Tragic teen boy’s heartbreaking diary reveals deep personal pain after conspiracy theorist mom whisked him off the grid: ‘Mini breakdown at Arby’s’

The teenage boy who died while living off the grid with his conspiracy theorist mom and aunt wrote a heartbreaking diary detailing how his friends begged him not to leave — and how he feared he was suffering a mental breakdown as he left his old life.

Talon Vance, 14, weighed just 40 pounds when he was found dead in the Colorado Rockies last year alongside the bodies of his mother Rebecca “Becky” Vance, 42, and 41-year-old aunt, Christine Vance, 41, both conspiracy theorists relying on YouTube videos to teach them survival skills.

He chronicled his depression and fears in a diary found next to his mummified remains, according to heartbreaking excerpts shared by Outside Magazine.

They show that he initially seemed excited when his mom urged him to learn survival skills including how to tie knots and build shelters — telling one friend: “Side note: I did the trucker’s hitch first try!!”

However, he also detailed how friends — many of whom he only knew by their usernames on the video game Roblox — begged him not to leave his regular life in Colorado Springs, the journal entries show.

“Please I will give anything for you to come back,” one wrote, while another said: “NOOO COME BACK.”

Some even changed their usernames to reflect the loss of their friend, Outside noted.

By the time the trio finally left home in August 2022, Talan was already fearing for his mental health, he noted in an entry about stopping in an Arby’s in Gunnison.

“I also had a mini breakdown at Arby’s because nothing feels the same anymore [sad face],” the teenager wrote.

He said his aunt brought him to the local grocery store “and let me pick out candy of my choice” but he was “so sad that nothing really sounded appealing to me anymore.,”

“So I picked out chocolate for mommy mostly, and then Aunty suggested fruit snacks for me, so I just said ‘OK.’”

Not much is known about how the three spent their days living in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, but they had packed only rudimentary items for their survival — including an $80 tent from Walmart, a fishing pole, and seed packets for food, according to the investigation by Outside Magazine.

They would make occasional trips into town for food, until their car was found abandoned in November 2023 and was towed away by the US Forest Service.

An autopsy found that all three died of malnutrition and hypothermia.