The final calls on a British dad's phone may hold the key to how he and his family mysteriously died during a hiking trip in the US, investigators said.
Jonathan Gerrish, 44, from Lancashire, his wife Ellen Chung, 31, their one-year-old daughter Muji and dog Oksi were all found dead in a remote area of the Sierra National Forest last Tuesday.
There were no phone signals in the isolated spot but analysts are due to examine whether any calls were made or any voice messages recorded on a phone found with the bodies, according to the Times.
Jeremy Briese, sheriff of Mariposa County, California, told the newspaper: “We’ve searched from the air and on foot and all over, looking for anything that may give us a clue to what occurred.
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“Basically, it’s baffling and we’ve got to work through the different scenarios looking for answers.”
He said the scene where the family was found lacked any immediate clues as to what happened, with no signs of foul play or traumatic injuries.
Mr Briese said the baby was in a backpack carrier with the dog near her father but attached to him, while her mum was 30 yards away.
He previously admitted in his 20 years on the job, he'd "never seen a death-related case like this".
"There's no obvious indicators of how it occurred.
"You have two healthy adults, you have a healthy child, and what appears to be a healthy canine all within a general same area," the sheriff said.
The temperature was around 38C during the discovery but the family is thought to have set out walking early in the morning when it would have been much cooler.
The post-mortems done on Mr Gerrish and Ms Chung failed to provide a cause of death.
It is hoped toxicology reports can shed further light, but these could take weeks to come back.
While detectives hope the upcoming autopsy of the dog will also potentially provide answers.
They had water with them which has also been sent for analysis.
It could have been filled from the Merced River which is known to contain harmful algal blooms and cyanobacteria.
Mariposa County Sheriff's spokeswoman Kristie Mitchell previously said there was "no apparent cause of death, there's no smoking gun, there's no suicide note, there's nothing like that, we have to consider all options".
"We're no longer considering homicide as a cause of death," she told Fox News, adding: "We're hoping that within the next week, two weeks, we'll have a better idea.
"There's toxicology that we're waiting for from the autopsies themselves, and then also from the [necropsy for the dog]."
A friend of the couple, Sidney Radanovich, told the San Francisco Chronicle they had recently relocated from San Francisco after "falling in love" with the Mariposa area.
Radanovich added: "They were such a loving couple, they loved each other quite a bit."
Jonathan worked for Google and Snapchat and had led his family on a hike last Sunday.
But it was only when their nanny arrived to look after Miju and no-one answered the door that concerns were raised.
They were reported missing the next day and the family car was then found at the forest gate.
