weird happened after the call with the realtor.

They were just getting ready to leave. And I'd like to say like getting ready to leave was like a small child. Yes, which is not the easiest, most clear cut direct thing to ever do. Totally fair. But usually if I'm thinking about like the stuff that like holds me up with Joe, it's like I'm stuff.

It is the stuff. It's the stuff.

But if we are talking drugs in Oklahoma in 2009,

“Meth is what everyone was concerned about.”

Use and production was rising at the time. And locals actually told us that the northern part of these mountains in particular are known for illegal activity like drugs and dumping. So we're behavior, large amount of cash. For a moment, even the police think maybe this whole property sale thing was a ruse. And they were really going up the mountain to make some kind of drug deal.

But authorities debunk this one pretty quickly because they don't find any illegal drugs in the Jameson's house or their truck. And they're not finding any evidence that Bobby or Sherylin were illegal drug dealers or users. It seems like everything that they were on was prescription. Though I will say, Bobby's uncle Jack told us that he thought Bobby was using something other than pain killers. But not enough for their home or truck to show signs of that.

Right. So I don't think that it was drugs in Sherylin's bag. Now the only other thing that might have been in the bag.

The only other thing that has never been found is a 22 caliber gun that Sherylin owned.

Like drugs or money, we can't confirm that she took it up the mountain with her that day. We just know that it is totally MIA. It wasn't in the home when they searched it and it wasn't in the truck.

“So was it money? Was it a gun? Was it some combination of things in that bag?”

I don't know. But knowing everything you do now, you might see why many in the public start honing in on a theory that it was actually Sherylin. Off her meds having recently been suicidal that picked out this plot of Lian wrote a scathing letter to her husband that she read all the way up there. And then once they got to the right place, she enacted some kind of murder suicide plot. Okay, but then where are they? That's the big hole, right? Why can't anyone find them after weeks and then months of searching?

Well, and it doesn't make sense to me at least why you leave your dog locked in the car. Like that's a prolonged death sentence for that pop. Yeah, not to get graphic, but if the dog was shot, that's one thing. That's like everybody then. No, I know exactly what you mean, like let the dog run free, leave the dog at home.

Or like do a million other things, but this seems like the coolest thing.

And everyone who talked about the family said that Madison loved that dog. Like she would not have gone anywhere without it. So it's just like another part that does not add up. Yeah, other things that don't add up to me are like the key being in the ignition and almost all of their things being back in the car.

“Like if she wanted to take her family out to the wilderness and end things, then why wouldn't the phone still be with them?”

Like why not the keys? They went back to the truck. They had you have gotten in and then turned around. So they were ready to go down this one lane mountain road and something happened to them. Like that, like, doesn't fit for me. Well, that's assuming this was a murder suicide. Like what if that briefcase she had had the gun, had the money, and she was going to disappear? Well, that would have been a plausible theory. I mean, really, for either Sheryl and Orbobby, but that stops being a plausible theory in 2013, because that's when the entire family is actually found, not too far from where they're abandoned trucks stood four years earlier.

The wilderness is meant to be a place of peace, but for some, it became the setting of tragedy. Podcast Park Predators explores true stories of people who encountered danger, where they least expected it, deep in forests, along remote trails, or while camping under the stars. Each episode examines a different case, with the same careful research and storytelling you get here on crime junkie. You can start listening to Park Predators now, wherever you get your podcasts. On November 16, 2013, this is four years after the Jamesons disappeared, a man named Tim Graham is with his wife and family on their annual hunting trip to the mountain.

They're just looking for signs of deer when Tim sees something strange in the brush, about like 50 yards away from a gravel road.

He looks like a turtle shell at first, and he's weathered, discolored, and a little stuck to the ground.

But when he picks it up, he realizes that it is a skull, and there is a small hole near the forehead. Now, Tim immediately puts it down and yells to his wife, but then he sees another one, like a slightly smaller one.

Madison's toothless grin is seared in her brain, and in that moment she says to her husband, "Oh my goodness, I believe we just found that family that was missing." And she was right. Now, there wasn't much left out there, just an arm and a leg bone, a left boot, scraps of another boot, and a child shoe. But nothing else. No briefcase? No gun? And after about seven months of analysis, in June 2014, they're able to confirm that they found the entire family just 2.6 miles from where their truck was found.

Like, 2.5 miles away. That's it. Which I know this sounds like nothing to us like flatland and folk who like, "Oh, I can see five miles for ages." Yeah, fields and fields. But Beachan said that to go from where their truck was found, to where their skulls were recovered, like as the crow flies, it would take like a half day for someone who is in great shape-type, which makes the location all the more strange, because Bobby was not in great shape. He had chronic back pain, and I don't know if you've tried hiking with a six-year-old recently, but in this area, that would show you way down most people don't think there is any way that they got to that location on their own.

And this completely mixes the murder suicide theory. Like, it has to be foul play. But for some reason, it doesn't for some people, right? So, like, let's talk theories, like, and what works and what doesn't work.

So, first, the murder suicide theory. People still point to share Ellen's mental instability, and like that hate letters, what they call it.

The one that was in the truck, as proof that she killed her family and herself.

“Okay, but if they never found a gun, and they can't determine a cause of death, that seems like it takes away all of the elements that you need to make murder suicide work.”

If it was a gun that was used, and if they were shot in the head. Or a hole in Bobby's head? Well, yeah, they officially say that that hole is from animal activity. But like, I'm with you. Like, you could have been shot in, like, the fleshy parts of your body that you wouldn't see from the few pieces that they were able to collect. But even then, you should see bullet fragments. And a gun left behind. I mean, kind of going back to it, like, if a gun was used, right? Like, that's not the only way it could have gone down.

Yes, and no, like, I kind of disagree because, like, unless mom and dad were in on this together and, like, quite literally drinking the cool aid, you have to do something quick, like, a gun. Like, I don't think you can overpower the other parent and kill Madison without being stopped. Do you know what I mean?

“Yeah. And so much of what we know does it make sense with this to me. Like, why are the keys and the phone back in the truck?”

Why was the truck positioned like it was going back down the mountain? Where is the brown briefcase? Well, and, I don't know, like, what if someone came across their remains or the briefcase?

And just never reported it. Especially the briefcase, especially the briefcase, especially the briefcase had had an end in it.

Yeah, I mean, I could see that for this area, but it seems more likely to me that it would have been left in the truck. And then someone rifled through that. Once they'd seen the truck unoccupied for a couple of days, and they just, like, make a quick grab for the briefcase. Maybe miss the fact that there's other money under the seat, but, like, in that case, again, they're not like running off a stuff like where they are, where the remains are, you know what I mean? Right. But whatever someone taking the brown bag solves, it solves none of the other problems I have with this story.

How did they get to where they were? Because I don't believe that they walk, especially if this was a plan that just one of them had. Okay, can you please leave your keys in the ignition? $32,000 under the seat, and your GPS behind it, let's just, like, take a walk into the wilderness. Like, right. No, that is going to raise, like, all sorts of alarm bells. 1000%. So, theory number two, miss adventure.

And miss adventure, this idea that they, like, somehow got stuck out there and died, it doesn't work for me for all the same reasons above. Yeah. But, okay, say they were high or something. They're doing things that don't make sense.

“Actually, this is the only theory where the strange surveillance footage makes, like, even a little bit of sense, or, like, contributes to something I think.”

In every other scenario, that's the thing that is, like, always this, like, you're done with that.

Yeah, but, like, okay, whatever, say your high, you're acting weird before you even get there, you spend your time in the mountains and you're about to leave and go down the mountain and you're, like, you know what? Nope. Like, let's just start walking into the great wide, nowhere without our coats or a phone or anything else that we previously brought and used with us for the first time that we're exploring this place.

Say all that happened. Here's the thing that doesn't make sense to me.

“I don't think they would all die and end up in the same place. Like, if that's the scenario. Right.”

No, because they'd have to, like, the remains are all found together at the same place. So, doesn't they, like, die at the same time in the same place? And also, with this theory, I'm thinking, like, that means that they're high from the time that they leave the house the time they get to the mountain. We know that they go to a couple different, like, right, plots of land first. They talk to a guy on the mountain for, like, 45 minutes before they get to their, like, final location. It's just like that, that feels like it would flat, like, that would flag somewhere along the way, right?

I would think, again, this does not add up for me, which brings me to theory number three, which is foul play. This is the only theory that I think works because it's the only one where most of the pieces we have fit together. The Jamesons have come to the mountain. They looked around. They'd gotten back in their truck and turned around ready to go home, but then they were stopped somehow.

Maybe it was innocent at first, or maybe there was no niceties, and they were forced out of their truck with, like, the threat of violence.

Either way, I think they get out so quickly that Bobby doesn't even pull the key out of the ignition or grab his phone, and they leave their dog inside the car. Then, I think they're driven somewhere else and eventually killed.

“Like you said, this is a theory that fits the most pieces, but there's still kind of a gaping hole in the theory, like, who would know that they would be out there? Then, that is the key to everything.”

But it's a short list. So, remember, barely anyone knew that the family was even gone. Like, they didn't, it wasn't like abnormal for them to go away for a couple of days. That's why they didn't get reported missing before their truck is found. So, it's not like they checked in a lot with people or had anyone really keeping tabs on them. So, really, there's only, like, two people close to them that authorities look at, and then people who were up on the mountain. Now, of the two people who were close to the family, there's no evidence that they actually knew where the Jamesons were headed on October 8.

But those are just the two people who might have had motives. They have to look at those people. Now, the first is Bobby's dad because of the lawsuit and the protective order. But by the time the Jamesons went missing, Bob's health was deteriorated, and he was actually living in, like, a nursing home or some kind of, like, hospice care. And he was so sick that he could barely take care of himself, let alone hike a mountain or hurt his son and his family. And there's no evidence that he could be tied to their disappearance in any way. So, authorities rule him out pretty quick.

And Bob actually passed away just two months after they all went missing in December 2009.

So, the second person that they look at, who had a personal connection to the family, was this guy named Kenneth Bellos.

He actually lived with the family at their lakehouse in you follow over the summer. The boarding arrangement was part of his compensation for helping them with things around the house, since Bobby's back pain had gotten so bad that he couldn't do much. But there was a huge falling out because apparently Kenneth told Sherylin that he was a white supremacist and said that people who had Native American heritage, like she did, should die. So, Sherylin ended up shooting at him and kicking him out of the house.

But, in the end, Kenneth ends up providing the Sheriff's Office with a really solid alibi. And I don't think they could even prove that he knew where the family was going that day, since he'd been kicked out weeks before and hadn't had contact with the family since. So, both dad and Kenneth cleared, which means that either leaves someone else who they knew personally, who just hasn't come up in the investigation, or someone who lived on the mountain. Whichever it is, there might be someone out there who has the answer. You see, Israel Beacham has retired from the Sheriff's Office, but in his 2020 podcast interview with the host of "I Don't Drink Coffee" he said in no uncertain terms that he believes the Jamesons were murdered and he even thinks he knows who killed them. He just had no way to prove it.

And he said he thinks someone shot Bobby and Sherylin and then just left Madison on her own to die. And when it came to why, all he would say is, "Follow the money."

“And that's the thing I keep coming back to. Why did they have that much money in their car anyways?”

I mean, this wasn't an Uber wealthy couple with cash just like coming out of their ears. I think it's risky to drive around with that much money, like, you know, maybe 32,000 dollars, maybe more, that's not something you do unless you're intending to use that money.

The answer is two people. One, the realtor Peggy. And two, Dan Clemens, the local landowner. And there's something I didn't tell you about Dan. He actually claims to have seen the family on two different days.

“According to his statement, the James and family was up on the mountain the day before they got the coordinates from Peggy. Apparently they had seen the property online and they decided to just like drive up and check it out on their own.”

But according to him, they had trouble finding it. So they pulled up to his place. Likely since he was like the nearest house to, you know, where the property was. It was like a quarter mile away. And they were asking for directions. He says, and he says he talked to them that time for like an hour about, you know, building off grid like herbal medicines. And he is the one who ended up giving them Peggy's number to call the next day. And he's like, listen, you contact her come back in the morning because it was like six p.m. by that point. Like, so by the time they're on talking, it's like seven. It's like getting dark. He's like, I can say for you to be out here exploring the mountain in the dark.

So he says they leave. He says they do stop by the next day at around noon, where they speak for another 45 minutes. And then the family headed up to check out the land.

Now remember, he told them to stop back by, but he never did, but he says they never did right.

Now, right away, this is a little off to me because if they are talking to him, he says they start talking around noon. If they're talking to him to like 1245, why does their GPS say that they make it to the land at two 15? Where are they for the like hour and a half in between? We're a quarter of a mile from where their truck is. And you know, what his times just off like meaty. Either way, he apparently wasn't concerned with they didn't stop back by and wasn't concerned that he never heard from them again.

“And it's worth pointing out that if all of Dan statements are true, like this makes them murder suicide theory even less plausible to me because like why not do it the day before when like Peggy doesn't even know you're out there, right?”

The realtor like there's been a lot of time multiple trips talking to people about buying this land. Yes, finding the exact location like you don't need any of that if you just want to go to woods. Yeah, go to the middle of nowhere for this like totally suicide plan totally everything about the circumstances he makes me believe that they were up there to buy land planning for their future. And on October 8, something or someone stalked them. Now, based on Peggy's statement to police, someone alerts her to the Jamison's truck being there on the 15th. This is two days before the story started.

And I guess at the time, she was like, oh, no biggie, whatever the family probably just wanted to take a second look at the land happens all the time, so she didn't do anything.

But then two days passed and it's the 17th at 3 p.m. when Dan is first alerted to the truck being there. He said two people on four wheelers stopped by his place and told him that there was this abandoned truck with a dog inside. And I guess you like ask some questions about the truck specific features or whatever and he realizes that the description sounded like the family that he had talked to. So he got worried and called Peggy. Peggy then tries the family but she couldn't reach them and so then Dan called a neighbor to go look at the truck with him.

But by the time they go up there together, it's 530 p.m. and that's when Dan says that he first saw the abandoned truck for himself. But he doesn't call police right away. He does his own search looking for the family first. And Peggy is actually the one who ends up calling the deputies who then arrive at the truck at around 730 p.m.

Here's what I find out. One, why not call the authorities yourself? Like Peggy is the one who has to do that.

“Like the second you hear about this trap dog and you're admitting that you're making this connection to the Jamison's like, why wait?”

Two, I find it super weird that he wanted to wait for a friend to go look at the truck with him. Like there is no context in the report for why he did this. Maybe he didn't have a vehicle of any kind. Or maybe he wanted someone else to find it. Right. He's like creating this distance between like himself and a truck like this has been wondering like, was there any way he could have been behind the first call on the 15? Like hey, there's this truck up here like trying to get someone else to get up there then.

I don't see evidence of that. I have literally had the same thought, but that call came from another land owner in the area who is named. So like if there's a world where he was behind it, he would have had to get that person to call and again like as if there's no evidence that that happened. The thing I'll say though is like who isn't named are the two people on the four wheelers that apparently alerted him to the truck on the 17th. From what I have, I can't tell if police ever even identify those men if they ever talk to them to verify down story.

They talked for an hour the first day, 45 minutes the next day.

So at any point did it come up that they would be traveling up there with cash.

“Did it come up that nobody would really know where they were?”

We couldn't reach Dan for this episode. So we couldn't ask him ourselves what those conversations were. And do we know what the truck ever processed for like Prince or anything? Like could they tell if someone else drove it? Because like maybe there's a scenario where the family left on their own or otherwise and someone brought the truck back to this area later. Yeah, so according to police, they did process the truck but it doesn't go into detail about what was found. So I don't know if they got anything good. I don't know if they got anything to compare to anyone. I don't know if it was like all wiped down.

And then based on what we have when it comes to Dan, it just says that they thoroughly checked him with quote unquote negative results. But we looked into Dan Clemens ourselves when we were reporting on this case in late 2025. And we found something pretty interesting.

“A man with the same name and the right age was arrested in 2017 for killing a man back in 1997.”

Now, we haven't confirmed whether these are the same people since Dan would not return our calls. But we showed Carolyn's friend Nikki this guy's mug shot and she confirmed that that is the same man she knew as Dan Clemens, who she had interactions with on the mountain wall searching for the Jamesons. I don't know a ton. All I was able to find was that, so like I said, happens in '97. And a man named David McLeod was found shot to death at his ranch in California. Nothing is taken from the house, but his killer took his truck and drove it up to San Francisco.

And must have fled or whatever because they end up arresting this Dan Clemens guy in Oklahoma. This is where like our story takes place where he'd been living under a fake name. And the Trinity Journal reported that Dan ultimately pled no contest to voluntary manslaughter and got three years in prison as part of a plea deal. Okay, I assume police would have known about this at the time though. I would hope so if it was, in fact, the same Dan right. But it's not mentioned anywhere in the reports that we've gotten. All we see when it comes to Dan is that they thoroughly checked him with negative results, which I still don't even know what that means, but did they thoroughly check anyone else on the mountain?

I'm sure they talked to as many people as they could. Like, I don't know. I don't have a list of everyone, but I do know one person because we tracked her down. Her name is Anne Marie Dohan. And I specifically tracked her down because as we were reporting on this, I heard this rumor that her and her family moved off the mountain not long after the Jamison's went missing. So people were wondering if her and her husband might have been involved.

“And I actually found this like, you know, these are rumors now, but I found a tip in the file that someone had made about them back in 2010.”

But our reporter Sharadam's tracked and down and she says that deputies did question her about the Jamison's disappearance and she just laughed in their face, she said. She says that her and her family moved off the mountain in the fall of 2010 because they'd been homeschooling their children and they wanted to move the kids like back down so they could go to school. Though, that's not quite how her daughter remembers it when I talk to her daughter. She told us that her parents were not good people and that they moved off the mountain so abruptly that they left a bunch of their stuff.

But Anne was never named as a suspect and she denies having anything to do with what happened to the Jamison's.

So I'm sure there are even more stories like that. I just haven't been able to track down every person who is on the mountain because turns out living off the grid makes it kind of hard to find you. I'll figure it as off the grid. Truly! Now if anyone on the mountain did it, I have to believe the motive was money. Beach and set, follow the money, but to who? Like I said, he never got back to us for this episode.

But Bobby's Uncle Jack really wants to know what more beach him knows that he hasn't shared in all these years. Maybe all the pieces are there. Maybe they're just held by different people.

The problem is, it doesn't seem like anyone is really investigating this.

It's that weird catch-22 we often see where the M.E. classified these deaths as undetermined. So there is no homicide that is being investigated. All the investigative files we have were from when this was a missing person's case. Now it's just in limbo, meaning that if Bobby, Sherlin and Madison were killed by someone, that someone has gotten away with murder, but it doesn't always have to be that way.

If anyone out there knows something that could change the status of this case,

You can find all the source material for this episode on our website crimejunkie.com

“and you can follow us on Instagram @crimejunkie.cast.”

We'll leave back next week with a brand new episode. But stick around because we have some good. Okay Ashley, I have a really cool story that I'm really excited to tell you.

I've always loved to crime, but I wasn't sure if a career in it was right for me.

I followed the path of veterinary medicine for a while until recently getting into nursing school. I had known about crime junkie for a while, but this past summer started from the beginning to watch every episode through work, study sessions, car drives, and cleaning the house. Crime junkie was always there to keep me company. After some thought, I've decided I'd like to earn my nurse practitioner license and study forensic nursing.

I want to be a piece of the bridge between medical and legal to help the victims get the care and justice they deserve. I find it to be a privilege to be able to give them either care and dignity before they are laid to rest,

or a safe person to help them move forward in their next steps of life after being involved in a trauma.

I'd specifically like to earn my same credentials and take care of sexual assault and rape victims as these people may feel like they lose their voice during their battle. But my voice is loud and will be heard and I will use it to educate for victims.

“If not for Crime junkie, I wouldn't understand how important and vital this is,”

and every episode provides me with motivation to keep working for this school. Thank you Ashley and Brett. Ella, a fellow hoocher. This was like so many Crime junkie boxes she started in vet med, and then went into nursing school, and become the same certified as just really incredible.

And I was so excited to hear from her. It's like, it's wild, keeping track of how many people have changed their career paths, and it's so true.

It's like not always like the most glamorous work,

“but there's so many different occupations that touch true crime that you don't often think of,”

like forensic nurse. Yeah. It's amazing. So thank you Ella. Crime junkie is an audio check production.

I think Chuck would approve. Sometimes in the quiet corners of our world, or even in the glaring light of day, events unfold that defy the very fabric of reason. There is no scientific, logical,

or readily apparent explanation for what we witness. It challenges our understanding, our beliefs, and even our sanity. Why do these things happen? What forces are it play? I'm Evette Gentile.

And I'm her sister, Rasha Pecorero. Every week on our podcast, so supernatural, we dive deep into some of the Earth's most bizarre and inexplicable occurrences. We don't just observe them. We actively try to explain the unexplainable.

So if you're ready to have your perceptions challenged and your curiosity ignited, listen to so supernatural. Every Friday, wherever you get your podcast.