Latest / Crime and Horror / This road is a death trap (DISTRESSING CONTENT) - MrBallen

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

0:00
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
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Speaker 1: were to happen to me and my family, I would
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Speaker 1: want people to know about it, so hopefully I can
0:09
Speaker 1: do it justice. But before we get into today's story,
0:12
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious
0:14
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Speaker 2: Of our weekly uploads.
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Speaker 1: All right, let's get into today's story. In nineteen ninety six,
0:49
Speaker 1: twenty one year old Katie Fleming was studying French at.
0:52
Speaker 2: The University of Oregon.
0:53
Speaker 1: That summer, she was invited to go on a camping
0:55
Speaker 1: trip with some very close friends.
0:57
Speaker 2: And some people she had not met before.
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Speaker 1: Their destination was this beautiful spot along the Sierra Nevada
1:02
Speaker 1: Mountain range in California, But as soon as they got there,
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Speaker 1: Katie did not take in any of the beautiful scenery. Instead,
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Speaker 1: she fixated solely on twenty five year old James cam
1:13
Speaker 1: who was one of those people.
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Speaker 2: She had not met before that was going on this trip.
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Speaker 1: And for the people that were on this trip, they
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Speaker 1: would say James and Katie immediately just fell in love
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Speaker 1: with each other, and for the duration of the trip
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Speaker 1: they were inseparable. And then when they got back from
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Speaker 1: the Strip, 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,
1:41
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
1:53
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. One was an apothecary and the other
1:57
Speaker 1: sold eccentric clothing, and those two shops were made Katie
2:00
Speaker 1: full time. By two thousand and six, the Kim family
2:03
Speaker 1: had become very successful financially and they had grown in size.
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Speaker 2: They had a four year.
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Speaker 1: Old daughter named Penelope and a seven month old daughter
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Speaker 1: named Sabine. Katie and James both adored their kids, but
2:14
Speaker 1: James especially was known for blowing off virtually everything and
2:18
Speaker 1: anyone to be with his daughters. In fact, his friends
2:22
Speaker 1: and family would say you couldn't even have a conversation
2:25
Speaker 1: with James if his daughters were in the room, because
2:28
Speaker 1: James would get distracted and just stare at his daughters
2:30
Speaker 1: and then would eventually just leave mid conversation to go
2:33
Speaker 1: play with them. James was also known to bring his
2:36
Speaker 1: daughters to work virtually every chance he got, even if
2:39
Speaker 1: it really wasn't allowed at this company. On Friday, November seventeenth, James, Katie,
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Speaker 1: and their two daughters loaded up into their station wagon
2:47
Speaker 1: and then drove north to Seattle. They planned on spending
2:50
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving 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
2:56
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.
3:15
Speaker 2: On Friday, November twenty fourth, so.
3:17
Speaker 1: A day after Thanksgiving, James, Katie, and their daughters loaded
3:20
Speaker 1: back up into the station wagon early in the morning.
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Speaker 2: They said bye to James's aunt and uncle, and then
3:25
Speaker 2: they hit the road.
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Speaker 1: But instead of just driving straight all the way to
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Speaker 1: San Francisco, which would have taken the entire day and
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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.
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Speaker 1: 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. The next morning, the plan
3:50
Speaker 1: was originally to just get in the car and then
3:52
Speaker 1: drive all the way back to San Francisco, but Katie
3:55
Speaker 1: suggested to James that instead of just driving all day,
3:59
Speaker 1: why don't we just st here for part of the day,
4:01
Speaker 1: leave in the afternoon, and we'll stop somewhere between here
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Speaker 1: and home. 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
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Speaker 1: spot that was almost exactly halfway between where they were
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Speaker 1: and home. It was called the two two Ton Lodge
4:19
Speaker 1: and it was located on the coast of Oregon in
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Speaker 1: a town 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 two to two ton Lodge. At about eight thirty pm,
4:38
Speaker 1: the family was still on the road making their way
4:40
Speaker 1: when James got really hungry and said, let's pull over
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Speaker 1: and get a bite to eat. So the family pulls
4:44
Speaker 1: over at a Denny's restaurant in central Oregon. They go inside,
4:48
Speaker 1: and then after a quick bite to eat, they get
4:50
Speaker 1: back out and they're on the road at nine pm.
4:52
Speaker 1: From the Dennis to the Lodge was about a two
4:54
Speaker 1: and a half hour drive, but after driving forward two
4:57
Speaker 1: more hours, James realized they had to turn. So you
5:01
Speaker 1: told Katie about it. They looked at the map and
5:03
Speaker 1: they realized if they were to backtrack all the way
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Speaker 1: to that turn, it would add several more hours onto
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Speaker 1: their trip, and so they began looking for an alternative path,
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Speaker 1: and they found one. Instead of going all the way
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Speaker 1: west to the coast and then all the way south
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Speaker 1: to this lodge, which was the original plan, they could
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Speaker 1: just go south from where they were all the way
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Speaker 1: until they were parallel with this lodge, and then from
5:24
Speaker 1: there they could just cut west along this road called
5:27
Speaker 1: Bear Camp Road. It would basically go straight to their destination.
5:30
Speaker 1: But what this map did not do a good job
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Speaker 1: of explaining was just how dangerous Bear Camp Road was.
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Speaker 1: It started at nine hundred feet of elevation, but very
5:39
Speaker 1: quickly went all the way up to four thousand feet
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Speaker 1: of elevation before it went over the backside of this
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Speaker 1: mountain down to Gold Beach and where this lodge was.
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Speaker 1: While the road is paved, it's incredibly narrow and it's
5:50
Speaker 1: basically cut into a mountain side, and so there's very
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Speaker 1: steep drop offs throughout most of this ride, and there
5:56
Speaker 1: are no guardrails protecting people from falling off. The summer
6:00
Speaker 1: is really the only time people should be on Bear
6:02
Speaker 1: Camp Road, because that's when the road is maintained.
6:05
Speaker 2: In the winter, the road.
6:07
Speaker 1: Is not plowed, it's not maintained, and so even a
6:09
Speaker 1: light snowstorm could make the road totally impassable. And the
6:13
Speaker 1: road cuts through a very remote section of Oregon where
6:16
Speaker 1: there's just not many people around, so if you get
6:19
Speaker 1: in trouble out there, you're probably on your own. But
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Speaker 1: the Kims were not aware of the dangers this road possessed,
6:24
Speaker 1: and so after going south for a while, they did
6:27
Speaker 1: turn on to Bear Camp Road and began slowly driving
6:29
Speaker 1: up the mountain. And so as James is driving, Katie
6:32
Speaker 1: falls asleep in the passenger seat. The girls fall asleep
6:34
Speaker 1: and back and outside it begins to snow. An hour later,
6:38
Speaker 1: Katie wakes up from her sleep and the first thing
6:40
Speaker 1: she notices is outside it is snowing so hard that
6:44
Speaker 1: James now has the windshield wipers on full blast, and
6:47
Speaker 1: still you could barely see out the front windshield. She
6:50
Speaker 1: looked at her husband and he was hunched over, white
6:52
Speaker 1: knuckling the steering wheel, looking intently out the window, and
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Speaker 1: she says.
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Speaker 2: To him, you know what's going on? Should we stop.
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Speaker 2: Should we turn around? And James, without not even looking
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Speaker 2: at her, says.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, honey, I do want to turn around, but the
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Speaker 1: road is so narrow we can't. And then he would
7:06
Speaker 1: tell his wife that earlier they had actually driven through
7:08
Speaker 1: a fork in the road where there was enough space
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Speaker 1: to turn around, and so now he was just hopeful
7:13
Speaker 1: that there'd be another fork somewhere that would allow them
7:16
Speaker 1: to turn around. And so Katie was not excited about
7:19
Speaker 1: the idea, but she trusted James and said, Okay, let's
7:21
Speaker 1: keep going. And so James just continues driving up this
7:24
Speaker 1: mountain pass and you got to understand they are driving
7:27
Speaker 1: on basically a cliff. On the left side left of
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Speaker 1: James is just a sheer drop off, and the road
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Speaker 1: is totally slick from the snow, and so periodically as
7:36
Speaker 1: James is driving, even though he's only going about five
7:38
Speaker 1: miles an hour, he would begin to slip and slide
7:41
Speaker 1: and he's right on the edge of this cliff. And
7:43
Speaker 1: so it was a very very stressful ride, and after
7:46
Speaker 1: several more miles of this, they were not reaching any turnaround.
7:50
Speaker 1: In fact, they would have to periodically stop on inclines
7:54
Speaker 1: put up the emergency brake, and one of them would
7:56
Speaker 1: have to get out and clear branches and rocks out
7:59
Speaker 1: of this time, any little road to continue onward. And
8:02
Speaker 1: so finally Katie says to James, you got to stop.
8:05
Speaker 1: You got to back out of here. That's our only
8:07
Speaker 1: choice right now. And so James put the car in
8:09
Speaker 1: reverse and he opens his car door so he can
8:11
Speaker 1: look down at the edge of this cliff to make
8:14
Speaker 1: sure he doesn't accidentally veer off of it, and so
8:18
Speaker 1: very slowly, without even applying the gas, he began going
8:21
Speaker 1: in reverse making sure he didn't go off the cliff.
8:24
Speaker 2: And for hours and hours they did this. This must
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Speaker 2: have been so stressful.
8:29
Speaker 1: But finally they make it to this fork in the
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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 doubt along
8:40
Speaker 1: the path they came in on all the way to
8:41
Speaker 1: the highway.
8:42
Speaker 2: But that was a very far drive, and they knew
8:45
Speaker 2: that road.
8:46
Speaker 1: Was treacherous and there was a cliff drop off, and
8:48
Speaker 1: it was really just as dangerous as what they had
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Speaker 1: been on, and they really were not keen to be
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Speaker 1: on that road. Considering the weather, or they could turn
8:55
Speaker 1: left and go down the mountain on this path that
8:58
Speaker 1: was way wider than the path they were on. It
9:00
Speaker 1: was like this huge road and it looked like it
9:03
Speaker 1: went straight to the bottom of the mountain.
9:05
Speaker 2: And they're thinking, we don't know where this goes. The
9:07
Speaker 2: signage is not clear where this goes.
9:09
Speaker 1: But you got to figure if you're going lower in elevation,
9:12
Speaker 1: the weather will not be as bad. And maybe if
9:15
Speaker 1: you go down this road there'll be houses, or there'll
9:17
Speaker 1: be a gas station, or there'll be something. But whatever
9:20
Speaker 1: it is, it's probably better than going that way or
9:22
Speaker 1: that way. And so James turned the car and began
9:24
Speaker 1: driving down this new road. Unfortunately, this was the worst
9:28
Speaker 1: choice they could have made.
9:29
Speaker 2: This road they were now on.
9:31
Speaker 1: Was this long, winding dead end that was used by
9:34
Speaker 1: loggers in the summer. Now, normally this mistake by the
9:38
Speaker 1: Kim family would have been caught because there was supposed
9:41
Speaker 1: to be a big yellow gate that sat across this
9:44
Speaker 1: road just a little ways past this fork, blocking all
9:47
Speaker 1: traffic from proceeding any further. But vandals had recently come
9:51
Speaker 1: up and cut the lock on this gate, swung it open,
9:54
Speaker 1: and then locked it open, so the gate is completely
9:56
Speaker 1: off the road, and so as the Kims drove past
9:59
Speaker 1: where they normally.
10:00
Speaker 2: Would have been stopped, they didn't even see a gate.
10:02
Speaker 2: There was no gate.
10:03
Speaker 1: Anywhere, and so they just kept on driving. And from
10:06
Speaker 1: where this gate should have been, the road went from
10:08
Speaker 1: paved to dirt and full of potholes, and it narrowed considerably.
10:13
Speaker 1: The couple drove for fifteen miles on this very tight
10:16
Speaker 1: winding road that once again was on a cliff side,
10:19
Speaker 1: until finally they reached another fork in the road where
10:22
Speaker 1: they could either go right or they could go straight,
10:24
Speaker 1: but there was no sign telling them which way led
10:26
Speaker 1: to what, and so James stopped the car right in
10:28
Speaker 1: the middle of this intersection, and he and Katie look
10:31
Speaker 1: at each other and they know they're in trouble. So
10:33
Speaker 1: they get their phones out and they try calling for help,
10:35
Speaker 1: but they have no service, and so as they're struggling
10:38
Speaker 1: to place calls, one of them realizes.
10:40
Speaker 2: It's no longer snowing.
10:41
Speaker 1: It's actually raining, and a lot of the snow on
10:43
Speaker 1: the ground seems to be getting washed away, and so
10:46
Speaker 1: after not being able to place calls for several minutes,
10:49
Speaker 1: they decide you 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 1: It'll be nice and warm, and when we wake up
10:56
Speaker 1: in the morning, this rain will most likely have washed
10:59
Speaker 1: away the snow and we can just drive out of here.
11:01
Speaker 2: And so the two are kind of relieved as they're
11:03
Speaker 2: saying this.
11:03
Speaker 1: Out loud, that this situation is not nearly as bad
11:06
Speaker 1: as it seems, will be just fine. And so Katie James,
11:10
Speaker 1: their two daughters. They fall asleep with the car running.
11:12
Speaker 1: It's nice and warm, and when they wake up, Katie
11:15
Speaker 1: and James realize it's gotten much much worse. At some
11:18
Speaker 1: point in the night after they fell asleep, the temperature
11:21
Speaker 1: must have dropped again, and that rain became very heavy snow,
11:24
Speaker 1: and so all the water on the ground froze and
11:27
Speaker 1: then almost a foot of snow fell on top of it.
11:30
Speaker 1: They were stuck, but Katie and James they didn't panic
11:32
Speaker 1: because they remembered when they first turned onto Bear Camp Road,
11:36
Speaker 1: they had seen a plow truck parked off of the
11:39
Speaker 1: side of the road, and so to them that meant
11:41
Speaker 1: if it snowed along Bear Camp Road.
11:43
Speaker 2: It would get plowed.
11:45
Speaker 1: And so that day the Kims just stayed inside of
11:47
Speaker 1: their car and they ate snacks and they read books, and.
11:49
Speaker 2: They kept the heater on and they waited to be rescued.
11:52
Speaker 1: But over the course of that entire day, nobody came
11:55
Speaker 1: down that road, no plows, no anybody, And Katie and
11:58
Speaker 1: James continuously tried their cell phones to try to punch
12:01
Speaker 1: out and get some help, but they never had any service. Also,
12:04
Speaker 1: Katie and James continuously honked the horn in case someone
12:08
Speaker 1: was in the area that might hear them, but no
12:10
Speaker 1: one ever came to their rescue. And so by the
12:12
Speaker 1: end of that Sunday night, Katie and James were really
12:15
Speaker 1: starting to get worried because they have a four year
12:17
Speaker 1: 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, it's Sunday. Maybe the
12:24
Speaker 1: plows don't come through on Sundays. Maybe they just don't
12:27
Speaker 1: work out here on Sundays, And so tomorrow Monday, the
12:31
Speaker 1: plows will be out here, they'll come by, and they
12:33
Speaker 1: will save us. Also, Katie and James began telling each
12:36
Speaker 1: other to reassure each other that, hey, tomorrow Monday, that's
12:41
Speaker 1: the day we were supposed to be back in San Francisco,
12:43
Speaker 1: and so people are bound to notice our absence and
12:46
Speaker 1: they will report it to police, and they will come
12:48
Speaker 1: 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 stories,
12:56
Speaker 1: 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.
13:49
Speaker 2: 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 phased 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
14:34
Speaker 1: them down and tell them everything's going to be fine,
14:35
Speaker 1: and they're going to get out of here soon. But
14:38
Speaker 1: in reality, Katie and James knew that if they didn't
14:40
Speaker 1: get found soon, they were probably gonna die. The next
14:43
Speaker 1: day when they woke up, which was Tuesday, again, no
14:46
Speaker 1: cars or trucks came down either road. 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
15:25
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 kid's 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
15:45
Speaker 1: car 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 1: and so before long they did not have a and
16:00
Speaker 1: so all day that day, James and Katie were desperately
16:03
Speaker 1: looking up the road in hopes that a car or
16:05
Speaker 1: truck would come through.
16:07
Speaker 2: They never did.
16:08
Speaker 1: James and Katy tried their cell phones repeatedly, but they
16:10
Speaker 1: never got service. They hanked their horns, they screamed out
16:13
Speaker 1: for help, but nobody heard them, and so before long
16:16
Speaker 1: it was dark again, and the family was huddled up
16:18
Speaker 1: inside of their now freezing car, and all they could
16:20
Speaker 1: hear outside was the sounds of bears marching around the area.
16:24
Speaker 2: And so I'm sure James and Katy thought to themselves.
16:27
Speaker 2: I wonderful survived the night.
16:28
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, that family friend who had
16:32
Speaker 1: noticed the Kims were gone on Monday, she did go
16:34
Speaker 1: to the police on Wednesday afternoon and 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 Katy 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, and James
17:01
Speaker 1: said he would. At this point, Katie and James do
17:03
Speaker 1: not believe a truck or car or anything is going
17:06
Speaker 1: to drive down this road and save them. They believe
17:09
Speaker 1: their only hope of being rescued is by sending a
17:12
Speaker 1: smoke signal up into the air that a pilot might see.
17:15
Speaker 1: So they pull off all four tires of their car,
17:17
Speaker 1: and then they pull everything out of the car that
17:19
Speaker 1: might burn, and they stack that on the tires, and
17:22
Speaker 1: that included Penelope's prized stuffed lamb.
17:25
Speaker 2: And then once they have their big pile.
17:26
Speaker 1: They lit it on fire, and fairly quickly a large, black,
17:30
Speaker 1: billowing cloud of smoke was going straight up to the sky,
17:33
Speaker 1: and for a minute the Kim family was very optimistic
17:35
Speaker 1: that they were about to be found, that certainly someone
17:38
Speaker 1: was going to see the smoke and come find them.
17:41
Speaker 1: But unfortunately the fire burned out very quickly, they couldn't
17:44
Speaker 1: light it again, and nobody flew overhead, and so before
17:47
Speaker 1: long the family is once again huddled inside of their
17:50
Speaker 1: freezing cold car. That night, there's bears walking around outside.
17:54
Speaker 1: They're basically out of food. Their kids aren't even crying anymore.
17:57
Speaker 1: They're just silent and cold and miserable. And as they're
18:00
Speaker 1: all shivering and trying to stay warm, James realizes he
18:04
Speaker 1: needs 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's a town about four miles east called Galise
18:16
Speaker 1: that he believes he can get to in about two hours.
18:19
Speaker 2: Katie immediately said, no, you cannot leave us. We need
18:22
Speaker 2: 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 that 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 seven forty
18:45
Speaker 1: five am that morning, James gave his two daughters a
18:47
Speaker 1: big hug and a kiss, told them he loved them
18:49
Speaker 1: and he would see them soon, and then he hugged
18:51
Speaker 1: his wife and said he loved her, and then he
18:53
Speaker 1: turned around and walked up the road out of sight.
18:55
Speaker 1: At the same time, unbeknownst to the Kim family, hundreds
18:59
Speaker 1: of searchers and helicopters are all over Bear Camp Road
19:02
Speaker 1: looking for them. Two days later, on Sunday, December third,
19:05
Speaker 1: so a week after the family had originally gotten stuck,
19:09
Speaker 1: a helicopter pilot that was part of the search effort
19:12
Speaker 1: was flying around Bear Camp Road when he noticed footprints
19:15
Speaker 1: in the snow below. When he started following these footprints,
19:18
Speaker 1: and eventually the footprints kind of disappeared under some trees,
19:21
Speaker 1: and then he couldn't pick them up again, and so
19:23
Speaker 1: without that much fuel left, he decided he would just
19:25
Speaker 1: backtrack and follow the footprints back to their origin, and
19:28
Speaker 1: so he retraced these footprints for quite a while until
19:31
Speaker 1: he came to a clearing and in the middle of
19:33
Speaker 1: the clearing was a car, and next to the car was.
19:36
Speaker 2: Katie, waving an umbrella back and forth.
19:39
Speaker 1: The pilot immediately knew who he was looking at, but
19:41
Speaker 1: he didn't have enough fuel to actually land and pick
19:44
Speaker 1: her and her family up, and so instead he just
19:46
Speaker 1: hovered down as low as he could, and he made
19:48
Speaker 1: good eye contact with her to reassure her that I
19:51
Speaker 1: see you and we're coming for you, and then he.
19:53
Speaker 2: Marked on the map where they were.
19:54
Speaker 1: He flew off to the search headquarters, and just minutes later,
19:58
Speaker 1: another helicopter was spun up to that same location and
20:01
Speaker 1: they were able to land in that clearing, And as
20:04
Speaker 1: soon as the pilot got out, he saw Katie running
20:06
Speaker 1: up to him, carrying her two daughters, who looked like
20:09
Speaker 1: they were in pretty good shape, and she's crying tears
20:11
Speaker 1: of joy, and she's thanking him profusely, and then when
20:14
Speaker 1: she's right up in front of him, she says, you know,
20:16
Speaker 1: are you here because of my husband? Did James tell
20:18
Speaker 1: you where we were? And the pilot looked visibly confused.
20:21
Speaker 1: Katie picked up on it, and she explained how just
20:24
Speaker 1: two days earlier James had left to go to the
20:26
Speaker 1: town of Galie to get help, and he still hadn't
20:29
Speaker 1: come back yet, and so at this point the pilot
20:31
Speaker 1: understood what was happening, and so he looked down and
20:34
Speaker 1: he said, no, ma'am, we still have not found James.
20:37
Speaker 1: Katie was devastated, and she cried as she and her
20:40
Speaker 1: daughters were loaded into the helicopter and airlifted out of
20:43
Speaker 1: the forest and brought to a hospital there they would
20:46
Speaker 1: make full recoveries. Meanwhile, the search effort, which had been
20:49
Speaker 1: all over Bear Camp Road, was suddenly focused exclusively on
20:53
Speaker 1: the area around where their car was, and professional trackers
20:57
Speaker 1: were brought in to look for James's tracks, and they
21:00
Speaker 1: found them fairly quickly and began following them. James after
21:03
Speaker 1: departing his family to go look for help, which must
21:06
Speaker 1: have been the most difficult decision he had ever made
21:09
Speaker 1: in his entire life. He loved his family more than anything,
21:12
Speaker 1: and he had to abandon them in the middle of
21:14
Speaker 1: the wilderness, with no food, with no power, and he
21:17
Speaker 1: has no idea to ever see them again. And so
21:19
Speaker 1: after leaving them behind, he walked three miles up the
21:22
Speaker 1: road they came in on, and then instead of just
21:25
Speaker 1: continuing on that road in the direction of Galise, he
21:28
Speaker 1: deviated and walked off the road. He actually went straight
21:31
Speaker 1: down one of the cliffs until he hit a river.
21:34
Speaker 1: And it's believed that maybe he saw the river from
21:36
Speaker 1: up on the road and thought that would be a
21:38
Speaker 1: faster way to get to Galase. But either way, he
21:41
Speaker 1: got down to the river, and as he walked, he
21:43
Speaker 1: would leave behind him little bits of torn clothing and
21:46
Speaker 1: torn paper to create a trail of where he was going,
21:50
Speaker 1: presumably so if he needed to he could backtrack to
21:52
Speaker 1: his family. And so he gets down to this river
21:55
Speaker 1: and for several miles he walks downstream, and then after
21:58
Speaker 1: being gone for at least two hours and not reaching
22:01
Speaker 1: the town of Galise, he must have realized he had
22:03
Speaker 1: either gone the wrong way and that's why he had
22:05
Speaker 1: not hit the town, or he had miscalculated the distance
22:09
Speaker 1: and that's why he had not hit the town. But
22:11
Speaker 1: either way, he did not turn around and go back
22:13
Speaker 1: to his family. Instead, he pressed on, believing he was
22:17
Speaker 1: their only hope, and so on he went, crossing over rivers,
22:20
Speaker 1: getting totally soaked in frigid water. He went up and
22:23
Speaker 1: down mountains all over these totally rugged areas in nothing
22:26
Speaker 1: but street clothes. He had sneakers, pants, and a jacket on.
22:29
Speaker 1: He had no food, he had no water, and he
22:32
Speaker 1: just kept on going until it was nightfall and he
22:34
Speaker 1: had covered about ten miles at this point, and he
22:37
Speaker 1: laid down and he went to sleep, And that night
22:39
Speaker 1: must have been absolutely horrible as he thought about his
22:42
Speaker 1: family that was alone in the woods somewhere. He probably
22:45
Speaker 1: wondered if they were still alive, and the temperature was
22:48
Speaker 1: in the thirties. And again he's just in street clothes,
22:50
Speaker 1: but he survives the night. And so the next morning,
22:53
Speaker 1: that Saturday, he gets up and he's right back at it,
22:56
Speaker 1: despite the fact that he was physically wrecked at this point,
22:59
Speaker 1: but for him, he didn't care. He was doing it
23:01
Speaker 1: for his family. And so all day he hiked in
23:03
Speaker 1: and out of freezing cold streams, up and down mountains
23:07
Speaker 1: until finally he found himself at the bottom of this
23:09
Speaker 1: deep ravine next to a river where he just fell
23:12
Speaker 1: to his knees, fell forward and died.
23:14
Speaker 2: He had literally just.
23:15
Speaker 1: Kept on going looking for help for his family until
23:19
Speaker 1: he eventually succumbed the hypothermia. James's body was located two
23:23
Speaker 1: days after his wife and his daughters were successfully rescued.
23:27
Speaker 1: It would turn out the town of Galise was not
23:29
Speaker 1: four miles away from the family's car.
23:31
Speaker 2: It was about fifteen 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: Galise from where their car was, James would have had
23:48
Speaker 1: to travel thirty or forty miles, zigging and zagging up
23:52
Speaker 1: over four.
23:52
Speaker 2: Different mountains, and so this was a suicide mission from
23:56
Speaker 2: the start.
23:56
Speaker 1: James ultimately covered sixteen miles through some of the most
24:00
Speaker 1: treacherous terrain in the country, wearing nothing but his street clothes.
24:04
Speaker 1: The professional trackers that followed this sixteen mile trail to
24:07
Speaker 1: his body, they called his journey superhuman. The helicopter pilot
24:11
Speaker 1: would later say he never would have found Katie and
24:14
Speaker 1: the girls had he not spotted those footprints first and
24:17
Speaker 1: then trace them all the way back to that clearing,
24:20
Speaker 1: and it would turn out those footprints were made by
24:23
Speaker 1: James after he left his family.
24:25
Speaker 2: And 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
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