Last summer, Rebecca Vance talked with her family about a dream she’d had: She wanted to live in a land disconnected from the world, which she viewed as chaotic and dangerous.

She told her stepsister, Trevala Jara, that she could grow and gather her own food in a remote place, that she and her teenage son could be happy and safe away from the news, the viruses, the politics of modern-day America.

“I’m going to worry about you,” Ms. Jara told her stepsister. But Ms. Vance was resolute. “I’m going to live off the land,” she replied.

Her decision proved to be fatal. On Tuesday, a coroner said that he had identified three bodies that had been found earlier this month in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains as those of Rebecca Vance, 42, her 14-year-old son and her sister, Christine Vance, 41, who, Ms. Jara said, had ventured with them out of concern for their safety, believing an extra set of hands could be useful.

[All three were found dead this month. They had died sometime during the winter, likely freezing to death. They also appeared to be malnourished as they were surviving on packaged foods and soup.]