Man who 'died worst death imaginable' described seeing angels and demons before he passed away
On 25 November 2009, a man entered the Nutty Putty Cave and never came back out after going the wrong way and becoming trapped in a 10-inch-by-18-inch hole.
John Edward Jones entered the cave with three others to explore part of the Nutty Putty known as the 'Big Slide', a vast underground space.
However, they then decided to check out a tighter passageway known as 'The Birth Canal', which offered cramped conditions but had a place to turn around at the end.
Unfortunately for the 26-year-old, he took a wrong turn into an unmapped passageway and found himself in an incredibly narrow space, believing it was the turnaround point.
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Instead, he became trapped headfirst and spent a hellish time stuck with rescue attempts failing to get him back out before he died from cardiac arrest and suffocation, and one of the men who attempted to get him out said John was 'seeing angels and demons around him' by the end.
Cave explorer and YouTuber Brandon Kowallis was reportedly the last person to see John alive. He joined the rescue efforts near the end and explained in a blog that when he got there, he was told the man's condition was 'quickly going downhill'.
“He was in and out of consciousness and had started talking about seeing angels and demons around him," the cave explorer said of the information he got about the trapped man.
Everyone came back out of the cave to discuss how to get John out, and it was decided that, as a fresh face on the problem, Kowallis would be the first back in to assess the situation.
Venturing into the cave, Kowallis got in far enough that his feet touched John's, and he tried speaking to the trapped man, getting no response except for 'a deep gurgling breath'.
He saw some 'fairly frantic' kicking from John before he became unresponsive, and feared it wouldn't even be possible to rescue the man, as he reckoned the only way to do it would require John to help by pushing himself out as they tried to pull him free.
Attempts to rescue John with a pulley system and drilling away larger chunks of rock were unsuccessful, and with it nearing midnight, Kowallis was asked to get back to the man and check his vitals.
Given John's position, it was difficult to reach his chest with a stethoscope, and Kowallis said he couldn't hear a heartbeat or detect any breathing, and that while John's torso still felt warm, the rest of his body was about the same temperature as the rocks he was trapped in.
A paramedic then went in after it was confirmed there was enough space for them to fit, and John was pronounced dead.
Whether he was alive or dead, getting the body out of the cave was always going to be a very difficult task, and it was instead decided that the Nutty Putty Cave would be sealed up so nobody else would get trapped down there.
John's final recorded words had been heard by fellow rescuer Susie Motola, who spoke with him while he was trapped upside down, as he told her: "Hi Susie, thanks for coming, but I really, really want to get out. I'm going to die right here. I'm not going to come out of here, am I?"
Topics: US News
Joe Harker