The mummified remains of a family who attempted to live ‘off the grid’ after watching survivalist videos on YouTube has been found in Colorado Springs.

The bodies of sisters Christine Vance, 41, Rebecca Vance, 42, and Rebecca’s son, 14, were found in and around a tent near a campsite in Gunnison National Forest, around nine miles from Ohio City, according to the county coroner.

The child has not been named because he is a minor.

Coroner Michael Barnes said the bodies, two of which were found inside the tent and one outside, showed signs of malnourishment, were decomposed and partially mummified.

The cause of death has yet to be determined, but it is believed the family likely died from starvation, freezing temperatures or carbon monoxide poisoning from trying to make fire to stay warm.

Mr Barnes said empty cans of food had also been found, suggesting they had been surviving on canned goods. Books on survival and foraging were also discovered at the scene.

It is believed that the three likely started camping in July 2022 and perished sometime over the winter. Family members told Mr Barnes that the group embarked on a trip last summer and planned to live ‘off the grid.’

The pair’s stepsister, Trevala Jara, said the family had been determined to escape civilization and could not be persuaded otherwise.

‘We tried to stop them,’ Ms Jara told the Gazette, a local newspaper. ‘But they wouldn’t listen. Their minds were made up.’

The sisters had reportedly become ‘discouraged with the state of the world’ in recent years, according to family members’ which led them to set off to permanently live off the grid in the remote area.

‘She went for good intentions,’Ms Jara later told the New York Times. ‘She thought she was protecting her son and our sister, Christine, because she didn’t want them to get wrapped up in what the world was coming to in her eyes.’

Her sister Christine Vance decided to join the mother and son on their journey ‘because she thought that if she was with them, they had a better chance of surviving,’ Jara said.

‘Me and my husband, we tried to stop them,’ she added, her voice breaking.

‘You need years of practice before you go off the grid,’ she added. ‘They watched some YouTube videos, but doing it is totally different if you have no experience.’

Mr Barnes told the Colorado Sun that ‘exposure to the elements’ could have led to their deaths.

‘It was a significantly harsh winter for us this year, and it always is here,’ he said. ‘We did have more snow than we have had in the past couple of winters.’

‘I wonder if winter came on quickly and suddenly they were just in survival mode in the tent,’ Mr Barnes added. ‘They had a lot of literature with them about outdoor survival and foraging and stuff like that. But it looked like they were supplied at a grocery store.

Jara said Rebecca did not believe in conspiracy theories but became fearful of the world and after the pandemic, she decided that they’d live a better life in the woods.

‘I don’t want people to assume or think that they were crazy, because they weren’t,’ Ms Jara told The Washington Post.

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