﻿Disappearing loved ones and murders are already hard enough on a family and close friends,
but rarely has an entire family disappeared entirely, then been found as skeletons four
years later a few miles from where they were last seen, or hundreds of miles away in a totally
different Region. Cases like these are few in-between, but 2009 had such a case.
October 2009, just months away from the new decade of 2010 and potential for great things!
Unfortunately, this fall day was not going to end well for the Jamison family and their relatives,
and the new oncoming decades were not going to be any easier either.
The Jamison family[a] was a small, seemingly, happy family of three;
on the outside. There was Bobby Dale Jamison (44),
Sherilynn Leighann (40), and their daughter Madyson Stormy Star Jamison (6). They lived
in Eufaula but were looking to purchase a 40-acre property in Red Oak, Oklahoma.
Their backstory is a head spinner. Bobby and Sherilyn lived a very dramatic and
crazy life to put it simply. Bobby suffered from chronic back pain from a car accident from 2003
and was still suffering the effects, and Sherilyn was diagnosed as Bi-Polar and on medication. But
that’s only the tip of the iceberg. On October 8th, 2009 the family was last
seen by an elderly man near the Southeastern mountains of Oklahoma, where they were reportedly
going to view a vast 40-acre plot of land they were considering making a purchase on.
They planned to live in a storage container that they already owned on their current property-
a bit strange to decide to live in a storage container, considering the versatile use of
shipping and storage containers as a good home option hadn’t picked up until 2012
after an Australian man built a 60,00 sq ft home with them.
Police found footage on Jamison's video security system that was highly suspicious, mainly due to
Bobby and Sherilyn actions within the video. One police officer stated that they seem to be
in a "zombie like trance" as they carried items from the home to the family truck,
and oftentimes just stopping and staring blankly into the distance with nothing in their hands.
It is suspected that this was influenced by being on drugs or other substances,
but lack of evidence leaves it as a theory only.
The actions of the Jamison's in the security footage the day of their disappearances seems
to suggest that something was indeed not right with the parents. And it makes you wonder what
could have been going on with them? In the footage Sherilynn is seen placing a
briefcase and her small caliber handgun within the family's truck, but neither
item was found when the truck was discovered eight days after their disappearance.
After the Jamison's truck was found search teams and police scoured the mountain for
traces of them. Eventually the Jamison's truck was found eight days later after the search began,
with their cell phones, wallets, IDs, GPS, $32,000 in cash, and the family dog[b], which
was severely malnourished but still alive. The pickup truck was discovered abandoned in
Latimer County Oklahoma, a short distance south of the town of Kinta. Police searched
the area for the missing family, but found no further traces of them.
4 years went by before the skeletal remains of two adults and one child were discovered by hunters
in a remote spot in Latimer County November 15th 2013. The remains were presumed to be
those of the missing family, and officials confirmed it using anthropological and
forensic pathological testing to identify the bodies of the missing Jamison family.
The Jamison family's skeletal remains were discovered less than 3 miles from where
their truck had originally been found. The cause of death is still listed as unknown,
despite the efforts of medical examiners to discover the causes of death of the family.
There was no evidence of trauma, but that could never be fully ruled out due to the
fact that the remains were incomplete. The family's cause of death was listed in the
final report as "suspicious circumstances". Which is fitting considering not all of
their remains have been found, and medical examiners were unable to test for diseases
on what remained of the bodies. The circumstances of the family's
death and actions before their disappearance is highly suspicious,
and therefore cannot be ruled as a natural disaster, disease or accidental in nature.
Both Bobby and Sherilynn were supposedly unemployed at the time of their disappearance,
and both were receiving disability checks. Bobby was receiving disability due to the car accident
he had been in previously back in 2003. But an interview with Sherilynn's mother revealed
that she was unaware of any settlement from the car accident that could explain the $32,000 that
was found in the family's truck. Sherilyn herself was on disability for
bipolar disorder, but even the combined disability checks from Bobby and Sherilyn
could not explain the amount of money that was found in the truck when they disappeared.
Due to Sherilyn's bipolar disorder, she was on medication to manage her condition. But a friend
stated that Sherilyn was deeply spiritual, and oftentimes not in the most positive way.
She believed their home was haunted[c], and a small handful of friends and family believe
the home was hunted as well, having strange occurrences within the home themselves.
A friend of Sherilynn told the police that they would conduct seances together,
and Sherilynn took their sessions a lot more seriously than she should have. She said Sherilynn
wrote odd messages on the storage containers about her black cats, which she believed their
neighbors were poisoning and killing. One of the messages on the storage container
read "Witches don't like their black cat killed"- as if and that wasn't a little weird
and unsettling in itself. The storage container was covered in strange markings
and phrases that made little sense. This behavior caused many neighbors to keep
clear away from the family, as if they were the plague. According to some family members,
that was what they wanted. They were very private and reclusive.
The disappearance of the Jamison family has left more questions than answers,
and numerous theories and conspiracies have risen since the discovery of the bodies.
The sheriff of the town said "normally you can go through an investigation and start to eliminate
certain scenarios. We haven't been able to do that in this case. With this particular family,
everything seems possible." There are websites with crime sleuths
that have discussed this case in depth, some of which are relatively local to the area itself in
which the family disappeared from. Some people wonder why they left the dog
behind and why they would leave a GPS and money behind if they were going on a drug deal?
The theories and conspiracy theories surrounding the case
go pretty deep, and dark in some cases. Some of the theories behind the disappearance
of the Jamison family are as simple as they got lost in the woods, and others as dark as a
murder-suicide given some of the evidence that was found within the truck and the family's home.
Some theories even suggest that it was a drug deal gone wrong,
which could make sense if the family had taken the money with them for the meetup.
But that begs the question of why two parents would take their 6 year
old daughter into the woods for a drug meetup and leave the money behind?
Another theory arose that the Jamisons were members of a satanic cult,
after the discovery of a satanic Bible was found within the home. Supposably
Bobby purchased the book to help with exorcising the spirits in the home that haunted them.
The paranoia of being haunted also afflicted Bobby, and at one point he asked a pastor if
he knew of anywhere he could purchase "special bullets" to shoot at spirits whom he was convinced
was haunting the family's home. Sherilyn's mother[d] claims her daughter,
son-in-law and granddaughter we're on an Oklahoma cult "hit list". However, she never mentioned the
name of the alleged cult and police have not found any links to a cult influence on the case.
Which begged the question of whether or not the family needed to be committed
to a psych ward for the safety of themselves and those around them.
The reasons behind the entire family's disappearance is truly puzzling,
especially given all that has been uncovered about the family through searches of their home and the
truck that was left abandoned in the woods. Evidence has gone extinct for their case
at this point, and any hope for a lead has been squashed. Experts in forensics say that
any hope of finding more traces of the family in the woods, or what might have happened to
them is slim to none- as time, the elements, and animals would have destroyed any remaining
evidence that could have been left behind. The tragedy of this family, unfortunately,
will remain a mystery. Comment below any thoughts you have about the case or any other
videos you want to see us make. Thank you for watching and we’ll see you in the next one.