Bobby, Sherilyn, and Madyson Jamison vanished in October 2009, and their bodies were found in the Oklahoma woods in 2013, but no one knows why they disappeared or how they died.
FacebookThe Jamison family: Bobby, Sherilyn, and Madyson.
Bobby Jamison, his wife Sherilyn, and their six-year-old daughter, Madyson, seemingly led normal lives in Eufaula, Oklahoma. But on October 8, 2009, the Jamison family disappeared without a trace.
A few days later, the discovery of the Jamison family’s truck only deepened the mystery. Inside, the Jamisons had left $32,000, an angry letter penned by Sherilyn to her husband, and the family’s dog, on the brink of starvation. Even the discovery of their bodies four years after that — side-by-side, face-down — offered no answers. The bodies were so decomposed that investigators could not tell how the Jamison family had died.
Today, the disappearance and deaths of the Jamison family stands as one of the strangest cold cases in American history. Here’s everything we know about their bizarre disappearance and death.
The Disappearance Of The Jamison Family In 2009
The story of the Jamison family begins back in 2009. That October, Bobby and Sherilyn had purportedly started thinking of buying a new house. On the day before they disappeared, October 7, they had visited a property up in the isolated Sans Bois Mountains, and spoken with the landowner. But the next day the family vanished without a trace from their Eufaula home.
According to CBS News, more than 300 volunteers and dozens of law enforcement officials scoured the surrounding area for the missing family. They didn’t find Bobby, Sherilyn, or Madyson, but they did find the family’s truck eight days after they’d disappeared.
At first it seemed like a break in the case — but the truck only deepened the mystery.
Latimer County Sheriff’s OfficeThe Jamison family’s truck was found about a week after they vanished.
Inside, investigators found a wallet, a purse, the Jamison family’s cell phones, $32,000 in cash, and the family dog, starving but alive. Both the money and the dog raised immediate questions. Bobby and Sherilyn were disabled — they didn’t work — and it was unusual for them to be carrying so much cash. What’s more, Sherilyn’s mother Connie told the Daily Mail that Madyson loved the dog and never went anywhere without her.
“I’ve gone back and forth on this thing, but my latest theory — based on how the truck was parked and what was found in the truck — I think they were forced to stop and got out of the truck to meet with someone they recognized,” Latimer County Sheriff Israel Beauchamp told the Oklahoman. “And I think they either left willingly or by force.”
Indeed, the dog and the money both seemed to suggest that the Jamison family had not meant to leave the truck for long. But they never returned. And no one would know what had happened to them until four years later.
The Discovery Of The Jamisons’ Remains Four Years Later
The Jamison family disappearance went cold until Nov. 16, 2013. That day, roughly three miles from where the Jamison family truck was found back in 2009, deer hunters stumbled upon the skeletal remains of two adults and one child. The three bodies were lying side-by-side, face down in the dirt. Investigators soon proved that they belonged to the Jamisons.
Due to the state of decomposition, the cause of death could not be determined. But law enforcement had made some progress in their investigation in the meantime.
They had uncovered security footage from the Jamison family home taken on the night they left. In the video recording, Bobby and Sherilyn Jamison are seen going back and forth between their house and their truck. Bobby and Sherilyn are both unusually thin, and pack the truck in total silence.
YouTubeSecurity footage showed the Jamison family packing up their truck in a “trancelike” state.
At one point, Sherilyn places a briefcase in the truck. Though investigators found many of the Jamison family’s belongings in the vehicle, the briefcase has never been found (neither has Sherilyn’s small-caliber handgun). And Beauchamp thinks that the briefcase might be an important clue.
“I think it might have held a lot of cash,” he told the Oklahoman.
Investigators also learned that Sherilyn had told her mother that their house was “haunted” and that Bobby had told his pastor that the couple had seen “ghosts.” According to the Daily Mail, Bobby had even asked the pastor if he could find “special bullets” in order to shoot the spirits, and Sherilyn, who was interested in witches, had bought a “witch’s bible,” which investigators found during their investigation in the Jamison family home.
So what happened to the Jamison family? There are many theories, but no clear answers.
Disturbing Theories About The Jamison Family Deaths
One possibility is that the Jamison family was killed; Sherilyn’s mother has suggested that the couple were possibly killed by a religious cult.
Given the money in their truck, it’s also possible that their deaths were somehow related to a drug deal gone wrong. Though their loved ones deny that Bobby and Sherilyn did drugs themselves, they did have money troubles, and it’s possible that they might have gotten involved with selling drugs.
FacebookThe Jamison family when Madyson was still a baby.
Another hypothesis concerns Bobby’s father, Bob Dean Jamison. According to the Oklahoman, Bobby described his father as a “very dangerous man [who] thinks he is above the law.” He even filed a petition for a protective order against his father, claiming that Bob Dean had threatened “to kill” him and his family on two occasions.
“My entire family is severely scared for their lives,” Bobby Jamison wrote in his petition. “I am in fear at all times.”
However, Bob Dean was in poor health at the time that the family went missing — and he died just two months later. Bobby’s brother, Jack, has stated that he does not think that their father was involved, as he was “either in a hospital or in a rest home” when the Jamison family disappeared.
Indeed, some believe that the Jamison family disappearance stemmed from a murder-suicide.
Investigators found an 11-page letter in the Jamison family truck from Sherilyn to Bobby in which she lists grievances against him, calling him a “hermit.” And she had purportedly struggled with her mental health in recent years. However, given the lack of information about the Jamison family’s cause of death, it’s difficult to say who may have killed who.
In the end, the Jamison family case seemed to have many leads — but none of them led anywhere conclusive. Beauchamp once stated that “a lot of investigators would love to have as many leads as we do; the problem is they point in so many different directions.” Despite all the mysterious clues and theories, police haven’t been able to untangle the mystery of the Jamison family deaths. The case remains unsolved to this day.
“What I truly believe is that they went up there, saw something they shouldn’t and were murdered by someone,” Connie, Sherilyn’s mother remarked. “Who that was, I just don’t know.”
After reading about the strange disappearance and death of the Jamison family, go inside the bizarre disappearance of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froom. Then learn the chilling story of of Amy Lynn Bradley, who vanished while on a cruise.
