The Vanishing at Smokestack Hollow
A Missing Family, a Desperate Plan, an Unsolved Mystery
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3.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
An immersive exploration of the mystery that gripped internet sleuths and bloggers and inspires an avid online following to this day—the bizarre disappearance of the Jamison family in the rugged Sans Bois Mountains—from a contemporary master of true crime journalism.
“There’s dark stuff up there, sir. You know that, right? Cults and such.” That’s what Starlet Jamison told the Sheriff after her son and his family went missing.
On October 8th, 2009, Bobby Jamison, his wife Sherilynn, and their six-year-old daughter Madyson, set off for a drive from their home in Eufaula, Oklahoma, to the nearby Sans Bois Mountains. They didn’t return that day, or the next. A week later, their truck was found abandoned on a mountain road. Inside was their dog, malnourished but alive, the family’s cell phones, wallets, and $32,000 in cash.
The ensuing eight-month search was the largest in Oklahoma history, but it yielded little evidence. Online, bloggers and web sleuths put forth dozens of theories, fueled by the Jamisons’ strange, trancelike behavior on a CCTV video. Some claimed the family was abducted by white supremacists or a religious cult. In 2013, there was a tragic break in the case, when deer hunters stumbled upon the skeletal remains of two adults and a child in the Smokestack Hollow area of Panola Mountain. Forensic testing confirmed the Jamisons’ identities.
But the mystery was only beginning. Had the Jamisons been planning to abandon their lives and raise Madyson alone in the wilderness—and if so, why? What happened to the briefcase and handgun that Sheryilynn was seen putting into the car? And why were no arrests ever made?
Investigative journalist Jake Anderson draws on police notes, interviews, and exclusive evidence to piece together the Jamisons’ last days and weeks, weaving together startling material with his own personal insights. The story is one of dark, paranoid obsessions, but also of real malevolent forces residing in those shadowy mountains—and a compulsively readable account of a true murder mystery whose chilling impact continues to be felt.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Anderson (Gone at Midnight) unravels a confounding missing persons case in this rigorously researched account. In October 2009 on Oklahoma's Panola Mountain, a hunter discovered an abandoned truck with cell phones, a starving dog, and $32,000 cash locked inside. The vehicle belonged to Bobby and Sherilyn Jamison, who, along with their six-year-old daughter, Madyson, had been missing from their home in nearby Eufaula for several days. It wasn't until November 2013 that another group of hunters stumbled on the family's skeletal remains, which were too degraded to indicate a cause of death, in an area of Panola called Smokestack Hollow, a few miles from their truck. Despite a vigorous investigation, the mystery of what happened to the trio eluded law enforcement and true crime fans alike. Anderson digs into various theories, which include a drug deal gone bad, a grisly murder-suicide, and—as suggested on some far-flung corners of Reddit—a Big Foot attack. Interviewing police, friends and family of the Jamisons, and a laundry list of internet sleuths, Anderson leaps down rabbit holes and chases red herrings. Eventually, he comes to believe the Jamisons meant to withdraw from society and raise Madyson on the mountain, but he acknowledges that their cause of death remains unknown. Despite the lack of closure, true crime devotees will admire Anderson's thoroughness and gift for page-turning pacing.
