Apparently she drove the Jeep Cherokee off the dirt road and over an animal den which collapsed, burying the Jeep up to the axle. Maybe there's newer info on that? The media seems a bit slow in this case to catch up to the full truth.

We don't know enough to tell whether a more capable driver could have extricated the Jeep from that situation. Or whether a more capable vehicle could have gotten out of that hole.

Point is, I haven't seen any reason to disparage Jeep in this instance.

If there's some indication that the vehicle was culpable, then by all means let's see it.

By the way, I happily drive a reliable, but much less off-road capable Honda Element. It's a pity Jeep has relatively poor reliability ratings because I would be very interested in a new Wrangler one day.

Looks like this woman was not prepared to be out there with the child and dog, no matter the vehicle she was driving.

Las Vegas Journal
http://www.lvrj.com/news/52756377.html

She ended up taking the Owl Hole Spring Road, a gravel road in the far south of the park that goes from the valley into the Owlshead Mountains. The trail, which requires four-wheel drive, dips briefly into the China Lake Naval Weapons Center before leading to a communications tower.

Shortly after turning onto the trail, the Jeep had a flat tire. Sanchez changed it and left the flattened tire on the side of the road, with a water bottle next to it.

She continued, navigating the 30-mile road nearly until it ends, Baldino said. But where the trail makes a sharp right, she went left down a trail that's not marked on the park's maps.

Why she did it, officials don't know, Baldino said.

On the trail the Jeep fell into a collapsed animal burrow and became stuck, Baldino said.