Welcome back to the Path Wind, Chile for part two of our series about the unexplained deaths of the Jamison family. Robin, do you want to catch everyone up on when we talked about in our previous episode?
Well, I previously mentioned that this was featured on the very first episode of Disappeared that I ever watched. It involves a family from Oklahoma, forty four year old Bobby Jamison, his forty year old wife Sherilyn, and their six year old daughter, Madison. This is in October of two thousand and nine. At the time, neither of the two parents were working. They were on disability because of injuries and
various mental health issues. They had pulled Madison out of school to homeschooler, and were known for being kind of a private and reclusive family, and it was pretty concerning because they were displaying like a lot of paranoid and erratic behavior. They thought their home was haunted. They thought that Madison was talking to the ghost of a deceased girl. And then one day they decided to go out into a remote area of Latimer County in order to supposedly
purchase a plot of land. But they soon vanished without a trace and their abandoned pickup truck would be found. It had the family dog inside, who was near death, though thankfully she was saved, and the strangest detail was thirty two dollars in cash hidden under the driver's seat, which was presumably going to be used to purchase the land, but no one could figure out why it was left there, and pretty much four years passed by without anyone having
any idea what happened to the Jamisons. There were a number of different theories involving them possibly being murdered by a white supremacy group or being murdered by obviously strange father, but there was really no evidence pointing in to any direction. And then, finally, four years after they were a last scene, in November of twenty thirteen, the remains of all three victims were found in the woods, about three miles away
from the spot where their truck had been abandoned. They found the skulls and their bones scattered around there, but 'ren able to determine the exact cause of death of any of the three victims. There's been debate about whether they were the victim of a homicide by an outside party or because of the parent's erratic behavior. Possibly one or both of them committed a murder suicide where they killed Madison and then ended their own lives. But of course no gun or murder weapon was found, and no
one knows how they actually died. And sadly, it's now been almost eleven years since the remains were discovered, and the investigation has pretty much hit a standstill. And that's why we're talking about it on today's episode.
Less than three miles from the remote dirt road where their truck was parked shows that their deaths definitely occurred sometime after they arrived in the area. Now, even though a very extensive search effort was performed and failed to turn up anything. We've reiterated so many times on this podcast that even the best search operations will fail to turn off human remains, especially when you're dealing with a
rugged wilderness area. There are so many missing persons cases like this where the victims remains or partial remains are discovered in the same area they disappeared from years after the fact, meaning that the original search effort missed them. I do think that's likely what happened here in the Jamison case, though some interesting comments were provided by Tim Graham,
the deer hunter who found their skulls. Even though the skulls had sunk into the soil a little bit, Graham said they were visible and lying next to an easily accessible trail, so we openly expressed his surprise that the searchers never found them back in two thousand and nine. However, there was a lot of miserable weather and heavy rains during that time period, some of which took before the truck was even discovered, and the original search team believed
that the remains might have been obscured by falling leaves. Indeed, it does seem far fetched that someone would abduct all three family members and murder them at another location, and then return back to the area to dispose of their bodies. But another interesting detail that Graham noticed was a hole in the top of Bobby's skull, which he believed may have been a bullet wound. Will investigators said that the hole might have been caused by a coyote who not
on the skull's edges. Graham replied, quote, ain't no coyote did that? Well, since no gun could be found at the scene and there were no traces of any bullets or slugs. It's never been conclusively proven that any of the victims were shot. One of the reasons the murder suicide theory has gotten some traction is because a twenty two caliber gun Sherylyn owned, like we mentioned earlier in our last episode, was never accounted for. But we also can't be one hundred percent certain she even had it
on her when she traveled to Latimer County. I don't know how common it is for animals to pick up guns off the ground and carry them away, but I guess that provides a potential explanation for how a gun could have disappeared from the scene if it was used. The area was also apparently prone to flash floods, so that's been pushed forward as a potential explanation for why
the gun wasn't there. Like given that the three victims' remains were all found together in the same spot, I'm not sure how much flooding took place.
When you look at this and you ask, Okay, is there are a gun involved, Like we talked about on episode one, I think that it's hard to make that determination given the conditions the bodies were found in. Unless there was a clear indication of the bullet wound, which I think would have also been confirmed when their bodies were recovered and the remains were sent for examination. It's difficult to say this looks like a gunshot wound because
they were scattered. There was injuries to the bones because of the weather and because of the elements, and because of the animals that were taking them and scattering them. So it's really difficult. But it's scary when you think about the twenty two missing and you remember that letter that was found. It was in the truck, correct, that eleven page letter. It was yeah, okay, So to me,
she leaves with that briefcase. It's possible she had her gun with her at the time because they couldn't find it, and there's this eleven page like hate letter that she's written to her husband. Doesn't seem like something I would take along on a family trip when we're going to
have fun or go on vacation. She's clearly not happy with him at the time, and I feel like that would be that motivation for either her or Bobby to actually act out in reaction to that letter, like why would you bring it with you?
Yeah? I mean, we're going to talk about the letter a bit more later on. I mean, it's possible that she could have written that at a previous time, and possibly Bobby and Cherylyn had made out by then and
the letter just happened to be in the truck. We did another case like that in the early days of The Path Went Chile, with the murders of Mike Reamer and Diana Robertson, where their little girl was found abandoned at an apartment store while their bodies were found in the woods, and there was some ambiguity about whether Mike might have murdered Diana because he was known for being abusive, and there was like a note found in the truck that said I'm sorry Diana, But we don't know if
he wrote that on the day of the crime, or if it was just written on a previous occasion and it just happened to be in the truck. So it could be the same thing with Sharlyn.
And I'm going to venture a guest and say that their truck was likely pretty messy, so there could be any number of dates that Sharlyn might have wrote that letter, especially since her family members had said and we mentioned in our previous episode that this was typical of Shrilyn when she was going through her bipolar depression or bipolar mania, that she would have very extreme emotion and she would express them in letters.
Yeah, and it almost felt like this could have been like a starting over for the couple, that even though they had some problems, they were going to go purchase this parcel of land and maybe just get a fresh start when they moved to this new location. So maybe whatever she written that wrote on that letter, maybe days
or weeks earlier, it had all calmed down by that point. Now, in any unsolved case involving a deceased family, no one wants to flat out accuse parents of killing their own child before taking their own lives unless there's definitive proof of that. But we also cannot ignore the fact that there were a number of major warning signs with Bobby
and Sharlin. Both of them were on disability and could not work as Bobby suffered from severe chronic back pain, while Cherylyn struggled with bipolar disorder and depression and made a failed suicide attempt only one month before she went missing. The couple seemed to believe their house was haunted by spirits, and Charlyn wrote cryptic graffiti on a storage container outside their residence in order to give off the impression that
she was a witch and scare her neighbors. But according to people who knew her, Sheldon may have just been playing things up because she did not like her neighbors and figured that the best way to ensure they left her alone was to make them think she was crazy. Of course, the biggest red flag was, like we said, the angry eleven page letter, which was found in the Jamison's pickup truck, where Sheerlyn expressed a lot of anger
towards Bobby and seemed intent on ending the marriage. Given how they seemed to believe that Madison was communicating with malevolent spirits, it's possible that either or both of them could have suffered a complete mental breakdown and convinced themselves that ending Madison's life was the best thing to do
before they killed themselves. While there are a lot of things about the Jameson's actions which don't make any sense, all rules pretty much go out the window when you're dealing with victims who were suffering from potentially serious mental health issues and could also be under the influence of drugs.
While no gun was found at the scene. There were a lot of empty pill bottles inside the truck, so if a suicide took place, it could have been the result of some sort of overdose, which would have been impossible to determine after they've been skeleton remains for four
years now. On the Disappeared episode, the family's friends and her relatives acknowledge that even though Bobby and Shrilyn had gone through a rough patch, their decision to relocate and buy a plot of land in the mountains was their attempt to make a fresh start. While Sharerlyn's later gave off the impression that she felt a lot of hatred towards Bobby, we technically don't know when exactly it was written. For all we know, it could have been written weeks
earlier and left inside the truck. But things that actually improved for them since then.
So one of the things that I was thinking is that with Madison, if they truly believe she's dealing with the demonic entity and she's talking to this demon and the demons have possessed their home, and they're asking their pastor things like is there a bullet we can get to eliminate these spirits? In our house, Like, how do
we get rid of the evil that's here? It almost give me flashes of like Andrea Yates who thought that she had to kill her kids one to prevent Satan coming back, and that was her way to like save her babies, was to eliminate their life, right because she was so scared of the evil coming in their life.
So when you guys described that to me earlier in the episode before talking about how they were literally going to their pastor in desperation to get this evil out of their home, and we're even turning to Satanic Bibles and witchcraft to see if they could free themselves from from that darkness. They're claiming their baby was engaged with this demonic force. It was dark and you know, malicious.
So could they have said, we have to get rid of her, and if we do that, I want to be with her, and they could have taken their pills to overdose. I think that's very possible strangulation or even overdosing her. But strangulation would be a way that you wouldn't see any markings on the bones that were clear
weapon wounds. It would be something that would obviously disappear or dissipate after you just had the bones there, right, unless they happen to find the broken hyoid bone or something like that, But you would think that that is one possibility is saying I'm going to spare my child's life to save her and then I don't want to deal with life without her.
One thing we can to ignore, too, is the fact that the greatest predictor of homicidality is suicidality. So the fact that Sherilyn had a suicide attempt one month prior to all of these deaths is something that statistically would likely make her the most likely perpetrator if it were to be between her and Bobby. Would that be correct our in house criminologist doctor Ashey Wellman.
Yeah, absolutely. We have this idea that they were both obsessed with death. They clearly didn't fear death, and Sherilyn had already shown that she was at a point where she didn't care about living anymore. It was more important to her to take her own life and get out of whatever situation was haunting her than to fight through it. And so I agree, once that boundary gets cross and life is no longer valuable to you, or it feels
safer to not be here. I think it opens up a whole realm of possibilities of what other options you have to eliminate yourself and others.
I remember when I first heard the detail about the empty pill bottles, like that was my number one theory, that they went into the woods and the overdose, like they force fed Madison some pills before they took them themselves. But then I'm thinking, why are they leaving the empty pill bottles in the truck when they're found three miles away, Like what they empty the bottles and then just carry the pills with them Like that doesn't make a lot
of logical sense. So it's very possible that it could just be that they ran out of medication at an earlier time and left the pill bottles there and they have nothing to do with the case.
However, there has been speculation the Jamison's trip to look at Land was just a cover story for something more nefarious, such as drug dealing. Well, no direct evidence has ever been found to prove that Bobby and Sherland were dealing or using drugs. I'm not say prize that some people have attempted to link their odd behavior to a methamphetamine addiction, since Oklahoma has always been known for having a major
meth problem. The discovery of the thirty two thousand dollars under the truck driver's seat has also fueled speculation about drug dealing, since that seems like a lot of cash for two unemployed parents on disability to be carrying around. But before we start digging into all these theories, let's look at the circumstances of how the Jamison's wound up
in a remote mountainous area of Latimer County. To begin with, we do know that they already drove to the spot the day before they went missing, as a local resident confirmed having interacted with them, and since Bobby asked a number of questions about what it was like to live in the area, this does give off the impression that
he was serious about buying land there. Interestingly enough, if you search online, you'll find a blog titled keep the Search Alive containing an old post from January twenty twelve, written by an online s sleuth who decided to interview some people connected to the case during the time period that Jamisons were still missing. This person claimed that they spoke to the resident who encountered the Jamisons and learned that she showed various properties on Panola Mountain for a
real estate company. Apparently, the woman offered to show Bobby the property he was interested in buying, but he declined her offer and asked for the GPS coordinates for the spot instead. I mean, it's possible that Bobby simply wanted to look at the property on his own, but you could also infer that he did not want the real
estate lady there because he had something else planned. What the biggest issue I have with his theory about the Jamisons traveling there to participate in a drug deal or some sort of illegal transaction is why would they bring their six year old daughter along with them? If Bobby was involved in something potentially dangerous, might not have Chrylyn stay at home with Madison or leave the child in
the care of someone else. If they wanted to scout a location that they were planning to make their new home, then yes, it makes a lot more sense to bring Madison there. And then there's the fact that the Jamisons brought the family puppy, Maizie to the location and left or locked inside the truck, which nearly led to her
starving to death. I mean, perhaps we shouldn't be attempting to apply standard logic to the Jamison's actions, but if Bobby and Sherlyn were always planning on some sort of murder suicide, it just seems exceptionally cruel to lock their dog up to slowly die over the course of several days,
rather than simply shooting her. By all accounts, Madison was completely attached to Maisie and considered the dog to be her best friend, so she likely would have had a meltdown if someone attempted to separate them against her will. This is why it's tempting to believe that an outside party drove the Jamisons or forced them to walk to the location they were found while keeping the dog locked
in the truck. This wouldn't be the first case I've seen in which someone had no qualms about murdering multiple people, including a child, but drew the line at heart me an animal.
I think when you look at this too, for me the animal, why wouldn't you do the same with the animal. Why wouldn't you get someone to board the baby or watch your fur baby and say listen, we'll be back in three days. And you really have no intention of coming home, even if the plan was to do a
murder suicide kind of event. I also have been there where you're looking at real estate and you don't want the pressure of a real estate agent trying to convince you to buy the property, so you simply just want to go by and peek at it. It would make sense to take Madison at that point and the family dog, like we're gonna go out there. We're going to look at this property, let the dog lose, let the baby run around and play, and just see if we feel
like this is a place we want to be. Find it very interesting that Bobby's asking people about what it's like to live there. It's almost like he has that intent of saying, I want to see if this is the right place for my family, and he's actually inquiring about things that would make it livable and safe for his family to be there. It is interesting, though, when
you find this dog locked up. Although when we talk about true crime, we tease about it that people, you know, they love to watch the true crime part of the case, but once you hurt an animal, well you've gone way too far. Could someone have been willing to lock that dog in the car to hope that it survived, or could the dog have been one that made them uncomfortable or scared that they might attack while hurting their owner. That's a possibility too, so they locked the dog in
the car. It just seems bizarre, Like you said, if I'm going off to complete suicide, I don't bring my family, I don't bring the dog. If I'm doing a murder suicide, why did I bring the dog and not execute it? Too,
very very bizarre scenario. Bobby is showing signs of actually being interested in the property, but some of the other steps make it seem like was he preparing for something else as well, or was it maybe sherry Lynn who was preparing the darkness while Bobby was excited about buying this property.
That is true because if Bobby was planning a murder suicide, it really doesn't make much sense that he would stop by and ask for directions, because from his point of view, it doesn't really matter where we go. If we're going to end things, we can just go to some random, remote area. We don't have to pick a specific property. So his behavior does demonstrate that he seemed to be
legitimately interested in buying land. But of course that doesn't rule out the possibility that Sherilyn was always planning to end things once they arrived at this spot. Now, one odd detail which doesn't seem to make any sense is that Bobby's cell phone was used to call its voicemail on October the twelfth, four days after the family first arrived at that spot, And what are the chances that Bobby would have still been alive there after all that time.
But since the cell phone was locked inside the truck with Mazie, the most logical explanation might be that she accidentally stepped on a button which caused the phone to call voicemail. So this detail might not have any relevance to this case. Judging from the footprints of the scene and the GPS coordinates on Bobby's cell phone, investigators believe that the entire family walked up a nearby hill towards a large rock, which is where the final photograph of
Madison was taken with the cell phone. You can look up that photo online and judge for yourself, but it's always been the subject of device of reactions and interpretations. Some people, including the Jamison's relatives and friends, believe that Madison looks frightened and uncomfortable, possibly because the photo was being taken by someone else besides your parents. But if you search any online discussions about this case, you'll find a number of commenters who believe there's nothing out of
the ordinary about it. Well, obviously, the fact that this would be the last photograph of Madison before something happened to her is incredibly eerie, But I personally have never gotten the sense that it was taken while something bad was happening, and I just don't get the impression there's genuine fear on the girl's face. Yes, the manner in which your arms are crossed is odd, but it also comes across as a typical reaction from a six year old who is not in the mood to have their
picture taken. I'm sure anyone with children has had moments where they just happened to snap a photo of a kid at the exact wrong second, and the end result looks incredibly awkward. I'm sure there are many family photos out there of children giving off the same type of reaction as Madison, But because those kids didn't wind up going missing, there's nothing ominous about them. I wouldn't roll out the possibility that Madison could have been uncomfortable because
her parents were doing something she did not like. But I don't buy the theory that this photo was taken by a stranger. Remember, Bobby's cell phone was found inside the truck, so I'm not sure why an outside party would go to the trouble of using the phone to snap this picture before walking back down the hill and locking it in the truck.
Yeah, when you look at the picture. To me, when I first pulled it up, I thought, awkward, six year old. I can go through my phone and pull fifty pictures where I'm behind the camera going can you please look normal? Can you please smile for the camera? Put your arms down, honey? Right, trying to make her look quote normal, And she's just a silly, awkward kid, right that does a silly face, is frustrated, has had you know, doesn't want their picture taken.
Like you said, So it's hard to read into it. But if you're the family and you're saying, this is the last picture that was taken of her, look at how quote uncomfortable she looks. Is it because someone else is behind the camera. I could see that kind of almost hope that that would be a lead right, or a clue that could help bring a resolution, especially when these babies were missing, where the family's saying something's wrong in this picture, see if this is a clue. To me,
it does look more like the awkward kid. I find it bizarre that her little clothes don't quite fit right. They're out on this trip to hopefully scout out property. It's possible that they simply just didn't have the resources to dress her and clothes that fit. It's possible, too, though, that that's a sign that she was being neglected, or that her health was just not the priority at that moment.
They might have been so mentally distressed that they just didn't have the ability to care for her the way she needed to be cared for. And or that was her favorite darn shirt and she refused not to wear it that day, even when her parents said it didn't fit. So a million things to be happening in that photo. To me, I would default to an awkward kid, like you said, Robin. If she hadn't gone missing, nothing would have ever been thought of this picture, I don't think.
But yeah, actually I figured you were going to say that that you were going to because you're a parent that you were going to tell me you have a whole bunch of your own awkward photos of your child looking similar down Madison looks. But because they were just taken at a normal time and your children did not go missing, there was nothing out of the ordinary about them.
Yeah, exactly. And think about all the family pictures like your friend's post where they go spend a lot of money on family pictures.
Today.
Looks like Susie wasn't in the mood, right, and there's one kid that's just like pouting or staring off into space or being weird, and you're like, God, bless every everybody else looked at the camera. But all she did was keep her mouth gaping open and her arms cross the entire photo shoot. Right, So it's real hard to force a kiddo to pose the way you want them to and never come out with a picture that you go, what a weird bird? Right, that's my kid being a
fruitcake right now. So I think it's very possible she was just hot and fed up and don't take my picture.
The theory presented by Sheriff Beechen was that after the photo was taken, the Jamisons walked down the hill, on their own and climbed into the truck to drive away until someone else unexpectedly showed up. But investigators have never given off any indication that they found tire tracks from an outside vehicle at the scene, and while eight days passed before the Sheriff's office arrived, they were able to find the Jamison's footprints, so you'd think that additional tire
tracks would have been preserved as well. There was a local resident who said they saw the Jamison's truck driving towards the area on October eighth, but never saw them leave, and they also did not see anyone else enter or leave the area as well. Of course, I'm sure the witness didn't have their eyes on the road the entire time, so it's possible someone else could have driven up there without being noticed. But it's such a remote spot that it makes you wonder how an outside party would have
even known the family was there. I suppose that Jamison's could have made arrangements to meet someone or followed to that spot, as they had already gone there the previous day. The scenario about them being confronted by an outside party while they were attempting to leave made sense back in two thousand and nine, since they were still missing, because
for all anyone knew, the family could have been abducted. However, the family's remains were ultimately found just under three miles away, and if no one else was involved, you have to wonder how they got from point A to point B. For starters, Bobby's back and chronic pain issues, as we mentioned, made it very difficult for him to walk long distances, especially on rugged terrain, so it doesn't make sense that he would go there on his own accord, even if
he was planning a murder suicide. Why create a bunch of additional pain for himself by walking nearly three miles. Another theory which has been presented is that the family wandered off and got lost before they succumbed to exposure. But why would they lock all their personal items of the truck. It was reportedly a very chilly day, so
there's no reason to leave their jackets there. We know they use the GPS coordinates on Bobby's cell phone to walk up the hill towards the rock, so it makes no sense for them to come back down, put the phone in the truck, and then walk in a different direction without it. But like we said earlier, if we're talking about people with serious mental health issues who could have been planning a murder suicide, then trying to find logic in their actions might be pointless for sure.
I also think, in my gut, it's not Bobby necessarily who's leaning towards this murder suicide. If that's what happened, it seems like sherry Lynn was more prone to have a lack of concern for her own well being, much less her families, and she had written that letter that she was dissatisfied with him. She was the one who was really talking about the demonic forces with her child.
So I think it's possible that when Bobby said, hey, let's go look at this property, she says, perfect, let's go, and maybe not even planning initially to have this happen, could have been the one who actually prompts let's go on this hike, let's go out on this walk, let's go do this or that, and is the one who actually acts because Bobby, like we said earlier, is showing signs that he truly did want to see this piece of property. What is it like to live here?
Right?
Can you give me directions? To this piece of property. He's asking the questions that show a deeper interest, and we don't hear that from shery Lynn. We don't see her behaviors at that point. Maybe it wasn't him planning it. Maybe he's convinced by sherry Lynn to go on this hike or go on this walk, and he's hurting or complaining. She said, come on, honey, we have to go. We got to keep going, and therefore he's conned into it. So that's a possibility as well. I agree with you.
I think there's a greater possibility that if somebody was planning this, we see more warning signs with sher Lynn. And I think if she did indeed go to this place three miles out, that is the big question mark for me. I don't know why, but she wasn't in a healthy mental state, So again, if we're trying to apply logic to what was her decision, but I just think it would have been a really arduous process to try to drag Bobby three miles and Madison as well.
I don't think either one of them would have been easy to move. And then I guess I could see a scenario where she could have had her twenty two caliber and maybe ended their lives through the gun somewhere and then ended her life in another manner. But it just seems like such a long hike.
Yeah, Like, if she had her gun, she could have maybe forced Bobby to walk three miles at gunpoint, because she's obviously not going to care about how much paint he's in if she's planning on killing him, and she could probably make the hike on her own, but of course she's got to bring Madison along with her, and it just seems so pointless, even for someone with mental health issues. Why are you going to the trouble of walking a great distance when you don't even have to.
Of course, the big puzzler in this case is the thirty two thousand dollars hidden under the driver's seat in the truck. If the family was murdered by someone, then I can understand them not taking this money, as it was so well concealed that the killer might not have even known it was there. But that only raises the question why did the Jamisons bring it to this location in the first place. In fact, since Bobby and Sherlyn were both unemployed and lived on disability, where did all
that cash come from. It sounds like Bobby received a settlement from the accident which injured him and his mother said the amount was sixty four thousand dollars, which he split with Sherlyn. Given that thirty two thousand dollars is half that amount, the numbers do add up. And there's also the fact that the security footage showed shre Lind loading a brown briefcase into the truck before the family
left the residence. Since this briefcase has never been accounted for, could it have contained Sharland's split of the settlement money. If oulplay took place and there was a lot of cash in the briefcase, then the perpetrator might have stolen it without even being aware that there was additional money under the driver's seat. If that thirty two thousand dollars was settlement money, then I can see why Bobby might have elected to keep the entire amounting cash rather than
deposited in the bank. The United States is known for being very rigid when it comes to checking the finances of people who are on disability to ensure they're not making too much money and scamming the government, So perhaps Bobby did not want to leave a paper trail. But if that's the case, why did Bobby bring all this
cash to Latimer County with him. I know that Bobby learned about this plot of land from the Internet, but I don't have any information about who was actually selling it, and if Bobby could have just approached them with thirty two thousand dollars in cash in order to purchase the land. This is why there has been so much speculation that the money was going to be used for something illegal, such as buying drugs, though no evidence has ever been
found to support this theory. If the family was planning to orchestrate some sort of murdered suicide, it makes you wonder why they would bother bringing all that cash with them. But then again, it's possible that only one of the parents was planning something like that and the other was
taken by complete surprise. In the end, the money was turned over to the closest surviving air, which was Bobby's mother, Starlet, So if he was feeling suicidal, perhaps Bobby wanted to ensure the money would be found and she would receive it.
But that still doesn't explain the suitcase that would go missing, or that they never recovered. They could have also had money in it. What's interesting is that Bobby's money wasn't very clearly displayed. It was hidden under tools under his seat, right. So while yeah, a whole search of the car would have revealed it, if he was really hoping his mom was going to get it, wouldn't he have written a note and put it on the you know, on the seat, or left a box it said for mom and it
would have been in there. It just seems like it was hidden. I actually had never thought about what you said, Robin, that maybe he had the cash with him so he could purchase the land out right, and maybe he could just do a cash sale with the owner of it.
I do think it would be very hard to quote hide the money from the government, though, because oftentimes under taxes you're asked about any lawsuits or legal matters that have been settled in the past year, and so I believe they would have had to report that it's a court process that got them the money. So it's it
would be pretty hard to hide a legal settlement. So I think having the cash on hand to make a property purchase might be a more valid explanation, but not sure they could have completely skirted by without the government having accountability for that money.
Yeah, Unfortunately, you don't have any information about what happened to the money after the settlement took place, if he ever did put it in the bank, because they've never reported anything about Bobby making any large cash withdrawals or emptying his bank account in the days or weeks prior to his disappearance, So it's still a big mystery where all that cash came from.
In addition to the photograph of Madison, the other odd detail which has been the subject of a lot of debate is the security footage of Bobby and Sherilyn loading their truck with items on the morning they went missing, as they reportedly walked back and forth around twenty times while never acknowledging or speaking to each other, and they were described as being in a trance like state. I've seen a lot of online commentors state that they don't
believe there's anything unusual about this video at all. Well, the problem is that general public has only seen snippets of it. If you search for it on YouTube, you'll only find very brief clips that show several seconds worth of still frames, and the quality is so poor that it's impossible to clearly see Bobby and Shrilyn's faces or determine if they're in a so called trance like state. However, it was Sheriff Beacham who used the phrase trance like
on the Disappeared episode. He's seen the entire footage, so maybe he has a different interpretation, and I know one. Psychologists believe that Bobby and Sharlyn's behavior in the video match the symptoms of people who were on drugs, but given that the marriage was not in a great place and the couple had apparently been considering divorce, not speaking to each other while loading a truck might not be
that unusual. However, Charylyn's friend Nikki Schenneld once mentioned during an interview that she noticed what she believed to be
an additional person. In the footage, which is available publicly, you can see separate sections which show a man wearing a white shirt and a brown shirt, and even though you can't see his face clearly, the assumption seems to be that Bobby simply changed his shirt at some point when he walked back into the house, but according to Nikki, there are a few frames where you can briefly see your reflection in the truck's window, which simultaneously shows two
different men in a white shirt and a brown shirt. I mean, I haven't personally seen this part of the footage, so I can't say for certain, but I know that law enforcement studied it extensively, and I've never heard them bring up the possibility of another man being with Bobby
and Sherilyn when they left the house that day. You could assume that this person traveled with the family to Latimer County and did something to them, But the problem is that the truck was left there, so unless this person met up with someone else who gave them a ride, how did they manage to get out of the area Like the photo of Madison. I'm not sure the security footage has any real relevance to the case, and people might just be reading too much into it because the
family later went missing. I knew they believed their house was haunted by spirits, but just because they were described as being in a trance like state does not mean they were possessed by demons or that there was anything supernatural at work here.
No.
I think you're right, Jules when you talk about the fact that they were already having issues that there's mental health issues at play as well. It's not uncommon to think that a couple could be loading the car on a trip and be frustrated with each other, be tired, be distressed, be preoccupied, be fixated on the details of leaving on a trip. I mean, there's a lot of reasons why they might be inn a quote trance like state,
maybe not engaging with each other as much. So I think again, when you watch these videos, because you're looking at it from a lens of something went wrong, something happened, it's a lot easier to read into it and start to analyze the behavior from a kind of a more
macab point of view. But if you were just watching it, you might and you didn't know that they were missing, you might be able to look at it and say, well, clearly they're distressed, or clearly something's bothering them, or you might actually say, look, they just seem like they're on a mission to get the car packed up and get
the heck out of there. When you guys see these clips, I know you said you didn't see the clips of peop changing shirts, but is there a lot of support that there could have been a third person there, because that would cause a whole new dynamic to the case if you were talking about three adults traveling with Madison and not just the two.
Literally, the only person I've seen bring that up is Nicky Cherylyn's friend. I've never heard shre Beecham or anyone from law enforcement bring up the possibility of a third person, so I think she's probably just trying to read into something from watching the footage, trying to figure out what happened. But even though I've not personally seen it, I'm very skeptical that there is an additional man there who climbed
into the truck with them. But theoretically, if the entire family were victims of foul play from an outside party, who could have been responsible. Well, the initial stages of the investigation had a couple of potentially interesting suspects who have all but been eliminated. There's Bobby's father, Bob Dan Jamison Senior, who sounds like a real piece of work. It sounds very unlikely that he was personally involved with what happened, since he was not in the best of
health at that time. I had only two months after the family went missing, but I would definitely be curious to know more about this guy's backstory. According to his obituary, Bobby was Bob's only child, but we have allegations that Bob cheated his own son out of money, tried to hit him with a car, and threatened to kill his entire family. And I think it says a lot that his wife, Starlett, decided to divorce him after four decades of marriage and was the one who suggested that Bobby
put up the security cameras to protect himself. I have no idea if Bob and Bobby always had a fractured relationship or if it just wound up going bad near the end. But even though Bob cut his son out of his will, he still seemed to care enough about his granddaughter to leave everything to her, though no one expected Madison to be a missing person by the time Bob passed away. It is interesting that Bobby had been involved in no less than three lawsuits at the time
before he disappeared. His lawsuit for the injuries he sustained in the accident sounds pretty reasonable, and of course Bobby suited against his father and never got the chance to be resolved. Sure love to know more details about why he filed the lawsuit against the school district after Madison was pulled out of school. After investigating their backgrounds, Sheriff Beecham once made a comment in which you referred to
Bobby and Schrilyn as quote unquote scammers. I'm not sure already meant by that, but since they could no longer work, perhaps they had started a racket where they would file frivolous lawsuits as their means of generating income. If so, I guess it's possible that their actions could have angered the wrong people and led to them being murdered, but
there's no evidence to support this. We also have Kenneth Bellows, the white supremacist boarder whom Cherlyn kicked out of the house a few months before the disappearances, but it sounds like he was in jail during the time period the family went missing, which is about as strong an alibi
as you can get. I guess the only reason you can't completely dismiss Bellow's involvement is because of that weird anonymous phone call Nicki Shenhold received from a woman who claimed that the family was murdered by a white supremacy group. I guess it's possible this group could have decided to kill the Jamis since's revenge for Bellows being kicked out of the house, But that's a pretty weak motive unless
they were following the Jamisons. How could the group know they'd be at that particular remote area at that particular time that.
This family decided to leave on this day, they're going to this remote area and will be able to keep them and get them away from other people. It's interesting to me that Nicky seems to kind of be the source of a lot of information in this case. Is it just that she's the best friend of sherry Lynn or that she happened to know their dynamics so well that she's such a major player in this case.
I don't know, Like she is Cherlyn's best friend, but I don't know how often she was around the family, like if she personally witnessed them, like display any of this erratic behavior, or if she had any concerns about Madison safety. But I do know that it's Nicki who keeps puishing forward the theories about them being the victims of foul play, because she talked about this tip with
the White Supremacy group. She brought up this angle involving the additional man in the truck, so I get the impression that she legitimately DIDNY do not believe that Bobby or chery Lynn would have been capable of harming their own daughter before killing themselves, which.
Is really interesting because supposedly she would be one of the ones that knows them the best because she's one of her best friends. It is kind of interesting that if it was the White Supremacy group that they would go, oh, we also know who her best friend is, Nikki, and we're gonna call her, not mom, not someone that you can look in the newspaper and tie them directly to this family They call the best friend to give them
this clue about the ring. But I don't know. To me, it seems like the murder suicide is so much more likely than someone having that perfectly timed, opportunistic moment to
go after this family that all the leads. Yes, there's several people, Like we talked about the White Supremacy group, the issues with his dad and family kind of falling apart, the idea that witchcraft and devil worshiping, those kinds of things were discussed, or like at least turning to the Satanic Bible for help with demon But all of that would require, like you said, someone to watch this family know that they were setting off to look at this
property and finding them at just the right time where they've gotten out, taken a picture, returned to their truck, and then they're able to isolate them and kill them. It's very elaborate and very calculated, almost to a point of it just doesn't seem realistic.
And we talked about this in our last episode. But I know that Nikki claimed that the woman who made the anomalous phone call accurately described it insignia on Bobby's ring, which not many people knew, which seemed to suggest that she might have had knowledge of what happened. But again that also does not solve the problem is how would this white supremacy group have known that the Jamisons would be in this area at that particular time.
We also have the allegations from Sherilyn's mother that the family was put on a hit list from some sort of religious cult, but she's never provided any specific details and I have no idea why she believed this. There are technically no strong suspects or persons of interest in this case, but once again, we really have no idea if there was anyone else involved to begin with. It's interesting to compare this case to the mcday family disappearance,
which we discussed in our last episode. At the outset, there was some evidence to suggest that the mix Days could have ran away and disappeared voluntarily, but unlike the Jamisons, the family did not have a history of erratic behavior, and there was nothing particularly unusual going on in their
lives at the time they went missing. However, because the circumstances of the disappearance were so baffling, there was one radio host who published a book about the case, which painted a less than flattering portrayal of the mother, Summer mixed Day, and suggested that she may have murdered her
husband and fled the country with her two boys. Well, of course, once the entire family's remains were found in a shallow grave and it was clear that they were all murdered by a third party, the book was pulled from circulation, and the author even went so far as to offer a refund to everyone who purchased it. So, obviously, I would be very hesitant of accusing Bobby or Cherylyn Jamison of killing their child or each other without definitive evidence.
You can understand why the family's loved ones would be pushing forward theories about religious cults and white supremacy groups and whatnot, because I'm sure they would prefer not to believe that Bobby or Shriylyn or both of them were capable of orchestrating a murder suicide, not to mention that if this is what actually happened, there's technically no way to prove it, and it means this mystery will remain
unsolved forever without a resolution. If the family was murdered by a third party, then at least their killers out there somewhere who can be brought to justice and we could potentially learn the full truth about what happened. That's exactly what happened in the Mix staycase after the perpetrator was arrested and convicted. But that sort of thing might just not be possible here.
Well, just think about it. I mean, I know I brought up Andrea Yates on the last episode, but when you think about her, there were sign and she was capable of hurting her children and hurting herself, and still nobody paid attention to that or helped her or took heed of those morning signs, so they still didn't believe she was capable of hurting her kids until she did it. Right. And so when you look at this and you talk about a family, think about when someone completes suicide, the
gut instinct is, no, they couldn't have. They knew how loved they were, they knew how bad we needed them. They couldn't have done this. Look at other explanations, right, because your heart doesn't want to believe that that's possible. And so then exaggerate that or expand that onto three individuals being deceased at the hands of one of those individuals, possibly or both the parents, maybe killing the baby. But you start to think about that like that just it
can't be humanly possible. This is their own offspring, this is their own family. These are people that they loved. They might hurt themselves, but they would never hurt the other people. So I think the default grief response is, please let it be anything but that, because it seems so impossible, so inhumane, so out of character for anyone to think about a family member doing that to somebody else. So, while I understand there is a possibility for a third party.
I also understand where just the natural grief and trauma aspect of what this case entails three people deceased, including a baby, I could see where no one would want to broach the subject of could it have been Bobby or sherry Lynn, because it just doesn't seem like anyone could do that to their own family. Yet historically we know that actually family annihilations are not that uncommon.
During online discussions of this case, I have seen the phrase foller adeux thrown around, which is the French translation for folly of two. It's also known as shared psychosis and shared delusional disorder, which is what happens with symptoms of a delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another. If the Jamisons were suffering from this, this might explain why Bobby and Sherilyn both expressed their belief that their
home was haunted by spirits. They also claimed that Madison had been speaking to the ghost of a girl named Emily, but it could have been something as harmless as a six year old girl speaking with an imaginary friend, and her parents thinking it was something supernatural. I know that Jamison's friends and relatives believe that they believed that they were making a move to a remote area of Latimer County in order to repair their marriage and get a
fresh start. But honestly, it would not surprise me at all if this entire decision was driven by the fact that they believed their home was haunted and felt they needed to get out of there. However, even though there are a number of holes in the murdered by a third party theory, there are still a number of things about the murder suicide scenario which don't make much sense. If this is what happened, how would these events have
played out? After walking up a hill and taking a photo of Madison next to a rock, what would compel Bobby and sherilynd to walk back to their truck to lock their dog, cell phone, and personal items inside. Why would they then decide to take Madison and walk three miles to a remote spot before they killed her and took their own lives. If they used a gun, what happened to it and what became of the brown briefcase
Sherilyn loaded into the truck. I could see animals making a small gun disappear, but could they really do the same to an entire briefcase? None of the theories in this case make one hundred percent complete sense, but at
the same time, you can't completely eliminate all of them either. Myself, I think you can count me as being completely on the fence with this one, as there are just too many discrepancies in both the murder and suicide scenarios to lean conclusively in either direction, regardless of which side you leaned. The biggest tragedy in this story is the fact that an innocent six year old girl lost her life, even though there's no indication that Madison was ever abused or mistreated.
Living in that household while our parents were going through all these different ordeals could not have been easy for This is why everyone wonders what exactly was going through Madison's mind when that cryptic final photograph was taken of her. It would be horrible enough if she was murdered by an unknown perpetrator a short time after that photo was taken, But if she lost her life at the hands of one or both of her parents while alone in those woods,
then that's just too frightening and heartbreaking to contemplate. There haven't been any serious developments in the investigation since the family's remains were discovered eleven years ago, but if no one else was involved, then there really isn't much that can be done. However, if there is someone out there who has gotten away with the murders of three people,
that they deserve to be brought to justice. If you happen to have any information on the death of the Jamison family, please contact the Latimer County Sheriff's Office at nine one eight four sixty five two one sixty one. That's nine one eight four sixty five two one sixty one, Jules Ashley. Any final thoughts in this case?
You know, the tragic thing in this case is, like you said, Robin, there's a six year old little girl and her parents who were deceased. If it was the event of a murder suicide, and you think about the tragic mental health state that had to be at play
here for that to occur. For a parent or parents to think they needed to arm their daughter and themselves to get out of whatever situation they were facing, that is a major tragedy in and of itself, right, Maybe the lack of care that was given to the parents, maybe a lack of resources and support that they needed when they were showing signs, right, everyone says, looking back, you saw these signs, well, people should have intervened or
there should have been help provided. And if that's the explanation of what actually happened to this little girl and her parents, it's tragic in and of itself that the parents were at that point where they were in a place to harm their child. It's just pitiful. And then you have this other side that were there these other entities at play here? Was there someone from the witchcraft or satanic community when the parents were reaching out to
kind of rid their house and demons? Were there people who were part of the white supremacist group that were after this family for their Native American history and indigenous culture? Is it somebody who was upset with Bobby because of the lawsuits he was filing. Was it someone who sherry Lynn had frustrated or made mad while she was in
one of her depressive or bipolar states. It's just so many leads, Like the sheriff said, you usually would kill for these kinds of leads, right, give me all the leads. But he said, when you look at this one, it's almost like we have so many with no depth to any of them. We're not getting anywhere with this case.
It's so sad. You have a little six year old girl whose life stopped in that moment when she had her whole world in front of her, and two parents that are also deceased that needed help and support, And so my prayer is that there would be some way
to get answers or something could be discovered. But this is one of those cases that almost seems as helpless as they felt at the time, right of how would you get any leads at this point unless there is a perpetrator and unless they speak up or tell somebody something. So overall, my heart's just broken for this little girl and for her parents, no matter what the situation was.
This is just one of those cases where the muddier the water, the harder it is to see clearly what actually happened. And each one of those things that actually just illustrated is something that muddies the water further. So in the end, we're left with all of these possibilities, but we don't really have any evidence to support any
of them. I don't conclusively know what happened. I would say, statistically, given all of the information that we have, if I was to venture a guess I would say the most likely but scenario would be a murder suicide, and that the likely perpetrator, you know, it's Ashley suggested earlier would be likely share all in, But we don't know that. We don't have evidence to support that either. All we know is that there was a previous suicide attempt and
that clearly Sharlyn was having a mental health episode. She was in a bad place with her bipolar disorder. We don't know if they were taking medication, but there's still so many unanswered questions that don't line up with that as well. There's just nothing that can fully explain what happened here, and it's so infuriating. I wish that we had more information so that there would be some kind of resolution for their families.
Yeah, I talked about how this was the very first disappeared episode I watched about fourteen years ago, and I also watched it very closely to the mix Stay family disappearance and became pretty obsessed with both of them and cannot figure out what happened either of these families. But like we mentioned, the McStay family disappearance had a conclusive resolution where they found their bodies. They knew who did it,
who killed them, and what exactly happened. And then on the exact same week they find the remains of the Jamison family. But it only opens up more unanswered questions. We're no closer to solving it today than we were back in two thousand and nine or twenty thirteen when the remains were found. When you look at the big situation, it would make more sense if this was a murder suicide,
particularly if Cherylyn did it. That maybe Bobby was genuine about going out there to purchase a plot of land, but for whatever reason, Cherylyn decided this would be a good place to end it all. It does make more sense than a foul play scenario because, like we talked about, who would know that the Jamison's were out there? What motive would someone have? Like why would someone take them into the woods and kill them and then leave their truck behind and their dog and thirty two thousand dollars
under the seat. But like we said, the suicide scenario is not one hundred percent concrete either, because there are a lot of unanswered questions. Why did they travel three miles from the truck, would Bobby have been physically capable of making it that far. And if they did, if it was a murder suicide, how what was the cause of death? Did they use a gun? Did the gun just disappear? What happened to Sharean's briefcase, There are just too many holes to say out without any certainty that
this was the result of a murdered suicide. But no matter which way you look at it, you have to feel bad for the entire family, particularly for Madison, who sounds like she had a lot of difficulties being raised in this household during her very short life. And the most heartbreaking thing about it is that if the family did this to themselves, we may never know for certain.
And that's why I'm hoping that there is some additional information out there, a piece of the puzzle we're missing, to finally get some light shed on what actually happened here and possibly a resolution.
Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit about the Trailment 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 UNSAWD 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 factoids 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 Jewels and Nashty patreons. So there's early ad free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our Path Went 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 the so we hope you'll check out those patreons will link them in the show notes.
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Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy