Teen who died ‘off the grid’ with mom, aunt found with rosary

Family members of the teenage boy who died alongside his mom and aunt while trying to live off-the-grid on a remote campsite in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains are finding comfort in the fact that he was found with a rosary.

“God was with them,” the boy’s surviving aunt, Trevala Jara, tearfully told CBS Colorado.

The 14-year-old’s mummified body was discovered by a hiker in Gunnison National Forest in July. The remains of his mother, Rebecca Vance, 42, and her sister, 41-year-old Christine Vance, were found by sheriffs the next day.

The rosary found with the boy, Jara explained, was an especially blessed set of beads that she gave to her stepsisters and nephew before they ventured into the woods last summer.

At the time of his death, the teen was only 40 pounds – less than half of the average weight for boys his age, autopsies released this week revealed.

The coroner ruled that Rebecca, Christine, and the boy, who has not been named publicly, all died of malnutrition and hypothermia.

The trio abandoned Colorado Springs last year and wanted to try living off the grid in the wilderness, family members explained when the bodies were found.

Jara previously told CBS Colorado that she and her husband begged Rebecca and Christine to use their mountain property instead of heading into the unknown, but they refused.

“There’s no cell phone connection, no water, no electricity. We had an RV up there with a generator,” she told the station of the remote location.

Rebecca felt “that with everything changing [due to the pandemic] and all, that this world is going to end,” Jara said of her late stepsister.

“[They] wanted to be away from people and the influences of what people can do to each other.”

While Rebecca was reserved and intellectual, Jara remembered Christine as more outgoing.

She wasn’t initially on board with the plan to abandon contemporary society, but was swayed because “she didn’t want our sister and nephew to be by themselves,” Jara lamented.

Despite their determination, however, Rebecca and Christine only watched YouTube videos to prepare, she said.

When authorities examined the group’s campsite after the bodies were found, they found a mess of empty food containers and survival books, as well as a lean-to near a fire pit, CBS said.

Jara remembered Rebecca’s son as a homeschooled math prodigy. She even considered kidnapping the group to keep them from endangering themselves in the wild, she told the outlet.

“I do not wish this on anybody at all. I can’t wait to get to the point where I’m happy and all I can think of is the memories,” she said of the heartbreaking weeks since the bodies were discovered.

“Why would you want to do this knowing that you would leave me behind? Why didn’t you listen to me and my husband?” she cried.

If anything, Jara added, she hopes that her relatives’ tragedy will encourage others to think twice before attempting to survive off the grid.

“That you put yourself out to where you can experience some of that hardship but have that lifeline,” she cautioned.

“Because if you have no experience, you need that lifeline, you need it. Watching it, and actually doing it is totally different.”