Sisters' Delusion Compels Them to "Live Off the Grid" in Wilderness | Vance Family Disaster Analysis

hello this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of the advaned family disaster just a reminder I'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background of this case move to the timeline of the incident then offer my analysis Rebecca Susanna Vance was born in 1980 and lived in the state of Colorado she had a sister named Christine Diane Vance who was born in 1982 the sisters live with their father Donald and their mother s yup their mother had been born in South Korea in 1957 and moved to the United States in 1976 in 1985 Sonia took Rebecca and Christine and left their father Donald she remarried in in March 1994 to a man named Edward John casis who had a daughter named travala the Vance sisters and their stepsister all lived in the basement of the family's ranch house after graduating from high school Rebecca found a job at Sears and Christine worked at a Taco Bell restaurant later they both went to work for the now defunct atml Corporation this company manufactured semiconductors on November 22 2007 sonup died from cancer Rebecca and Christine continued to live with Edward he performed a lot of tasks for the sisters and took care of them in 2008 Rebecca became pregnant by a man named Eric she had a son in June 2009 and named him Talon Rebecca was not interested in a romantic relationship with Eric but she still stayed in touch with him he had two children from a prior relationship and lived in his mother's residence his mother ran a daycare where Rebecca left town during the day on November 15 2019 the Vance sister's stepfather Edward died from liver failure their biological father Donald was still alive but he lived far away as far as local support the sisters only had their stepsister remaining in August of 2020 as the covid pandemic was terrifying people all over the world Rebecca left her job and told people she was working from home by this time she lived with Christine and Talon in an apartment Talon stayed at home as well because his school temporarily switched to online learning in January 2021 talon school returned to having in-person classes but Rebecca did not send him back over time Rebecca became increasingly protective of her son she put many restrictions in place for example he could not go on the internet including social media he was not allowed to consume caffeine and he could not return to sports now moving to the timeline of the incident in the fall of 2021 Christine told her stepsister travala that Rebecca wanted to live off the grid the plan was for Rebecca Christine and Talon to move to a remote Wilderness and remain isolated from the world this was an extreme reaction even considering some of the alarming events going on in the world at that time the idea did not make any sense to Christine and she didn't approve of it but by June 2022 she had warmed up to the Wilderness plan both Rebecca and Christine embraced many conspiracy theories which undoubtedly contributed to this decision I'll talk more about this in the analysis the sisters refused to reveal where they were planning to move and they would not listen to reason they were dead set on moving forward despite having no wilderness survival skills during the last week of July the sisters made final preparations for their relocation by giving away various belongings to other people they watched videos on YouTube to learn Wilderness survival strategies on August 1 2022 Rebecca Christine and Talan entered their 2006 Hyundai and drove about 175 mil West to the gold Creek Campground in Gunnison County Colorado this area has an elevation of about 10,000 ft after arriving at the campground they moved 1,000 ft into the forest to an area below Fossil Ridge they didn't want anyone to find their campsite the trio set up a gray nylon Dome Tent and put a tarp under it they did not have ground pads they then constructed a shelter by cutting down trees and digging a hole the shelter wasn't even 4T tall and was poorly engineered two months into their Adventure in October the Vance Family Trio drove about 27 miles to the town of Gunnison they called Donald the father of Rebecca and Christine and requested that he wire them $500 Donald complied with the request using the money the trio did some shopping in the area before returning to their remote campsite on November 25 the United States Forest Service found the Vance family's abandoned Hyundai it was registered to both Rebecca and Christine the authorities tried calling them but the women had disconnected their cell phones the car was towed 3 days later about 9 months after this on July 9 2023 a hiker found the Vance Family Camp and just outside the tent the mummified body of towan the hiker contacted the authorities when they arrived the next day they found the bodies of Rebecca and Christine inside the tent all three bodies were badly decomposed none of the Vance Family Trio was wearing shoes or socks Talon had a green rosary around his neck his body weight was only 40 lb Rebecca was on top of a sleeping bag she had a wooden cross around her neck along with a survival whistle her body weight was 100 lb Christine was inside a blue sleeping bag that was completely zipped up her body weighed 96 lb autopsies determined the cause of death for all three of the advanced family members was malnutrition and hypothermia investigators believed they probably died by late December their theory is that Talon died first the sisters pulled his body just outside of the tent after his death Rebecca died next and finally Christine now moving to my analysis here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case item number one when Rebecca was young she was described as intelligent quiet private standoffish mysterious isolated distrustful and very close to her mother throughout her life she had few friends after she quit her job during the co pandemic Rebecca became increasingly secretive she was the dominant one of the two sisters and had a lot of influence over Christine this brings me to item number two Christine was described as outgoing charismatic and self-conscious she often found ways to put herself down she believed that she was too heavy and physically unattractive her failure to stop smoking cigarettes was a constant source of embarrassment when Christine would act in a way inconsistent with Rebecca's belief system she felt like a rebellious teenager she viewed Rebecca as judgmental and harsh but also as a trusted authority figure item number three Rebecca came up with the live off Off the Grid plan and Christine went along with it Talon was simply a victim in this tragedy what motivated Rebecca and Christine to take the DraStic steps that resulted in death during the covid pandemic the sisters were exposed to a lot of misinformation online they came to believe in several different conspiracy theories they spoke to others about conducting their own research and how events were connected to one another this is a very common attitude for conspiracy theorists the sister specifically mentioned the New World Order the great reset the world economic form and microchips being implanted in people believing the government placed tiny sensors in their medication they stopped taking it the women came to believe that the apocalypse was coming soon one objective they had was to distance themselves from people in order to remain safe in Rebecca's final text message which was to an acquaintance she wrote quote they really want to merge man with machine and I refuse to let them do that to me or my son unquote she also wrote quote I don't know when all this will happen but I think it's important for people to get out while they still can unquote item number four after being driven to the Wilderness by paranoia fear and delusional thinking Rebecca and Christine demonstrated a severe lack of knowledge about survival they had no experience with the outdoors they had never been camping or hiking the ill-advised location of their Camp was consistent with their knowledge level and they made several other mistakes for example they burned Tinder in empty Soup cans inside of their tent when the authorities examined the campsite they found several different items which could offer insight into what the women may have been thinking as far as survival at the campsite there was a flashlight a headlamp a small shovel a hand saww lighters matches cord two water purification straws a Swiss army knife Vaseline chapstick Band-Aids a camp stove and a fishing pole the Vance Family Trio also had hiking boots sneakers and backpacks full of clothing there was evidence of their food selections at the Campsite in the form of empty wrappers for granola bars and ramen noodles as well as empty cans of chunky soup beef stew and Vienna sausages it appears as though the long-term plan for food was to grow various vegetables using a few different types of seeds some of the items did not appear as useful as far as survival for example there was a book containing ancient religious texts a book titled Magic Box choose your own adventure stories and a blue stuffed raccoon item number five what do I think happened in this case this is just a theory my opinion Rebecca Vance had symptoms from cluster a personality pathology so paranoid schizoid and schizotypal personality features she was fearful distrustful antagonistic unforgiving and perceived hidden meanings in benign remarks Rebecca had magical thinking odd beliefs ideas of reference a preoccupation with fantasy and no interest in Social relationships she was vulnerable to developing delusions and lived her life on the line between realistic thought and delusional thought Christine had more social skills than her sister however she was different to Rebecca she viewed Rebecca as an authority figure not as someone who was bizarre frightening and illogical the covid pandemic and all the misinformation it spawned pushed Rebecca into the realm of delusions it was not a long trip Christine initially resisted the false beliefs but these delusions transmitted to her perhaps due to shared psychotic disorder the women had many of the risk factors for this disorder they were siblings they lived together for their entire lives except when each one briefly moved out they were isolated and they had lost key support figures Rebecca and Christine remained functional for the most part despite having delusions for instance they were able to conceal details of their plan and convince people they were not dangerous the women told most of their acquaintances that they had a family emergency out of state only revealing their Wilderness survival plan to their stepsister as far as Talent he was too young to resist his mother's will he was an innocent victim who Rebecca took on the trip believing it was necessary to keep him safe the sisters maintained extremely unrealistic beliefs about their ability to survive in the Great Outdoors for instance Rebecca thought that she would learn how to make boots from the land when the women made their way to the campsite they should have realized that they were in over their heads but they pressed on in October of 20122 there was a bit of a reality check when they had to go shopping but then they returned to the campsite the temperature dropped Below Zero by mid November in late November their car was towed all three members of the Vance Family lost a lot of weight and became extremely cold at some point they barely had the strength to move there were several pairs of soiled women's underwear and piles of toilet paper scattered around the camp human feces were found just a few feet from the tent it appears as though they were too weak and cold to walk a significant distance away from the tent in order to defecate the campsite was a scene of unimaginable horror as each member of the trio experienced an agonizing death after Talan died the women dragged his body just a few feet from the tent but did not have the ability to move his body any farther after Rebecca died Christine was unable to move her body out of the tent she remained in the tent next to her sister's corpse Christine zipped up her sleeping bag all the way and waited for her own inevitable death now moving to my final thoughts Rebecca and Christine were both adults and had the right to make their own decisions even decisions that put them In Harm's Way they did not have the right to put 13-year-old Talan in danger in my opinion this case involved a homicide Rebecca and Christine murdered Rebecca's son this is consistent with the theory that shared psychotic disorder was involved unlike most mental disorders this disorder is associated with a significant homicidal risk when the theme of the delusion is persecutory or mystical the risk of a homicide being perpetrated against a member of the immediate family dramatically increases Rebecca and Christine may have been frightened by covid misinformation but that does not absolve them of criminal responsibility in order to Shield Talon from the apocalypse the Vance sisters created their own horrific end of the world scenario the entire time they represented the very danger that they feared those of my thoughts on the advaned family disaster please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always gener at an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

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Length: 15min 36sec (936 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 22 2024