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Some Thoughts and Speculations on the Jamison Family Mystery
9 min readDec 23, 2021
- This unsolved case of a family discovered deceased in a remote mountain location is quintessentially American. Guns, drugs, mental illness, white supremacy, irrational supernatural beliefs and so much more feature in this half-told story. Darkness abounds. I think many people find this case haunts them because it is a microcosm of American trauma.
- Can we at least agree that this Oklahoma family was murdered? I think that is the most likely explanation for the positioning of the bodies of father, mother and child. They were found laid out nearly side by side, all face-down. It seems unlikely that deaths from hypothermia would result in this formation, everyone conveniently dying in one place. It seems unlikely that a murder-suicide would result in this final prone positioning for all three bodies. It would be difficult to achieve. Also, the absence of Sherilynn’s .22 pistol presents an impediment to this theory, unless one believes that a random individual stumbled upon the bodies, purloined the gun and failed to report the gruesome discovery.
- The remains were in a pitiful state after years of exposure to the elements and were woefully incomplete after animal predation. The hunters that found the bodies were certain there was a bullet hole in Bobby Jamison’s skull. The autopsy report hedged and left open the possibility that this hole was due to animal predation.
- The positioning of the bodies face-down can be indicative of remorse or shame on the part of a…
