Read the heartbreaking journal entries Colorado boy, 13, penned just days before his conspiracy theorist mom took him ‘off the grid’ in the Rocky Mountains – nearly a year before she was found mummified and he died weighing just 40lbs

Chilling details have emerged about the deaths of a Colorado family who moved off the grid after their mother became obsessed with pandemic conspiracy theories.

An investigation by journalist Ted Conover of Outdoor magazine discovered heartbreaking diary entries written by Talon Vance, 13, after he was taken to the Rocky Mountain wilderness by his mother Becky Vance, 42, and aunt Christine Vance, 41.

Talon weighed less than 40 pounds when their mummified remains were discovered, and their families said they had no survival skills or experience before Becky tried to “escape society.”

As revealed this week by Outside Magazine, Talon’s diary found next to his rotting remains details his mother’s puzzling dependence on him to stay alive, despite being homeschooled and having only rudimentary knowledge of how to tie a knot had to cut through.

In the diary, he also wrote about his online friends begging him not to go off-grid, and how he suffered from nervous breakdowns because “nothing feels the same anymore.”

Talon had previously spent most of his time with his father and half-siblings, until he was taken away with his mother and aunt after Becky became convinced the pandemic was a sham.

An old acquaintance texted her months before she went off-grid, hoping to catch up with her. Her reaction prompted him to call authorities as she fled into the wilderness.

After saying she wouldn’t be available because she was leaving Colorado soon, Becky added, “I know I probably sound like a ‘conspiracy theorist,’ but there are crazy plots out there to take away our souls and humanity.”

“If you haven’t heard about the Great Reset, WEF, the 4th Industrial Revolution, please look up Yuval Noah Harari, Klaus Schwab and their agenda.”

A final text to another friend read: “They really want to merge man and machine, and I refuse to let them do that to me or my son… I don’t know when this will all happen, but I think it is . It is important that people get out while they still can.’

While they were still preparing for their outing, Becky urged her son to learn wilderness skills, including tying and shelter building, which he would write about in his journal.

“Side note: I tried the truck driver’s hitch first!!” he wrote in one message – shortly before telling his online friends in the game ‘Roblox’ that he was leaving.

He recorded minute details of their interactions, including timestamps of messages in which his friends begged him, “Please, I’ll give anything to come back.”

‘NOOO COME BACK’, read another message.

When they left in August 2022, Becky refused to share details about where they were going, and lied to some family members that they were going to West Virginia to be with her father.

During the trip they stopped for dinner in the remote town of Gunnison. It was there that Talan, as described in his diary, wrote how he had a nervous breakdown because “nothing feels the same.”

“The Arby’s we had were so good!” He wrote. Many of the diary entries seemed childish and innocent.

‘I also had a mini breakdown at Arby’s because nothing feels the same anymore (sad face). During my slump she took us to Safeway and let me pick out candy of my choice! I was so sad that nothing really appealed to me anymore.

“So I mainly picked out chocolate for Mom, and then Auntie suggested fruit snacks for me, so I just said, ‘Okay.’

They eventually set up camp in the woods outside a campsite nearly 10,000 feet in the mountains, in an area known for heavy snowfall.

Even though a friend offered her a camper, Becky declined because she really wanted to live off-grid, even without electricity or heat generators.

It is unclear exactly when they died, and their mummified remains were found deep in the forest by a hiker in July 2023. An autopsy ruled that they died of malnutrition and hypothermia.

Survival guides and empty food cans were scattered around their wooded campsite, according to Gunnison County coroner’s autopsies. No heaters were found in their tent, which was covered with snow in winter.

Investigators were initially baffled by the discovery, not least because Talan’s body was located outside the tent where his mother and aunt were found.

They now believe, according to Conover, that the 13-year-old died first, and they brought him outside so they wouldn’t have to sleep with his dead body.

In interviews with friends, family and researchers, Conover wrote for Outside Magazine that it took some time for them to truly realize how unprepared they were for the brutal conditions.

This included just packing an $80 Walmart tent, and just a fishing rod and seed packets for food.

They made occasional trips into town until their car was found abandoned in November 2023 and towed by the US Forest Service, leaving them stranded.

When they were found last summer, Becky and Christine’s stepsister Tevala Jara revealed she had begged them to change their minds.

‘At first Christine didn’t want to go, but she changed her mind. She felt like they would have a better chance at life if she went with them,” Jara said. “And she didn’t want our sister and cousin to be alone.”

Jara, 39, added at the time that Talan was naive about the risks of his mother’s beliefs.

“He was scared and excited at the same time,” she told the New York Post. ‘He was only thirteen when they left. He didn’t know what living off the grid meant at all, but he wanted to be with his mother.”

Jara also remembered Beckly as a bit reserved, sharp as a whip, and someone who could read a 1,000-page book in a few days. Vance’s son was homeschooled and was a math whiz, Jara said.

Christine Vance was more outgoing, charismatic and initially wasn’t convinced about the idea of ​​escaping society, Jara said, “but she just changed her mind because she didn’t want our sister and cousin to be alone.”