Featured Image Credit: Family Handout
Topics: US News
Anish Vij
Here are the final words of a man who suffered the 'worse death imaginable' in Utah's Nutty Putty Cave in 2009.
Spelunker John Edward Jones tragically ventured inside the cave with his brother Josh to an area dubbed the ‘birth canal’.
The 26-year-old medical student - who was with three others - went off with Josh to witness a tight passageway with a turnaround at the end.
But because part of the cave was still unmapped, Jones went through the wrong entrance.
His failed attempt at getting through the 'birth canal’ meant he was stuck in a horrific upside down position.
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The 'L-shaped pinpoint' was just 10 inches across and 18 inches high. And every time his chest would expand from breathing, it would further wedge him in.
Josh was forced to leave him behind and crawl to the surface to call for help. Susie Motola joined up with the rescue team to try and help save John.
He told her in the cave: "Hi Susie, thanks for coming but I really, really want to get out."
John then devastatingly said: "I'm going to die right here. I'm not going to come out of here, am I?"
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Rescuers initially tried to pull him out of the cave via a pulley rope system, which was almost successful, however, it then failed and plunged John deeper back into the hole.
The explorer was pronounced dead after suffering a cardiac arrest, and Nutty Putty Cave was sealed off with John's body inside.
John's wife, Emily Jones Sanchez, went on to give birth to their second child and later remarried to Donovan Sanchez.
The Last Descent, a biographical film about the tragedy, was released in 2016.
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“We all were afraid that this movie would just be a sad story,” Jones-Sanchez told Deseret News at the time. “And I think that would be the worst-case scenario… but best-case scenario would be that people come away from this movie remembering what they felt when they first heard about the story, remembering how much they wanted to treasure their loved ones and to put everything they had into their relationships and into making the most of this time that we have together.
“We weighed the pros and cons and we finally decided that if this movie could help people, if it could be a good thing, if people can learn to treasure their relationships and be reminded about how fragile life is, then maybe it’s worth it.
“We were aware that it would be really challenging to have to open back up that part of our lives and also expose our family to the public eye and criticism and the painful experiences, rehashing everything.”