Bobby and Sherilyn Jamison, along with their young daughter Madyson, were looking to purchase a 40-acre plot of land near the Sans Bois Mountains in southeastern Oklahoma when they mysteriously vanished in 2009.
Hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officers scoured the area for clues that might explain their disappearance. However, after finding the family’s pickup truck and a few belongings, leads on the case dried up, and the search was called off.
Now, four years later, authorities believe they may have found the remains of the two adults and one child.
Deer hunters discovered the remains on Saturday evening near Kinta, in a rugged, mountainous region. The family had disappeared in October 2009 while searching for a plot of land for sale in the Sans Bois Mountains in northern Latimer County. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation reported that the remains were located approximately 2.7 miles northwest of where the family’s truck was found a little over a week after they were last seen.
“It brings closure,” said Jack Jamison, Bobby Jamison’s uncle. “Not knowing—especially regarding the little girl—she did nothing to deserve this. It brings closure. That’s about all I can say. It’s sad. It’s about what we expected.”
While it’s not yet certain that the remains are those of his nephew and his family, all evidence suggests it, according to Jack Jamison, who was contacted by the FBI about the discovery. He had no hope the family was still alive four years later and believed that foul play was involved.
The Latimer County Sheriff’s Office, Haskell County Sheriff’s Office, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, FBI, and the State Medical Examiner’s Office searched the area but found no evidence that could identify the remains, according to a statement from the OSBI.
“Law enforcement authorities do not have any information to indicate these human remains are those of the Jamison family; however, since the remains were found approximately 2.7 aerial miles northwest of where Bobby Jamison’s pickup was found in 2009, authorities are considering the possibility that the remains belong to the Jamison family,” the OSBI said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Monday that the office had received skeletal remains of two adults and one child. The office will use anthropological and, if necessary, forensic pathological methods to determine if the remains belong to Bobby Jamison, who was 44 when he went missing, his wife Sherilyn Jamison, who was 40 at the time of the disappearance, and their 6-year-old daughter Madyson.
“Depending on the features of these remains and their state of preservation, identification can take anywhere from days to years,” spokeswoman Amy Elliott said in a statement.
Latimer County Sheriff Jesse James did not return a message seeking comment on the case.
Then-Latimer County Sheriff Israel Beauchamp told The Associated Press in 2009 that a landowner in the Red Oak area last saw the family on Oct. 8. A little over a week later, on Oct. 17, an air and ground search involving more than 300 volunteers and numerous law enforcement officers was launched after hunters discovered the family’s pickup truck at a remote well pad site near a 40-acre plot of land the family was considering buying. A wallet, purse, cell phones, cash, and Madyson’s small dog were found inside the truck.
There were no signs of foul play, and it appeared the family had planned to return to the truck.
Heavy rains hit the area during the time the family went missing, but Beauchamp said he didn’t think the creek would be strong enough to sweep away the adults. The sheriff noted that both Bobby and Sherilyn Jamison were disabled and did not work. The family originally hailed from the Oklahoma City area but had moved to Eufaula and often traveled to time-share units around the country.
A mother whose daughter disappeared with her husband and young child in the Oklahoma mountains four years ago believes that the family of three was murdered by members of a violent cult.
Authorities say hunters discovered three skeletons last weekend that could be the remains of Sherilyn, Bobby, and six-year-old Madyson Jamison—who went missing in 2009 amid rumors of witchcraft and allegations of drug involvement.
Connie Kokotan believes that the police know more about her daughter Sherilyn's disappearance than they are revealing and that the only explanation is that the three were killed by religious fanatics. "Just like I’ve said from the very beginning, I think somebody killed them," she told the Oklahoman newspaper.
"There’s just no way that Bobby and Sherilyn would ever let anything happen to Madyson unless something had been done to them."
The family went missing while looking to buy property in the remote Sans Bois Mountains near Kinta, Oklahoma—about 155 miles east of Oklahoma City. "That part of Oklahoma is known for that—cults and stuff like that—from what I’ve been told and from what I’ve read," Ms. Kokotan said.
She did not specify which cult she believed was responsible for the deaths.
Authorities say the skeletons found on Saturday appear to be those of two adults and a child. They were discovered just three miles from where police found the Jamison family's abandoned pickup truck in 2009.
Forensic scientists are currently trying to confirm the identification of the skeletons through dental records and DNA matched with family members. There is only one survivor from the family's 2009 disappearance—the family’s dog Maizy. She was found barely alive in the family’s pickup truck, having survived by eating her own feces.
"Maizy survived. She lives with Bobby’s mom now. Madyson loved that dog so much," Ms. Kokotan revealed.
Ms. Kokotan dismissed claims from the sheriff at the time that Bobby and Sherilyn were on drugs.
She said her daughter's strange behavior could be explained by the fact that her sister, Ms. Kokotan's daughter Marla, had died in a freak accident two years earlier.
She also said that she didn’t believe the family was involved in witchcraft. They lived in Eufaula but had been looking to buy property 35 miles away in the mountains.
At their home, investigators found a shipping container with bizarre messages scrawled across it, including "3 cats killed to date buy people in this area… Witches don’t like their black cat killed" (sic).
Their pastor, Gary Brandon, told detectives that the family had been involved in "spiritual warfare." Both Mr. and Mrs. Jamison had told him they had seen spirits at their Eufaula home.
Mrs. Jamison said the spirits of a long-dead family lived with them and that their daughter Madyson spoke with the youngest spirit.
At one point, Mr. Jamison asked his pastor whether he could obtain "special bullets" to shoot the spirits.
He later said he had consulted the "satanic Bible" to find a cure for the spirits. Friends reported that the family had begun acting strangely and that both Mr. and Mrs. Jamison had lost a significant amount of weight before they disappeared.
The sheriff at the time concluded that the family had likely become involved in drugs—though no evidence of this was ever found.
After they disappeared, a massive search effort was mobilized, including hundreds of volunteers, troopers from the Oklahoma State Highway Patrol, and agents from both the FBI and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Searchers combed the area on foot, on ATV, and on horseback, but found nothing.
Sixteen teams of dogs fanned out but found nothing.
Current Sheriff Jesse James suggested that the location of the skeletons could have been missed by rescuers or that the family's bodies could have been covered in fallen leaves.
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