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

[Bilbodoggins]

"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.

When search teams found the bodies of Jonathan Gerrish and Ellen Chung, along with that of their daughter, Miju, on the morning of Aug. 17, they had no water on them, Jeremy Briese, the Mariposa County sheriff, said during a news conference.


Sheriff Briese said that an 85-ounce CamelBak water bladder that the family had been carrying was empty
Initial reports that they had water were apparently incorrect.
Druff, I don't know where you got the water analysis bit. I couldn't find that anywhere.

It was not "the police" who determined cause of death.

Also, they did not head out hiking with an infant in 107 (now reported as 109) degree heat as some of you have been saying. It was 75 when they started. Blame them for not understanding the conditions in a new area they had moved to, but at least be accurate when you are slamming them.