A young family of three and their Golden Retriever was found dead on a California hiking trail Monday, hours after they went missing in the Sierra National Forest.
Friends of Ellen Chung, Jonathan Gerrish, and their baby daughter Miju said that the family would go hiking on weekends without incident.
The victims and their dogs were found dead near the Devil’s Gulch area south of the Merced River Drainage.
“Coming across a scene where everyone involved, including the family dog that is deceased, that is not a typical thing that we have seen or other agencies have seen,” Deputy Kristie Mitchell said.
“That’s why we’re treating it as a hazmat situation. We just don’t know.”
No official cause of death was revealed for the moment. The parents last updated a photo on social media at around 6:45 a.m. Sunday.
“This is never the outcome we want or the news we want to deliver, my heart breaks for their family,” a friend of the couple said.
