Stephan, Jim Jr., and Tim Jones survived the events of November 18, 1978, because, being members of the Peoples Temple's basketball team, they were playing an away game in Georgetown at the time of the mass poisoning. Stephan and Tim were both 19, and Jim Jones Jr. was 18. Tim's biological family, the Tuppers, which consisted of his three biological sisters, Janet, Mary and Ruth, biological brother, Larry and biological mother, Rita, all died at Jonestown. Three days before the tragedy, Stephan refused, over the radio, to comply with an order by his father to return the team to Jonestown for Ryan's visit.