Mysterious death of couple, their dog, and their baby near Yosemite could be due toxic algae

[Dan Druff]

The problem is that police are like doctors, in that they don't like to admit, "I'm stumped, I can't figure this one out", so if in that spot they will often take their best guess and say it with conviction.

Much like a patient doesn't like hearing, "Sorry, no idea here" after they've paid for a doctor's visit, the public doesn't like hearing, "Sorry we can't figure out how they died" when the police are supposed to protect us and have all the answers.

In this case, I think they're stating something factual while avoiding discussing that they don't know the bigger picture. "Heat stroke" can occur after something else incapacitates someone in the 107 degree heat. It appears some mysterious cause incapacitated everyone, and then heat stroke ultimately killed them. That I'd believe, but it still doesn't explain much.

It would be like if I was found dead at the bottom of a lake, and the conclusion was that I died of ingestion of water into my lungs. Well, yeah, but how did I end up there? If the report ended there, you wouldn't have learned anything.

They weren't far from the car. They were all together. Heat stroke rarely affects two people the same way, meaning that one of the two should have been feeling better than the other, and would have attempted to take the baby and get help. There was water left, and it doesn't appear anyone was furiously drinking before dying, which you'd expect if they were suffering from heat stroke.

It really, really, really has the look of people who simultaneously became incapacitated, sat down, and rapidly got worse before dying. As I said before, I think the dad and baby died first, and the mom used what little strength she had to attempt to get herself to the car, but died a tiny bit up the trail.

"Heat stroke rarely affects two people the same way" Do you have ANY evidence to support this statement?
"They weren't far from the car" They were at least a mile and a half away after apparently already doing most of the loop.
"Some mysterious cause..." yeah, what about hyperthermia and dehydration? (No, they did not have any more water with them)
The rest of your points are sheer speculation in an area where you simply don't know what you're talking about.
I don't know the answer either, I just find it aggravating that people so aggressively want the simplest answer to be wrong because it's not "mysterious" enough.
Okay, I'll go back to only reading poker and gambling related threads now. Have fun!

Sorry but this is not correct.

There was water found in the guy's CamelBak pouch, which in fact was analyzed for toxic algae. Not only was the water free of algae, but it apparently came from a "clean" source before they hiked. And the pouch was either full or mostly full.

Heat stroke doesn't hit people like a lightning strike. It's a cumulative thing. If you and I were both walking in the extreme heat and got heat stroke, it is highly unlikely we would both collapse at the same time. One of us would start feeling symptoms before the other, due to physical differences, tolerance, etc.

Heat stroke would be a very plausible explanation if the dude were hiking alone and found dead. However, when hiking with another adult, it's likely that if one person was suffering from heat stroke, the other would be well enough to tough it out for another 1.5 miles to the car, and get help. This didn't happen. They were all found close together, and there was plenty of water in the guy's CamelBak pouch.

However, let's say they were all exposed to toxic algae at the same time -- say by swimming in the river. That's something which could have hit them all nearly simultaneously, incapacitated them, and then an eventual death came from heat stroke.

I simply don't believe that two adults got heat stroke to such an extreme degree at the exact same time, where neither went for help, and neither drank all the water they had on them. This looks like a sudden event.