Latest / Crime and Horror / TOP 3 Final messages from people about to leave us ( DISTRESSING )

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TOP 3 Final messages from people about to leave us ( DISTRESSING ) · Crime and Horror

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  Speaker 1: Today, we're going to look at three final messages from
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  Speaker 1: people who knew they were about to die. But before
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  Speaker 1: we get into those stories, if you're a fan of
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  Speaker 1: the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then
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  Speaker 1: please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications
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  Speaker 2: All right, let's get into today's stories.
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  Speaker 1: On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese famously attacked Pearl Harbor,
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  Speaker 1: the U.S.
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  Speaker 2: Military base in Hawaii. But Pearl Harbor was not the
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  Speaker 2: only U.S. base attacked by the Japanese that month.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, just hours after the Pearl Harbor attack, the
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  Speaker 1: Japanese shifted gears and attacked U.S. military personnel on Wake Island,
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  Speaker 1: which is a coral atoll in the northern Pacific Ocean.
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  Speaker 1: After two weeks of fighting, the Japanese had taken Wake
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  Speaker 1: Island from the Americans and they sent the majority of
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  Speaker 1: American military personnel and American civilian contractors to prisoner of
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  Speaker 1: war camps in Asia.
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  Speaker 2: But they retained 98 of.
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  Speaker 1: These POWs to stay on the island and fortify defenses.
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  Speaker 1: Over the next couple of years, the Americans would periodically
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  Speaker 1: bomb Wake Island, but there was never any concerted effort
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  Speaker 1: to take it back from the Japanese. However, that all
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  Speaker 1: changed on October 5th, 1943, when the Americans decided it
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  Speaker 1: was time to take it back. They launched a huge
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  Speaker 1: air raid on the island, was so violent the Japanese
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  Speaker 1: admiral on Wake Island was convinced a full-scale invasion was imminent.
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  Speaker 1: And so in his paranoia he ordered the 98 POWs
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  Speaker 1: they had retained on the island to be executed. And
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  Speaker 1: so they marched these 98 POWs to the edge of
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  Speaker 1: the sea, they blindfolded them, and then they gunned them down.
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  Speaker 1: But in the chaos of the air raid and the execution,
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  Speaker 1: one of the American POWs somehow managed to escape. After
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  Speaker 1: the Japanese had left the area, This POW snuck back
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  Speaker 1: down to the execution site and he carved into the
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  Speaker 1: rock a memorial for all.
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  Speaker 2: 98 of the POWs.
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  Speaker 1: So he was including himself in that number because I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure he knew he would eventually be recaptured. This was
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  Speaker 1: a small area and he was the only American there.
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  Speaker 1: And sure enough, this POW was recaptured that day. and
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  Speaker 1: he was personally executed by the Japanese admiral. The identity
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  Speaker 1: of this POW has never been determined. After the war ended,
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  Speaker 1: the Japanese admiral that ordered these executions was tried for
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  Speaker 1: war crimes, found guilty, and put to death himself. The
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  Speaker 1: so-called 98 Rock can still be seen on Wake Island today.
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  Speaker 1: On January 25th, 1998, American tourists Tom and Eileen Lonergan
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  Speaker 1: boarded a boat in Queensland, Australia. The married couple was
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  Speaker 1: from Louisiana. Tom was 34 and Eileen was 28. They
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  Speaker 1: had spent the last two years in Fiji and Tuvalu
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  Speaker 1: serving in the Peace Corps. Australia was just a pit
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  Speaker 1: stop on their way back home. They both were avid
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  Speaker 1: scuba divers and they wanted a chance to dive on
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  Speaker 1: the world's largest coral reef system, the Great Barrier Reef.
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  Speaker 1: Once Tom, Eileen, and the other 24 tourists had boarded
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  Speaker 1: this boat, The captain did a head count and then
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  Speaker 1: once he had everyone, he turned the boat around and
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  Speaker 1: headed out to sea. After traveling 25 miles, the captain
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  Speaker 1: stopped the boat and then told the group to put
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  Speaker 1: on their dive gear. So Tom, Eileen, and the others
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  Speaker 1: happily put on their fins and their masks and their tanks.
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  Speaker 1: And then when they were ready, they were inspected and
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  Speaker 1: then allowed to jump into the Coral Sea. Less than
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  Speaker 1: an hour later, the divers came back up to the
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  Speaker 1: surface and the captain began pulling them back into the boat.
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  Speaker 1: Once everyone was back on board the boat, the captain
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  Speaker 1: did another head count just to confirm he had everyone.
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  Speaker 1: and once he was sure he did, he turned the
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  Speaker 1: boat around and he headed back to shore. Except the
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  Speaker 1: captain miscounted, and neither he nor anyone else noticed. Shortly
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  Speaker 1: after the boat had left the area, Tom and Eileen
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  Speaker 1: Lonergan came up from their dive and looked around and
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  Speaker 1: realized they had been abandoned. After the initial panic wore off,
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  Speaker 1: they probably told each other that, don't worry, as soon
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  Speaker 1: as that boat gets back to shore, they will find
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  Speaker 1: inside the boat Our wallets and passports and other personal
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  Speaker 1: items and they'll know we aren't with them and they'll
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  Speaker 1: come out and get us. And so most likely the
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  Speaker 1: couple was fairly optimistic as they just treaded water waiting
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  Speaker 1: for someone to show up any minute.
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  Speaker 2: Except they didn't show up any minute.
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  Speaker 1: It took 48 hours before anybody showed up because that's
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  Speaker 1: how long it took before someone saw their wallets and passports.
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  Speaker 2: And personal items were still inside that dive boat.
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  Speaker 1: And in those 48 hours, Tom and Eileen were exposed
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  Speaker 1: to intense summer heat, no fresh water, and sharks. When
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  Speaker 1: their personal effects were finally found, a huge search was
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  Speaker 1: launched for them, but there was no sign of them.
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  Speaker 1: A month later, a female wetsuit washed up on the
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  Speaker 1: shores of Australia, and it was the same size as Eileen's,
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  Speaker 1: and an expert analyzed it and said it had been
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  Speaker 1: floating in the water for about a month. So that
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  Speaker 1: lined up with when Tom and Eileen went missing. Five
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  Speaker 1: months later, more diving equipment washed up on the shores
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  Speaker 1: of Australia. Among those items were life jackets with the
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  Speaker 1: Lonergan name stenciled on the back of them, as well
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  Speaker 1: as an air tank and a dive fin that belonged
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  Speaker 1: to Eileen. But the most disturbing thing that washed up
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  Speaker 1: on shore was the couple's diver's slate. A diver's slate
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  Speaker 1: is like a dry erase board that works underwater. On
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  Speaker 1: this slate was the Lonergan's final message. It said, to
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  Speaker 1: anyone who can help us, we've been abandoned on Agincourt Reef,
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  Speaker 1: Please help us before we die.
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  Speaker 2: Please help.
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  Speaker 1: Above the message was a date. It was January 26th, 1998.
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  Speaker 1: So that would have been one day after they were
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  Speaker 1: abandoned at sea. So we know the couple was alive
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  Speaker 1: for at least 24 hours. But beyond that, no one
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  Speaker 1: knows what happened. Some say the pair staged their disappearance
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  Speaker 1: so they could start a new life somewhere or so
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  Speaker 1: they could take their own lives.
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  Speaker 2: Others say they were devoured by sharks.
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  Speaker 1: Most experts believe they eventually became delirious from the dehydration
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  Speaker 1: and that would have caused them to willingly take off
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  Speaker 1: their diving equipment, and without that equipment, they wouldn't have
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  Speaker 1: been buoyant, and so at some point, they couldn't have
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  Speaker 1: continued treading water, and they would have drowned.
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  Speaker 2: But regardless of which theory is correct, Tom and Eileen
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  Speaker 2: have never been found.
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  Speaker 1: Bryce Gillies was born in 1989 in Northern Virginia, just
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  Speaker 1: outside of Washington, D.C. From a young age, Bryce's parents
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  Speaker 1: knew he loved the outdoors, and so they signed him
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  Speaker 1: up for the Boy Scouts. And as a scout, Bryce learned,
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  Speaker 1: amongst many things, how to survive in the wilderness. And
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  Speaker 1: he would routinely put this training to the test by
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  Speaker 1: leaving his house and heading off to the nearby Appalachian
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  Speaker 1: Trail and hiking around, sometimes up to 20 miles in
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  Speaker 1: a single day. Bryce ultimately became an Eagle Scout, which
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  Speaker 1: is the highest rank anybody can obtain inside of the
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  Speaker 1: Boy Scouts, a rank that only about 8% of scouts
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  Speaker 1: will ever reach. After he graduated from high school in 2007,
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  Speaker 1: Bryce decided he wanted to go to school out west.
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  Speaker 1: And during a visit to Northern Arizona University, Bryce fell
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  Speaker 1: in love with their school because all around their campus
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  Speaker 1: were these unbelievable hiking trails that were totally unlike anything
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  Speaker 1: he saw growing up on the East Coast. Bryce decided
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  Speaker 1: this was his dream school, so he applied, and a
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  Speaker 1: couple weeks later, he got accepted.
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  Speaker 2: He was totally thrilled.
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  Speaker 1: During his first couple of years at NAU, Bryce took
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  Speaker 1: full advantage of these totally amazing hiking trails within a
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  Speaker 1: couple hours of the campus. He also spent some time
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  Speaker 1: overseas in West Africa, helping to build a medical clinic
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  Speaker 1: for people in need. During the summer break of 2009,
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  Speaker 1: so going into his third year at NAU, Bryce was
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  Speaker 1: still living out in Arizona in an apartment, and he
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  Speaker 1: still had a few weeks before classes started. And so
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  Speaker 1: he decided he would head off to the nearby Grand
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  Speaker 1: Canyon to do a little bit of hiking. He had
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  Speaker 1: recently read in an outdoor magazine about this lesser known
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  Speaker 1: but unbelievable trail that was just for experts in the
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  Speaker 1: canyon that he wanted to try. It was called the
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  Speaker 1: Deer Creek Thunder River Loop, and it brought hikers to
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  Speaker 1: this remote location where water gushed out of this huge
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  Speaker 1: limestone rock wall, transforming the desert landscape below into this
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  Speaker 1: unbelievable green oasis. The article said, very strong hikers could
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  Speaker 1: complete this nearly 28 mile loop in about three days.
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  Speaker 1: Since Bryce considered himself a very strong hiker, he decided
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  Speaker 1: this was perfect for him. Bryce called his parents and
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  Speaker 1: let them know he was gonna do this loop, and
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  Speaker 1: that when he came back in a couple of days,
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  Speaker 1: he'd be making a trip to Virginia to visit with them. Then,
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  Speaker 1: Bryce called some friends in the area to see if
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  Speaker 1: they wanted to come with him on this hike, but
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  Speaker 1: no one was available, so Bryce decided he would go
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  Speaker 1: on his own. So, the next day, which was Saturday,
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  Speaker 1: July 18th, Bryce loaded up his car, and he began
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  Speaker 1: driving the several hours to the parking lot that was
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  Speaker 1: nearest the trailhead. Bryce parked his car, he got his
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  Speaker 1: gear out of the trunk, and then he set off.
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  Speaker 2: Down the trail.
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  Speaker 1: Bryce had not obtained a backcountry permit for this hike.
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  Speaker 1: This was a requirement for anybody doing an overnight out
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  Speaker 1: in the canyon, which Bryce planned on doing. Bryce also
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  Speaker 1: didn't file his route with the park rangers. Had he
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  Speaker 1: told them where he was going, they would have tried to.
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  Speaker 2: Talk him out of it.
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  Speaker 1: The Deer Creek-Thunder River loop had no protection from the
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  Speaker 1: sun the entire time, and since it was July, he
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  Speaker 1: would be hit with the highest temperatures and.
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  Speaker 2: The most direct sunlight.
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  Speaker 1: All this on top of the fact that even in
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  Speaker 1: the coolest times of the year, this trail is still
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  Speaker 1: an extremely difficult trail because of the terrain you have
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  Speaker 1: to navigate.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, when hikers did file.
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  Speaker 1: Their route with park rangers, and they indicated they were
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  Speaker 1: going to be doing this expert loop, They would ask
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  Speaker 1: them to provide next-of-kin information in case they died during
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  Speaker 1: their hike. It's unclear if Bryce was just very confident
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  Speaker 1: in himself and his abilities or if he was being reckless.
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  Speaker 1: From his car, Bryce hiked about two miles down some
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  Speaker 1: switchbacks into the canyon. Once he reached the bottom, he
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  Speaker 1: would have found himself in this wide open flat area
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  Speaker 1: called the Esplanade that kind of looked like the surface
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  Speaker 1: of the moon with all these potholes all over it.
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  Speaker 1: At this point in Bryce's hike, it would have been
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  Speaker 1: dark out, so he would have set up his tent
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  Speaker 1: somewhere on the rocks and camped out for the night.
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  Speaker 1: People that have done this, that have camped out on
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  Speaker 1: the Esplanade, have said it's unbelievably beautiful because most people
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  Speaker 1: experience the Grand Canyon from high up on one of
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  Speaker 1: the rims looking down into it. it. But the Esplanade
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  Speaker 1: is literally inside the canyon, so you have this unobstructed
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  Speaker 1: view in both directions, and apparently it's quite beautiful. The
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  Speaker 1: next morning, Bryce got up at sunrise, he packed up
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  Speaker 1: his campsite, and then he continued on his hike. The
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  Speaker 1: first challenge he would come up against that morning was
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  Speaker 1: navigating down what's called the Red Wall, which is a
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  Speaker 1: fairly steep and treacherous descent that for an experienced hiker,
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  Speaker 1: it would take about an hour to safely navigate. And
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  Speaker 1: then at the bottom of the red wall, you would
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  Speaker 1: enter into this area called.
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  Speaker 2: The Surprise Valley.
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  Speaker 1: No one really knows why it's named that, but hikers
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  Speaker 1: who have been down in this valley, they think it's
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  Speaker 1: named after the surprise you feel when you get in
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  Speaker 1: there and you realize how much hotter it is. Typically,
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  Speaker 1: it's about 10 or 20 degrees hotter down inside of
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  Speaker 1: this bowl. After Bryce successfully navigated down the red wall,
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  Speaker 1: he entered into this totally miserable Surprise Valley, but he
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  Speaker 1: would have known he was only about a half mile
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  Speaker 1: away from his target destination, the Deer Creek Thunder River,
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  Speaker 1: where he planned to jump in and cool off. So
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  Speaker 1: eager to do that, Bryce took off, but made a
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  Speaker 1: critical mistake. He went the wrong way. While it's unclear
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  Speaker 1: exactly how this happened, experts believe his ears played a
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  Speaker 1: trick on him. Hikers are told as they're approaching this
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  Speaker 1: river in the middle of the desert, they should listen
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  Speaker 1: out for it because when you get fairly close you
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  Speaker 1: can hear the sound of rushing water.
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  Speaker 2: But hikers have to be careful because.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes when the wind is blowing in a certain direction
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  Speaker 1: that sound from the river will echo off the inside
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  Speaker 1: of this bowl and it will appear to come from
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  Speaker 1: the opposite direction. It's believed Bryce was following his map
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  Speaker 1: when he heard the sound of this river coming from
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  Speaker 1: a different direction and so he abandoned the map and
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  Speaker 1: followed the sound.
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  Speaker 2: Bryce walked for quite a.
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  Speaker 1: While in the wrong direction all the way up a
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  Speaker 1: hill And most likely the whole time he was hearing
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  Speaker 1: the sound of the water and he probably thought, once
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  Speaker 1: I get over the top of this hill, I'll look
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  Speaker 1: down the other side and I will see the water.
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  Speaker 1: But when he crested the hill, he looked down and
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  Speaker 1: just saw a barren valley. Had he continued another quarter
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  Speaker 1: mile down into the valley and then up the other side,
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  Speaker 1: he could have turned around and he would have been
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  Speaker 1: able to spot an obvious landmark that would have brought
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  Speaker 1: him to the river. But most likely Bryce was exhausted
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  Speaker 1: from the extreme heat and the sunlight. and trekking all
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  Speaker 1: this way, and so he felt like it was probably
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  Speaker 1: too risky to keep going down into this valley because
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  Speaker 1: he had no idea where it went. So in keeping
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  Speaker 1: with his wilderness training he got as a Boy Scout,
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  Speaker 1: he dropped all of his heavy equipment off the side
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  Speaker 1: of the trail in an area he had marked so
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  Speaker 1: he could eventually come back and retrieve it. And then
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  Speaker 1: he took his water, food, and headlamp, turned around, and
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  Speaker 1: began backtracking. After a little while, Bryce decided to abandon
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  Speaker 1: the trail and actually veer off onto a dry creek bed.
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  Speaker 1: In the Boy Scouts, they're taught any dry creek bed
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  Speaker 1: will eventually connect to water. And so at this point,
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  Speaker 1: Bryce is probably running low on water and figures whether
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  Speaker 1: this leads him to the Deer Creek Thunder River or
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  Speaker 1: some other water body, he didn't care.
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  Speaker 2: He just needed water.
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  Speaker 1: So off he went on this dry creek bed, but
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  Speaker 1: after a while, he saw less and less vegetation. It
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  Speaker 1: was just this barren desert in all directions. After a
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  Speaker 1: little while longer, Bryce dropped all of his gear on
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  Speaker 1: the ground after finishing his water. At this point, he
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  Speaker 1: would have known that if he doesn't find a water
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  Speaker 1: source soon, he won't make it. And so Bryce just
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  Speaker 1: continues to trudge along on this dry riverbed, not seeing
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  Speaker 1: any indication of he's getting any closer to water but
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  Speaker 1: then he looks up and he sees the land in
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  Speaker 1: front of him appears to slope downward out of view
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  Speaker 1: and then beyond that he sees off in the distance
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  Speaker 1: what looks like the southern wall of the Grand Canyon
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  Speaker 1: and below the southern wall is the Colorado River and
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  Speaker 1: so Bryce would have known if he can just go
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  Speaker 1: down this decline he's certain to reach this river and
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  Speaker 1: he'll be saved and so Bryce made his way up
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  Speaker 1: to where the ground started going down towards the river
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  Speaker 1: and he began safely descending fairly slowly, and then he
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  Speaker 1: reached a very steep section called a spill, which is
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  Speaker 1: a dry waterfall, and these vary in height, but they're
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  Speaker 1: pretty steep and they're pretty slick. Once Bryce went down
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  Speaker 1: one of these things, there'd be no way to get
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  Speaker 1: back up again. So this was a one-way trip, but
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  Speaker 1: Bryce was desperate. He knew his only chance was getting
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: down to that Colorado River, which he could now see.
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  Speaker 1: And so Bryce scrambled down this first spill, and then
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  Speaker 1: he found another one and another one, and he kept
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: going down these spills, they kept getting steeper and more challenging,
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  Speaker 1: and the temperature continued to rise as he went down
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  Speaker 1: deeper into this canyon. Finally, Bryce reached a spill that
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  Speaker 1: was very very steep. It was nearly vertical, but again
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Bryce couldn't go back up the way he came. He
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: had to keep going, so at some point he threw
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  Speaker 1: himself off of the spill and he fell down 30 feet,
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  Speaker 1: but he lived. He stood up, he dusted himself off,
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  Speaker 1: and he continued walking forward He walked past these boulders
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  Speaker 1: into this clearing and right in front of him is
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: the Colorado River. It's a half a mile straight down
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  Speaker 1: in front of him. But the only way to get
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  Speaker 1: to it was navigating another spill. And this spill was
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  Speaker 1: 80 feet tall and it was almost completely vertical. There
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  Speaker 1: was no way to survive that kind of fall. And
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  Speaker 1: Bryce couldn't just turn around and try to find an
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  Speaker 1: alternate route. because this was a one-way trip. He could
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  Speaker 1: not climb back up the spills he had just come
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  Speaker 1: down to get there. And to his left and to
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: his right were these steep canyon walls that kind of
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: bordered the space he was in that had no handholds
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  Speaker 1: on them, so he couldn't climb them up or down.
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  Speaker 1: Bryce was trapped, and he knew it. The following Tuesday,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: when Bryce was supposed to be home in Virginia visiting
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  Speaker 1: his family, he didn't show up. So his family tried
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: calling him, but they couldn't get through to him. It
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: seemed like his phone was off, and so they called
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: the authorities. A search party was sent out in the
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Grand Canyon to go look for Bryce, and on Saturday,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: July 25th, so this is six days after Bryce has
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: found himself trapped on that ledge overlooking the river, a
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: search party was on the Colorado River and they happened
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: to look up in the direction where Bryce had been
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: and they noticed what looked like a person and so
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: they got their climbing gear and they made their way
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: up that spill onto this ledge and they found Bryce.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: He was sitting up.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Against a boulder and he was deceased. He had died
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: from heat stroke and dehydration. In his hand was his
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: BlackBerry cell phone. It wouldn't have had any service inside
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: of the canyon But Bryce used it as a notepad
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: to write a final message to his family and to
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: his friends. In it, he writes, Life is good whether
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: it is long or short. I was fortunate to do
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: much more than most people, and for that I am
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: very thankful. His message also had some humor thrown into it.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: He said to his family that he was really thankful
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: he had his BlackBerry phone because it would have been
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: a lot harder to etch his final message into a rock.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: He also said that he didn't know what the afterlife
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: held for him, he just hoped they had water. Then,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: with his phone's battery dying, he wrote one final sentence.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I feel like going into the wild is a calling
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: we all feel. Some answer it, and some die for it. Then,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: shortly after writing that message, Bryce clutched his phone to
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: his chest, and he passed away.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: He was just 20 years old. So that's going to
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: do it, guys.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: If you found the secret in today's episode, let us
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: know in the comments what it is and where you
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: found it. And if you're the first person to do that,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: we will pin you at the top of the comments section.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: If you got something out of today's episode and you
• 16:36
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• 16:39
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• 16:47
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• 16:48
  Speaker 1: message me on Instagram or on Twitter. My username for
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: both platforms is the same. It's JohnBolland416. I also have
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: a ton of content over on TikTok. where my username
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: is Mr.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Ballin.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: I also have a second YouTube channel called Mr. Ballin Shorts,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: where I post random short videos and lost episodes. If
• 17:05
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• 17:07
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• 17:08
  Speaker 2: Ballin.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: It's linked in the description below. So whether I see
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  Speaker 1: you on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, or some combination,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: just know that I really appreciate your support. And until
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: next time, that's going to do it.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: See ya.