Heartbreaking final conversation man had before suffering ‘worst death imaginable’
John Edward Jones suffered one of the most excruciating deaths of all time back in November 2009.
Almost 16 years on from the tragic incident, details from the spelunker's final moments continue to circulate in what might be one of the most horrifying situations ever heard.
Jones enjoyed exploring caves in his spare time, but when visiting the Nutty Putty Cave in the Utah desert with his brother and friends, he took a wrong turn and ended up stuck in an unmapped passageway, which measured 10 inches by 18 inches.
After seeing his sibling slip into the hole, brother Josh went to the surface to seek help, as Jones stayed helpless in the passageway, headfirst.
Advert
Following a 27-hour rescue operation, the father-of-one became unresponsive and died, suffering from cardiac arrest and suffocation.
Unfortunately, officials deemed the mission to rescue his body too dangerous, instead collapsing the passageway with controlled explosives, blocking any future explorers from heading in.
A memorial has been installed at the entrance to the cave for the family, as well as a plaque in Jones' memory.
The last person to see the caver alive though, was fellow cave explorer and YouTuber Brandon Kowallis, who was part of the 'impossible' efforts to save him.
Speaking about his experience in a blog post, he wrote that the American medical student was having trouble breathing as blood rushed to his head, and he started to float in and out of consciousness.
However, he also remembered Jones' final conversation, following attempts to get him into a horizontal position.
A radio was brought down so he could speak to his family, as Kowallis explained: "I think it was his father, mother, and wife who spoke to him, telling him that they loved him and were praying for him and that his father had given him a blessing.
"His wife mentioned a feeling of peace, that everything would be OK. She talked to him about five to 10 minutes before I told her that we needed to get back to working at getting him out."
Kowallis actually crawled down to check on John, along with rescuer Debbie, and they saw something terrifying.
Along with Jones' gurgling breath, his legs were twitching violently, in what he said was a 'very bleak' sight that gave him little hope about rescuing the 26-year-old.
Despite his and the rescuer's best attempts to find a solution, it looked like it was simply too difficult to save Jones.
"It looked like he could only be lifted another foot or two in his current position because of where the webbing was anchored around his knees," Kowallis pointed out, as his feet would hit the ceiling with no room to manoeuvre into a more horizontal position.
Joshua Nair