Latest / Crime and Horror / They went looking for a lost city in the Brazilian jungle - MrBallen

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They went looking for a lost city in the Brazilian jungle - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Our two stories today are both about people who believed
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Speaker 1: in something so strongly that it informed every single choice
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Speaker 1: they made. And unfortunately for them, those choices led them
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Speaker 1: down very dangerous paths. But before we get into today's
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Speaker 1: two stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark,
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Speaker 1: and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to
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Speaker 1: the right place because that's all we do, and we
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Speaker 1: that's of interest to you, the next time the like
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Speaker 1: button sneezes in public, instead of, you know, politely saying,
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Speaker 1: get into today's stories. One afternoon in November of 1980,
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Speaker 1: 28-year-old John Reed sat at a table on a hotel
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Speaker 1: veranda in the tiny village of Barcelos, Brazil, which was
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Speaker 1: a two-day boat ride up a river from the Amazon
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Speaker 1: jungle's largest city of Manaus. And sitting across from John
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Speaker 1: was the legendary chief of the Uga-Mongolula tribe, Tatunka Nara. Now,
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Speaker 1: John had been in Barcelos for about 10 days now,
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Speaker 1: and in that time, he'd already spoken to Tatunka many times.
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Speaker 1: But still, it was like every conversation they had gave
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Speaker 1: John this incredible sense of awe. He really felt like
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Speaker 1: his whole life had been leading up to this exact
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Speaker 1: moment of being here in Barcelos, about to go on
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Speaker 1: this grand adventure. So Barcelos and Tatunka were very far
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Speaker 1: away from where John had grown up. I mean, this
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Speaker 1: was a very foreign place. John grew up in San Francisco, California.
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Speaker 1: But even growing up in those suburbs as a kid,
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Speaker 1: he had always dreamed of coming here and literally... meeting Tatunka.
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Speaker 1: So it was like surreal he had really done this.
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Speaker 1: And if things from here on out went the way
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Speaker 1: John hoped they would, he might never have to even
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Speaker 1: go back to America because John was on a bona
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Speaker 1: fide quest. John was in Barcelos to be the person
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Speaker 1: who finally found the long lost city of Akakor. Now,
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Speaker 1: there was almost no record of the city ever actually existing.
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Speaker 1: except for in one book called The Chronicle of Akakor,
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Speaker 1: which was by this author and journalist named Karl Bruegger.
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Speaker 1: Karl wrote that Akakor was the capital city of a 12,000-year-old civilization,
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Speaker 1: similar to the Incas or ancient Egyptians, in that they'd
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Speaker 1: lived thousands of years ago and had a big empire
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Speaker 1: and an extremely advanced civilization for their time. But, according
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Speaker 1: to Karl, Akakor and its people were way better than
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Speaker 1: because they were descendants from actual gods. When the Europeans
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Speaker 1: eventually came to the Amazonian jungle, the people of Akakor
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Speaker 1: did not get wiped out because they went underground. And
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Speaker 1: it was there, underground, that they rebuilt their capital and
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Speaker 1: literally hid their civilization from the modern world. And in fact,
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Speaker 1: the legend said that they actually still live there now.
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Speaker 1: guarding a treasure that had been given to them by
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Speaker 1: the gods. Now, most people called Carl's book complete fiction
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Speaker 1: and said that its author just sort of made it
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Speaker 1: up to make money. But John hadn't paid any attention
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Speaker 1: to the naysayers, and any possible doubts that he had
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Speaker 1: had had completely disappeared the moment he'd finally met Tatumka.
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Speaker 1: So Tatumka was not only a famous chief who knew
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Speaker 1: the Amazon like the back of his hand, but more importantly,
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Speaker 1: at least to John, He'd actually been interviewed in Carl's book,
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Speaker 1: and he was said to be the one known person
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Speaker 1: who'd actually been to Akakor who was still alive. And
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Speaker 1: here Tatunka was, in the flesh, sitting across the table
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Speaker 1: from John in all his Amazonian glory. He wore just
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Speaker 1: a loincloth, and he had that same turtle tattoo that
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Speaker 1: the book described. So John knew he was the guy.
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Speaker 1: He was the chief he'd been looking for. And to John,
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Speaker 1: if Tatunka was real... well then surely everything else in
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Speaker 1: that book was real too. Right now though, neither John
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Speaker 1: nor Tatunka were saying anything, which was unusual because normally
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Speaker 1: their meetings were very animated, as Tatunka regaled John with
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Speaker 1: all these amazing stories about Akakor and what it was
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Speaker 1: like there in his very heavily accented English. But hearing
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Speaker 1: these stories hadn't been enough for John, who really wanted
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Speaker 1: to know where Akakor actually was so that he could
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Speaker 1: actually see it with his own eyes. Now, so far,
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Speaker 1: Tatunka had not told John where it was. He'd said
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Speaker 1: that the people of Akakor wanted to stay hidden, you know,
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Speaker 1: their survival depended on it, and so he was not
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Speaker 1: going to give up their location. But today, John could
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Speaker 1: feel that something was different, because just a few minutes ago,
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Speaker 1: John had asked Tatunka again about literally going to Akakor,
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Speaker 1: and now Tatunka had been very quiet for a very
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Speaker 1: long time, like he was thinking about whether or not
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Speaker 1: to finally reveal its location. And so, John patiently waited.
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Speaker 1: And as he sat there in this really intense silence,
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Speaker 1: it was like he could almost feel Tatunka's deep wisdom
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Speaker 1: oozing off of him in waves. And then finally, in
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Speaker 1: his soft, very fragmented English, Tatunka began to speak. Almost
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Speaker 1: nine years later, on an evening in the spring of 1989,
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Speaker 1: John's sister, 35-year-old Sandy Reed, pulled into the driveway of
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Speaker 1: her San Francisco area home and and got out of
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Speaker 1: her car to check the mailbox. Sandy had just gotten
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Speaker 1: back from her sales job, and she was tired and
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Speaker 1: bleary-eyed as she reached into the box and sort of
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Speaker 1: mindlessly pulled out a stack of mail. But as she
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Speaker 1: began sorting through the mail, the return address on one
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Speaker 1: of the envelopes made her stop. It was a letter
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Speaker 1: that was postmarked from Germany, and Sandy didn't know anybody
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Speaker 1: who lived in Germany. And so she really wasn't sure
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Speaker 1: what to expect as she quickly ripped it open. But
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Speaker 1: as her eyes scanned the lines on the page... her
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Speaker 1: hands began to shake uncontrollably. The letter was from a
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Speaker 1: German detective who said that he was writing about her brother, John,
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Speaker 1: and that they were sure something bad had happened to him.
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Speaker 1: So John, Sandy's brother, had gone to Brazil almost a
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Speaker 1: decade earlier to find the lost civilization of Akakor, and
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Speaker 1: Sandy and her parents hadn't heard from him since he left. Now,
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Speaker 1: during the first few weeks of John's trip, he'd written
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Speaker 1: letters fairly regularly, But then his last message had come
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Speaker 1: in in late 1980, and after that, nothing. Now, of course,
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Speaker 1: Sandy had been worried about her brother. But she also
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Speaker 1: hadn't been that surprised he had gone radio silent. Because
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Speaker 1: Sandy and her parents were well aware that John was
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Speaker 1: obsessed with Akakor. And not just that, he wanted to
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Speaker 1: go on this adventure, find this lost city in the jungle,
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Speaker 1: and then never come home. He wanted to stay in
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Speaker 1: the jungle. And so they kind of figure that, you know,
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Speaker 1: maybe he found Akakor, or maybe he just found another
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Speaker 1: village somewhere. But either way, the way they looked at
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Speaker 1: it is, John likely wanted to start a new life
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Speaker 1: somewhere else, somewhere in the jungle, and that's probably what
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Speaker 1: he had done. So for nearly a decade, that sort
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Speaker 1: of became their line of thinking. But now, as Sandy
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Speaker 1: is reading this letter, it was like suddenly her understanding
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Speaker 1: of what was going on with her brother was totally
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Speaker 1: and instantly fractured. Now she was both panicked and also
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Speaker 1: totally confused... about the idea that, one, John was in trouble,
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Speaker 1: and two, like, why is the German police looking for
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Speaker 1: her brother? Why is that happening? Why aren't American police
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Speaker 1: looking for my brother? But as her eyes frantically scanned
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Speaker 1: the page, she learned why. The detective said they were
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Speaker 1: investigating the death or disappearance of John and at least
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Speaker 1: three other people, including a German citizen, who apparently had
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Speaker 1: been lured into the Amazon by a particular book. about
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Speaker 1: a place called Acacor. Now, this book, according to the detective,
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Speaker 1: was complete junk. It was a fabrication. Acacor, not a
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Speaker 1: real place. But the detective believed that someone was killing
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Speaker 1: the people who came looking for it. Now, the detective
8:25
Speaker 1: said they had tried to investigate, but the Brazilian officials
8:29
Speaker 1: were being very uncooperative, and he wasn't actually allowed to
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Speaker 1: go to Brazil to collect evidence to try to figure
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Speaker 1: out what happened here. So basically, he was stuck. But
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Speaker 1: he wanted her to know they were looking into her brother.
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Speaker 1: So by the time Sandy finished reading this letter, she
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Speaker 1: felt like, well, I have to do something. You know,
8:47
Speaker 1: if the German police, if they can't go to Brazil,
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Speaker 1: maybe I can. Sure enough, later that same year in June,
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Speaker 1: Sandy arrived in the city of Manaus in the Amazon
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Speaker 1: and checked into her hotel. She knew from John's letters
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Speaker 1: from 10 years ago before he disappeared that this was
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Speaker 1: the general area he had been. And so her plan was,
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Speaker 1: sort of roughly speaking, to search the city. Turn it
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Speaker 1: upside down and see what she could learn. Now, obviously,
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Speaker 1: this was a big undertaking. Manaus is a big place.
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Speaker 1: But Sandy, at this point, was all in on this mission.
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Speaker 1: Sandy didn't really know why. You know, for 10 years, basically,
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Speaker 1: she had no idea what happened to John. But it
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Speaker 1: was like now, she felt like she was being called back.
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Speaker 1: to do whatever she had to do to go find
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Speaker 1: her brother. So she had quit her sales job, emptied
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Speaker 1: her savings account, bought a flight here, and brought along
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Speaker 1: a tape recorder, like an audio tape recorder, so that
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Speaker 1: she would basically, you know, not miss anything. Talk to
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Speaker 1: everybody and learn whatever she could and track it. And
9:52
Speaker 1: her plan basically was to just spend all her time
9:55
Speaker 1: interviewing locals, recording what they say, to try to figure
9:59
Speaker 1: out if anybody knew about John or Akakor. But almost
10:02
Speaker 1: as soon as she actually began doing this on the
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Speaker 1: ground in Manaus, she realized how hard it was going
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Speaker 1: to be. I mean, it had been almost a decade
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Speaker 1: since her brother had gone missing. So when she met
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Speaker 1: with the Brazilian law enforcement, they had virtually no details
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Speaker 1: about his disappearance and really couldn't tell her anything useful.
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Speaker 1: And when Sandy spoke to local residents, all she heard
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Speaker 1: were endless rumors with no actual evidence. And on top
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Speaker 1: of that, all the rumors she heard sort of contradicted
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Speaker 1: each other. Some said a white man matching John's description
10:32
Speaker 1: had just recently been seen on the outskirts of Manaus.
10:35
Speaker 1: But then another person claimed John had been shot years
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Speaker 1: ago and his bones had been found deep in the jungle.
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Speaker 1: And then yet another person said, nope, none of that's true.
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Speaker 1: What really happened is John found a tribe in the Amazon,
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Speaker 1: not the people of Akakor, but another tribe, and he
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Speaker 1: had decided to just live with them. Now, even though
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Speaker 1: all this information she was getting was sort of all
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Speaker 1: over the place, there still was one common reaction that
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Speaker 1: almost everybody Sandy spoke to had. Fear. Each time Sandy
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Speaker 1: asked about Akakor, people would sort of clam up, like
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Speaker 1: they were scared of it. Now, they all clearly knew
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Speaker 1: about it, and most of the time when she brought
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Speaker 1: it up, she was warned to sort of leave it alone,
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Speaker 1: like don't talk about that, and that in some ways
11:18
Speaker 1: looking for Akakor could get her in trouble or even killed. So,
11:22
Speaker 1: as the days wore on, Sandy just felt herself feeling
11:26
Speaker 1: more and more confused and anxious, and each night as
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Speaker 1: she laid in her hotel bed, she wondered if she
11:31
Speaker 1: should just give up, that this was impossible. But then
11:34
Speaker 1: it was like every night after she'd drift off to sleep,
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Speaker 1: she would have a dream about John. It was like
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Speaker 1: he was haunting her. And he would say to her
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Speaker 1: in these dreams that Akkor was not what he thought
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Speaker 1: it would be. So just about every morning when she
11:48
Speaker 1: woke up, she'd have this sort of refound sense of
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Speaker 1: purpose and she would continue to look for her brother.
11:53
Speaker 1: But it just kept going nowhere. However, during her last
11:57
Speaker 1: few days in Manaus, based basically on finances, like she
12:01
Speaker 1: was running out of money, and would have to go
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Speaker 1: home soon, during that time period, she heard another rumor.
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Speaker 1: And that was that John had gone into the jungle
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Speaker 1: to find Akakor, but he hadn't gone in there blind.
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Speaker 1: A local chief named Tatunka had told John how to
12:19
Speaker 1: get there. Now, by this point, Sandy had spent three
12:23
Speaker 1: weeks in Manaus and its surrounding areas, and really felt
12:27
Speaker 1: completely overwhelmed. I There was definitely a sense of fear
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Speaker 1: around Akakor, and she was even starting to feel that,
12:36
Speaker 1: that looking into this could potentially get her into trouble.
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Speaker 1: And in many ways, hearing about this new person, Tatunka,
12:43
Speaker 1: whether they were real or not, it actually made her scared.
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Speaker 1: She would love to learn what he knew, to go
12:49
Speaker 1: find Tatunka and see if he knew where her brother was.
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Speaker 1: But there was also a part of her that just
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Speaker 1: feared even pursuing this lead. It was like all of
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Speaker 1: a sudden... Brazil just felt too overwhelming for her. And
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Speaker 1: so after learning about Tatunka, Sandy's reaction was actually to
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Speaker 1: pack up and leave. But after leaving Brazil, Sandy did
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Speaker 1: not just, you know, fly to California and give up
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Speaker 1: on the search for her brother. She just decided to
13:15
Speaker 1: look for her brother sort of in a roundabout way.
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Speaker 1: She had heard from a local in Brazil that there
13:20
Speaker 1: was a Swiss tourist who might have seen John in
13:23
Speaker 1: the jungle. And so after Sandy left Brazil, she went
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Speaker 1: to Switzerland and spoke to this tourist. And then after
13:29
Speaker 1: speaking with that tourist, she flew to Germany and she
13:32
Speaker 1: met with that detective who had sent her the initial
13:35
Speaker 1: letter she got. But neither the tourist nor the German
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Speaker 1: detective had any new information. So by the end of
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Speaker 1: all that, Sandy still had no answers. And by this point,
13:45
Speaker 1: she also had no money. She had completely drained her
13:48
Speaker 1: savings account trying to find her brother and it had
13:51
Speaker 1: not worked. Now, Sandy considered just going home. I mean,
13:54
Speaker 1: she was broke. She was scared. And really, she hadn't
13:57
Speaker 1: actually gotten anywhere in her search for her brother. But
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Speaker 1: there was still one lead that she had not investigated.
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Speaker 1: And that was Tatumka. Because basically, it just felt too scary.
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Speaker 1: She'd abandoned it and left for Switzerland and Germany. But
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Speaker 1: Sandy felt like now, if she never went back to
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Speaker 1: Brazil to speak with him, she would never get any
14:18
Speaker 1: real answers. It felt like Tatumka was the key. And
14:21
Speaker 1: she had been cowardly. She needed to go back there.
14:24
Speaker 1: She needed closure. So she went back to America, but
14:27
Speaker 1: she only stayed long enough to earn some quick cash
14:29
Speaker 1: cleaning houses so that she could finance another trip to Brazil.
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Speaker 1: On June 21st, 1990, so about a year after she
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Speaker 1: had made her first trip, Sandy did return to Brazil.
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Speaker 1: She took a small plane to the village of Barcelos,
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Speaker 1: which she had learned was where Tatunka lived. This time, though,
14:46
Speaker 1: she brought some backup with her, a documentary producer and
14:49
Speaker 1: also a reporter. She felt a lot safer coming here
14:52
Speaker 1: with a group. But also, she did want to draw
14:55
Speaker 1: attention and resources to eventually help her with her brother's case.
14:59
Speaker 1: When they landed at the rundown airport, Sandy and her
15:02
Speaker 1: small team deboarded and walked straight into the tiny village.
15:05
Speaker 1: In the time that she had been back in America
15:07
Speaker 1: earning cash, Sandy had done some research on Barcelos. So
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Speaker 1: she knew by now that Carl Bruegger's book, The Chronicle
15:14
Speaker 1: of Akakor, the book that John had been so interested
15:17
Speaker 1: in that led him on this quest... had really spawned
15:21
Speaker 1: an entire economy in Barcelos, since tourists came to talk
15:25
Speaker 1: to Tatunka and to try to find it. You know,
15:27
Speaker 1: he was in Barcelos. But as far as Sandy could tell,
15:30
Speaker 1: the tourist boom had not done much for the village
15:33
Speaker 1: of Barcelos. It was dirty, and the houses were all
15:36
Speaker 1: very run-down shacks. She'd read that only about 3,000 people
15:40
Speaker 1: lived there, and between all of them, they only had
15:44
Speaker 1: one phone. And so as the group wandered around looking
15:46
Speaker 1: for a friendly face to give them directions... Sandy spotted
15:50
Speaker 1: a woman who was hanging her laundry up on a
15:52
Speaker 1: line outside her home. So Sandy approached her and asked
15:55
Speaker 1: if she knew where Tatunka lived. And the woman immediately nodded,
15:59
Speaker 1: which Sandy expected. Because Sandy had not just read up
16:02
Speaker 1: on Barcelos, she now knew a lot about Tatunka as well.
16:05
Speaker 1: And she knew that basically everybody in this area knew
16:08
Speaker 1: his name. He was a renowned chief who'd once led
16:11
Speaker 1: an expedition for the famous explorer Jacques Cousteau. And he
16:15
Speaker 1: was a hero too. One time, he had saved the
16:18
Speaker 1: lives of a dozen Brazilian soldiers after their plane had
16:21
Speaker 1: crashed in the Amazon. So the country's secret service was
16:25
Speaker 1: actually in Tatunka's debt. And also, of course, Tatunka was
16:28
Speaker 1: interviewed extensively in the Chronicle of Akakor, that book, and
16:33
Speaker 1: was the only known person who'd actually been to the
16:35
Speaker 1: city and knew its location. But more recently, Tatunka had
16:39
Speaker 1: settled into a quieter life and was running a hotel
16:43
Speaker 1: and giving boat tours to visitors along the Rio Negro.
16:46
Speaker 1: And so Sandy got directions to Tatunka's hotel from this woman.
16:50
Speaker 1: And as Sandy and her team began heading deeper into
16:52
Speaker 1: the village to go meet this guy, Sandy felt a
16:56
Speaker 1: mix of excitement and also fear. I mean, there was
16:59
Speaker 1: just something sort of heavy about finally meeting this guy. Eventually,
17:03
Speaker 1: the group came to what appeared to be a very
17:06
Speaker 1: isolated looking hotel surrounded by a wooden gate. And inside
17:10
Speaker 1: of the gated area up on the veranda of this
17:13
Speaker 1: hotel was this very lean shirtless man with a turtle
17:16
Speaker 1: tattooed on his chest. And Sandy knew immediately from the
17:20
Speaker 1: tattoo that that was Tatunka. As Sandy and her crew
17:24
Speaker 1: opened the gate and walked towards Tatunka, she pulled out
17:27
Speaker 1: a photo of her brother and held it up along with,
17:30
Speaker 1: you know, an explanation of why she was there. And
17:32
Speaker 1: Tatunka at first just kind of listened and watched as
17:35
Speaker 1: they approached him. But then as he began to hear
17:38
Speaker 1: what she was saying, He smiled, and in broken English,
17:41
Speaker 1: he told Sandy he was surprised she hadn't come sooner.
17:44
Speaker 1: But Sandy didn't return his smile, because as she stared
17:48
Speaker 1: at Tatunka, all she could think of was how wrong
17:52
Speaker 1: everything was. Tatunka's face, the way he spoke, the way
17:56
Speaker 1: he carried himself, none of it made any sense at all.
18:00
Speaker 1: It would turn out, those dreams Sandy was having where
18:03
Speaker 1: her brother John would appear to her and tell her
18:06
Speaker 1: that Akakor was not like he thought it would be,
18:09
Speaker 1: it would turn out that was correct. Akakor didn't exist. However,
18:15
Speaker 1: it was not just a fake city created by that author,
18:19
Speaker 1: Karl Brugger, to sell his book. No, it was something much,
18:23
Speaker 1: much weirder than that. That whole book was based almost
18:27
Speaker 1: exclusively on the stories of Tatunka, the legendary Amazonian chief
18:32
Speaker 1: who Sandy was now meeting, you know, in front of
18:34
Speaker 1: this weird hotel. But Tatunka was The man standing in
18:38
Speaker 1: front of Sandy was not chief of anything. In fact,
18:42
Speaker 1: he wasn't even Amazonian. In reality, this man parading around
18:46
Speaker 1: as Tatumka was just some random German man named Gunther
18:51
Speaker 1: Hock who had fled Germany for the Amazon to avoid
18:55
Speaker 1: paying child support to his ex-wife in the 1960s. But
18:59
Speaker 1: when he arrived in the Amazon, he wanted to blend in.
19:02
Speaker 1: But he didn't speak the language. And he had this
19:05
Speaker 1: heavy German accent. So what do you do? Well, he
19:09
Speaker 1: created a whole made-up story about a long-lost civilization that
19:13
Speaker 1: he supposedly descended from, you know, Akakor. The Akakor story
19:18
Speaker 1: was designed by this guy just to keep him from
19:21
Speaker 1: having to pay child support. The problem was, the Akakor story,
19:26
Speaker 1: the legend he created, worked too well. Gunther managed to
19:31
Speaker 1: convince local and even national authorities that he was an
19:35
Speaker 1: actual indigenous person. And then, fatefully, he also convinced this writer,
19:41
Speaker 1: Karl Bruegger, that he really was from this lost civilization
19:45
Speaker 1: and sort of inadvertently created an entire tourism industry. based
19:51
Speaker 1: on Akakor. And so when Karl's book came out, Gunther
19:55
Speaker 1: found himself in a bind. To keep his tourist revenue
19:58
Speaker 1: stream afloat, he had to keep pretending that Akakor was
20:01
Speaker 1: real and he knew where it was, while also never
20:05
Speaker 1: letting anybody get there. and both Sandy and the German
20:08
Speaker 1: police believe that to protect the secret, Gunther killed any
20:14
Speaker 1: tourists who insisted on actually visiting Akakor, including Sandy's brother,
20:20
Speaker 1: John Reed. Gunther Haack has never been charged with murder
20:24
Speaker 1: and denies ever hurting anyone. John Reed's body was never found.
20:29
Speaker 1: The author, Karl Bruegger, was shot to death in 1984
20:32
Speaker 1: in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and rumors still circulate about
20:36
Speaker 1: who killed him and why. And as of 2024, Gunther
20:39
Speaker 1: Haack was confirmed to be alive and still living in Barcelos,
20:43
Speaker 1: and still insisting that Akakor is real. To this day,
20:48
Speaker 1: explorers still travel to Barcelos to try and find it.
21:08
Speaker 1: On the night of November 14th, 1994, 56-year-old DeWitt Finley
21:13
Speaker 1: drove his pickup truck up a snowy single-lane highway in
21:16
Speaker 1: the Oregon mountains. It was late, but DeWitt was incredibly alert,
21:20
Speaker 1: and it was taking every ounce of his concentration to
21:23
Speaker 1: not crash. It was snowing really, really hard, and the
21:27
Speaker 1: road was incredibly icy. Not to mention, DeWitt was towing
21:31
Speaker 1: a camper van behind his truck, and the van was
21:33
Speaker 1: sort of sliding around and causing DeWitt to feel really
21:36
Speaker 1: unbalanced as he drove. And so as he's driving along,
21:39
Speaker 1: you know, white knuckling here, all he could think about
21:42
Speaker 1: was how having taken this route was such a bad idea.
21:46
Speaker 1: So DeWitt was a traveling salesman and he sold fancy
21:49
Speaker 1: camper vans, which was why he had one on the
21:52
Speaker 1: back of his truck to drive it around from city
21:54
Speaker 1: to city and to show it off to potential new customers.
21:57
Speaker 1: He'd just been in the Oregon coastal town of Coos
22:00
Speaker 1: Bay and was now driving to Grants Pass, which was
22:03
Speaker 1: in the southern part of the state. Now, the drive
22:05
Speaker 1: should have only taken about two and a half hours.
22:08
Speaker 1: But DeWitt had decided to take a longer, more scenic
22:11
Speaker 1: route that cut through the mountainous National Forest. Except that now,
22:16
Speaker 1: instead of experiencing a tranquil, peaceful drive with lush, stunning
22:21
Speaker 1: Oregon scenery, he was stuck in a snowstorm and fighting
22:24
Speaker 1: his way up a steep, heavily forested slope with a
22:28
Speaker 1: cliff on one side. Now, for just about anybody, this
22:31
Speaker 1: would be a harrowing experience. But for DeWitt, I mean,
22:35
Speaker 1: he was especially out of his element. He was from
22:38
Speaker 1: sunny Los Angeles, California. Like he never drove in conditions
22:42
Speaker 1: like this. And he had only very recently moved to
22:45
Speaker 1: Montana this past summer with his fiance and two kids.
22:48
Speaker 1: And while Montana did have some harsh winters, he hadn't
22:52
Speaker 1: experienced them yet. So this was like really a novel experience.
22:56
Speaker 1: But DeWitt was a very religious man. And so as
22:59
Speaker 1: this drive was spiking his heart rate and making him
23:02
Speaker 1: so stressed out, he's white knuckling his way up this pass.
23:06
Speaker 1: All he began to do was just quietly, internally pray.
23:10
Speaker 1: And for a time, this all seemed to work. You know,
23:13
Speaker 1: maybe the prayer was working. He was staying on the road.
23:16
Speaker 1: He was making his way. He thought, I'm going to
23:18
Speaker 1: get through this. But eventually, the truck began to slide
23:21
Speaker 1: on the slippery conditions, and DeWitt sort of panicked and
23:24
Speaker 1: hit the brakes as hard as he could, which caused
23:26
Speaker 1: the vehicle to slide even more. And then the next
23:29
Speaker 1: few seconds were just a blur of snow and darkness
23:32
Speaker 1: and trees. And then after what felt like an eternity
23:34
Speaker 1: where he's thinking, oh my God, I'm going to go
23:36
Speaker 1: off the cliff, his truck slammed into a snowbank, keeping
23:40
Speaker 1: him from falling off the cliff. After that, everything went
23:44
Speaker 1: quiet and still. And for a moment, DeWitt just sat there,
23:48
Speaker 1: completely stunned. His heart was hammering in his chest and
23:51
Speaker 1: his whole body was vibrating with adrenaline. But after a
23:54
Speaker 1: few minutes, DeWitt calmed down enough that he was able
23:57
Speaker 1: to kind of assess the situation. You know, number one,
24:00
Speaker 1: he didn't go off the cliff. So that was a
24:02
Speaker 1: huge win. He survived. And then he checked himself out
24:06
Speaker 1: and amazingly, he didn't appear to have any injuries. And
24:09
Speaker 1: also from the inside, it seemed like his truck was
24:12
Speaker 1: okay too. I mean, maybe he dinged up the outside,
24:14
Speaker 1: you know, from hitting the snow bank, but it just
24:17
Speaker 1: seems like he slid off the road and he was
24:19
Speaker 1: basically okay. To DeWitt, this felt like a miracle. He
24:22
Speaker 1: immediately felt like all that praying he had done had worked.
24:25
Speaker 1: You know, God was looking out for him and saved him. However,
24:28
Speaker 1: when DeWitt put his truck in reverse and attempted to
24:31
Speaker 1: drive out of the snow bank, his tires just spun.
24:35
Speaker 1: They couldn't get traction. And so he realized, yeah, I
24:38
Speaker 1: survived the crash, but I may not be able to move.
24:42
Speaker 1: And I am up in the middle of the wilderness
24:44
Speaker 1: of the Oregon mountains. It's snowing like crazy. Like, what
24:47
Speaker 1: do I do? Also, it's the middle of the night.
24:50
Speaker 1: He doesn't have a phone, doesn't have a radio. So
24:52
Speaker 1: he has no way to call anyone for help. He
24:55
Speaker 1: also wasn't expecting to be stuck you know, by the
24:58
Speaker 1: side of the road so he didn't have food or
25:00
Speaker 1: water or really any provisions. And he also hadn't seen
25:04
Speaker 1: another vehicle for a really long time. So he had
25:08
Speaker 1: no idea how frequently people used this road, especially in
25:11
Speaker 1: the winter. And also, he wasn't even supposed to be
25:15
Speaker 1: on this route. So if anybody went looking for him,
25:19
Speaker 1: they wouldn't look here. However, just as, you know, panic
25:23
Speaker 1: began to overwhelm him, DeWitt took a deep breath, said
25:26
Speaker 1: another prayer. You know, God had already saved him once,
25:30
Speaker 1: and DeWitt just had to trust that he would do
25:33
Speaker 1: it again. Somehow, DeWitt was able to calm down enough,
25:36
Speaker 1: you know, maybe it was his faith, that he was
25:38
Speaker 1: able to sleep. However, when he woke up, it was clear,
25:42
Speaker 1: you know, one, it's still snowing outside, but worse, it
25:45
Speaker 1: had been snowing clearly all night because his truck was
25:48
Speaker 1: now way more buried in snow. The snow literally made
25:51
Speaker 1: it all the way up to the edge of his window.
25:54
Speaker 1: It's like multiple feet of snow out there. And so DeWitt,
25:57
Speaker 1: he turned his car back on and he threw it
25:59
Speaker 1: in reverse again, seeing if maybe now he'd be able
26:02
Speaker 1: to back out, you know, pretty unlikely. But as soon
26:05
Speaker 1: as he hit the accelerator, the tires clearly spun. He
26:08
Speaker 1: didn't move. Now it was daylight. And so he's thinking, okay,
26:11
Speaker 1: maybe now I can look around and see a house,
26:14
Speaker 1: a building, or some sign of life somewhere in the distance,
26:17
Speaker 1: just to give me a sense of how close I
26:19
Speaker 1: am to other people. But when he looked out his window,
26:24
Speaker 1: all he could see in every direction was were trees
26:27
Speaker 1: and snow. He actually couldn't even see the road anymore
26:30
Speaker 1: and had no idea where it was since he'd gotten
26:32
Speaker 1: all turned around during the crash. And so he's just
26:34
Speaker 1: like in this whiteout, basically. And so DeWitt, at this point,
26:38
Speaker 1: was trying his best not to panic. And so instead,
26:41
Speaker 1: he focused on, you know, what do I have? What
26:43
Speaker 1: supplies do I have right now? And he sort of
26:45
Speaker 1: began looking around the inside of his truck. And he
26:47
Speaker 1: found he actually had a lot of useful stuff in here.
26:51
Speaker 1: There were some cushions and a sheet so he could
26:53
Speaker 1: make a bed for himself to curl up in. And
26:55
Speaker 1: he could also use the truck's heater to keep himself
26:57
Speaker 1: warm and to melt snow for drinking water. He'd obviously
27:00
Speaker 1: just have to be careful not to burn too much fuel. Also,
27:03
Speaker 1: DeWitt had the camper that was attached to the back
27:05
Speaker 1: of his truck, which you would think would be great
27:08
Speaker 1: for a situation like this. You can just live in
27:11
Speaker 1: the camper until you get rescued. Except DeWitt knew this
27:14
Speaker 1: was not really a real camper. It was a demo model.
27:18
Speaker 1: It was unfurnished. There was no heat, no supplies, nothing.
27:21
Speaker 1: It was really just a shell. So not that useful.
27:24
Speaker 1: But once DeWitt was done doing this mental inventory, you know,
27:27
Speaker 1: even though in some ways he had basically realized, I
27:30
Speaker 1: have very little, he actually felt a sense of calm
27:33
Speaker 1: come over him. He felt like, you know what? I
27:35
Speaker 1: have enough to keep me alive for a while. And
27:39
Speaker 1: in that time, I'm going to be found. And so
27:42
Speaker 1: he would just leave it up to God to save
27:44
Speaker 1: him once again. Two days later, the storm finally let up.
27:48
Speaker 1: But even with the now clear weather, the snow didn't melt.
27:51
Speaker 1: And then soon after that, another storm came. and dumped
27:54
Speaker 1: more snow and ice all over his truck. Also, during
27:58
Speaker 1: this time frame, DeWitt didn't see any other cars or
28:01
Speaker 1: trucks or plows, so he had a feeling that the
28:04
Speaker 1: road he had crashed on was now so clogged with snow,
28:08
Speaker 1: it wasn't even usable. But, even though at this point
28:11
Speaker 1: DeWitt was extremely hungry, I mean, he had no food,
28:14
Speaker 1: it's been several days here, he also was warm and
28:18
Speaker 1: dry inside of his truck, and critically, he was also hydrated.
28:22
Speaker 1: He'd been drinking plenty of melted snow. So he was,
28:25
Speaker 1: you know, surviving as best as he could. And then also,
28:28
Speaker 1: to ward off all the negative, intrusive thoughts about what
28:32
Speaker 1: could happen to him out here, DeWitt had begun to
28:35
Speaker 1: pass the time by meticulously crossing off the days in
28:39
Speaker 1: his yearly planning calendar and also writing letters. DeWitt always
28:43
Speaker 1: carried around pen, paper, and envelopes inside of his work bag,
28:47
Speaker 1: which he obviously had with him. So he had begun
28:49
Speaker 1: writing to the people he loved. his fiance, his sons,
28:52
Speaker 1: and even to his boss to explain what had happened
28:55
Speaker 1: and why he had missed work. And in each letter,
28:58
Speaker 1: DeWitt did not sound scared or sad. In fact, if anything,
29:03
Speaker 1: he seemed rejuvenated. He seemed happy. He would reflect on
29:08
Speaker 1: how much love and joy was in his life and
29:10
Speaker 1: how lucky he was to have that. And he would
29:12
Speaker 1: tell the people he was writing letters to, like his
29:14
Speaker 1: fiance and sons, that he really wasn't worried. He knew
29:18
Speaker 1: he was going to be okay. because God was clearly
29:22
Speaker 1: looking out for him. The days turned into weeks, but
29:26
Speaker 1: DeWitt continued to stay warm and basically comfortable and alive,
29:32
Speaker 1: even without any food. But DeWitt believed that his hunger
29:37
Speaker 1: actually was a sign that God was looking out for him.
29:41
Speaker 1: DeWitt had no idea how long somebody could live literally
29:44
Speaker 1: without eating. But after two months, you know, DeWitt had
29:48
Speaker 1: tracked the days in his calendar. Two months had gone by.
29:51
Speaker 1: DeWitt felt like, I should be dead. I haven't eaten
29:54
Speaker 1: in two months. But he wasn't dead. And he felt
29:58
Speaker 1: like that was a sign God was keeping him alive
30:02
Speaker 1: for his eventual rescue. It has to be. On the
30:05
Speaker 1: morning of May 20th, 1995, a teenager, along with his girlfriend,
30:10
Speaker 1: drove up the same mountain road that DeWitt had been
30:13
Speaker 1: on when he got into his accident. And even though
30:15
Speaker 1: it was May, there was quite a bit of snow still,
30:18
Speaker 1: and the road was still quite icy. And about halfway
30:22
Speaker 1: up a particularly steep incline, this teenage kid lost control
30:26
Speaker 1: of his truck and began to skid, and he went
30:29
Speaker 1: off the road and crashed into a snowbank. Luckily, the
30:32
Speaker 1: teenager and his girlfriend were okay. And for a minute,
30:35
Speaker 1: they just sat there kind of dazed. And then the
30:39
Speaker 1: driver put the car in reverse and tried to move,
30:43
Speaker 1: but the car wouldn't move. The tires just spun. So eventually,
30:46
Speaker 1: the teenager climbed out of the car to examine his
30:49
Speaker 1: vehicle to see if there was serious damage here or
30:51
Speaker 1: if he was just stuck in the snow. But when
30:54
Speaker 1: he did this, when he climbed out of his vehicle...
30:56
Speaker 1: He looked just up the road a ways and off
30:59
Speaker 1: the side of the road, basically equal to where he
31:01
Speaker 1: was relative to the road, was another vehicle. It was
31:05
Speaker 1: a pickup truck with a camper attached to it that
31:07
Speaker 1: was clearly half buried in the melting snow. And so
31:12
Speaker 1: the teenager told his girlfriend that he was going to
31:14
Speaker 1: go take a look in case, you know, somebody else
31:16
Speaker 1: had a wreck and they needed help. So this kid,
31:19
Speaker 1: he leaves his girlfriend and he hikes over to the truck.
31:23
Speaker 1: And when he gets there, he can't see inside of it.
31:25
Speaker 1: It's covered with too much snow. But he brushes off
31:27
Speaker 1: some of the snow, revealing one of the windows into
31:29
Speaker 1: the truck. And he looked in, and for a second
31:32
Speaker 1: he couldn't quite see what was in there. But then
31:34
Speaker 1: eventually he saw it. And when he did, he just
31:37
Speaker 1: gasped and backed up. After DeWitt crashed, he was certain
31:42
Speaker 1: he was going to be rescued. He knew he was
31:44
Speaker 1: in an isolated part of this mountain. I mean, he
31:47
Speaker 1: clearly knew that, but he really believed that God was
31:51
Speaker 1: going to save him. He felt like it was God
31:53
Speaker 1: who kept him from going off the cliff, and now
31:55
Speaker 1: God was going to intervene and save him, that somebody
31:59
Speaker 1: was going to show up and rescue him effectively because
32:01
Speaker 1: of God. So because of that belief, because of how
32:05
Speaker 1: strongly he believed that, DeWitt did not get out of
32:09
Speaker 1: his truck. I mean, he got out maybe to use
32:10
Speaker 1: the bathroom, but for the most part, he stayed in
32:13
Speaker 1: his truck. And unfortunately, had he just gotten out and
32:17
Speaker 1: really looked around, he would have seen There was actually
32:21
Speaker 1: a paved path that due to the way the winds
32:24
Speaker 1: whip on that side of the mountain, the snow doesn't
32:26
Speaker 1: stick to the ground. And so even with a huge snowstorm,
32:29
Speaker 1: he would have seen a black paved path going down
32:32
Speaker 1: the mountainside and he could have walked it down to
32:35
Speaker 1: civilization and it would have saved him. But DeWitt was
32:38
Speaker 1: so convinced that if he just waited here, somebody would
32:42
Speaker 1: save him because God was going to save him again.
32:44
Speaker 1: He just didn't leave his truck. And then when he
32:48
Speaker 1: began to feel that incredible ache from the starvation, the
32:52
Speaker 1: fact that he wasn't dying, you know, months in with
32:55
Speaker 1: no food, it sort of built that resolve inside of
32:59
Speaker 1: him that clearly God has a plan. Clearly, I should
33:03
Speaker 1: be dead right now and I am not. I need
33:05
Speaker 1: to maintain faith and I'm going to be saved. And
33:09
Speaker 1: in many ways, that's beautiful. It's poetic in some ways.
33:12
Speaker 1: but it ultimately led to his death. That teenage driver
33:15
Speaker 1: who happened to get into a car accident up on
33:17
Speaker 1: that mountain road, who then saw the truck and the camper, well,
33:21
Speaker 1: that was obviously DeWitt's truck and camper. And when the
33:24
Speaker 1: teenager walked over and cleared the window and looked inside,
33:27
Speaker 1: he saw DeWitt, who was deceased inside of the truck.
33:30
Speaker 1: DeWitt ultimately died of starvation, most likely on January 19th,
33:34
Speaker 1: which is the final day that he crossed off on
33:36
Speaker 1: his calendar. Thank you so much for watching today's episode.
33:45
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of it in the
33:46
Speaker 1: comments below. And remember, we have a whole playlist of
33:50
Speaker 1: Places You Can't Go episodes ready for you to binge
33:53
Speaker 1: right now. So go ahead and click here and give
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Speaker 1: them a watch. All right, until next time, see ya.