Welcome back to the path went Chili.
I'm Robin, I'm Jules, and I'm Ashley. Let's dive right into this week's case.
October eighth, two thousand and nine, Latimer County, Oklahoma, forty four year old Bobby Jamison, his forty year old wife Sherylyn Jamison, and their six year old daughter, Madison Jamison leave their house to look at land in a remote mountainous area, but never return. Eight days later, their abandoned pickup truck is discovered on a road, but even though the family's dog is locked inside and a bag containing thirty two thousand dollars is hidden under the driver's seat,
the Jamisons are missing. In twenty thirteen, the skeletal remains of Bobby, Sheryland, and Madison are discovered less than three miles from where their truck had been part but since the authorities are unable to determine an exact cause of death, no one knows what actually happened to them After that.
The Path went chilly, So today recovering a highly requested case involving a couple and their young daughter. The two thousand and nine disappearances and subsequent deaths of the Jamison family. This is a case which is technically considered to be a half solved mystery because even though the Jamisons were found after being missing four years, we still don't have
any idea how they died. In case you're not familiar with it, this is the baffling story of Bobby and Cheryl and Jamison, a married couple who decided to travel out to a remote mountainous area with their six year old daughter, Madison. They never returned, and their abandoned truck
would be discovered over one week later. The Jamisons had apparently traveled to this location to see about purchasing a plot of land, but their dog and most of the personal items were found locked inside the truck, including a
bank bag containing thirty two thousand dollars in cash. The Jamisons have remained missing for the next four years until the remains were discovered in the same area less than three miles away, but enough time had passed that no one could determine the exact cause of death for any of the three victims. It's possible the entire family was killed by an unknown party, but since Bobby and sheryln had been displaying a lot of erratic behavior prior to
their disappearances. It's also possible that some sort of murder suicide took place. This is one of those missing persons cases in which the discovery of the victims remains only raised more questions than answers. So we're going to explore all the different scenarios about what happened on today's episode.
This is already one of the more horrific crimes we've talked about, or cases we've talked about. When we look at this. You have a family of three that goes missing and it's not till four years later they're discovered deceased. Now, what strikes me is really odd or two things at the scene. The thirty two thousand dollars that's under the seat in a money bag and the family dog logged
in the car. For two reasons, if you were going to go on the run, why not get the dog set aside in a boarding kennel or having a family friend take care of them with the promise of returning, and they just don't return because the dog would be taken care of. And two, if you got that kind of money out or you were hoarding that kind of money to go on the run. Then why, all of
a sudden is everyone deceased? So do you guys are will you be telling me more about the money and why that cash could have been there?
Oh? Yeah, definitely. And it is most certainly one of the most baffling details of this case because regardless of whether it was suicide or homicide buy an outside party, we really don't know why they had all that money there and why he was left behind in the vehicle.
Yeah, his career would have to be something where he's dealing in cash on large scales for it to make any kind of sense, because that's a lot of money. And to say that it's just sitting in the car while all of a sudden they go missing, it's almost like there was a plan to leave. But then when they're deceased, if they were already planning to be deceased or like to do a murder suicide, why take the money out. It's just very very confusing.
Our story begins in Oklahoma in two thousand and nine. Our central figures our forty four year old Bobby Jamison and his forty year old wife, Sherilyn Jamison, who have been together for seven years and live in a lakeside house in the small town of Ufaulla with her six year old daughter, Madison Jamison. Shrilyn also has a twelve year old son from a previous marriage named Coulton what her ex husband, who lives in Oklahoma City, took full
custody of him in July this year. On the morning of October eighth, the Jamisons left their residents in their four door pickup truck and took their puppy dog, Maizie along with them. They were planning to travel to a rural area located in Latimer County next to the Sans Bois Mountains. In fact, the family already took a trip to this area the previous day, as Bobby had expressed interest in selling their house and purchasing a forty acre
plot of land he read about on the internet. However, the Jamisons never returned home this time, but this did not immediately raise any alarm bells, since they were known for being a very private family who would sometimes disappear off the radar and not contact people they knew for long periods of time. Bobby and Sherilyn had also recently pulled Madison at a school to prepare her for homeschooling, so her absence wasn't noticed and the family was never
officially reported missing. However, on October sixteenth, eight days after they were last seen, hunters discovered the jamisons abandoned pickup truck on a remote one way dirt road in Latimer County. The truck was parked near the top of Panola Mountain in a densely wooded area, which was a short distance south of the town of Kinta and about thirty miles away from the Jamison residence in Ufaula. Bobby's Schrylyn and Madison were nowhere to be found, but their dog, Maizie,
was locked inside the truck. Maisie was so mild nourished that she was dying of starvation and had been eating her own feces to stay alive. Thankfully, when the Latimer County Sheriff's Office was summoned to the scene, they broke the glass and rescued Maizie, and she wound up making a full recovery before she went to live with Bobby's mother,
Starlet Jamison. Even though the Jamisons were missing and the vehicle was in perfect working order, most of the family's personal possessions including their identification wallets, Shreland's purse, cell phones, coats, maps, empty prescription pill bottles, and a GPS unit were left behind inside the truck while the truck was locked. The keys himself could not be found, and there were no
signs of any struggle led a broken glass. However, the most surprising discovery was a bank bag containing thirty two thousand dollars in cash, which is found hidden underneath the driver's seat and had been concealed by some of Bobby's tools.
Okay, so let me ask you guys this, are we going to go more into the careers or the backgrounds of mom and dad.
We are, and spoiler alert, but it turns out they don't have the careers that they were both living on disabilities at this point.
Okay, fantastic, because I was going to ask two things. When you talk about the fact that Sherilyn has a twelve year old son from that previous marriage who now lives with dad, that's not completely abnormal, but it takes a lot to assign full custody to the dad, and that part kind of raised a red flag for me. A twelve year old in some states has the right to say which parent they would prefer to live with.
But that's just one part of the equation. And to say a parent loses complete access in any kind of to their child, it's not like ninety ten or you know, mom can visit on holidays or something like that. He gets full custody of the sun. That's unique when you talk about moms losing full custody. Also, when you talk about homeschooling, that is a big undertaking that requires mom and dad to feel pretty confident that they can homeschool and educate their child just as well, if not better
than the schools that they'd be going to. And so my question was, like, you know, is mom have a background in education? Do mom and dad have like a kind of lifestyle where they want to expose her to traveling or those kinds of things. But I have a feeling I'm going to find out that may not be the case.
Yeah, we'll get into more detail about this later, but you're going to learn that Bobby and Sherylyn do not seem to be in the best place mental health wise during this time period. And this is one reason why they have not discounted the possibility of a murder suicide. Most families, you would probably never even think that, but because they were acting very strangely around time period, it hasn't been ruled out.
Did you ever see anything about the financials, Robin, because I've always thought it was really strange with this case, how they were living in like this beautiful lakeside house and they somehow had the money to be able to
go and purchase this plot of land. I know they were both on disability, but it seemed like they living inside a house like they were living and then having a good chunk of money like they would have been living outside whatever would have been coming in, do you know what I mean.
Yeah, we talk about this a bit later. But they did get a bit of money during a settlement because Bobby had been in an accident, so I think that does account for at least the cash they were carrying. But it is true that it is odd that they were living in kind of a nice house and that because obviously they weren't making much money income because they
were on disability and they were not employed. So I don't know if maybe one or both of their families were providing some financial support that allowed them to live on their own. But yeah, it does seem like they were living above their means.
Because I don't know what houses go for and you follow, but pretty much anywhere you are, if your lakeside is going to be expensive.
Oh yeah, waterfront property would definitely be much more ssve than a regular property.
There was a local resident who had cross paths with the Jamisons on a winding dirt road on October the seventh, the day before they went missing. Since they had got lost, Bobby stopped to ask the resident for directions. He also asked a number of questions about what it was like to live in the area and build a home there, and the witness thought the family appeared to be in
good spirits. Another local resident, who lived about a quarter mile away from the spot where the pickup was found, would report having seen the Jamisons driving in that direction on October the eighth, but never saw them leave or were called seeing anyone else head towards that area. Over the course of the next eight days, other witnesses remembered having seen the pickup truck parked at that spot, but since it was near an oil well, they figured the
truck probably belonged to a work crew. Curiously, a search of Bobby's phone record showed that his cell phone had made an outgoing call to its voicemail on October the twelfth. Investigators also checked GPS coordinates on the phone, which led them up a hill which was close to the truck, and they noticed footprints on the ground, some of which obviously belonged to Madison since they were child size. The footprints and the GPS coordinates eventually led to a large
rock near the top of the hill. A search of Bobby's cell phone would uncover a photograph of Madison standing in front of this rock, with her mouth open and her arms crossed over each other in an odd position. Since Madison appeared to be looking away from the camera, some of the family's friends and relatives believed that she looked frightened and uncomfortable, possibly because the photo was being taken by someone else besides their parents, whom she did
not know. In spite of this, the police did think that the Jamisons managed to walk back down the hill and climb into their truck, and may have attempted to drive away before something happened. Even though Latimer County Sheriff Israel Beecham would launch a massive search operation in the area, surrounding the truck. It failed to turn up any trace of Bobby, Cherylyn or Madison.
Okay, so I just google this picture of little miss Madison, and when I look at it, I have several questions. I think it depends on which lends you're looking at this from and what Madison's other pictures look like. When you see her little face, she does have an unusual an unusual facial reaction to the picture.
Right.
She's not having her traditional little smile or things like that. But also children at that age smile weird like sometimes. I remember I tell Reagan, like, just a normal smile, honey, don't be weird, just smile right like this, and I'd have to show her because she just had an odd.
Look on her face when she took pictures.
So they're learning how to express themselves and to make, you know, a cute little smile on camera. I'm wondering if there were any other photos found where she looks normal and she's smiling a cute little smile. The arms crossed look very unnatural to me, and the fact that her little shirt isn't fitting her well, it almost looks like a child who's neglected, who's not being cared for.
So again it makes me wonder was that a byproduct of mom and dad and their mental condition or financial condition at the time that they couldn't get her little clothes that'd fit. Also possible her little arms cross her pulling her shirt up, but it looks like the shirt's too small on her, and that maybe her little pants
are too small too. If someone had her, it's possible that they would have had her for four days, because you guys said October eighth, we have somebody saying they saw them, and that phone calls made October twelfth to the voicemail. So I could see it being a very scary situation if maybe mom and dad had been deceased and somebody else had her for those four days, keeping
her alive and taking that picture of her. But then you say something to the effect of the police believed that they might have walked back down the hill and
climbed into their truck to try to drive away. Yet when they find the truck again, it doesn't look like there's any struggle, and all of their personal belongings are sitting right there, So it's confusing if they got stopped and there's a struggle to get them out of the car, that's one thing, But the way the car was left, it seemed like everything was almost buttoned up, and then the family walks away, it never comes back. What made them think maybe they came back down.
I guess it was the fact that maybe they saw footprints, or maybe they thought that there were like tire tracks to indicate that they tried to drive a short distance after they made it back to the truck and then for whatever reason, stopped again and got out. Perhaps if they were being confronted by an unknown party who decided to kill them or lead them away from the scene. When you look at all the evidence, there really isn't
a scenario that makes a lot of sense. Because obviously, because Madison's photograph was taken, hear that rock, But the cell phone was found inside the truck at some point somebody had to come back down there and put the truck put the cell phone in there. But you have to wonder, why would an unknown third party do this, take this one photograph and then not even keep the phone.
But that photograph has been the subject of so much interpretation from so many different people, and I think if Madison had not gone missing, no one would find anything unusual about it. But because it's the last known photo of her, people have just looked at it in so many different ways.
And do you guys think the family the family's alluding to the fact that this looks bizarre, Like it's not just she's in that awkward state.
I don't know, like it would depend. Like you said, I have seen some other photographs of Madison online and none of them look like particularly unusual or that much different from this one. But I should notice that you are probably the first person I've seen point out that her shirt is too small for I've seen so much summary,
but you're the first person who's brought that up. But that could be a sign that she was being neglected, because the Bobby and Cheril and at this point did not sound like people who are keeping track of their child's clothing and going out to buy her new stuff to make sure it fitter.
That's just as that's the mom and me. When I see little ones that like going to school and their little pants are too short or their little shirts too short or too tight, I think, bless their hearts, because it's a possible mom and dad just can't afford to or aren't in the middle state to provide what that
baby needs. But it's one of the first signs you can see outwardly that a baby's not being cared for the way they you would want them to be, right, to feel confident and safe and things like that.
I wouldn't be very confident that people that can't take care of their children in that capacity would have the ability or like the fortitude to be able to home school them in the way that would prepare them for the education that they may want to have later.
Right, unless you were telling me that maybe there's like this religious angle where they're highly religious and they don't want her in public school, or there's some kind of like we're doomsday preppers and we're trying to keep her away from mainstream things like I've seen people's mental health struggles play into that decision too. But then do they truly provide the care and the need and the education that that child needs. Oftentimes not right, like the motivations
they are un understandable. But then you start to look at, well, what can you provide for that baby, and it's not the safe learning environment that they need.
Since the Jamison's had security cameras, installed outside of their residence, which pointed directly at the driveway. Sheriff Beacham watched the footage of them preparing to leave on October eighth. It showed Bobby and Sharlyn making at least twenty trips back and forth between the house and their pickup truck in order to load it with items, and oddly, they would
sometimes move the same items multiple times. The couple did not seem to speak or acknowledge each other while this was going on, and Sheriff Beaucham described them as appearing to be in a trance like state, as they would sometimes just stop and stare with vacant looks on their faces. One of the most curious details about the footage is that it showed Sharlyn loading a brown briefcase into the truck, as his case was not present when the truck was
discovered and has never been accounted for. In addition, Charlyn owned a twenty two caliber pistol and may have been carrying it when she left, but it could not be found in the truck or the house. When Sheriff Beecham had a psychologist examine the surveillance footage to analyze the Jameson's behavior. He seemed to believe that Bobby and Schrilyn were under the influence of drugs, possibly methamphetamine, which was
very prevalent in Oklahoma during that time period. However, no traces of meth or any other drugs or drug related paraphernalia could be found in the truck or the Jamison residence, and it's never been conclusively proven if they were involved in illegal drugs in any way.
Well, it's difficult to say that they were when you don't have any kinds of signs of a pipe or a spoon or anything found in the truck. If they were going away and they were drug addicts, I feel like you would find something in that truck that alluded.
To the use of drugs.
I also think you have to step back and look at the side effects of mental health episodes when people are manic or they're in, you know, extremely depressive episodes or things like that. They can also function in a trance like state. But when you look at the kiddo's pictures, it almost seems like if drugs were an issue, it's possible that the child was exposed to that as well.
That could explain the oddness of the photo. But I looking at this don't see drug use at that moment, because again, you would have found something in that truck.
If these are addicts on the run, if these are people about to escape, If these are people who are planning to be away for four days and they use drugs, likelihood is they'll need their drugs before they get home and they found nothing, So to me, I'd be leaning more towards could this be something of a middle health break instead of a drug addiction or kind of a drug induced state that could be causing that fixed trance like stare.
I've run into.
People who are in the middle of a mental health breakdown and they'd look through you, they don't make eye contact with you. There's very little ability to get their attention back to what you're talking about. So I think that's a possibility as well.
I one hundred percent agree with that. I think that it is far more likely that it's a mental health episode rather than drugs, because I just don't think that you know, regardless of which drug the person is using, that they are going to actually care enough if they're using meth on a regular basis to scrub every little trace of meth from their home and also their vehicle.
If you're not finding any evidence of that drug, I would say that meth would cause a pretty chaotic state that you wouldn't be thinking, Oh, let me clean up
every little thing. You'd find something. I just think that Robin's going to talk more about Sharlyn's mental health in a minute, but I am just much more inclined to think exactly what she said ash that this is a mental health break, and it seems so unfortunate because they're both going through something at the same time, and poor little Madison is just along for the ride.
As you recall, some empty prescription pill bottles were found in the truck, as Bobby and Shriylyn were on medication and had lost a lot of weight in the months prior to the disappearances. In two thousand and three, Bobby was involved in a serious vehicular accident with two other motorists which seriously injured his back and caused him to suffer from chronic pain, so he was legally classified as
disabled and unable to work. Bobby filed a lawsuit against the defendants who were responsible for his accident, and according to his mother, Starlett, the suit was settled out of court for sixty four thousand dollars, and Bobby proceeded to split the money with his wife. Sharylyn was also legally classified as disabled and unable to work to chronic pain in her neck and shoulder, and she also suffered from
bipolar disorder and depression. Even though Cherlyn had been prescribed medication to control her condition, she did not always take it when she was supposed to. Charln's depression hit her particularly hard when she lost her younger sister, Marla in two thousand and seven, as Marla suffered a failed beasting
on her tongue, which caused her throat to swell. As we mentioned earlier, Charlyn also lost custody of her son, Colton, to her ex husband after a hearing in which Colton stated that he would prefer to live with his mother because his mother was often depressed and acted strangely. Only one month before she vanished, Shrilyn was hospitalized after a
failed suicide attempt. She also spoke to Colton weeks later, and he claimed his mother never mentioned anything to him about the family's plans to move away and purchase land in Latimer County.
Yeah her mental health had to be pretty severe because Colton is at the point where, at twelve years old, he can recognize how unstable and unhealthy she is. And not just does the judge say, Okay, your preference is to live with dad, but he says Mom gets zero access to him, zero custody rights to her son. So again, like I said, it's not like she was granted Christmas in summer break or anything. She lost custody of him.
So it had to be pretty significant that this twelve year old signals I need to get out dad's able, to get him away from that situation, and the judge agrees Mom should have no access or no legal rights to him. So that speaks volumes. You also had the idea that she had also lost a sister and they're going through these difficult situations where Bobby loses his job and their own disability. They settle out of court for
sixty four thousand. That's not a large amount of money in two thousand and three, and you've got to think some of that had to go to his attorney. So when you're looking at this case, how long would that money stress and provide the lifestyle that they have. You guys mentioned they had a really nice house in the lake that they seem to have, you know, things at their disposal. So sixty four thousand dollars is not going to stretch that far. She is dealing with a lot.
She's has suicidal ideologies and actually acts on them, loses her son, loses her sister struggles with her mental health. Her husband is at home also struggling with disability. It's a recipe for disaster on multiple levels. With Bobby, is he experiencing the same kind of mental health or is it the chronic pain? And do we not does he have a problem with pain, medication or anything like that that would cause him to be in that same similar state.
Possibly, well, he was never diagnosed with anything like he doesn't have the bipolar disorder and depression, but I do think he might be suffering some issues, maybe because of the chronic pain and the medication. Because we'll go into more detail about this momentarily, but both him and Sherilyn would start exhibiting like very bizarre behavior before they went missing. When and when you hear about your kind of will kind of cringe a little bit, saying, ooh, if this
does not sound like a good situation. These two very troubled people looking after an innocent young child. That must be Tougher Madison. But yeah, it sounded like Bobby had his own problems as well.
They also had empty prescription bottles in the car, so they didn't find full prescription bottles, which makes me wonder do they overdose on them or do they not take their medication the way they're supposed to, which would be a massive problem when you talk about mental health as well.
Bobby also had his own familial problems, as Five months before he went missing, Bobby filed a lawsuit against his estrange father, Bob Dean Jamison, Sr. Alleging that Bob had once enticed him to work for free at a gas station he owned in Oklahoma City. According to Bobby, his father had promised he would inherit a half interest in the business in exchange for his lady, but instead Bob sold the gas station without giving any of the proceeds
to his son. Bobby's relationship with his father had deteriorated so much that following the lawsuit, he also filed a petition for a protective order against him, claiming that Bob had threatened to kill his family and tried to run him over with a car. Bobby described his father as a quote very dangerous man who thinks he's above the law end quote, and claimed he used meth and was
involved with gangs, prostitution, and the Mexican mafia. After over forty years of marriage, Bob's wife, Starlett had ended their marriage by divorcing him, and she was the one who suggested that Bobby installed security cameras outside his home in order to protect himself from his father. In December two thousand and nine, only two months after his son went missing,
Bob passed away at the age of sixty seven. It would turn out the one year earlier, Bob had made his brother, Jack Jamieson executor of his estate and cut Bobby and Starlet out of his will. Instead, Bob left the entire estate to his granddaughter, though of course, by the time he died, Madison was no longer around to inherit it. In spite of the heated relationship between Bobby and his father, investigators concluded that Bob had a solid alibi during the time period is somewhat missing, and was
likely not involved in the family's disappearance well. Jack Jamison did acknowledge that his brother was a disturbed man. He said that Bob spent the majority of his final months in either a hospital or a rest home and did not believe he was physically capable of traveling to a rugged, mountainous area to commit murder.
When you started describing this, I thought, well, here we go. Dad had a reason and to you know, come after him. They were in this feud. But then you described that he passed away two months later, and his brother's even saying, yes, look, my brother's not a perfect man. He's got his own problems, but he's been so sick there's just no way for him to have traveled like that. It really does take
him out of the situation. What's interesting is that even Mom divorces Dad and says, hey, you need to put some security cameras up because this man's unhinged. So it shows, even just within the family, that there's an issue with mental health, behavioral issues, abusive tendencies. That's scary. Everyone including Bobby, is confirming this behavior. If it was just Bobby saying my dad's crazy or my dad's a bad guy, I might not actually believe it. But when Mom and Bob's
own brother says, look, there were some problems. We know that there's a family issue, but could he have killed them? I don't think so, Nor would he have left things to Madison if he knew he was going to go and actually take Madison's life.
Yeah, it does seem like just an unfortunate coincidence that the family's experiencing so many problems. But yet, in addition, Bobby was in a situation where he felt his own father was trying to kill him. And this only brings up more questions about the family's financial situation, because it does not sound like Bobby was getting much financial support from his dad, since he cut him out of the
business when they sold the gas station. So obviously Bob Senior was not paying for his Lakeside house or providing any financial support. So maybe it was being offered by Bobby's mother, Starlet, or something. Maybe she was financially well off. But it really says a lot that they could be together for forty years and then all of a sudden, Starlett says, I'm divorcing him. I want nothing to do with him. He's completely unhinged.
I wonder if when she left coincided with when he started to get sick. And while he was in that state, maybe he wasn't so threatening, so Starlett was like, I'm out of here.
That would make sense. Yeah, maybe in the past she was too terrified to leave him before, but now she realizes he's pretty helpless, so it's safe for me to get away. Another person who was looked at as a potential suspect was a family friend named Kenneth Bellows, who had spent a couple months living at the Jamison residence as a boarder in exchange for helping them out and
doing handywork around them house. However, in July of two thousand and nine, Bellows revealed himself to be a white supremacist, and since Cherylyn had Native American heritage, he told her that anyone who did not have pure white blood deserved to die. This led to a heated argument in which Cherlyn grabbed a gun and pointed it at Bellow's head and demanded to get out of their house, and she also fired a shot into the ground beneath Bellows's feet
to convince him to leave. Even though Bellows had an extensive criminal record, investigators cleared him of having any involvement in the Jamison's disappearance, since it turned out he was in jail during the time period they went missing. But interestingly enough, Shrilyn's closest friend, Nicki Shennold, claimed she once got an anonymous phone call from a woman who said
she had belonged to a white supremacy group. The woman claimed that she saw the Jamison's names in a book which contained a list of people whom the leader of this group supposedly had a problem with, and she also said she overheard conversations about how they had been taken
care of. The caller was never identified. One reason Nikki believed she might have been telling the truth was because she accurately described the insignia on Bobby's wedding ring, a piece of information that very few people knew.
Well, this is a horrifying development. When you look at this. You have Bellows who says, listen, I'm this white supremacist and anyone who doesn't have pure Caucasian blood needs to die. And all of a sudden, he's telling this to a Native American family. So obviously, Cheryl Lynn says, like, hold up a second, you can exit here, and she goes to great extent to let him know you're no longer welcome here by firing this gun underneath the floorboard at
him and things like that. It is possible that Bellows goes back to his white supremacist leader and says, these people threatened me. These people attacked me and came at me. Now we have to take them out like they're dangerous. It reinforces their messed up ideology anyway, right, reinforce is that these are now quote problems. And then this phone call, she's identifying an insignia on Bobby's wedding ring that very
few people knew about. That's horrifying because that's a very specific little detail that unless you had close access to him, you might not know was his wedding ring on his finger or in the grave when he was found.
Uh, they never really revealed that information about whether they had any jewelry with them, because at that point they would be nothing but bones. But if they did still have the wedding ring at the scene, that information has never been released publicly. I know that there had been like flash floods in the area, and like they've been out in the elements for full years, four years, so anything could have happened in the ring in that time period.
But it's true though, that if it was missing and they couldnot find it, you could take that as a sign that maybe, if foul play took place, that someone took the ring as some sort of souvenir.
It almost sounds like such a ridiculous theory until you hear about the insigne, and then you're going to pause, because how the heck would this woman have that type of information. It sounds like it's something that only people who were close to Bobby would know, so you can't just pull that out of thin air. No one ever emerged as a solid suspect in the Jamison's disappearances, but Bobby and Shrilyn had both displayed troubling and erratic behavior
before they went missing. At separate times, the couple told their local pastor that they believed their home was haunted and they had supposedly seen spirits inside the residence and on the roof. In fact, Bobby asked the pastor for advice on how to get rid of them, and inquired if there was a special bullet he could buy which
was made to kill spirits. Charlyn also said that Madison had been speaking with the spirit of a deceased child named Emily, but Chrilyn feared that it was a malevolent entity. She seemed to believe that she had the power to exercise these demons from the home and had been assaulting Satanic bibles for information about how to deal with the problem.
The Jamisons also had a large storage container on their property and they were apparently planning to live in it if they purchased a plot of land in Latimer County. At one point, Cherylyn wrote graffiti on the container which read quote three cats killed to date by people in this area. Witches don't like their black cats being killed.
End quote. The story goes that Sharlyn's cat had passed away and she believed that her neighbors had poisoned it, and since they were reportedly rumors circulating throughout the community that Shrilyn was a witch, she decided to write this
message in order to scare everyone off. A number of letters were found inside the Jamison residence which seemed to indicate that Bobby and Cherylyn were obsessed with death, but one of the most troubling pieces of evidence was an angry, eleven page letter and Charlyn had written to Bobby that was found inside their pickup truck. The whole thing was described as a hate letter. Charlyn expressed her desire for divorce, referring to her husband is a loner and a hermit
and accusing him of not caring about their daughter. One troubling line she wrote read quote, I would not wish my daughter to be raised in foster care because of you, you being in prison for attempted murder and her mother dead. Some of Scherlyn's friends confirmed but she'd spoken of divorcing Bobby and said that the writing in her letter represented the type of moods wing Cherylyne experienced whenever her bipolar disorder took over.
There is a lot to unpack in what you just said, Jules. So okay, I have a problem with the fact that we're going to Satanic Bibles to start looking at exercising the home. We're talking to the pastor about are there bullets that I can use to kill these spirits, and that they think their little one is being influenced by a demonic force in that realm, if mom and dad are both starting to engage in this idea of needing to exercise the family and needing to the home, and
these kinds of things. Could it have gone as far as we have to kill those of us who have been infiltrated by these demons, right, like that's the only way to get them out of us or to get away from this. So that could be something where mom and dad are both on that similar playing field, right. But you also have this letter that to me could
go two ways. It could have enraged Bobby to the point like you're not taking my daughter and leaving where he says murder suicide for the whole family to prevent that. And also it could indicate that shary Lynn's at her wits end and she says, I'm not going to leave this baby in foster care so and I'm scared of you or I don't love you anymore, and she's the one who initiates a murder suicide of the whole family to get out of the life that they currently lead.
So to me, there's like the satanic or paranormal angle where they're trying to see how they get this demon possessed entity away from their daughter and or their home or themselves. She's a witch. Could they have thought death was a way to rid their family of these spirits? We have the husband could have turned because of this angry letter, or we have the wife could have turned
because of this angry letter. So to me, there's three internal issues that would say it's not an external person coming in and hurting the family, it's generated from mom and dad. From one of those three angles.
Yeah, it's pretty disturbing. And we were talking about their financial situation and how because they weren't making much income, how lucky they were to have this house near the lake. But as far as I can tell, they never actually sold their house, like they were going to try to purchase a plot of land, but it's unclear what kind of arrangements they had where they're actually going to live
inside the storage container on the land. And when you hear this, you get the impression that the only reason they're doing this is because they believe their house is haunted, and that even though they haven't been able to sell it and they're probably going to lose a lot of money if they do, so that they're kind of desperate to get out of there and possibly go off and
live in this remote place. And when you see all this stuff, that get to really really concern for Madison because she is clearly like living in a house with two very mentally unwell parents, and you start fearing that the worst could have happen to her.
It's scary too because of the mental health angle. You see these two people who are not only withdrawing Madison from school, they're both withdrawing from it seems like friendships and relationships. And they're going to be moving to this rural place. And this isn't a converted storage unit. This doesn't seem like a very suitable place to be living for a child, Like there's not running water, there doesn't seem to be toilets. And I'm not trying to judge
a situation. I just don't think that these two people are in a state of mind at this point be able to care for her. You just see hallmarks of bipolar mania in that Cherylyn believe that she's got these special powers. And I'm not don't want to get into
any arguments about psychics or anything. I believe certain people have abilities, but the belief in supernatural and believing one episode of certain abilities are as special in that type of a way can definitely indicate that somebody is experiencing mania.
The family would remain missing for over four years and received national exposure when the case was featured on an episode of Disappeared, which aired in December of twenty ten. However, on November sixteenth, twenty thirteen, a family was on a deer hunting trip in Smokestack Hollow, a valley located just northwest of the Sans Boas Mountains in Latimer County, when they discovered three human skulls which appeared to belong to
two adults and a child. A further search of the area would soon turn up additional skull to remains, as well as bits of clothing and shoes. Since this location was less than three miles away from the spot where the Jamison's pickup truck had been abandoned, it was immediately assumed that the remains belonged to the family, but it would not be until July of twenty fourteen when it was officially announced that the victims have been positively identified
as Bobby, Cherylyn, and Madison. Unfortunately, since having decomposition and animal predation had taken place, the medical examiner cannot determine an exact cause of death for any of them. Due to Bobby and Sherlyn's erratic behavior prior to their disappearances.
One possible theory which was pushed forward is that either or both of them could have orchestrated a murder suicide which involved killing their daughter before they killed themselves, but no murder weapon could be found at the scene, since the weather had been cold on the day of the family disappeared, and they left their coats behind in the truck. There was also speculation that they could have wandered off and gotten lost before they died of exposure, but this
could not be conclusively proven either. The victim's friends and relatives still seemed to believe they were murdered, and one of the wildest theories was presented by Charland's mother, Connie Cockaton, who believed that a religious cult operating in southwest Oklahoma
have put the family on their hit list. While Connie did not name this cult, she refused to believe that either of Madison's parents would have done anything to harmor and mentioned a discussion that Bobby once had with Sherilyn about the family's financial troubles, where he standed, quote, I know where I can get the money, but I won't involve you end quote. Unfortunately, since the Jamison's remains were
discovered eleven years ago. There don't appear to have been any new major developments in the investigation, so the exact circumstances of how they died continues to remain a bizarre unsolved mystery. So I guess you could say the path went Chiley.
What's so difficult is that the bones when you discovered those remains, and because there's so much animal predation and things like that out there, if there were marks on the bones, it would be difficult to say is it animal induced or was it weapon induced? But you know, it's sad because you think about what could you do for a murder. Suicide wouldn't leave incredible marks on the bones, like a gunshop wound to the head would have obviously
a defined wound to the skull. So if they don't see things like that, I started thinking, Okay, well, what could have happened. There are empty prescription bottles, so it's possible that the parents could have overdosed but and strangled I or suffocated the baby. But other than that, it is possible there were injuries on the bones, and they just can't distinguish if it's you know, stab marks or things like that, or if it's from an animal's teeth
or claws. So it's kind of confusing when we sit back and we say there's no way for them to determine cause of death? Is it because the bones were so damaged and they don't know from what or were there zero signs of any kind of weapon being used against their bodies?
Well, their bones were quite scattered because they found the skulls and then they found other remains nearby. But I'm assuming that they could not find any gunshot holes on any of the skulls or in any of the bones, And of course they did not find any gun nearby at the scene, so they don't have any conclusive evidence that any of them were shot. And if there was damage to the moones, like, how do you determine if it's caused by a weapon or if it was caused
by say the elements or animal predation. Because the remains had been there for four years.
Did they ever account for Charln's twenty two caliber.
No, they never did find it to it, and the briefcase that she was seen loading in the truck were never found anywhere.
That's super odd too. The briefcases really disturbing, like was there money in it? Was there something in that they were trying to go meet up with someone in trade for money or very bizarre.
Anyway, this case is something of a milestone for yours truly, because it happened to be the subject of the very first episode of Disappeared I ever watched, and since I believe this was a very baffling mystery, I immediately became hooked on the show and became convinced it was the
second coming of unsolved mysteries. Now, another case involving a missing family which got featured on Disappeared and took place only four months after this one, was the disappearance of a couple named Joseph and Summer Micstay and their two boys, four year old Gianni and three year old Joseph Junior, who all vanished from their home in Barbaro, California, on
February the fourth, twenty ten. At the time, I found both of these cases to be absolutely perplexing, because how often does an entire family just disappear off the face of the earth. But in a truly astonishing coincidence, Even though these two cases were not connected at all and took place in different states. The micsdays and Jamison's would
be discovered within the exact same week. On November eleventh, twenty thirteen, the skeleton remains of Joseph summer Gianni and Joseph Junior were found buried in a pair of shallow graves in a remote desert area of s of San Bernardino County, and of course it would only be five
days later when the jamisons remains refound. The key difference between the two cases is that the Micstays were clearly the victims of foul play, and a suspect named Charles Chase Merritt would eventually be charged, tried, and convicted of their murders. But we still don't have the faintest idea of what actually happened to the Jamisons, as the cause of death for Bobby, Sherylan and Madison has never been determined.
If foul play did take place here, it's still up for debate whether the deaths were the result of an unknown third party or a murder suicide from someone within the family. In most cases, the latter scenario might not seem likely, but because Bobby and Cherylyn have been acting so strangely just prior to their disappearances, you cannot rule
anything out. While he isn't heading the investigation anymore. Former Latimer County Sheriff Israel Beecham stated during the Disappeared episode, quote most investigators would love to have the amount of evidence that we have the problem is that it leads us in every which direction end quote. Indeed, Beacham stated that he could not eliminate any of the potential scenarios in this case, yet he acknowledged that there was no strong evidence that specifically pointed to any one of them.
Of course, at the time Beacham said this, the Jamisons were still missing persons. So I guess we can now technically eliminate a couple of potential scenarios which have been put forward, which had been put forward, such as the family going into witness protection or disappearing involuntarily to live off the grid somewhere.
What's really interesting is he's right, there's almost too many scenarios of what could have happened. We have a lot of cases where we say, who would want to hurt this person? They were just the normal all American girl going missing, right, But here you have two parents that seem to have some mental health issues going on, some
more extreme than others. You might have financial issues. There's also this discussion with the occult and witchcraft and the Satanic worship trying to free their home of demon a strained marriage, at least when mental health is aring up right, there seems to be an expression of not wanting to be married anymore and frustrations there. But then you also have a tie to white supremacy, you have a tie to the witchcraft community, and so it's just interesting when
you start looking at this case. It has so many legs to the spider right that the web is almost impossible to interpret. So it is one of those cases where it's the opposite of what you see. Sometimes there's a ton of possible scenarios, and it also could have been some random opportunistic predator who wanted to hurt them, or someone in a business deal gone bad. But overall, none of them have any depth to the cause of death right or to who could have hurt the Jamisons.
It's all just saying here are some possible scenarios.
One more layer that I find interesting that might you know, contribute to state of mind. The state of mind of Bobby is that he did have that injury. And I've heard over all the different coverage of this case, and probably on the original Disappeared episode because I remember it too, Robin.
It was one that I was obsessed with that when that came out and the McStay family, I was hooked on Disappeared, and I remember thinking, like, this is a man who has an injury, and I just don't see that he would have this ability to hike out there. But also, chronic pain can really impact somebody's mental health and their state of mind. So there's just like so many pieces here, like so many layers to this onion that when you continue to peel them back, it's just
there's a million different avenues to pursue. So I can understand why law enforcement looked at it and was like, yeah, most investigations would be happy to have this amount of information, but it can almost feel fractured at this point.
Yeah, and that point you brought up about Bobby's chronic pain, like if the remains had found it relatively close proximity to the vehicle, I could to the truck, I could think, Okay, they walked into the woods and they orchestrated and murdered suicide. But when you find out that it was nearly three miles and you're thinking, could Bobby have been capable of walking that far and also taking a small child along
with them? And you wonder, like, even regardless of whether it was murder suicide, or murdered by an unknown party, you still wonder, how did the Jamisons get that far out?
Isn't it also possible, though, that Bobby's exaggerating the injury. I'm not saying he is, but remember they're in financial distress, They've had multiple issues. Neither of them seem very stable. If you look at someone who says like I got cut out of my dad's business, you know, if you claim to be disabled and you play that up you have access to your pain medicine, that could be a sign of addiction as well. You might be able to treat your own mental health issues with that pain medicine
by dulling your emotions. I think it's possible that he was very injured and that was just a blessing that he was able to get disability. But you also have to step back and say, given that his wife is already on disability and struggling with mental health and everything else in their life, doesn't seem stable either. Could disability have been a way to collect money and not have to go to work? Like, could that be a possibility
in the scenario. I think it's possible, because again, it gives him access to care and prescriptions that he wouldn't have if he wasn't claiming the chronic pain.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Robin, But didn't people who are close to them say that they didn't think that Bobby would be able to hike that distance exactly.
Yeah, So it does seem very believable because this so called accident took place like six years before this, and I think he underwent like a major examination, like the determined, yes, you have a serious injury, you cannot work, and that's how he got the disability payments. So I don't think that he was exaggerating it in any way. I think he
was in bad shape. And the fact that his family members and friends have said the same thing that we find it unlikely he could have hiked nearly three miles adds just a whole other layer of mystery to the whole situation.
And why would they want to, like just if they were if it was a murder suicide and either Shrilyn or Bobby was responsible. If Bobby was responsible, why would he choose to go so far that it would be so painful for him to do so? And if Shrilyn was responsible for it, why would she push everybody to go that far? Wouldn't you just go like half a mile or something and just go somewhere where it's very concealed. It just seems like such a great distance to travel when you just don't need to exactly.
But if I was going to take my family and say I'm trying to, you know, get the demon out or I'm trying to spare them from hurt, wouldn't you want to be discovered? Like wouldn't you want the baby's body to be laid to rest at some point?
So I think this would be a good time to bring in into part one. But join us next week as we present part two of our series about the unexplained deaths of the Jamison family.
Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit about the Trail Went Cold Patreon?
Yes, the Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up with us on Patreon if you join our five dollars tier Tier two. We also offer monthly bonus episodes in which I talk about cases which are not featured on the Trail Went Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to Patreon and if you join our highest tier tier three,
the ten dollars tier. One of the features we offer is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Unsolved Mysteries, where you can download an audio file and then boot up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in the background, where I just provide trivia and factoid. It's about the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very first episode that I did a commentary track over
was the episode featuring this case. So if you want to download a commentary track in which I make more smart ass remarks about Jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join Tier three.
So I want to let you know a little bit about the Jeweles and Nashty Patreons. So there's early ad free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our Pathwent chili mini's, which are always over an hour, so they're not very mini, but they're just too short to turn into a series, and we're really enjoying doing those, so we hope you'll check out those patreons.
We'll link them in the show notes.
So I want to thank you all for listening, and any chance you have to share us on social media with a friend or to rate and review is greatly appreciate it. You can email us at the Pathwentchili at gmail dot com. You can reach us on Twitter at the Pathwin. So until next time, be sure to bundle up because cold trails and chili pass call for warm clothing.
Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy