Latest / Crime and Horror / Top 5 Bingeable SCARY STORIES • DEATH TRIP Edition

Transcript

Top 5 Bingeable SCARY STORIES • DEATH TRIP Edition · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today, we have a very special bonus video for you guys.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's a collection of five fan favorite stories that show
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: adventure often comes with a price. Now, these five fan
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: favorites have all been completely re edited, so even if
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: you have previously maybe seen or heard them before, I
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: promise you this is going to be like a whole
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: new viewing experience. But before we get into today's five stories,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload two, three,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: even four times every week. So if that's of interest
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to you, please sneak into the like button's house and
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: pull out their very best button up shirt and go
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: ahead and remove all the buttons. Also, please subscribe to
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: today's stories. In twenty seventeen, twenty seven year old Lydia
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Macarchuck left her home country of Ukraine and moved to Bracknell,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: which is a town just outside of London. Shortly after
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: moving into her new apartment, Lydia went out and got
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: a job as an accountant at a local hotel, and
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: then after that, Lydia pretty much swore off her social
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: life and instead just focused exclusively on working hard and
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: saving money. The one reprieve she got from work was
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: going to church on Sundays. Two years later, Lydia was
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: at her church enjoying the coffee hour that always followed
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the Sunday sermon when another member of her church who
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: she didn't really speak to, this forty one year old
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: man named Norbert Varga, approached her and kind of awkwardly
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: complimented her shoes, and she was so flattered by this
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: that it opened up a friendly conversation between the two
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: of them. And during this conversation, Lydia was presently surprised
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: to find out that Norbert was an expat too. An
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: expat is someone who lives outside of their native country.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Norbert had moved to the UK in twenty eighteen, so
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: that's one year after Lydia had moved to the UK,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and he came from Hungary, which shares a border with Ukraine,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: and just like Lydia, when he got to the UK,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: he kind of put all his energy into his work
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: and trying to save money. He was a radio technician
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and a photographer, and so the two spend the rest
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: of this coffee hour chatting and enjoying each other's company.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: And then afterwards, when they left the church and they
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: both got home, they both found themselves thinking about the other.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: There was clearly an attraction there, and so the following
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Sunday they both very eagerly rushed back to church in
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: order to spend more time together. And sure enough, during
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: that coffee hour they spent the whole time together just
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: chatting it up. And then afterwards they exchanged phone numbers
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: and made plans to get together outside of church. They
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: were going to go on a date, and so the rest,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: as they say, is history. Two years after Norbert complimented
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Lydia's shoes, they got married Bracknell, and while the wedding
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: was great, unfortunately none of Lydia's family members, who were
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: all in Ukraine, none of them could attend the actual wedding,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: and so the newlywed couple decided the way they would
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: handle that is, their honeymoon would be spent in Ukraine.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: That way, Lydia's family could celebrate their wedding as well.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: For a variety of reasons, this honeymoon trip to Ukraine
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: kept getting pushed back, but finally, in September of twenty
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: twenty one, everything lined up. Everyone was available, and so
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Norbert and Lydia rushed to the airport and they hopped
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: on a flight, and during this flight to Ukraine, Lydia
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: remembers being so excited, specifically about her husband finally getting
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: a chance to spend some time with her twenty nine
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: year old younger brother, Miroslav. Lydia was very close with
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: her brother, and so it mattered to her greatly that
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: he and her husband had a good relationship. But to
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: that point, because of the great physical distance between the
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: UK and Ukraine, the two had really not had that
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: much interaction, and so they really didn't know each other
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: very well, and so this trip was really important to
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Lydia and Miroslav. He really picked up on that because
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: he put together this camping trip for the end of
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: their stay in Ukraine, where he knew he'd be able
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: to step aside with Norbert and chat with him and
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: get to know him a little bit. And so that
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: was kind of like the failsafe where if he and
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Norbert did not get a chance to speak all week
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: because they were visiting with so many people they would
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: have a chance to at the end of the week
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: on this camping trip. So after a few hours of flying,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Lydia and Norbert touchdown in Ukraine and they make their
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: way to Lydia's family's house where they're going to be
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: staying for the week. And that night and for the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: next several days, the couple was swamped with several family
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: reunions and meet ups with old friends that hadn't seen
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Lydia in years, and so Norbert and Miroslav were not
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: getting any time to themselves, and Lydia really knew that,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and so she and Norbert began looking forward to this
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: camping trip because that not only represented a kind of
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: peaceful break from the chaos of all these reunions, but
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: it also did represent the one chance they knew Miroslav
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: and Norbert would get to interact with the ea each other.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: And so finally September fifteenth, the end of the week,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: it came and it was time to go on this
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: camping trip, and so Lydia and Norbert and Miroslav and
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: nine other family members they all packed up their tents
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: and their camping belongings and they loaded up a couple
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: of cars and they drove over to the base of
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the Carpathian Mountain Range. This mountain range, which stretches for
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: nearly one thousand miles across eastern and Central Europe, are
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: very popular amongst tourists because it's stunningly beautiful. Everything is
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: green and lush, and there are these crystal clear lakes
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: and breath taking waterfalls and all these amazing animals running around,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: and there's no mosquitoes, and they have these really cool
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: hikes that bring you up to these very impressive overlooks.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: And so that night Miroslav had made reservations for this
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: one campsite, this very popular campsite that was up in
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: this clearing not too far up the mountain, and it
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: had this great view down to the forest below, and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: because it was in a clearing, it had this unobstructed
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: view up to the sky, where in this area you
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: could look up and just see stars in every direction.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: So when Lydia and the rest of this group arrived
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: in the parking lot of this mountain range, they were
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: all really excited to get up to this campsite and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: just enjoy being there. And so they park their cars,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: they get their gear out, they find the trailhead and
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: then they begin hiking up the mountain, and about two
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: hours later they arrived at this clearing. They find their campsite,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: which was marked by the small fire pit underneath a
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: couple of trees, and so they go over and they
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: set their tents up, and some people go out and
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: get some firewood, and then before long a fire was made,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: and this group of twelve people that had not seen
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: each other and so long, they just sat down and
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: began enjoying each other's company. They put tea on, they
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: were swapping stories. It was really just this wonderful time.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: And then around eight pm, the sun started to set,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: at which point this huge group just stopped and enjoyed
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: this beautiful sunset. And then once the sun had gone down,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: there were two kids that were there on this trip,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: and so they were put to bed in their tent,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: and then the remaining ten adults just kind of hung
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: out by the fire and enjoyed each other's company. And
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: it was actually during this second half of the night
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: that Norbert and Miroslav finally really got a chance just
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: chat with each other. So for about an hour they
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: were talking to each other and Lydia is just watching
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: this happen and she couldn't be happier. This is like
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the perfect ending to this trip. And then around nine pm,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Norbert stands up. Lydia sees him stand up, and he
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: tells the group he's going to run back to his tent,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: which was a ways away from the campfire, and he
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: was going to get his camera, and so Lydia said, okay,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: no problem, and she remembers watching him walk off into
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: the distance, because when you're at the campfire, if you're
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: looking away from the campfire, everything is pitch black in
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: that direction, and so she watches him disappear into the darkness,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: and then she and her brother and everyone else just
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: kind of turned back towards the campfire. And then all
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: she remembers about what happens next is she heard a
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: whistling sound, and at first it was very faint, but
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: it started to get very very loud, and when it
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: got loud, she tried to kind of figure out where
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: it was, but before she could, suddenly something hit her
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: in the face, predominantly hit her in the nose, and
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: as soon as it did, she went blind, she went death,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: and then she felt herself on the ground and she
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: has no idea what's going on, and all she can
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: remember thinking is, oh my, oh God, something horrible has
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: happened to me. I might die. I don't know what's happening,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: but I might die. And so she started praying for
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: herself to survive whatever was happening to her, and then
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: her hearing started to come back just a little bit.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Her vision was still totally blurred. She could only kind
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: of tell where the fire was because it was bright,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: but her hearing it started to come back, and that's
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: when she heard moaning coming from somewhere near her. And
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: so she's thinking, Okay, whatever horrible thing has happened to
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: me has happened to other people too, and so instead
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: of just praying for herself, she began praying for everyone
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: who is at this campsite. And so, as her hearing
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: is getting louder and louder, and she's hearing more and
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: more moaning and crying happening all around her, she suddenly
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: hears her husband screaming her name. Her vision is still gone,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: but she knows it's him, and he lands right behind
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: her and he grabs her and he's just repeating her
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: name over and over and over again, and then Lydia
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: manages to kind of choke out to her husband what happened,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: and there's a pause, and then Norbert says to her,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: it's bad, It's really bad. It would turn out her
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: campsite was on a battlefield from World War I, and
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: buried underneath the soil right under their fire pit, was
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: an unexploded bomb from World War One, meaning for over
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: one hundred years, countless campers have arrived at this campsite
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: and lit fires on top of this bomb that they
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: couldn't see, and each fire gradually eroded the outer metal
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: casing of this explosive, until finally, that night in September,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: with Lydia and eleven of her loved ones nearby their
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: little fire, finally was it. It pushed through that last
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: little bit of the casing, and it ignited the bomb,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: and it detonated. That whistling that she heard was the
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: sound of the fire finally cutting through that casing and
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: being exposed to the fire. And then that thing that
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: struck her in the face, that hit her right on
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: the nose, that was almost certainly a piece of the
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: bomb itself, so shrapnel that was cutting through her face,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and then the moaning she heard was primarily her brother
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: who was right next to her. Lydia would be gravely wounded,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: but she would survive. As for her brother and another
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: man who was not named, they would not survive. Here
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: is a picture that was taken of the group literally
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: minutes before this bomb detonated. At eleven forty am on
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: December twenty first, two thousand and three, three young men
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: who were longtime childhood friends hopped in a truck and
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: began traveling south. They were twenty two year old Brettmann
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: and nineteen year olds Shawn Blowers and Ashley McGuff. They
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: lived in a coastal city called Darwin, which is actually
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the capital of the Northern Territory in Australia. The Northern Territory,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: also known as the Top End, is located in the
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: central north of the continent. It is six times larger
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: than the UK, but has two hundred and eighty times
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: less people living in it. Specifically, the UK is home
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: to roughly seventy million people, whereas the Top End is
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: home to only two hundred and fifty thousand people, and
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: half of them live in Darwin. There are many reasons
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: why the Top End is so underpopulated, ranging from politics
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: to poor infrastructure. But the most obvious reason that so
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: few people choose to live in this part of Australia
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: is because it is wildly rugged and dangerous. It is
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: scorchingly hot year round, and the weather in general is
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: just unbelievably unpredictable and violent, and as the old saying goes,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: all the animals there are trying to kill you and
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: each other. But Brett, Shawan and Ashley had grown up
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: in Darwin, and so they were accustomed to the hazards
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: of living in the Top End, and so they weren't
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: really concerned about them. What they were concerned with was
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: finding things to do and not getting bored in the city.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: That particular day, in order to ward off boredom, the
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: trio had decided they would head out to a salt
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: flat that was located about fifty miles to the south
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: west of Darwin. It was this wide open plane that
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: they could just race around on their quad bikes on,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and so they loaded these quad bikes into their trailer,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: attached it to their truck. They hopped in their truck
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and at eleven forty am they started heading south out
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: of Darwin. The first road they were on was this
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: fairly desolate dirt road that wound around through the wilderness,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and it passed by the iconic eucalyptus trees that are
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: very well known in Australia. It passed by palm trees
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: and giant termite mounds. And after driving on this dirt
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: road for about thirty minutes, the trio passed by the
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Tumbling Waters Holiday Park, which is a vacation resort for
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: adventurous families. And then beyond this park there really was
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: no more civilization. They were headed right into the outback
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: of Australia, and so this was kind of like the
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: last mark of civilization. And so the trio they drive
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: for another thirty minutes past the park, and at some
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: point all of the trees on either side of the
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: road start getting more and more dense, until they begin
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: kind of encroaching over the road if it looks like
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: you're driving directly through the heart of a jungle. And
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: they would have recognized this change in scenery as meaning
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: they were nearing the Finis River, which was off to
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the right beyond all of the trees, so they couldn't
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: see it, but they knew they were close, and the
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Phinis River was not a huge waterway. It was a
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: thirty mile stretch that ran east to west through the
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: top end, and what it was known for was being
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: very brackish and dark. You could not see into this
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: water more than maybe an inch or two, so it
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: almost appeared black. And so the trio continued driving along
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: through this kind of jungle atmosphere until the left side
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: of the road began to thin out again, and then
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: it eventually revealed the salt flats up to their left,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and so at that point the trio pulled off on
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: the right side of the road where the vegetation was
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: still very thick, and then the trio hopped out of
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: the truck. They went around to their trailer, they dropped
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the gate, and one by one they pulled their quad
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: bikes off, and then each of them hopped on and
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: drove out onto the flats. That day, the flats were
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: actually very muddy because it had recently rained really really
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: heavy in that area. So the trio spent just as
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: much time racing each other on the flats as they
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: did trying to drive close to each other and spray
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: mud on each other. And so for hours. They were
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: out there having a great time, and then at four
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: thirty pm they decided it was time to call it
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: a day, and so they drove back over to the truck.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: They drove their quad bikes up onto the trailer, they
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: locked it, and then they were about to get into
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the truck to head back home when one of them suggested, Hey,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: let's head down to the water and rinse our clothes
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: off and get all this mud off of us. Now
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: you need to understand, in the top end, the place
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: you want to spend the least amount of time in
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: is the water. People in the top end assume that
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: in any natural water body that is not clearly designated
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: as a swimming area has at least one animal working
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: in it that will kill you. This is a literal
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: precaution people in the top end take. And so this
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: section of the Finnis River that these three friends were
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: thinking about going and jumping into and washing off inside
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: of this was not a clearly designated swimming area, and
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: so it should be avoided. But you need to remember
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: these three guys, they grew up in the top End.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: They were used to living in this kind of wild area,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: and they'd also come to the salt flats so many
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: times over the years, and they had jumped into the
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Finnis River before to wash off and go swimming, and
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: nothing had ever happened, and so really the idea that
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the Finnis River could be dangerous to them, it didn't
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: really cross their mind. They felt like, you know what,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: we've been there, done that nothing's going to happen to us.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: And so they left the truck and walked away from
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the salt flats into this mangrove forest that's only a
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: couple of feet off the road, and began walking towards
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: this river. Normally, the trip from the road through the
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: forest to the river bank basically where the forest ended
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: and you reached the river, it would take about ten minutes.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: But after walking in this mangrove for maybe a minute,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: they were already standing in river water. It was only
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: a couple of inches of this water, but it signaled
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: to the guys that clear, clearly the river is very
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: swollen from all of the recent rains, enough so that
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: it overflowed beyond its natural boundaries and it's flooded the
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: mangrove forest. But the three guys, they look at each
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: other and think, man, what's the big deal. I'm sure
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: we'll be fine. And so the guys continued moving on,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: but as the mangroves began to thin out, they began
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: to slow down dramatically because the river banks on the
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: edges of the thinnest river were very, very steep. If
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: you were standing on dry land, if there was no flooding,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: and you were right on the edge of the finness river,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: if you took even one or two steps into the river,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: you would slip down under the water and the water
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: would be over your head. Now, as these guys are walking,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: because the ground is flooded with this black, brackish water,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: they couldn't see the ground, and so they couldn't tell
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: where the drop off into the river was, and so
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: they began to slow down. And then when all the
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: trees were practically gone, they knew they were close. And
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: then one of them actually slipped and kind of tumbled
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: down the edge per second, but he turned and he
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: grabbed one of the roots of the mangrove tree and
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: pulled himself back up. And then the other two after
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: seeing this, they walked over and stood next to him,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: and the trio just stood there looking out at this
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: pitch black looking river that was very clearly moving faster
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: than normal because of all this excess rain. But they
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: kind of looked at each other and thought, you know what,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: it's not that big of a deal. You know, we'll
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: hold on to the roots of these mangroves and lower
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: ourselves over the embankment. We'll wash ourselves off, pull ourselves
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: back up. No big deal. And so they each turned
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: around and grabbed a root of one of the many
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: mangrove trees that marked the edge of this forest, and
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: while holding on, they would lower their lower half down
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: past the embankment until they were submerged. They rubbed all
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: the mud off of themselves, being very careful not to
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: let go of the mangrove at any point. And then
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: as they were about to finish up and pull themselves
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: back up and get back to their truck, Brett loses
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: his balance and somehow lets go of the mangrove root
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: and slips down the steep embankment, and suddenly the current
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: takes him away from his friends and out to the
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: mid of this river, and before long he's getting pulled downstream,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: and so he yells out to Ashley and Sean, who
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: had their backs turned to him. They turn around, they
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: see their friend, and they instinctively leap into the river
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: to try to go get him and help swim him
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: back to the side. Now, all three of them were
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: very competent swimmers, and so this was not a high
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: panic situation. This was more like a inconvenience and maybe
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: a little bit funny, And so that's why they left
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: in no problem. They figured, you know, worst case scenario
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: is we'll drift somewhere down there and we'll get out
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: and we'll walk our way back to our car. But
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: as soon as Sean and Ashley were free floating in
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: this river, they felt how strong this current was, and
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: it was way stronger than they were anticipating, and so
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: they actually started to get a little bit worried. And
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: they looked up ahead of them and Brett, who had
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: been in the water for you know, ten or fifteen
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: seconds before they leapt in, he had already moved way
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: farther downstream than them, and so they decided, you know what,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: we have to get out, but we need to get
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: to Brett first. We all need to get out at
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: the same place. And so they decide they're going to
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: swim downstream, meet up with Brett, and then get the
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: heck out of that river as fast as they possibly can.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: And so they yell out to Brett to hey, we're
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: coming to get you, and they start swimming as fast
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: as they possibly can, and with the help of the current,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: they manage to get all the way up to Brett
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: relatively quickly, maybe a couple of minutes. And when they
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: reach him, Sean and Ashley go in front of Brett,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: and then the three of them they stop actively swimming
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: and they allow the current to just kind of carry
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: them downstream. And as they're drifting, they begin scouting the
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: left side of the river for a solid clump of
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: mangrove trees they can swim into, because unless there's something
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: to grab onto on the edge of this river, they
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: can't pull themselves out. And so at this point the
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: trio is definitely uncomfortable being in the water because of
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: how strong that current is, but they're confident they're going
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: to find a viable landing spot and they're going to
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: get out of here and it will be a great story.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: And so Sean is in the front, Ashley is right
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: behind him, and then Brett is behind Ashley, and they're
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: all about an arm's length away from each other, and
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: they're drifting down this river for a couple of they're
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: looking on the left side for a viable landing spot,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, Ashley just yells out, Hey,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I see something in the water. We need to get out,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: find the nearest tree, get out, get out, get out,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: and so Sean he starts panicking. He doesn't even turn
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: around to see what's going on behind him. Adrenaline kicks
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: in and he swims as fast as he possibly can
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: to a tree that's popped out of the river. It's
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: literally growing in the middle of the river, and so
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: he swims up to this tree. He manages to climb
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: up to the first fork of the tree, which is
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: maybe six or eight feet above the water. And as
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: soon as he's up there, he turns around and looks
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: down and he sees Ashley. He reaches down and he
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: hoists Ashley up to the first fork with him, and
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: then the pair turn around again to grab Brett, but
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Brett's not there, and so they look around. They're thinking, Okay,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: did Brett not make it to the tree? Did the
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: current pull him around? Is he gets some other tree,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: you know, they're yelling out for him, they're looking for him,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: but there's no Brett. And so they're talking to each other,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Ashley and Sewn. They're saying, hey, did he call out?
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Did you hear something? Did he give some indication about
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: where he was going? And they're saying, no, I don't
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: know where he is. And so they start climbing up
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: the tree a little bit and trying to look down
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: and up the river to see if maybe they can
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: see him. And then all of a sudden, Sean notices
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: something yellow flash beneath them in the water, and so
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: he looks straight down and he sees this yellow thing
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: down there, and so he nudges Ashley and he says look,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: and so Ashley looks down and as they're looking, they're
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: about ten feet off the water. At this point, they
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: see this yellow thing start rising up to the surface.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Now the water is so dark they really can't tell
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: what anything is unless it is at the surface. And
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: so they're watching this yellow thing and suddenly it comes
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: out of the water and they see it's Brett. He's
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: got his yellow jacket on. That's what they saw. And
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Brett is in the mouth of a thirteen foot long
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: saltwater crocodile. He is face down and his left side
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: is being held in this animal's mouth and he's not moving,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: and so Sean and Ashley are so scared. They're just frozen.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: They're just staring at this monster that's in the water,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: that's holding their friend underwater, and they can't do anything
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: about it. And for two minutes they just stand there
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: looking at this animal, wondering what's to happen. And for
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: those entire two minutes, the crocodile stared right back up
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: at Ashley and Sean as if it was showing them
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: what it was going to do to them once they
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: got in the water, that I've done this to your friend,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I'm getting you too as well. And so they're staring
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: at this animal when suddenly it just kind of goes
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: underneath the water, back down into the black abyss, and it,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: along with Brett, just disappear. Ashley and Sean are so
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: terrified that they can't even grieve for their friend. They
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: can't feel sad for him. It's like they just go
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: into survival mode, and without saying anything to each other,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: they just start climbing up this tree as fast and
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: as far as they possibly can, and they only manage
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: to get up maybe a couple more feet to two
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: more branches. One is at about ten or twelve feet
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: off the water and the other is at about fifteen
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: feet off the water. And so Sean makes it onto
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the lower branch, and then Ashley makes it onto the
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: slightly higher branch. And then once they're situated on their
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: branch and one arm is firmly wrapped around the trunk
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: of the tree, they're able to kind of breathe for
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: a second and take stock of their situation. And even though,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: of course the elephant in the room here is that
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: their friend was just eaten by a crocodile, but it's
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: like they can't process that yet. Instead they start talking about, okay, well,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: our families they're going to recognize our absence, and they're
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: going to tell the police, and the police are going
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: to launch a search and they're going to come find us.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Both of them were confident, or they acted confident, that
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: that was going to happen, but they also knew that
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: there was no timeline for this. It could be hours
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: or days until this actually happened. And so as these
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: two teens are sitting on their branches, the reality of
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: their situation really started to come crashing down on them, because, yeah,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: they're safe in this tree, but how long can they
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: possibly stay in this tree for? I mean, eventually they're
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: going to need to fall asleep. And if they fall asleep,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: are they going to fall out of the tree and
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: land in the water with this crocodile? I mean, they
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: just didn't know how this was going to turn out.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: And so as the two began comforting each other, you know,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: reassuring each other that, oh no, it's going to be
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: just fine. Someone's gonna find us tonight or tomorrow will
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: be just fine. As they're doing that, Ashley suddenly stops
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: talking to Sean and just looks straight down, And so
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Sean realizes what Ashley's doing, and he matches his gaze
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: and he looks straight down, and at the base of
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: their tree in that blackwater is the thirteen foot long
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: saltwater crocodile. It's back, and it no longer has bread
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: in its mouth. They have no idea where bred is.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: He's just gone. Saltwater crocodiles are considered the most aggressive
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: and dangerous crocodiles in the world. And they are one
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: of only two crocodile species that will actively hunt humans
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: when given a chance. And so these two teens are
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: helpless in this tree. All they have is some separation
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: from the blackwater and this animal down below, and so
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: they just find themselves staring straight down at this crocodile,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: and in turn, this crocodile just stares right back up
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: at them. It's very clearly waiting for them. It wants
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: them to come out of the tree so it can
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: eat them. And so the crocodile just continuously repositions itself
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: all around the tree. It's just keeping the top of
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: its head out of the water so its eyes can
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: look up at them. And so the teens are just
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: praying that at some point it will grow tired of
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: them and will leave. And after several hours, right as
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: the sun is about to set, this crocodile does seem
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: to give up on them, and it drifts under the
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: water and disappears after a couple of minutes. Sean, who
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: was on the slightly lower branch, decides he doesn't want
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: to be any closer to the water than he needs
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: to be, and he's going to climb up to Ashley's branch,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and so he very carefully stands up on his branch.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: He makes sure he's got solid footing, and then he
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: reaches up and he grabs a branch with his right
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: hand and he kind of tests it, and he feels
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: like it's pretty sturdy, and then he puts all his
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: weight on it and tries to reach for another branch
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: when this one breaks. And as soon as that branch broke,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Sean tumbled ten feet into the water, and so he
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: hits the water. He goes all the way under. He
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: sinks a few feet under, and immediately he's turned around
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: and he's trying to swim as fast as he can
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: to the surface, and he's just expecting at any moment
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: this crocodile is going to bite him. He gets to
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the surface and he looks around. It's a little bit dark,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: but he can immediate see his tree, and he realizes
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the current has pulled him away from his tree, and
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: so in a panic, he starts swimming and kicking his
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: legs as hard as he possibly can to get back
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: to this tree. And he knows the whole time he's
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: kicking his legs, he's just attracting the attention of this crocodile.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: But he's got nothing else he can do. He's got
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: no other tree he can reasonably get to that will
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: provide safety from this animal. And so with every ounce
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: of energy he's got, he kicks and swims, and finally
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: he manages to grab a root of this tree that
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: his friend is still inside of, and he begins pulling
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: himself with his lower half still submerged in the water.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: And so as he's dragging himself towards the trunk of
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: this tree, he's just waiting for this crocodile to bite
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: down in his legs. And finally he gets to the
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: trunk of the tree and he's able to pull his
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: body out of the water, and he clambers up to
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: that original branch he was on, and then he and
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Ashley work to get him up to Ashley's branch. And
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: as soon as he sits down next to Ashley and
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: he's secure, they both look down and just a little
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: ways away from the tree, basically in the area where
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Sean had just landed in the water, they see, with
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: the little light that is left, this crocodile swimming right
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: back over to the tree, and it camps out right underneath.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Sean had gotten out just in time. When the sun
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: finally did set about ten or fifteen minutes later, it
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: became pitch black. There's no ambient light in this part
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: of the world. There aren't any buildings or cities close
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: enough to this area, and so it is truly pitch black,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: and so they could no longer see the crocodile down below,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: but they knew it was there because periodically they would
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: hear it repositioning itself right underneath them. Also, because it
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: was so dark, the two teens could not actually see
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: each other, and so they began holding on to each other,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: and then anytime either of them moved, they would announce
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: their movement to the other, just so they knew they
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: had not fallen asleep and were not falling out of
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: the tree to a horrible death. And so a few
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: hours went by like this, where it was silenced, with
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: the exception of the sounds of this crocodile reposition itself periodically.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: A little after midnight, a huge storm rolled into this
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: area and it began absolutely downpouring, and the rain drops
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: that were hitting the river were so loud that the
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: teens could no longer hear the sound of this crocodile,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: and so they had no idea if it was still
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: down below them or not. But every time lightning would strike,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: it would illuminate the sky for that flash of a second,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: and in that flash, they would look down and there
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: would be the crocodile. After several hours of this super
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: intense downpour, the two teens also started to become concerned
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: that all this additional rain could raise the water level
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: of the river all the way up high enough that
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: this crocodile might be able to jump out and reach
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: their legs. But because it was so dark, they couldn't
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: actually see the top of the water, and so they
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: had no way of knowing if the water levels were
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: actually rising or not. And so they both kind of
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: sucked their legs up onto this branch and tried to
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: make themselves as small as they could while still remaining
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: anchored to each other and also to the branch. And
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: that's how they sat for the next several hours, just
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: hoping they would survive the night. Finally, when the sun
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: came up that following morning, the teens immediately noticed that
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: the crocodile was still right below them, just lurking at
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: the base of the tree waiting for them. And they
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: also noticed the water level of the river had clearly
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: come up quite a bit, and so if they weren't
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: rescued soon, there was a good chance that another heavy
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: rainstorm that crocodile would be in range of them, and
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: there was nowhere they could go. They were as high
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: up as they could get. Not to mention the fact
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: they were hypothermic, they were weak, they were tired, and
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: if you fall asleep, you're going to fall in the water,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: And so the two teens they knew they did not
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: have much time left. Luckily, at ten am that morning,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: they heard the sound of a police officer who was
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: out in the mangrove forest. It turned out their families
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: had recognized their absence. They had called the police, and
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: that morning a search had been launched. They had found
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: their truck and then had been walking down the river
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: yelling out to them, and then they finally did find them. Initially,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: when they located these two teams stuck in the tree,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: they called in a helicopter to hover over them and
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: lower down a ladder they could climb back up. But
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: when the helicopter got close to this tree, the rotor
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: wash from the spinning blades. It practically blew the boys
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: out of the tree, and this crocodile was still in
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: the water. The rescuers could see it, The boys could
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: still see it, and so there was this fear that
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: the helicopter would literally send them into the water to
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: their death, and so they had to abandon the helicopter approach. However,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: the blades of that helicopter did ultimately scare this crocodile,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: and the crocodile swam away, And so as soon as
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: the helicopter was off station, they had a boat come in,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: and the boat got right underneath the two boys. They
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: jumped down into it and they were brought to safety.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: The two boys were brought to a hospital where doctors
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: determined they were physically okay, but both of them were
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: severely traumatized from what they had just been through. As
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: for Brett, despite an exhaustive search of that river, they
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: never found his body or any of his clothing or
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: any belongings he had on him, and they never found
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: the crocodile that killed him. In twenty nineteen, a thirty
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: two year old United States Army soldier was stationed in
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Hawaii for training. This was his first time ever being
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: in Hawaii, and so on his first day off, he
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: planned to do some sight seeing. After doing some research,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: he settled on the Hawaii Volcano National Park as the
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: first place he would go check out. This was one
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: of the top tourist attractions in Hawaii that sees over
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: two million yearly visitors. One of the main draws of
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: this particular park is that it's home to one of
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: the world's most active volcanoes, the Kilawea, that has been
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: erupting consistently almost every year since nineteen eighty three. On
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: the evening of Wednesday, May first, John finally was given
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: some time off, and so we hopped in a rental
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: car and he made his way out to the park.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: When he got there, he was pleasantly surprised to see
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: that it was not crowded in the least, most likely
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: because he was there midweek, and so he paid his
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: entrance fee and then he started walking up a trail
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: that would bring him up to this overlook that overlooked
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: the caldera. The caldera of a volcano is the actual
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: crater the inside of the volcano where the actual lava
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: comes out of. At the time, John was at the park,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: the volcano was not actively erupting, and so there was
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: no pool of lava inside of the caldera. However, the
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: surface of the caldera, which was three hundred feet below
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: this overlook where John is, the surface was still twenty
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: one hundred degrees fahrenheit, causing these massive steam clouds to
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: billow up from it pretty much constantly. And so when
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: John actually reached this overlook point and was looking out
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: into the caldera, he was immediately disappointed because he couldn't
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: see anything. And so as much as John craned his
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: neck to try to get a better look down into
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: the caldera, he was just totally obscured by the steam.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Now he was up against a safeafety railing that prevented
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: people from getting closer. But he figured if he could
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: just get right to the edge of this crater and
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: he could actually look down inside, he might be able
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: to see all the way to the base of the caldera.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: And so he looked around and noticed there were no
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: other tourists up there with him. So he thought about
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: it for a second and then decided, yep, I'm going
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: to do this, and he stepped over the safety railing
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: and walked right to the edge of this crater overlooking
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: this caldera, And as soon as he got there, he
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: suddenly had this unencumbered view of the space directly at
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: the bottom of the edge of the cliff. He could
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: actually see down into the caldera now, and so he
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: got his phone out and he started taking some pictures,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, the ground underneath him
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: began to shift, and it shifted so quickly and so
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: suddenly that threw him onto his back. And as he's
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: laying on his back, scrambling to get back up again,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: the ground underneath him just completely collapses, sending him careening
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: down three hundred feet into the scalding Haunt caldera. When
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: John fell, another tourist did happened to walk up another
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: nearby trail and they actually saw him as he fell,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: and so they called nine to one one and immediately
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: first responders were onseen. But they were facing the same
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: issue that John was, which is the steam was so
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: intense inside of this volcano that you can't really see
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: down into it. And so they had rescuers walking along
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: the rim of the volcano, and they had helicopters in
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: the air, but it really wasn't doing any good. And
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: in the back of all rescuers' minds, they knew that realistically,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: there's just no way John could have survived this. I mean,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: you can't survive a three hundred foot fall, but even
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: if you did, you couldn't survive being at the surface
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: of the caldera that's over two thousand degrees fahrenheit. You
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: die within a couple of minutes. But the rescuers pushed
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: that thought out of their mind and they focused on
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: being positive and just continuing to look for John, and
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: two hours into their search, when it was totally dark
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: outside and hope was just about gone at this point,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: somebody spotted John on a little ledge jutting out seventy
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: feet down from that cliff he was standing on when
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: he fell. When the ground dissolved underneath him, he managed
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: to land on this tiny little ledge. Had he fallen
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: an inch left, an inch right, and inch forward, he
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: would have tumbled to his death, There's no two ways
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: about it. But he landed perfectly on the one ledge
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: that could have saved his life, but he was so
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: badly injured he couldn't climb back up again. However, rescuers
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: were able to repel down to him, put him in
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: a harness, get him back up, and he was able
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: to make a full recovery. In December of nineteen sixty one,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: James McCormick Senior was on vacation from his job as
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: a fire inspector for the city of Portland, Oregon, and
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: he was feeling board. He's feeling kind of restless, and
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: he decided he wanted to go do something fun with
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: his sixteen year old son named James McCormick Junior. They
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: settled on going hunting together as they were both avid outdoorsmen,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: and so they, along with their hunting dog, headed out
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: to Larch Mountain on December fourth. Even though Larch Mountain
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: was only thirty miles from the city, it was known
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: as one of the most rugged and wild areas in
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: the northwestern United States, and so the men arrive at
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Large Mountain, they're excited. They hop out of the car,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: they put their gear on, and they begin hiking into
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: the wilderness. Now, the weather forecasters had said it was
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: probably going to be pretty cold, there might be some
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: light snow in the area, but the weather should hold
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: for their day trip out into the woods, and so
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: they hadn't brought any equipment to stay out for multiple days.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: This was just going to be a full day event,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: but back at night. But after walking for several hours
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: into the mountains, they started to notice the temperature was
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: dropping rapidly, and then it started to rain, and then
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: it started to snow, all in a very short period
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: of time. And initially they decided they were going to
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: gut it out and keep walking a little ways. But
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: they decided, you know what, this is awful, and our
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: stuff's getting wet and it's going to get dark soon,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: so let's just turn around and go back. We can
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: go hunting another day. But it had started snowing so
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: quickly that when they turned around to start making their
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: way back to their vehicle, the snow had covered over
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: everything enough that it looked a little bit different. And
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: they didn't have a GPS. They were using a map
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: and compass, and they were not on a marked trail.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: They were just kind of walking around the mountains looking
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: for a place to set up. And so they're walking
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: back and they're making turns and they're starting to question
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: where they are. And when they had walked for several
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: hours in the direction they believed was back to the truck. Well,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: they weren't anywhere near a road, and they felt like
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: they were in an area they didn't recognize, and they
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: realized they were lost. At this point, it was snowing
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: really hard and it was starting to get dark outside,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: and so the pair decided, you know what, we got
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: to stay out for the night, and we're just we're
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: not going to find our vehicle tonight. It's too dark
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: and we don't know where we are. So let's camp
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: out for the night and tomorrow we will find our vehicle.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: But remember, they didn't have any equipment to stay off
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: for the night. All they had was their warm clothes.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: But they didn't have a structure to protect them from
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: the elements, and so they decided their best bet was
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: to climb up into a tree, because at least that
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: way they're off the ground, they'd protect themselves from predators potentially,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: and the branches of the tree would kind of protect
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: them a little bit from the snow and from the
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: freezing rain. So that night, James Senior, James Junior, and
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: their dog they huddle in this tree. It's a totally sleepless,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: miserable night. As they are just destroyed by snow and
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: freezing rain and wind. And then finally the sun comes
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: up the next morning and there's a glimmer of hope,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: although it's still absolutely dumping snow on them. But they're
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: thinking to themselves, this is going to make a heck
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: of a story when we get back. And so they
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: climb out of the tree, they stretch, they kind of,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: you know, readjust themselves, and then they begin walking in
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: a direction that they think is the direction towards their vehicle.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: And for several hours they're just kind of walking, hoping
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: they're going to run into this road, and they don't.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: And at some point they realize once again that they
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: are in the same position they were in the day before.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: They don't know where they are, and now they've walked
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: even farther, potentially in the wrong direction, And so they
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: stopped for a second and James Senior pulls out his
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: map and he's trying to make sense of where they
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: might be. He's looking around, he's trying to terrain associate
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: to see if he can figure out if there's a
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: specific way he should be going. When his son, who
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: was a really tough kid, didn't complain about anything. He
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: said to his dad, you know, I'm feeling delirious. I
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: feel like I can't think straight, and it's hard for
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: me to stand even I'm gonna sit down. And his
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: dad's looking at him, not concerned about this, because it
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: was a pretty miserable night the night before, and so
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: it makes sense he might be tired. But I mean,
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: they had slept a full night's sleep the days leading
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: up to this trip. They've only been out in the
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: elements for one day. They do have warm clothes on,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: they do have food, they do have water, and so
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: he figures his son will just sit down for a
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: minute and then he'll get back up and be rejuvenated
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: and they'll keep moving out. And so James Senior continues
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: looking at his map. He's looking around, kind of waiting
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: for his son to say, okay, you know, I'm ready
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: to start moving again. But his son just continues to deteriorate.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: He's speaking in nonsense and he can't stand up. And
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: this was the first time that James Senior really started
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: to feel concerned for their actual safety, because even the
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: night before, when they were up in the tree, even
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: then it just felt like it was this crazy thing
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: that was happening to them, and that everything would be fine.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: And even that morning when they got up and it
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: was still snowing and they're still lost, he had that
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: optimism and so did his Sun. But now thinking, okay,
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: we are potentially staring down another night out here, and
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: we're going to eventually run out of food and water.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: You know, our clothes are starting to get wet, the
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: temperatures are dropping below freezing. We don't have a tent,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: we don't have a shelter, and now something's wrong with
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: my son, which is concerning in and of itself. But
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: if he can't move, then we can't make progress towards
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: getting out of the situation. And so James Senior, who
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: was this really fit fireman, he said, okay, I'm going
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: to pick you up, and I'm going to carry you.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: And he picked his son up fireman's carry, put him
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: over his shoulders, and for three hours James Senior just
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: continues to march around looking for the way out. And
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: after three hours, when they had not gotten anywhere closer
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: to a road or any civilization, and now it was
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: dark out again, he collapses with the sun and he
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: puts the sun down by a tree and he sits
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: down next to him and he's totally defeated, and he's like,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: we got to get ready for another night. We got
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: to get back up in a tree, and we got
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: to do this again. And so as they're sitting there
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: kind of talking about how they're going to get James
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: Junior up into a tree for the night, because you know,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: he's two weak to climb up himself, they both noticed
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: these very bright lights about one hundred feet in front
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: of them that look like headlights, and James Senior is like, oh,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: my goodness, what luck. There is a road that we
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: just didn't see, and there's a car that's parked right there.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go up and communicate with them and
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: tell them that we are stuck out here and see
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: if they can give us a ride. Stay right here,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: I'll be right back. And so James Senior gets up
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: and starts running towards these lights because these lights are
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: their lifeline and he wants to get to them before
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: they potentially pull away without realizing, you know, there's some
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: people that really could use some help here. And so
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: as he's moving, you know, fifty sixty seventy feet away
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: from where his son and his hunting dog were. The
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: lights just continue to go farther and farther away from him,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: to the point where James Senior stops, and he's looking
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: at these lights, thinking are those headlights? Like? What are
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: those lights? And at some point the lights just kind
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: of disappear into the forest and then they're gone. James
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Senior looks around and he realizes there's no road over here.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: I am in the middle of the woods, like, what
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: were those lights? And so he stands there for a
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: minute thinking to himself, you know, am I losing my
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: grip on reality? Like you know what's going on here?
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: And he turns around and he starts running back to
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: where his son and his dog were, And when he
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: gets there, only his dog is there. His son is
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: now gone. And what's going through James Senior's mind is
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: how because he couldn't walk until now, and my son
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: certainly wouldn't have lied to me and made me carry
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: him all the way here. And there's enough light out
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: that he could actually still see the footprints on the ground,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: and so he grabs his son's backpack that was left
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: by the tree. He picks it up, he grabs his dog,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: and he starts yelling for his son and starts walking
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: along the footprints that were left by presumably his son.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: And so he's walking along these footprints. He's yelling out
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: for a sun. He's not hearing anything. And this whole time,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: he's thinking to himself, like, why would he even leave?
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Even if he could move, why would he leave? You know,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: we're obviously in this together, Like what's going on with
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: my son? So he's walking, he's walking. And after about
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: thirty minutes of walking along these footprints, because the snow
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: was coming down so heavy, the prints were getting harder
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: and harder and harder to track because they were filling
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: in the snow, and finally it got dark out and
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: then he really couldn't see the Prince anymore. And now
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: James Senior is absolutely panicked. You know, this is a nightmare.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: Where's my son? What were those lights? Oh my gosh,
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be another night out here, And he just
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: picks a random direction and holding onto his son's stuff
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: with his dog, he just starts running. The next day,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: James Senior and his dog would stumble into this lodge
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: that was about six miles away from where they had
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: parked their car. Over a large mountain. Now, that doesn't
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: mean they moved six miles to get there. They probably
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: zigged and zagged all over the mountain and they covered
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: much more than six miles, but it was a six
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: mile shot to this lodge they stumble inside, and it
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: was just a miracle that he had found it. He
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: basically had ran all night until he found a road
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: and he traced it up to this lodge and he
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: told the staff inside, my son is missing. We've been
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: gone for two days now. He's out in the middle
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: of the woods. He's hurt. Someone needs to go out there.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: And so very quickly the police were called and words
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: spread to the firefighters in Portland, Oregon, that you know,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: the fire inspector's son is missing, and so two hundred
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: off duty firefighters made their way up to the mountain
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: as well to assist in this search. The paramedics wanted
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: James Senior to just go to the hospital and let
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: the searchers do their job, but James Senior was not
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: about to leave his son, and he refused medical attention
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: and he went out with the first group of searchers
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: and somehow he was able to get them to the
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: rough area that he was able to recognize, as you know,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: roughly where his son had been sitting when he went missing.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: They searched that area and very quickly found James Junior's
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: glasses case as well as his boots and his socks,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: but no James Junior. Later in the day though, they
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: would find James Guy. He was about one thousand feet
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: away from where his boots and his glasses case were
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: found at the bottom of this cliff, and he was deceased. Now,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: initially the thought was, well, you know, he must have
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: gotten confused and walked away from where he had been
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: told to sit and fell off this cliff. But they
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: determined he did not die from the fall off this cliff.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: He had made his way down to that cliff and
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: then died of exposure. So how was James Junior able
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: to suddenly be able to walk again, and once he
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: had that skill back, why didn't he go to his dad?
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Why did he walk away from him? And why did
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: he take his shoes and socks off to do that
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: as well? And what were those lights that James Senior
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: saw in the middle of the woods, Because they weren't
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: headlights And it was only when he went to investigate
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: them that suddenly James Junior up and walks away. When
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: most people picture Russia in their minds, they picture European Russia,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: which is literally the part of Russia on the western
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: side that sits in Europe and is by far the
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: most populated part of the country. But European Russia only
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: accounts for twenty three percent of the total territory that
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: is Russia. The other seventy seven percent is to the
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: east of European Russia. It starts at the Ural Mountain
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Range and it extends all the way over five million
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: square miles to the Pacific Ocean. And this vast mostly
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: forested expanse, which is fifty times bigger than the entire
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: United Kingdom, is called Siberia, and Siberia is absolutely brutal.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: In Siberia, it is almost always freezing cold. Literally, the
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: average annual temperature across all of Siberia is thirty two
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: point zo nine degrees fahrenheit, so it is zero point
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: nine degrees above freezing on average every single day. In
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: addition to the extremely deadly weather that exists basically year
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: round in Siberia, Siberia is also home to a bunch
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: of huge deadly animals, such as the brown bear, which
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: is the same as the infamous grizzly bear in North America,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: the gray wolf, which by size alone makes virtually all
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: other wolves look like little puppies. Gray wolves can grow
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: to be nearly two hundred pounds, And of course, there
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: is the highly intelligent Siberian tiger, who is perhaps one
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: of the only predators on Earth that is known to
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: seek out and kill people for revenge. For example, in
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven, a hunter named Vladimir Markov was walking
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: through a Siberian forest when he came face to face
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: with one of these Siberian tigers, and he ended up
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: shooting the tiger before fleeing, except the tiger didn't die. Instead,
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: it got up up and secretly followed Vladimir all the
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: way back to his cabin. And then this tiger camped
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: out outside of the cabin until Vladimir came out again
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: and the tiger pounced, killed him and aid him. And so, unsurprisingly,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Siberia has an absolutely minuscule population relative to its massive size. However,
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: there are some adventurous people out there who are drawn
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: to Siberia for the same reasons that most other people
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: avoid it. These adventurous people see Siberia as one of
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: the last truly wild places on our planet, and they
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: want to experience it for themselves. And one of these
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: highly adventurous people was a young man named Colin Madson. Colin,
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: who came from a very successful American family, was a
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: big outdoors enthusiast who at some point in his youth
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: began researching Siberia because he fell in love with its rugged,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: natural beauty. He quickly began researching not only Siberia, but
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Siberian culture and Russian culture, and also at some point
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: he became fluent in the Russian language. Then, in twenty thirteen,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: when Colin was twenty two years old, he left his
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: home in Missouri and moved to Siberia. He settled in
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: one of Siberia's few population centers, a city called Erkutsk,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: which is located in the southeast of Siberia and right
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: along the edge of Lake by Kal, which is the
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: world's deepest freshwater lake. Colin's Siberia plan was twofold. He
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: would go to school while he was there and he
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: would go out and explore. And at first his plan
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: went perfectly. He was accepted into Moscow State Linguistic University
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: in Erkusk, and very quickly he made friends who were
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: eager to accompany him on his adventures out into the
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Siberian wilderness. From his arrival in Siberia in twenty thirteen
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: to twenty sixteen, Colin did well in his studies and
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: he spent countless hours exploring the forests and mountainous areas
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: all around Lake by kal And right outside of Airca.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: In fact, Colin became so familiar with this region that
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: he began volunteering with a nonprofit in the area that
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: went around marking new trails, which meant Colin was literally
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: venturing into the wilds of Siberia and just marking the
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: trail as he went. So when Colin's family heard about
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: what happened to him in twenty sixteen, they could not
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: believe it. In March of twenty sixteen, Colin and three
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: of his good hiking friends, one was American and two
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: were Russian, decided they wanted to go on a hike together.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: They settled on hiking to the Summit of Love Peak,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: which was a mountain located a few hours away from
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Rkutsk in a small village called Arshan. This hike was
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: nothing compared to the gnarly Siberian wilderness hikes all four
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: of these guys had been on before. The trail that
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: led up to Love Peak. It was fairly steep, but
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: it was incredibly well marked, and all four of these
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: guys had hiked it several times before. However, because Colin
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: and his friends were so experienced at hiking in Siberia,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: they knew that even the easiest hikes needed to be respected.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: Because Siberia was still Siberia, there were dangers that lurked everywhere.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: And so the men called ahead to the village of
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: Our Shan, and they rented one of these small rustic
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: cabins that's in the village, that sits right at the
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: base of Love Peak, and it's kind of tucked away
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: in this forest. And so this cabin would serve as
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: their sort of base camp and would allow them to
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: arrive in Our Shan, get their gear together, and then
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: when they were ready, they could begin this hike to
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: the summit. And so a few days later, on March
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: twenty seventh, Colin and his three friends loaded up their
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: car and they drove west to Ourshan, and when they
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: got there, they stopped at a local store and got
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: some supplies and then made their way to their cabin.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: Their cabin was just a single room with a few
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: beds inside of it. It was enough to protect them
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: from the elements, but really nothing more. As for a toilet,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: the cabin didn't have one, but there was an outhouse
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: outside that they could use. So after the friends moved
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: into the cabin and claimed their beds and put their
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: things down, they all sat down and began prepping their
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: gear and eating some food and chatting, and then finally
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: at two am, they decided they needed to go to
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: sleep because their plan was to get on the path
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: up to Love Peak by seven am, which meant they
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: needed to get up at five am to make their
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: final preparations. So at two am the lights in the
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: cabin turned off and the friends all fell asleep, And
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: then three hours later at five am, when the lights
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: came back on again, it was immediately clear something was wrong.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Colin was not in his bed. His friends assumed when
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: they looked over at his bed and saw his personal
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: belongings were all still there, that Colin must have gotten
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: up and headed outside, maybe to use the outhouse or
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: go for a quick walk, and they just hadn't heard
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: him leaving, and so the three friends initially just kind
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: of shrugged off Colin's absence and said, you know, he'll
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: be back any minute, most likely, and if for some
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: reason he's not back soon, he'll certainly be back by
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: seven am, because that was the agreed upon time they
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: would leave for this hike. But as the minutes ticked
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: closer and closer to seven am and Colin still had
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: not shown up or tried to call them or do anything,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: the friends started to worry. It just didn't make any
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: sense that Colin would just get up and leave without
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: telling them where he was going. Finally, at seven am,
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: when Colin still had not shown up and the friend's
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: cursory sarch of the outside area near the cabin had
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: yielded no results, they decided they had to tell someone,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: and so they wrote a note addressed to Colin, and
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: they put it on the front of their cabin door.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: And this note basically just told Colin, you know, if
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: you come back here and you see this note, know
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: that we're looking for you. So stay put or tell
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: someone you're here. And so, after putting up this note.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: The friends left the cabin and they headed to the
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: nearest police station, where they reported Colin missing. The police
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: would eventually launch this huge search in and around Our Sean,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: both in the forested area right around the village and
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: then also up into the mountains near Love Peak. Despite
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: this huge effort, no one could find Colin, at least
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: not at first. On Monday, April fourth, so, eight days
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: into Colin's disappearance, a group of searchers were looking in
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: the forest about one mile away from the cabin where
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: Colin and his friends had been staying. And they look
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: up ahead and they see there is this clearing and
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: there's something in the middle of it. And so the
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: searchers begin moving their way towards this clearing, ducking under
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: branches and stepping over brush, and when they get close enough,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: they can see Colin is in the clearing, and Colin
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: is deceased. He was laying flat on his back, with
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: his left arm extended out to the side and his
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: right arm extended but closer to his body, and both
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: of his hands were clenched in tight fists, and on
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: his hands and his wrists were visible abrasions and cuts
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: which later would be determined to have most likely been
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: caused from someone or something holding onto him trying to
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: restrain Colin. Colin also had visible abrasions and cuts on
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: the front of his neck. Colin's clothing, which consisted of
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: a long sleeved thermal shirt, heavy pants, and hiking boots,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: were ripped and torn in several places, and interestingly, Colin
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: was not wearing socks under his boots. Now that seems inconsequential,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: but Colin had had surgery on both of his ankles
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: and had scar tissue on his ankles that if he
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: didn't have socks on, those scars would rub against the
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: inside of his boot, and he said it was very painful,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: so he always wore socks. Also, Colin's body showed virtually
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: no signs of decomposition, and all of his wounds and
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: abrasions looked quote fresh, according to medical personnel. In short,
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: Colin looked like he had recently been in some sort
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: of physical altercation and whoever or whatever he was grappling
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: with had eventually overpowered him and killed him, although it
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: was not clear how he actually died. Russian authorities were
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: very quick to suspect Colin's three friends, who had been
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: with him, but they were brought into the station and
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: they denied having anything to do with Colin's death, and
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: they all passed their light detector tests. After that, Russian
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: authorities quickly closed this case by concluding that, well, if
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: his friends didn't do it, then that means Colin must
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: have been high on drugs or drinking alcohol or both,
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: and he just wandered out of his cabin and he
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: got lost in the woods and he died of hypothermia.
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: He froze to death the end. However, Colin's parents just
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: could not accept that as being what happened to their son.
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: There were a lot of reasons for skepticism, but the
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: main one was that Colin was an absolute expert at
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: navigating this particular region of Siberia, and so the idea
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: that he would leave his cabin for a quick walk
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: or something and get so completely lost that he would
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: die eight days later seemed way too far fetched, and
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: so Colin's parents hired a US based private lab to
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: do a review of Russia's autopsy of Colin to give
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: their opinion if the autopsy was accurate or not. And
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: this US based lab pretty much immediately found that the
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: Russian autopsy was not remotely accurate. Number One, Colin was
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: not under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He was sober,
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: although technically he did have very small amounts of THCHC
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: in his urine. THCHC is the chemical that is found
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: in marijuana, but the amount was so little it basically
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: meant he had consumed the THCHC days before he went missing,
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: and so he would not have been remotely affected by
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: that small amount of THCHC In this system. Number two,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: the lab determined that Colin almost certainly did not die
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: from hypothermia. Instead, all signs pointed to Colin dying from
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: being suffocated, meaning he was murdered. Someone crushed his airway
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: or in some way restricted him from breathing, and that's
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: what killed him. And three, based on the lack of decomposition,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: the freshness of the injuries on Colin's body, and the
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: lack of animal predation on his body when they found him,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: indicated that Colin did not just wander out of his
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: cabin and immediately die somewhere in the forest. Instead, he
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: was alive for most of the time people were looking
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: for him, meaning when they found him, he likely had
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: died within hours of being found. And so these findings
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: by this US based lab kind of create a general
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: theory about what must have happened to Colin after Colin
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: left the cabin in the early morning hours of March
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: twenty eighth, maybe to go to the outhouse or to
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: go for a quick walk. When he went outside, someone
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: or something was nearby and they either lord call In
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: to them, or they straight up ambushed Colin and took
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: him away. Now we have no idea what happened to
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: Colin after he was abducted, but we can safely assume
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: that after being abducted and taken somewhere, he was alive,
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: and he stayed alive for several days until on the
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: eighth day of his disappearance, Colin was killed, likely by
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: his captor, either at the spot where he was found,
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: or he was killed somewhere else, maybe in the forest,
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: and then moved to the spot where he was found.
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: Many people believe it was the Russian government who targeted Colin.
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: They kidnapped him, and they killed him, and their botched
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: investigation into his death was actually a calculated cover up.
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: Colin had participated in at least one peaceful environmentalist led
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: protest in Siberia, and after the protest, Colin apparently got
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: a written warning by the Russian police not to attend
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: another protest. But why would Colin, who was just one
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: of many people involved in these protests, be singled out
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: by the Russian government and killed for his participation? And
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: why would the government and elect to kill Colin when
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: he was with three of his closest friends who would
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: immediately notice his absence. It just doesn't add up. Today,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: Colin's parents are still trying to figure out what happened
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: to their son, but unfortunately their son's case is closed
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: in Russia, and so no one on the Russian side
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: is talking to the parents or giving them any new information,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: and so as a result, they and the rest of
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: us are left to wonder who or what was lurking
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: in the shadows when Colin stepped out of the cabin
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: that morning, and then where did they take him and
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: what did they do to him for nearly a week
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: before they killed him deep inside of that Siberian forest.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: you thought of today's episode in the comments, and remember
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: we have hundreds of videos for you to binge right
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: now But if you're looking for a recommendation for me
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: of that one video that's worth your time, well it's
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: this one right here, So give it a watch. All right,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: until next time, see ya.