Ordinary Family
Shortly after getting married, Bobby Dale Jamison and his wife Sherilyn purchased a home in a small town called Eufaula, Oklahoma. In 2003, they welcomed their first child, a baby girl named Madyson.
The Jamisons were just another ordinary American family living a normal suburban life. The whole town knew who they were and nobody had ever realized anything unusual about them. Time, however, would prove otherwise...
Secret Plans
In October 2009, the family pampered themselves with a quick getaway to the remote Sans Bois Mountains. However, the Jamisons were actually hiding a secret.
While they told their friends that they were going to the mountains just to relax, they were actually planning on purchasing a plot of land there. The thing is, after living in the same house for over a decade, moving to the mountains and making a fresh start sounded tempting.
Brand New House
Luck was on the Jaimsons' side, as they soon landed on a 40-acre plot of land in the foot of the mountains that happened to be for sale. After speaking to the owner, both parties sealed the deal.
That same night, the Jamisons headed back to their home in Eufaula and loaded up their white truck with all of their belongings. The following morning, they drove back to the mountains to move in to their newly-purchased home. Little could everyone have imagined that they would never be seen again.
Gone Missing
Nobody knows what happened from the moment they left Eufaula. One of the last people to see them before that fateful day was Colton, Sherilyn's son from a previous marriage. However, Colton said that her mother hadn't mentioned a word about her plans of moving to the mountains on that occasion.
After not hearing from them for a whole week, Bobby and Sherilynn's family reported them missing to the police. The officers interviewed the couple's neighbors at Eufala, but they didn't have a clue as to their whereabouts. Where could they have gone?
First Clue
The police launched a county-wide search the following day. However, it wasn't until eight days later that they finally landed on their first clue.
The whole town was shocked when word came out that the police had tracked down the Jamisons' truck in Latimer County, which was a half-hour drive from their home at Eufaula. This is when things really started getting weird. Can you guess what was inside the truck?
Load Of Cash
Based on the items found inside the vehicle, it seemed that the couple hadn't planned to stay away from the truck for so long. On the front seats were the family's wallet, IDs, phones, Sherylinn's purse, and the dog, which was alive yet emaciated.
On top of that, they found nearly $32.000 in cash. This was rather odd, considering that both Mr. and Mrs. Jamison were unemployed at the time. Where had they gotten so much cash from and why had they left it inside the car?
Endless Questions
As you can imagine, people immediately started coming up with all sorts of theories. However, the possibility that they had suffered a road accident was ruled out at once, as the truck was in perfect condition.
It was also unlikely that they had been robbed, as their wallets and the bag of cash were still there. Nevertheless, based on the state of the truck, it was really hard to tell whether they had left the truck voluntarily or by force.
Without A Trace
Realizing that something serious had happened, County Sheriff Israel Beauchamp launched a massive search operation which involved over a hundred men, dogs, and even horses.
The investigators spent weeks searching through dozens of acres of woods but they didn't even find a single footprint. The drones proved of no help, either. But were there any suspects?
Contrasting Theories
To make matters worse, there weren't even any clear suspects nor any arrests connected to the Jamison case. While there were many contrasting theories and potential leads, all of them kept leading the investigators to a dead end.
"A lot of investigators would love to have as many leads as we do. The problem is they point in so many different directions", the local Sheriff said. Even though they were never proven, let's take a look at some of the most compelling theories regarding the family's disappearance.
Strange Security Video
For starters, it's worth mentioning that the police discovered an odd security video taken outside their home form the night they left, which contained some pretty unsettling footage.
In the video, Mr. and Mrs. Jamison can be seen walking back and forth as they load their belongings to their truck. For some reason, they made nearly twenty trips back and forth, but sometimes they wouldn't even be carrying anything. Some other times, they would simply freeze and stand still for a few minutes wearing a poker face.
Were They On Drugs?
The police wondered why the couple kept making so many trips to the truck without even muttering a word to each other. This extremely unusual behavior mirrored in the video suggested that the couple could have been on drugs.
On top of that, both Sherilyn and Bobby looked extremely thin and malnourished in the video, leading the police to speculate that they could've been using crystal meth. But was there any evidence to support such a theory?
No Drugs In The House
In spite of these theories, after searching through their house, the police found no evidence of meth or any other drug. Sherilyn's mother, Connie (the woman featured in the picture), also commented on the issue.
"They were not taking meth, there is no way. How could they have looked after little Madyson if they were?", she said. Sherilyn's neighbor and best firned, Niki, also claimed to be sure that they were both clean during the weeks prior to their disappearance. However, some people started to suspect otherwise, and here's why...
Drug Deal Gone Wrong
Some investigators pointed out that the bag full of money found inside the truck could've been linked to the buying or selling of drugs. In this sense, Mrs. Jamison's friend, Niki, said that they might have found themselves mixed up in some sort of drug deal to pay off their debts.
"They had been getting child support payments, but they lost those, so they were struggling to keep up with the repayments on the house. It’s possible they thought they would do some kind of one off deal to get them back on track and maybe that’s what they were doing up there", Niki said.
Targeted By The Cartel
The police, however, concluded that this theory was too far-fetched. But if they hadn't been involved in a drug deal, was it possible that they accidentally walked into one? After all, the Sant Bois mountains did have a reputation for being home to a few meth labs.
In relation to this, Niki (featured in the image above), claimed the following: "I don’t know all the details, but I can tell you Bobby had recently gone to police to report someone in the local area for running a meth lab. Obviously that person is going to be very upset". Niki, however, isn't the only one who believes they may have been murdered...
Home Of The Evil
Even though the possibility of them being involved with drug dealers was soon ruled out, many people started suspecting that they could've been assassinated. Sherilyn's son, Colton, and her mother, Connie, both support this theory.
"The way their truck was left, it looks like it had been forced to stop by someone. Everyone round here knows there are lots of evil people up in those mountains. It’s where outlaws like Jesse James used to hide out", Connie asserted. The case took an even darker turn when some started suspecting it could've been an intrafamily crime...
Family Crime
Some people were led to believe that Mr. Jamison's father, Bob Dean Jamison (the man on the left) could've had something to do with it. It so happens to be that Bobby had recently filed a restriction order against his own father on the grounds of death threats.
In the petition for protective order, Bobby had claimed that his dad was a "very dangerous man" involved in "prostitutes, gangs and meth". To make matters worth, rumor has it that Bobby's dad used to have ties to the Mexican Mafia, making this theory way more plausible. However, everything changed when the police landed on a new lead...
Possible Femicide
A few months after their disappearance, the police found a strange letter written by Sherilyn and addressed to Bobby. It was eleven pages long and based on all the insults, it seemed to suggest that the couple had been going through a rough patch.
The content of the letter led the police to speculate that Bobby had maybe driven his family to the woods, murdered Sherilyn and his daughter, and then killed himself. But jsut when everybody figured that the Jamison case couldn't get any creepier, things took an even darker turn...
Spiritual Warfare
Just when the police were about to drop the case, Bobby's pastor, Gary Brandon, left everyone baffled after delivering a perplexing statement. Apparently, only a few days before their disappearance, Bobby had warned the pastor that their house was haunted and that there were ghosts on the roof.
The pastor also confessed that the Jamisons had been involved in some sort of "spiritual warfare" after witnessing spirits and other paranormal activities. While this hardly sounded convincing, the police landed on some evidence that seemed to back up this theory.
The Satanic Bible
Following the pastor's confession, the police remembered they had found a Satanic bible in the Jamisons' home. The police figured they had bought it as a joke, but the pastor confirmed otherwise.
According to the pastor, the Jamisons had been delving into witchcraft during the months prior to their disappearance and they had actually inquired him about this book. The police started taking this whole witchcraft theory more seriously once they discovered some mysterious messages...
Messages From Beyond
As creepy as it sounds, there were a bunch of eerie messages scribbled on the side of the container to witch the Jamisons had been planning to move into.
One of these messages said "Buy people", while another one read "3 cats killed to date buy people in this area … Witches don’t like there (sic) black cat killed". You won't believe what Mrs. Jamison's friend, Niki, commented on the issue.
Haunted By Spirits
Even though Niki doesn't really believe that their interest in witchcraft had anything to do with their death, she confessed that "Sherilyn would leave notes round the house, saying, 'get out Satan' and stuff like that". She also suggested that the house could've been haunted.
"I don’t want to sound crazy, but whenever I went there I felt a horrible presence, I would leave feeling so down and depressed, it’s hard to describe", she said. "Once I was in the living room and this sort of grey mist descended down the stairs", she added. Yikes!
Lack Of Evidence
Mrs. Jamison's mother, on the other hand, firmly believes that the family was engaged in some sort of violent, satanic cult and was murdered by one of its members. "There’s no way they just wandered off and got lost", she concluded.
In spite of her claims, Connie never mentioned the name of any specific cult and there's never been any concrete evidence supporting this – or any other – theory. But a few years later, just when everyone had nearly forgotten about the Jamisons, a group of hunters made a spine-chilling discovery that brought the family back to the spotlight.
A Grisly Discovery
The Jamison case went cold until four years later, when a group of hunters discovered the remains of two adults and one child just three miles away from the site where the white truck was previously found.
Everyone was left shook when the forensics confirmed that the bodies belonged to Bobby, Sherilyn, and Madyson. However, they were in such state of decomposition that it was impossible for them to determine the cause of death.
No Closure
While the family and friends thought they would finally get some answers and closure, the discovery of the bodies didn't really help solve the case. Bobby had a black hole right in the back of his skull, but forensics were unable to determine its cause.
As of today, the investigators' main guess is that the family went for a stroll through the woods, got lost, and eventually froze to death. While the family doesn't buy it, it does sound like a plausible explanation.
Eternal Mystery
Unfortunately, for the Jamisons' family and friends, the painful feeling of uncertainty continues to this day. "I would give anything to find out the truth and I don’t think this is over", said Bobby's mother.
But no matter their efforts, they've all seem to have given up. "I have spent so much time searching, I just don’t know where else to look", said their friend, Niki. I guess we'll just never know which of the dozens of theories regarding their death is true!