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This road is a death trap ( DISTRESSING CONTENT ) · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Fair warning, this story is going to be tough to
0:02
Speaker 1: listen to. It's a very sad story. But if this
0:05
Speaker 1: were to happen to me and my family, I would
0:07
Speaker 1: want people to know about it.
0:09
Speaker 2: So hopefully I can do it justice.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
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Speaker 2: Our weekly uploads. All right, let's get into today's story.
0:49
Speaker 1: In 1996, 21-year-old Katie Fleming was studying French at the
0:52
Speaker 1: University of Oregon. That summer, she was invited to go
0:55
Speaker 1: on a camping trip with some very close friends and
0:57
Speaker 1: some people she had not met before. Their destination was
1:00
Speaker 1: this beautiful spot along the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California,
1:04
Speaker 1: but as soon as they got there, Katie did not
1:06
Speaker 1: take in any of the beautiful scenery. Instead, she fixated
1:10
Speaker 1: solely on 25-year-old James Kim, who was one of those
1:14
Speaker 1: people she had not met before that was going on
1:16
Speaker 1: this trip. And for the people that were on this trip,
1:18
Speaker 1: they would say James and Katie immediately just fell in
1:21
Speaker 1: love with each other. And for the duration of this trip,
1:24
Speaker 1: they were inseparable. And then when they got back from
1:26
Speaker 1: this trip, James would actually move from Seattle to Oregon
1:30
Speaker 1: to be with Katie. And then after Katie graduated from college,
1:34
Speaker 1: the two got married in Las Vegas and then settled
1:36
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. James, who loved technology and always had,
1:40
Speaker 1: was quickly hired by a tech company to try out
1:43
Speaker 1: new technology and then write a review for the average consumer. Basically,
1:48
Speaker 1: James got paid to play with toys and so he
1:50
Speaker 1: loved his job. The couple also opened two boutique stores
1:54
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. One was an apothecary and the other
1:57
Speaker 1: sold eccentric clothing. those two shops were managed by Katie full-time.
2:01
Speaker 1: By 2006 the Kim family had become very successful financially
2:05
Speaker 1: and they had grown in size. They had a four-year-old
2:08
Speaker 1: daughter named Penelope and a seven-month-old daughter named Sabine. Katie
2:11
Speaker 1: and James both adored their kids, but James especially was
2:16
Speaker 1: known for blowing off virtually everything and anyone to be
2:20
Speaker 1: with his daughters. In fact, his friends and family would
2:23
Speaker 1: say you couldn't even have a conversation with James if
2:26
Speaker 1: his daughters were in the room because James would get
2:28
Speaker 1: distracted and just stare at his daughters and then would
2:31
Speaker 1: eventually just leave mid-conversation to go play with them. James
2:34
Speaker 1: was also known to bring his daughters to work virtually
2:37
Speaker 1: every chance he got, even if it really wasn't allowed
2:40
Speaker 1: at this company. On Friday, November 17th, James, Katie, and
2:44
Speaker 1: their two daughters loaded up into their station wagon and
2:47
Speaker 1: then drove north to Seattle. They planned on spending Thanksgiving
2:51
Speaker 1: with James's aunt and uncle who lived in the city.
2:53
Speaker 1: And also James and Katie were considering leaving San Francisco
2:57
Speaker 1: and moving elsewhere and Seattle seemed like a natural landing
3:00
Speaker 1: spot for them. So this trip served nicely as a
3:02
Speaker 1: chance to see family and to explore the area. And
3:05
Speaker 1: so late on Friday night, after a very long trip,
3:08
Speaker 1: they finally arrived in Seattle. And for the next couple
3:11
Speaker 1: of days, they have a wonderful time visiting with family
3:13
Speaker 1: and having Thanksgiving dinner. On Friday, November 24th, so a
3:17
Speaker 1: day after Thanksgiving, James, Katie, and their daughters loaded back
3:21
Speaker 1: up into the station wagon early in the morning. They
3:23
Speaker 1: said bye to James's aunt and uncle, and.
3:25
Speaker 2: Then they hit the road.
3:26
Speaker 1: But instead of just driving straight all the way to
3:28
Speaker 1: San Francisco, which would have taken the entire day and
3:31
Speaker 1: then some, they decided to make a stop in Portland, Oregon,
3:34
Speaker 1: where one of Katie's very close friends from college was
3:37
Speaker 1: going to meet them for lunch. And so after about
3:39
Speaker 1: three and a half, four hours, they arrive in Portland.
3:42
Speaker 2: They meet Katie's friend and they have this nice lunch.
3:44
Speaker 1: And then afterwards, the family retired to a hotel where
3:47
Speaker 1: they crashed for the night.
3:48
Speaker 2: The next morning, the plan was originally to.
3:51
Speaker 1: Just get in the car and then drive all the
3:53
Speaker 1: way back to San Francisco. But Katie suggested to James
3:56
Speaker 1: that instead of just driving all day, why don't we
3:59
Speaker 1: just stay here for part of the day, leave in
4:01
Speaker 1: the afternoon, and we'll stop somewhere between here and home.
4:05
Speaker 2: We'll break up the drive one more time.
4:07
Speaker 1: James thought it was a great idea, they pulled out
4:09
Speaker 1: the map, and Katie found a nice family-friendly vacation spot
4:13
Speaker 1: that was almost exactly halfway between where they were and home.
4:17
Speaker 1: It was called the Two Two Ton Lodge, and it
4:19
Speaker 1: was located on the coast of Oregon in a town
4:21
Speaker 1: called Gold Beach. And so James and Katie think, perfect,
4:24
Speaker 1: this is exactly what we needed. Katie calls the lodge,
4:27
Speaker 1: and she makes reservations for that night. And so that afternoon,
4:30
Speaker 1: after the family spent their nice day in Portland, They
4:33
Speaker 1: hopped in the car and they began traveling south towards
4:35
Speaker 1: the Tutun Lodge. At about 8.30 p.m., the family was
4:39
Speaker 1: still on the road making their way when James got
4:41
Speaker 1: really hungry and said, let's pull over and get a
4:43
Speaker 1: bite to eat. So the family pulls over at a
4:45
Speaker 1: Denny's restaurant in central Oregon. They go inside and then
4:48
Speaker 1: after a quick bite to eat, they get back out
4:50
Speaker 1: and they're on the road at 9 p.m. From the
4:52
Speaker 1: Denny's to the lodge was about a two and a
4:54
Speaker 1: half hour drive. But after driving for two more hours,
4:58
Speaker 1: James realized they had missed a turn.
5:00
Speaker 2: So he told Katie about it.
5:01
Speaker 1: They looked at the map and they realized if they
5:04
Speaker 1: were to backtrack all the way to that turn, it
5:06
Speaker 1: would add several more hours onto their trip. And so
5:10
Speaker 1: they began looking for an alternative path and they found one.
5:13
Speaker 1: Instead of going all the way west to the coast
5:15
Speaker 1: and then all the way south to this lodge, which
5:17
Speaker 1: was the original plan, They could just go south from
5:20
Speaker 1: where they were all the way until they were parallel
5:23
Speaker 1: with this lodge and then from there they could just
5:25
Speaker 1: cut west along this road called Bear Camp Road. It
5:28
Speaker 1: would basically go straight to their destination. But what this
5:31
Speaker 1: map did not do a good job of explaining was
5:33
Speaker 1: just how dangerous Bear Camp Road was. It started at
5:37
Speaker 1: 900 feet of elevation but very quickly went all the
5:40
Speaker 1: way up to 4,000 feet of elevation before it went
5:43
Speaker 1: over the backside of this mountain down to Gold Beach
5:46
Speaker 1: and where this lodge was. While the road is paved,
5:49
Speaker 1: it's incredibly narrow, and it's basically cut into a mountainside,
5:53
Speaker 1: and so there's very steep drop-offs throughout most of this ride,
5:56
Speaker 1: and there are no guardrails.
5:57
Speaker 2: Protecting people from falling off.
5:59
Speaker 1: The summer is really the only time people should be
6:02
Speaker 1: on Bear Camp Road, because that's when the road is maintained.
6:05
Speaker 1: In the winter, the road is not plowed, it's not maintained,
6:09
Speaker 1: And so even a light snowstorm could make the road
6:11
Speaker 1: totally impassable. And the road cuts through a very remote
6:15
Speaker 1: section of Oregon where there's just not many people around.
6:18
Speaker 1: So if you get in trouble out there, you're probably
6:20
Speaker 1: on your own. But the Kims were not aware of
6:22
Speaker 1: the dangers this road possessed. And so after going south
6:25
Speaker 1: for a while, they did turn on to Bear Camp
6:28
Speaker 1: Road and began slowly driving up the mountain. And so
6:30
Speaker 1: as James is driving, Katie falls asleep in the passenger seat.
6:33
Speaker 1: The girls fall asleep in the back. and outside it
6:36
Speaker 1: begins to snow. An hour later, Katie wakes up from
6:39
Speaker 1: her sleep and the first thing she notices is outside
6:42
Speaker 1: it is snowing so hard that James now has the
6:45
Speaker 1: windshield wipers on full blast and still you could barely
6:48
Speaker 1: see out the front windshield. She looked at her husband
6:51
Speaker 1: and he was hunched over, white knuckling the steering wheel,
6:54
Speaker 1: looking intently out.
6:55
Speaker 2: The window And she says to him, you know, what's
6:57
Speaker 2: going on? Should we stop?
6:58
Speaker 1: Should we turn around? And James, without even looking at her, says, yeah, honey,
7:02
Speaker 1: I do want to turn around, but the road is
7:03
Speaker 1: so narrow, we can't. And then he would tell his
7:06
Speaker 1: wife that earlier they had actually driven through a fork
7:09
Speaker 1: in the road where there was enough space to turn around.
7:12
Speaker 1: And so now he was just hopeful that there'd be
7:14
Speaker 1: another fork somewhere that would allow them to turn around.
7:17
Speaker 1: And so Katie was not excited about the idea, but
7:19
Speaker 1: she trusted James and said, okay, let's keep going. And
7:22
Speaker 1: so James just continues driving up this mountain pass, And
7:25
Speaker 1: you got to understand they are driving on basically a
7:27
Speaker 1: cliff on the left side, left of James is just
7:30
Speaker 1: a sheer drop off.
7:32
Speaker 2: And the road is totally slick from the snow.
7:35
Speaker 1: And so periodically as James is driving, even though he's
7:37
Speaker 1: only going about five miles an hour, he would begin
7:40
Speaker 1: to slip and slide and he's right on the edge
7:42
Speaker 1: of this cliff. And so it was a very, very
7:45
Speaker 1: stressful ride. And after several more miles of this, they
7:48
Speaker 1: were not reaching any turnaround. In fact, They would have
7:51
Speaker 1: to periodically stop on inclines, put up the emergency brake,
7:55
Speaker 1: and one of them would have to get out and
7:57
Speaker 1: clear branches and rocks out of this tiny little road
8:01
Speaker 1: to continue onward. And so finally, Katie says to James,
8:04
Speaker 1: you've got to stop. You've got to back out of here.
8:06
Speaker 1: That's our only choice right now. And so James put
8:08
Speaker 1: the car in reverse and he opens his car door
8:11
Speaker 1: so he can look down at the edge of this
8:13
Speaker 1: cliff to make sure he doesn't accidentally veer off of it.
8:17
Speaker 1: And so very slowly, without even applying the gas, he
8:20
Speaker 1: began going in reverse, making sure.
8:22
Speaker 2: He didn't go off the cliff.
8:24
Speaker 1: And for hours and hours, they did this.
8:26
Speaker 2: This must have been so stressful.
8:29
Speaker 1: But finally, they make it to this fork in the
8:31
Speaker 1: road that James had seen much earlier, and they're able
8:34
Speaker 1: to make a decision. They had two paths they could take.
8:37
Speaker 1: They could turn around completely and drive nose out along
8:40
Speaker 1: the path they came in on all the way to
8:41
Speaker 1: the highway. But that was a very far drive and
8:45
Speaker 1: they knew that road was treacherous and there was a
8:47
Speaker 1: cliff drop off. And it was really just as dangerous
8:49
Speaker 1: as what they had been on. And they really were
8:51
Speaker 1: not keen to be on that road considering the weather.
8:54
Speaker 1: Or they could turn left and go down the mountain
8:57
Speaker 1: on this path that was way wider than the paths
9:00
Speaker 1: they were on. It was like this huge road and
9:02
Speaker 1: it looked like it went straight to the bottom of
9:04
Speaker 1: the mountains. And they're thinking, we don't know where this goes.
9:07
Speaker 1: The signage is not clear where this goes.
9:09
Speaker 2: But you got to.
9:10
Speaker 1: Figure if you're going lower in elevation, the weather will
9:13
Speaker 1: not be as bad. And maybe if you go down
9:15
Speaker 1: this road, there'll be houses or there'll be a gas
9:17
Speaker 1: station or there'll be something. But whatever it is, it's
9:20
Speaker 1: probably better than going that way or that way. And
9:23
Speaker 1: so James turned the car and began driving down this
9:25
Speaker 1: new road. Unfortunately, this was the worst choice they could
9:28
Speaker 1: have made. This road they were now on was this
9:31
Speaker 1: long winding dead end that was used by loggers in
9:35
Speaker 1: the summer. Now, normally this mistake by the Kim family
9:38
Speaker 1: would have been caught because there was supposed to be
9:41
Speaker 1: a big yellow gate that sat across this road, just
9:44
Speaker 1: a little ways past this fork, blocking all traffic from
9:48
Speaker 1: proceeding any further. But vandals had recently come up and
9:51
Speaker 1: cut the lock on this gate, swung it open and
9:54
Speaker 1: then locked it open. So the gate is completely off
9:56
Speaker 1: the road And so as the Kims drove past where
9:59
Speaker 1: they normally... would have been stopped, they didn't even see
10:02
Speaker 1: a gate. There was no gate anywhere, and so they
10:04
Speaker 1: just kept on driving. And from where this gate should
10:07
Speaker 1: have been, the road went from paved to dirt and
10:10
Speaker 1: full of potholes, and it narrowed considerably. The couple drove
10:14
Speaker 1: for 15 miles on this very tight winding road that
10:17
Speaker 1: once again was on a cliffside, until finally they reached
10:21
Speaker 1: another fork in the road where they could either go
10:23
Speaker 1: right or they could go straight, but there was no
10:25
Speaker 1: sign telling them which way led to what. And so
10:27
Speaker 1: James stopped the car right in the middle of this
10:29
Speaker 1: intersection and he and Katie look at each other and
10:31
Speaker 1: they know they're in trouble. So they get their phones
10:34
Speaker 1: out and they try calling for help, but they have
10:36
Speaker 1: no service. And so as they're struggling to place calls,
10:39
Speaker 1: one of them realizes it's no longer snowing, it's actually raining,
10:42
Speaker 1: And a lot of the snow on the ground seems
10:44
Speaker 1: to be getting washed away. And so after not being
10:47
Speaker 1: able to place calls for several minutes, they decide, you
10:49
Speaker 1: know what? It's two in the morning.
10:51
Speaker 2: We're tired. Let's sleep here. We'll leave the car running.
10:53
Speaker 2: It'll be nice and warm.
10:55
Speaker 1: And when we wake up in the morning, this rain
10:57
Speaker 1: will most likely have washed away the snow and we
11:00
Speaker 1: can just drive out of here. And so the two
11:02
Speaker 1: are kind of relieved as they're saying this out loud
11:04
Speaker 1: that this situation is not nearly as bad as it seems.
11:07
Speaker 2: We'll be just fine.
11:08
Speaker 1: And so Katie, James, their two daughters, they fall asleep
11:11
Speaker 1: with the car running.
11:12
Speaker 2: It's nice and warm.
11:13
Speaker 1: And when they wake up, Katie and James realize it's
11:16
Speaker 1: gotten much, much worse. At some point in the night
11:19
Speaker 1: after they fell asleep, the temperature must have dropped again
11:22
Speaker 1: and that rain became very heavy snow. And so all
11:25
Speaker 1: the water on the ground froze and then almost a
11:28
Speaker 1: foot of snow fell on top of it.
11:30
Speaker 2: They were stuck.
11:31
Speaker 1: But Katie and James, they didn't panic because they remembered
11:33
Speaker 1: when they first turned onto Bear Camp Road, they had
11:37
Speaker 1: seen a plow truck parked off of the side of
11:39
Speaker 1: the road.
11:40
Speaker 2: And so to them, that.
11:41
Speaker 1: Meant if it snowed along Bear Camp Road, it would
11:44
Speaker 1: get plowed. And so that day, the Kims just stayed
11:47
Speaker 1: inside of their car and they ate snacks and they
11:48
Speaker 1: read books and they kept the heater on and they
11:51
Speaker 1: waited to be rescued. But over the course of that
11:53
Speaker 1: entire day, nobody came down that road.
11:56
Speaker 2: No plows, no anybody.
11:57
Speaker 1: And Katie and James continuously tried their cell phones to
12:00
Speaker 1: try to punch out and get some help, but they
12:02
Speaker 1: never had any service. Also, Katie and James continuously honked
12:06
Speaker 1: the horn in case someone was in the area that
12:08
Speaker 1: might hear them, but no one ever came to their rescue.
12:11
Speaker 1: And so by the end of that Sunday night, Katie
12:14
Speaker 1: and James were really starting to get worried because they
12:16
Speaker 1: have a four-year-old and a seven-month-old. They cannot be out
12:20
Speaker 1: here for very much longer. But they began to tell
12:22
Speaker 1: each other that, you know what.
12:23
Speaker 2: It's Sunday.
12:24
Speaker 1: Maybe the plows don't come through on Sundays. Maybe they
12:27
Speaker 1: just don't work out here on Sundays. And so tomorrow, Monday,
12:31
Speaker 1: the plows will be out here. They'll come by and
12:33
Speaker 1: they will save us. Also, Katie and James began telling
12:36
Speaker 1: each other to reassure each other that, hey, tomorrow, Monday,
12:40
Speaker 1: that's the day we were supposed to be back in
12:42
Speaker 1: San Francisco. And so people are bound to notice our
12:45
Speaker 1: absence and they will report it to police and they
12:48
Speaker 1: will come out here and they will save us.
12:49
Speaker 2: So tomorrow we are going to get found.
12:51
Speaker 1: And so Katie and James, they put their two daughters
12:53
Speaker 1: in their car seats and James read them some bedtime
12:56
Speaker 1: stories and then.
12:57
Speaker 2: The family fell asleep.
12:58
Speaker 1: The next day, Monday, the family did a lot of
13:00
Speaker 1: the same things they did the day before. They sat
13:03
Speaker 1: in their car, they kept spirits high, they tried to
13:05
Speaker 1: use their cell phones, which didn't work. They honked their
13:07
Speaker 1: horns to get people's attention. That didn't work. They tried
13:10
Speaker 1: to ration their food and the whole time, They're keeping
13:13
Speaker 1: their eyes up each side of this road they're on
13:15
Speaker 1: in hopes a plow comes through. But all day long,
13:19
Speaker 1: no trucks, no plows, nothing comes down this road. Meanwhile,
13:23
Speaker 1: back in San Francisco, the family's absence was noticed by
13:26
Speaker 1: a family friend, but they didn't report it to police
13:29
Speaker 1: because they figured the Kim family had just decided to
13:32
Speaker 1: stay out a little bit longer and they would be
13:34
Speaker 1: back soon. By Monday night, Katie and James were officially terrified.
13:38
Speaker 1: They were almost out of fuel in their car. They
13:40
Speaker 1: were almost out of food. In fact, to compensate for
13:43
Speaker 1: their low amount of food, Katie had begun not only
13:46
Speaker 1: breastfeeding her seven-month-old, but also began breastfeeding her four-year-old. Also,
13:51
Speaker 1: outside of their car, bears began kind of assembling and
13:54
Speaker 1: checking them out. And at first, Katie and James would
13:57
Speaker 1: scream and yell and try to scare them off. but
13:59
Speaker 1: the bears ultimately were not that fazed by them. They
14:02
Speaker 1: were not aggressive, but it meant the family did not
14:05
Speaker 1: feel comfortable getting out of their car. And so they're
14:07
Speaker 1: in this very claustrophobic situation where they are literally trapped
14:11
Speaker 1: inside of this small car where all the windows are
14:13
Speaker 1: covered with snow and they can't go anywhere. They can't
14:16
Speaker 1: call anyone. They're running out of their supplies. I mean,
14:19
Speaker 1: this is a terrifying situation to be in. Katie and
14:22
Speaker 1: James had been really strong to this point, but around
14:25
Speaker 1: this time, they began to act scared and their kids
14:28
Speaker 1: picked up on it And they started acting scared and fearful.
14:31
Speaker 1: And so the parents were trying their best to calm
14:33
Speaker 1: them down and tell them everything's going to be fine
14:35
Speaker 1: and they're going to.
14:36
Speaker 2: Get out of here soon.
14:37
Speaker 1: But in reality, Katie and James knew that if they
14:40
Speaker 1: didn't get found soon, they were probably going to die.
14:43
Speaker 1: The next day when they woke up, which was Tuesday, again,
14:46
Speaker 1: no cars or trucks came down either road.
14:48
Speaker 2: There was no plows.
14:49
Speaker 1: The snow just continued to pile up and the food
14:52
Speaker 1: was running unbelievably low. to the point where James actually
14:56
Speaker 1: left the car and went out looking for bear droppings,
14:59
Speaker 1: because there's bears all over the place now, and he
15:01
Speaker 1: would pull the berries out of their droppings. And he
15:04
Speaker 1: and Katie began eating those, but after a while they
15:07
Speaker 1: decided that was not a good idea because they might
15:09
Speaker 1: poison themselves. Their daughters, who the day before had been
15:13
Speaker 1: acting out out of fear and anxiety, were now lethargic
15:16
Speaker 1: and quiet. And the parents' response to this was to
15:19
Speaker 1: start fighting with each other about whose fault this was,
15:22
Speaker 1: when in reality, they were just totally scared about what
15:24
Speaker 1: might happen to them. Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, the
15:27
Speaker 1: family had still not been reported to police. And so
15:30
Speaker 1: that night, Tuesday night, the Kim family once again huddled
15:33
Speaker 1: up inside of their car, James read the kids' books,
15:36
Speaker 1: and then they all fell asleep. The next morning, Wednesday,
15:39
Speaker 1: they ran out of gas for their car, and so
15:41
Speaker 1: they had no way to heat themselves, and so James
15:43
Speaker 1: got the spare tire out of the back of the car,
15:45
Speaker 1: and he rounded up some magazines inside of the car,
15:48
Speaker 1: And he lit a fire for the family to stand
15:50
Speaker 1: around and try to warm up by. And it worked,
15:52
Speaker 1: but the fire very quickly died out and they couldn't
15:55
Speaker 1: find any wood that wasn't soaking wet to put on it.
15:58
Speaker 2: And so before long, they did not have a fire.
16:00
Speaker 1: And so all day that day, James and Katie were
16:02
Speaker 1: desperately looking up the road in hopes that a car
16:05
Speaker 1: or truck would come through.
16:07
Speaker 2: They never did.
16:08
Speaker 1: James and Katie tried their cell phones repeatedly, but they
16:10
Speaker 1: never got service. They honked their horns. They screamed out
16:13
Speaker 1: for help.
16:14
Speaker 2: But nobody heard them.
16:15
Speaker 1: And so before long, it was dark again and the
16:17
Speaker 1: family was huddled up inside of their now freezing car.
16:20
Speaker 1: And all they could hear outside was the sounds of
16:22
Speaker 1: bears marching around the area. And so I'm sure James
16:25
Speaker 1: and Katie thought to themselves, I wonder if we'll survive
16:28
Speaker 1: the night. Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, that family friend
16:31
Speaker 1: who had noticed the Kims were gone on Monday, she
16:34
Speaker 1: did go to the police on Wednesday afternoon and.
16:36
Speaker 2: Reported them missing.
16:37
Speaker 1: And so a search party was being organized that night
16:40
Speaker 1: But of course, the Kim family would have no way
16:42
Speaker 1: of knowing that. The next morning, Thursday, the Kim family
16:45
Speaker 1: woke up. They survived the night. But at this point,
16:48
Speaker 1: James and Katie are speaking openly about the real possibility
16:51
Speaker 1: that they all might die. In fact, Katie says to James,
16:55
Speaker 1: you have to promise me if our two kids die
16:58
Speaker 1: out here, you have to kill me too.
17:00
Speaker 2: And James said he would.
17:01
Speaker 1: At this point, Katie and James do not believe a
17:04
Speaker 1: truck or a car or anything is going to drive
17:06
Speaker 1: down this road and save them. believe their only hope
17:10
Speaker 1: of being rescued is by sending a smoke signal up
17:13
Speaker 1: into the air that a pilot might see. So they
17:15
Speaker 1: pull off all four tires of their car and then
17:17
Speaker 1: they pull everything out of the car that might burn
17:20
Speaker 1: and they stack that on the tires and that included
17:22
Speaker 1: Penelope's prized stuffed lamb and then once they had their
17:26
Speaker 1: big pile they lit it on fire and fairly quickly
17:29
Speaker 1: a large black billowing cloud of smoke was going straight
17:32
Speaker 1: up to the sky And for a minute, the Kim
17:34
Speaker 1: family was very optimistic that they were about to be found,
17:37
Speaker 1: that certainly someone was going to see the smoke and
17:40
Speaker 1: come find them. But unfortunately, the fire burned up very quickly,
17:44
Speaker 1: they couldn't light it again, and nobody flew overhead. And
17:47
Speaker 1: so before long, the family is once again huddled inside
17:50
Speaker 1: of their freezing cold car that night. There's bears walking
17:53
Speaker 1: around outside. They're basically out of food. Their kids aren't
17:56
Speaker 1: even crying anymore. They're just silent and cold and miserable.
18:00
Speaker 2: And as they're all.
18:00
Speaker 1: Shivering and trying to stay warm, James realizes he needs
18:04
Speaker 1: to do something drastic or his family's going to die.
18:07
Speaker 1: And so the next morning, Friday, when they get up,
18:10
Speaker 1: James tells Katie that he had been studying the map
18:12
Speaker 1: and there is a town about four miles east called
18:15
Speaker 1: Galice that he believes he can get to in about
18:18
Speaker 1: two hours. Katie immediately said, no, you cannot leave us.
18:21
Speaker 2: We need you here.
18:22
Speaker 1: There's probably a search party out there looking for us
18:25
Speaker 1: right now. We need to stay together so we can
18:28
Speaker 1: all be found. But James's instincts were telling him that
18:31
Speaker 1: no one was coming for them or no one was
18:33
Speaker 1: going to actually find them in time. And so their
18:36
Speaker 1: only hope was if he ventured off and found help.
18:39
Speaker 1: And so Katie finally reluctantly agrees to let him go
18:42
Speaker 1: because he seemed really confident. And so at 7 45
18:45
Speaker 1: AM that morning, James gave his two daughters a big
18:48
Speaker 1: hug and a kiss, told them he loved them and
18:50
Speaker 1: he would see them soon. and then he hugged his
18:51
Speaker 1: wife and said he loved her, and then he turned
18:53
Speaker 1: around and walked up the road out of sight. At
18:56
Speaker 1: the same time, unbeknownst to the Kim family, hundreds of
18:59
Speaker 1: searchers and helicopters are all over Bear Camp Road looking
19:03
Speaker 1: for them. Two days later on Sunday, December 3rd, so
19:06
Speaker 1: a week after the family had originally gotten stuck, a
19:09
Speaker 1: helicopter pilot that was part of the search effort was
19:12
Speaker 1: flying around Bear Camp Road when he noticed footprints in
19:15
Speaker 1: the snow below. When he started following these footprints, and
19:18
Speaker 1: eventually the footprints kind of disappeared under some trees, then
19:21
Speaker 1: he couldn't pick them up again and so without that
19:23
Speaker 1: much fuel left he decided he would just backtrack and
19:26
Speaker 1: follow the footprints back to their origin and so he
19:29
Speaker 1: retraced these footprints for quite a while until he came
19:32
Speaker 1: to a clearing and in the middle of the clearing
19:34
Speaker 1: was a car and next to the car was Katie
19:37
Speaker 1: waving an umbrella back and forth. The pilot immediately knew
19:40
Speaker 1: who he was looking at but he didn't have enough
19:42
Speaker 1: fuel to actually land and pick her and her family
19:45
Speaker 1: up and so instead he just hovered down as low
19:47
Speaker 1: as he could and he made good eye contact with
19:49
Speaker 1: her to reach her that I see you and we're
19:51
Speaker 1: coming for you and then he marked on the map
19:53
Speaker 1: where they were he flew off to the search headquarters
19:56
Speaker 1: and just minutes later another helicopter was spun up they
19:59
Speaker 1: flew to that same location and they were able to
20:02
Speaker 1: land in that clearing and And as soon as the
20:04
Speaker 1: pilot got out, he saw Katie running up to him,
20:07
Speaker 1: carrying her two daughters, who looked like they were in
20:09
Speaker 1: pretty good shape. And she's crying tears of joy, and
20:11
Speaker 1: she's thanking him profusely. And then when she's right up
20:14
Speaker 1: in front of him, she says, you know, are you
20:16
Speaker 1: here because of my husband? Did James tell you where
20:18
Speaker 1: we were? And the pilot looked visibly confused. Katie picked
20:22
Speaker 1: up on it, and she explained how just two days earlier,
20:25
Speaker 1: James had left to go to the town of Galice.
20:28
Speaker 1: to get help and he still hadn't come back yet.
20:30
Speaker 1: And so at this point, the pilot understood what was
20:32
Speaker 1: happening and so he looked down and he said, no ma'am,
20:35
Speaker 1: we still have not found James. Katie was devastated and
20:38
Speaker 1: she cried as she and her daughters were loaded into
20:41
Speaker 1: the helicopter and airlifted out of the forest and brought
20:44
Speaker 1: to a hospital.
20:45
Speaker 2: There they would make full recoveries.
20:47
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, the search effort, which had been all over Bear
20:50
Speaker 1: Camp Road, was suddenly focused exclusively on the area around
20:54
Speaker 1: where their car was. professional trackers were brought in to
20:58
Speaker 1: look for James's tracks and they found them fairly quickly
21:01
Speaker 1: and began following them. James, after departing his family to
21:04
Speaker 1: go look for help, which must have been the most
21:07
Speaker 1: difficult decision he had ever made in his entire life,
21:10
Speaker 1: he loved his family more than anything and he had
21:12
Speaker 1: to abandon them in the middle of the wilderness with
21:15
Speaker 1: no food, with no power, and he has no idea
21:17
Speaker 1: if he'll ever see them again. And so after leaving
21:20
Speaker 1: them behind, he walked three miles up the road they
21:23
Speaker 1: came in on, and then instead of just continuing on
21:25
Speaker 1: that road in the direction of Gliese, he deviated and
21:29
Speaker 1: walked off the road. He actually went straight down one
21:32
Speaker 1: of the cliffs until he hit a river. And it's
21:34
Speaker 1: believed that maybe he saw the river from up on
21:36
Speaker 1: the road and thought that would be a faster way
21:39
Speaker 1: to get to Gliese. either way he got down to
21:41
Speaker 1: the river and as he walked he would leave behind
21:44
Speaker 1: him little bits of torn clothing and torn paper to
21:48
Speaker 1: create a trail of where he was going presumably so
21:51
Speaker 1: if he needed to he could backtrack to his family
21:53
Speaker 1: and so he gets down to this river and for
21:55
Speaker 1: several miles he walks downstream and then after being gone
21:58
Speaker 1: for at least two hours and not reaching the town
22:01
Speaker 1: of galise He must have realized he had either gone
22:04
Speaker 1: the wrong way, and that's why he had not hit
22:06
Speaker 1: the town, or he had miscalculated the distance, and that's
22:09
Speaker 1: why he had not hit the town. But either way,
22:11
Speaker 1: he did not turn around and go back to his family. Instead,
22:15
Speaker 1: he pressed on, believing he was their only hope. And
22:18
Speaker 1: so on he went, crossing over rivers, getting totally soaked
22:21
Speaker 1: in frigid water. He went up and down mountains, all
22:24
Speaker 1: over these totally rugged areas in nothing but street clothes.
22:27
Speaker 1: He had sneakers, pants, and a jacket on.
22:29
Speaker 2: He had no food. He had no water.
22:31
Speaker 1: And he just kept on going until it was nightfall.
22:34
Speaker 1: And he had covered about 10 miles at this point.
22:36
Speaker 1: And he laid down and he went to sleep. And
22:38
Speaker 1: that night must have been absolutely horrible as he thought
22:41
Speaker 1: about his family that was alone in the woods somewhere.
22:44
Speaker 1: He probably wondered if they were still alive. And the
22:47
Speaker 1: temperature was in the 30s. And again, he's just in
22:50
Speaker 1: street clothes. But he survives the night. And so the
22:52
Speaker 1: next morning, that Saturday, he gets up and he's right
22:55
Speaker 1: back at it, despite the fact that he was physically
22:57
Speaker 1: wrecked at this point.
22:59
Speaker 2: But for him, he didn't care. He was doing it
23:01
Speaker 2: for his family.
23:02
Speaker 1: And so all day he hiked in and out of
23:04
Speaker 1: freezing cold streams, up and down mountains, until finally he
23:08
Speaker 1: found himself at the bottom of this deep ravine next
23:10
Speaker 1: to a river where he just fell to his knees,
23:13
Speaker 1: fell forward and died. He had literally just kept on going,
23:17
Speaker 1: looking for help for his family until he eventually succumbed
23:20
Speaker 1: to hypothermia. James's body was located two days after his
23:24
Speaker 1: wife and his daughters were successfully rescued. it would turn
23:27
Speaker 1: out the town of Galice was not four miles away
23:30
Speaker 1: from the family's car. It was about 15 miles away,
23:34
Speaker 1: but that's from point A to point B on a map,
23:36
Speaker 1: like a straight line. But when you actually are hiking
23:39
Speaker 1: in the wilderness, you don't go in straight lines because
23:41
Speaker 1: there's mountains and there's rivers and there's things that get
23:44
Speaker 1: in the way. And so in order to get to
23:46
Speaker 1: Galice from where their car was, James would have had
23:48
Speaker 1: to travel 30 or 40 miles, zigging and zagging up
23:52
Speaker 1: over four different mountains. And so this was a suicide
23:55
Speaker 1: mission from the start. James ultimately covered 16 miles through
23:59
Speaker 1: some of the most treacherous terrain in the country, wearing
24:02
Speaker 1: nothing but his street clothes. The professional trackers that followed
24:06
Speaker 1: this 16-mile trail to his body, they called his journey superhuman.
24:10
Speaker 1: The helicopter pilot would later say he never would have
24:13
Speaker 1: found Katie and the girls had he not spotted those
24:16
Speaker 1: footprints first and then traced them all the way back
24:19
Speaker 1: to that clearing. And it would turn out those footprints
24:22
Speaker 1: were made by James after he left his family and.
24:25
Speaker 2: Walked off to get help.
24:26
Speaker 1: And so even though it cost him his life, James
24:28
Speaker 1: did ultimately save his family.
24:30
Speaker 2: So that's going to do it, guys.
24:31
Speaker 1: If you got something out of today's episode and you
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Speaker 1: And until next time, that's going to do it.
25:34
Speaker 2: See ya.