I'm Watching Too Many Disappeareds

The Jamison family disappearance freaked me out again today. That's another one of those cases where there are just too many facts that seem to make no sense. The facts don't add up. They point at one another in paradoxical ways, as with the McStay family.

I notice a lot of online accounts of the Jamison family disappearance try to make the case that this was a perfectly "normal" (whatever that means) American family. This is something which we often hear--erroneously--about the McStay family too.

Both families had things going on with them and around them that are far outside the range of even "t.v. movie" normal.

For an idea just how far outside of normal this family was operating check out this article.

The plans to live in the giant storage container (post-move) with the hex spray-painted on it really freaks me out. But manifold details in that profile are horripilating.

And the writers of that article are correct. The video is exceedingly weird. The husband and wife do indeed appear to be in a trancelike state. Zombified. They act like the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I get this weird feeling that the reason they never talk to each other during that clip is an irrational belief that the "spirits" will hear them. That's just an intuition going by the other idees fixes the pair seemed to have held.

With the Jamisons, many speculators tend to discount this bizarre irrationality exhibited not just by the wife, but the husband as well.

I think it's a big mistake to ignore that aspect of their lives. I think it should be the primary focus. Because irrational beliefs that extreme can make people do really bizarre things.

The wife (who was bipolar) spray-painted large graffiti to the effect that she was a witch on a structure on their property.

I can understand she had personality conflicts with many local people and she felt this was a protective talisman she was using to ward off these people. (Her best friend thought it amusing.)

But strategies like this can backfire. Horribly backfire.

And as mentioned in that article I link, it is documented that the husband asked a local minister how to remove devils from the roof of his house. Which bullets should he use? I mean it's irrational enough to believe demons are dancing on your roof. But then to think "special bullets" could kill demons--well, that's gilding the occult lily now, isn't it?

So I think it's fair enough that L.E. speculated about crack, since you have to at least wonder about drugs with these sorts of ideations (and with the twenty thousand--some accounts say thirty-two thousand--in cash the family was carrying).

I'm wondering whether or not the family might have sought out the "counsel" of someone who took advantage of them (monetarily). I mean the modern version of the stereotypical gypsy (apologies to upright gypsies!) or some online "psychic" swindler. Or it could just have been a real estate scam set-up.

But then why was the vehicle left abandoned not rifled or the substantial sum of cash they were carrying (twenty thousand) not taken? Why was it still there in the vehicle?

There is the wife's notebook of rage towards her husband in the car. Did this blame extend also to her child?

Because while all three principals were missing from the family vehicle found at that abandoned mountain site, the woman's gun was also missing.

We're also told an anecdote of the wife pulling a gun on a hateful boarder or hired hand. So there's the possibility of revenge with him. But that's unlikely, since it was reported the Jamisons found that piece of land they were scoping online, and it's doubtful that individual managed to set that up and then lure them to the site, etc. Unless he just tailed them that day up into the mountains. But again, totally improbable. The more isolated you get, the more you're going to realize someone is following you.

I really think the Jamisons' ideas about the occult are the key to this mystery. I would focus on the (almost inevitable) contacts they had to have had in this area on the internet and in real life. That is a 21st century cottage industry filled with unscrupulous "contractors," and many of them will take your life (figuratively or literally) for a lot less than 20K.

The various scenarios seem to be this:

1) The family was exploring the heavily forested terrain and simply got lost. Then they all perished. But their cell phones were initially pinging even in that remote site. Wouldn't they have continued to do so for some distance? The show said they pinged at the vehicle and then the location further up a bluff where the last photo of the daughter (sitting on a boulder) was taken. It pinged there too. Some speculate the daughter looks nervous in the photo, that the photo seems "off" in a disturbing way. I looked at it. I couldn't discern her affect. It wasn't a happy expression. But maybe the child didn't feel like posing for the pic. Who knows.

2). Mom killed the family or dad killed the family and disposed of the bodies near where the vehicle was left abandoned. Or it was a murder suicide. I'm not sure if either would have been able to hike out of there, but disposing of the bodies might not be that hard if the killer first lured the other two family members deeper into the forest or near a drop off. Shame they didn't get a chance to use dogs for scent here or even try drones or FLIR within the relevant time frame. Mom seemed to have the rage to kill Dad (going by the notebook in the vehicle) or maybe Dad's irrational beliefs about "demons on the roof" now extended to his family. Maybe they killed their own child together in some sort of bizarre sacrifice. I realize how crazy that sounds, but once you believe demons are in your life and causing your problems, it's not a far leap to irrational behavior like this. It's strange that the child's photo was taken like that. A single photo. On a large rock. It reminded me of Peter Weir's creepy movie Picnic at Hanging Rock. Lots of things about this case remind me of that movie. It's almost like they were playing out a weird reenacement of it: the terrain the same, the child's photo posed in that place, the occult...the season even?

3. Someone abducted the family from the site, probably using a gun. Because there was no sign of a struggle. The family dog was left locked in the vehicle. Does the vehicle automatically lock? That might be important. The abduction scenario seems unlikely to me, because why wouldn't the money have been taken? The money would have been the motive. Unless someone wanted the child. But there is no account of them going there to meet anyone. The only "opportunistic" suspect(s) in this case would be someone who lived nearby (in which scenario it would probably be a sexually motivated crime). They had stopped and talked to a local on their last trip to this remote area. Possibly an assignation for a later date was made with this individual and not recorded. Of course, that individual and his relations should be scrutinized.

The big question for me is the money. Why carry that much money in cash unless you are planning on using it imminently. And if they were planning on using it, why wasn't it used? Why was the dog locked in the vehicle. Is he the sort of dog who would run off? Or would he stay close to the family if left out of the vehicle. I don't think that's insignificant. If the dog were seen as menacing (even if it weren't actually) to another person or people meeting them there at the site, it might make sense. Maybe they were going to make a down payment on a piece of land (or buy it outright) and kept this a secret and then when they realized they had been set-up by someone who pulled a gun on them, they lied about having the money (it was hidden under the one seat). Maybe the one who intended to steal this at that point realized he had tipped his hand fatally and killed the family without realizing any "score"---never realizing the money was right in the vehicle. But you'd think he would have scoured the vehicle for what he could get.

All things considered, I agree with the police's assessment of either abduction or murder or murder-suicide as the most likely possibilities that day.

I consider abduction way less likely. Absconding maybe. If one of them killed the rest of the family and had a lover meeting him or her there. But why leave the money. That's just beyond stupid.

In the final estimate, I think the most probable event was a murder- suicide that came out of some irrational belief rooted in the occult and possible drug use. I don't know why it blew up right there. It's not surprising that the bodies weren't found considering the location and how far they could have wandered (or been forced to wander by one family member). And then predators and scavengers can come into play posthumously. Sometimes a large sum of money all by itself will trigger huge psychological discord and a tragedy like this--if, say, they were divided on this enormous (to them) investment. Considering how both husband and wife seemed plagued by irrational thoughts and behavior, I don't think it's as likely one of them murdered the other two and then managed a successful escape. Possible but unlikely.

I really don't think this family is alive.

I have seen some speculation that the town where they lived might have demonized the family (no pun intended) and that vendettas might have been bred. The Jamisons had apparently announced an intention to sue the school district and I believe there were other litigation threats and issues. Some of the speculation along these lines even went so far as to wonder whether this might not be a modern day lynching, where a family was massacred as a result of mob mentality or scary groupthink. How's that for a wake-up call for the 21st century--if that proved to be true. Can't Happen Here. My ass.

I used to put stock in some psychic gleanings, because I had too many weird things happen in my life where I knew things beforehand, and often with a shocking degree of specificity.

Then it stopped happening to me and I guess I stopped believing.

It bothered me that I had dreams today that were telling me they had the solutions to these disappearances. Because I don't really put any stock in them.

But for what it's worth: in the dream the McStay family was in someplace (town? structure?) with the name Iridia.

And the Jamison family's fate was connected (in the dream) to a street (lane?) with the name Friar S_____? I've already forgotten what the S word was, because I woke up and then fell back asleep. I think it was "Friar S___ Lane."

Probably these places don't even exist.

I had just enough curiosity to Google "Iridia" to see if it was in Mexico, but it didn't appear it was.


Total slutty aside on the video that follows: check out the hot sleeve tats on the sheriff who's handling this case. But what really struck a chord with me in this clip is the fact that the Jamisons' vehicle was found abandoned at "the top of the mountain." That could have held a strong Biblical significance to the Jamisons. God called Moses to "the top of the mountain" to speak with him. Jesus is tempted by the Devil at "the top of the mountain." I'm sure there are other notable instances in the Bible where the "top of the mountain" is the setting for a huge spiritual struggle or the place where an (often difficult) communion is experienced with God. And I DON'T WANT TO HAVE THIS IMAGE RIGHT NOW...but I'm also thinking of Isaac being prepared for sacrifice with that single photo of their child on the large boulder. Sorry. But the Biblical echo is there.