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In-Rattlesnake-Canyon-the-snakes-are-the_Media_LC8xgfT7uoI_009_128k · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Sometimes everyday people are forced to make truly unthinkable decisions. Take,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: for example, somebody who goes to work like normal and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: then a fire breaks out in their office. They can't
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: get rescued, and suddenly this person is deciding whether they
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: want to burn to death or jump out the window
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to their death. Now, when we hear about these totally
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  Speaker 1: tragic stories, we all wonder the same thing, what would
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  Speaker 1: we do in that situation? Well, I want you to
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: keep that question in the back of your mind as
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: you listen to today's story, because it's about these two
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  Speaker 1: people who find themselves in a totally hopeless situation, and
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  Speaker 1: so as it unfolds, ask yourself what would you do?
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  Speaker 1: But before we get into that story, if you're a
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  Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and you come to the right place, because that's all
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  Speaker 1: we do, and we upload once a week, so if
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: that's of interest to you, After the light Button has
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  Speaker 1: gone to bed for the night, secretly sneak into their
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: room and slightly unplug their phone charger from their phone
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: so it looks like it's plugged in but it's not charging. Also,
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• 1:08
  Speaker 1: let's get into today's story. At about one thirty in
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the afternoon on August eighth, nineteen ninety nine, a park
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  Speaker 1: ranger named Lance Manson stood frowning down at a dusty
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  Speaker 1: red Mazda car inside of an otherwise empty parking lot
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  Speaker 1: just outside of Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico.
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  Speaker 1: Lance knew the two men who owned this red Masta
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  Speaker 1: had taken out a one night permit to be allowed
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  Speaker 1: to go into Rattlesnake Canyon, which is one of the
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  Speaker 1: most isolated parts of this national park. It's basically just
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  Speaker 1: a single long, scrubby little trail that's kind of all
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  Speaker 1: desert with high canyon walls on either side. In order
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  Speaker 1: to get access to Rattlesnake Canyon, people need to go
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  Speaker 1: to the visitors center and literally fill out paperwork so
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  Speaker 1: the park rangers know they're out there and can go
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  Speaker 1: out and check on them if they don't come back
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  Speaker 1: in time. And so the two men who owned the
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  Speaker 1: Mazda had done that, They had filled out all the paperwork,
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  Speaker 1: but now Lance was noticing they had not returned at
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  Speaker 1: the end of their permit, they had stayed out, presumably
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  Speaker 1: in Rattlesnake Canyon, for an additional three nights. Now Lance
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  Speaker 1: was not concerned because people did do this. It was
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  Speaker 1: more like he was annoyed because now he would have
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  Speaker 1: to go out into Rattlesnake Canyon and find these two
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  Speaker 1: guys and figure out what was going on. So Lance
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  Speaker 1: and the park volunteer that he was with began walking
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  Speaker 1: on the trail in the direction of Rattlesnake Canyon, and
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  Speaker 1: after walking less than a mile on this trail, Lance
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  Speaker 1: and this volunteer looked up ahead and just off the
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  Speaker 1: trail there was a green and maroon tent that was
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  Speaker 1: pitched right out in the open, and so Lance immediately
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  Speaker 1: assumed that this had to be the two men who
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  Speaker 1: owned the red Mazda, and so very quickly Lance's annoyance
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  Speaker 1: was replaced with relief because it turned out it was
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  Speaker 1: really easy to find these two campers and he'd be
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  Speaker 1: able to go figure out what was going on and
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  Speaker 1: either get them back to their car and get them
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  Speaker 1: to leave, or if they wanted to, they could in
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: theory extend and stay longer with the right permitting. But
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  Speaker 1: when Lance and his partner walked down the trail and
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  Speaker 1: left the trail to go walk over to this tent,
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  Speaker 1: they started to notice there was something off about it
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  Speaker 1: right away. As they got closer and closer to this tent,
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  Speaker 1: they began to smell this horrible kind of chemical burning smell.
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  Speaker 1: And then also all over the ground were all these
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  Speaker 1: little bits of burned pieces of trash. And then finally,
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  Speaker 1: when Lance and his partner actually arrived right in front
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  Speaker 1: of the tent and they were looking down at the
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  Speaker 1: closed flap, it was zip shut. They saw clearly there
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  Speaker 1: was something moving around inside of the tent, but whoever
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  Speaker 1: or whatever it was wasn't making any noise. And so
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  Speaker 1: Lance and his partner they kind of looked at each other,
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  Speaker 1: and they both at this point were pretty nervous. You know,
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  Speaker 1: their hearts are racing. They don't know what's going on here.
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  Speaker 1: THENTS just kind of impulsively reached down, unzipped the tent
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  Speaker 1: and lifted it open, and when he saw what was inside,
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  Speaker 1: he immediately was hit with this wave of fear and anxiety.
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  Speaker 1: Three days earlier, on August fifth, nineteen ninety nine, a
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  Speaker 1: twenty six year old man named David Coughlin woke up
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  Speaker 1: in a sleeping bag inside of his green and maroon
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  Speaker 1: tent in Rattlesnake Canyon, and as soon as David sat up,
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  Speaker 1: he smiled because he could hear right outside of his
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  Speaker 1: tent the sound of his best friend, Raffi Kodakian, making
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  Speaker 1: breakfast and gathering up supplies for that morning's hike. Dave
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  Speaker 1: and Raffi were on what they called a trip of
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  Speaker 1: a lifetime. Six days earlier, they had left their hometown
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  Speaker 1: of Boston, Massachusetts, and traveled more than two thousand miles west,
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  Speaker 1: sleeping at campsites and cheap motels along the way. Their
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  Speaker 1: final destination was a university in Santa Barbara, California, where
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  Speaker 1: Dave was going to be getting his masters in environmental engineering.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: But they were going to basically turn the journey out
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  Speaker 1: to California into a big vacation, and Carlsba Caverns National
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  Speaker 1: Park was easily both of the men's favorite spot so
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  Speaker 1: far because, unlike the other campgrounds they had stayed at
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  Speaker 1: so far, which were kind of cheap and small, Carlsbad
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  Speaker 1: Caverns was huge. It was forty seven thousand acres of
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  Speaker 1: just wild desert, and so for Dave and Raffi, whose
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  Speaker 1: normal everyday lives were kind of safe and boring doing
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  Speaker 1: desk jobs in the like, this felt sort of thrilling,
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  Speaker 1: like they were cowboys exploring the wild West. As Dave
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  Speaker 1: sat inside of his tent listening to Raffi make breakfast
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  Speaker 1: and get ready, Dave noticed he was already sweating despite
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  Speaker 1: it being pretty early in the morning, it was just
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  Speaker 1: already so hot outside, and so Dave grabbed his water
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  Speaker 1: and took a sip, and as he did, he thought
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  Speaker 1: about that park ranger who had helped them fill out
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  Speaker 1: their paperwork to be allowed to come out into Rattlesnake Canyon,
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  Speaker 1: who had made a really big deal about ensuring that
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  Speaker 1: Dave and Raffi each have at least one gallon of
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  Speaker 1: water per person per day that they were going to
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  Speaker 1: be out here because of the heat. But after they
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  Speaker 1: had left the park ranger, Raffi, who had way more
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  Speaker 1: experience camping than Dave did, explained to Dave that that
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  Speaker 1: was totally overkill and they didn't need that much water.
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  Speaker 1: So instead of bringing two huge gallons of water for
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  Speaker 1: the single night they planned to be out in Rattlesnake Canyon.
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  Speaker 1: Raffi had brought along for both of them just three
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  Speaker 1: sixteen ounce bottles of water for reference, that's approximately six
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  Speaker 1: times less than what the park ranger had suggested. The
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  Speaker 1: men had already used one of those sixteen ounce bottles
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  Speaker 1: of water to boil hot dogs the night before for
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  Speaker 1: their dinner, and now the bottle that Dave was drinking
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  Speaker 1: from was already half empty, and so he was pretty
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  Speaker 1: much down to the last of his water. But Dave
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  Speaker 1: wasn't really worried about his water because he and Raffi
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  Speaker 1: were going to be hiking out of Rattlesnake Canyon that
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  Speaker 1: day and heading back to their car and continuing their
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  Speaker 1: journey out to California, and they knew they had set
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  Speaker 1: up their tent very close to the parking lot, and
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  Speaker 1: so it was a short hike, they're back in their
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  Speaker 1: car and then they're good, and so Dave capped us water.
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  Speaker 1: He got out of a sleeping bag, he left the tent,
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  Speaker 1: and he joined Raffi in prepped their supplies to get
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  Speaker 1: ready for their hike out, and by eight thirty am,
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  Speaker 1: their entire site was packed up and the two men
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  Speaker 1: were on their way heading back. The two men walked
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  Speaker 1: at a leisurely pace in the direction towards their vehicle
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  Speaker 1: for about an hour, and as they walked, they did
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  Speaker 1: see signs that they were on the right trail. There
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  Speaker 1: were these stacks of white rocks that marked the trail.
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  Speaker 1: But after walking this full hour, they knew they probably
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  Speaker 1: should have been at the parking lot, but they didn't
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  Speaker 1: see it yet. However, the two men were not worried
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  Speaker 1: yet because remember they know they're clothes and so they're thinking, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: maybe a couple more minutes and we'll see the parking lot.
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  Speaker 1: And so they stopped, they had some more water, and
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  Speaker 1: then they kept on walking. But after walking for another
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  Speaker 1: two three hours, still in the direction that they believe
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  Speaker 1: was towards the parking lot, they did not see the
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  Speaker 1: parking lot. In fact, they didn't see anything that looked familiar,
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  Speaker 1: and there were no more stacks of white rocks to
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  Speaker 1: show they were even on a trail. They were totally lost,
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  Speaker 1: and so Dave and Raffi, who were doing their best
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  Speaker 1: not to panic, they both sat down. They pulled off
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  Speaker 1: their packs, and they pulled out their topographical map and
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  Speaker 1: began looking for some sign of where they were, but
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  Speaker 1: neither man could read the topographical map, and so all
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  Speaker 1: the swirls on the map showing every contour of every
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  Speaker 1: geographical feature, it just didn't make any sense to them,
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  Speaker 1: and so the map was of no use, and it
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  Speaker 1: was getting hotter and hotter by the minute, and so
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  Speaker 1: Dave and Raffie put the map away, feeling totally frustrated,
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  Speaker 1: and for a second they thought about getting up and
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  Speaker 1: just continuing to walk roughly in the direction they thought
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  Speaker 1: they should go. But as soon as they stood up,
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  Speaker 1: they both just felt so exhausted from walking and the heat,
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  Speaker 1: which was now, you know, it's noon, so it's really
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  Speaker 1: burning down on them. And so the two men just
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  Speaker 1: walked over to the edge of a canyon wall where
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  Speaker 1: some shrubs were kind of hanging off the wall, providing
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  Speaker 1: a little bit of shade, and the two men just
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  Speaker 1: plunked down right underneath the shade and they just sat
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  Speaker 1: there in silence. Both men knew they did not have
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  Speaker 1: the supplies to stay out in this canyon for whatch longer.
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  Speaker 1: They certainly didn't have enough water, which now really was
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  Speaker 1: starting to feel like a huge oversight. But luckily, as
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  Speaker 1: they're just sitting there, these huge storm clouds rolled in
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  Speaker 1: and for a very short amount of time there was
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  Speaker 1: this incredible downpour of rain, and so Dave and Raffi
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  Speaker 1: began catching the rain drops in their mouths, and they
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  Speaker 1: began drinking the water off of rocks and leaves, and
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  Speaker 1: I mean it wasn't a lot, but it was enough
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  Speaker 1: to kind of boost their spirits. They got a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more hydration in and they were kind of ready
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  Speaker 1: to deal with the problem they were facing. After the
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  Speaker 1: storm had gone, Dave and Raffi decided that their best
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  Speaker 1: move was just to continue walking and try to find
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  Speaker 1: this parking lot. But despite this motivation, Davi and Raffi
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: would walk for hours and hours into the night. They
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: would not find the parking lot, and so finally they
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: realized that they would have to stop and set up
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  Speaker 1: camp for another night. And so David Raffi, who by
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  Speaker 1: now were really starting to feel scared, they found this
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  Speaker 1: washed out gully and they set up their green and
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  Speaker 1: maroon tent, but neither man could sleep, and so they
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: just sat outside of the tent, telling each other that
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: don't worry, the park rangers are bound to have noticed
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  Speaker 1: that we did not come back in time. We only
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: had that one day permit. We've exceeded the limit. They're
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: bound to come out here and find us. But in
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the back of both Dave and Raffi's mind, they weren't
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: so sure that was definitely going to happen. They didn't
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  Speaker 1: really know how long it would take for park rangers
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  Speaker 1: to notice when people stayed too long. But as Dave
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: and Raffi were speaking, they suddenly noticed far off in
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  Speaker 1: the distance something that looked like headlights, like on a car,
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  Speaker 1: and it was moving across the horizon, and both Dave
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: and Raffi thought, wait a minute, that's got to be
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  Speaker 1: a road right there. All we have to do is
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: go to that road and we're saved. We don't need
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the park rangers to come rescue us. And so suddenly
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Dave and Raffi were filled with hope, and they forgot
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  Speaker 1: about how thirsty and hungry they were. Then they just
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: crawled into their beds and they fell asleep almost immediately,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: because all they wanted to do was get to the
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: next morning where there'd be daylight so they could hike
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  Speaker 1: out and get to that road and get back home.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Dave and Raffi woke up early the next morning, and
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: they were very eager to get up and start making
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: their way towards this road. But instead of packing up
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: their campsite and bringing it with them, they decided instead
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: to leave their campsite and leave behind a journal that
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: had some information about who they were and what they
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: were doing in case park rangers came looking for them.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: And so Dave pulled out a journal from his pack,
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  Speaker 1: and he drew a kind of crude map of where
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: this campsite was and where they were going towards this
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: road that appeared to be up on this ridge. And
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  Speaker 1: then also Dave included in this note you know Dave
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: and Raffi's names, their ages, where they lived, some contact info,
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  Speaker 1: and also the fact that they were completely out of
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: food and water, and that if you find this journal,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: please follow up and make sure we're okay. And so,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: after leaving behind this journal at the campsite, Dave and
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Raffi set off to go to this road. But after
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: walking for hours and hours up a kind of gradual incline,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: they reached what appeared to be this kind of third
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: ridge where up and above the ridge was this road.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: But to get up onto this kind of wall right
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: in front of them was really challenging. There was cactus everywhere,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: and the gullies that kind of led up to the
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: top of this ridge were very slippery and almost vertical,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: so nearly impossible to climb. And so this was really
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: a chore getting up there. And you got to remember
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: that Dave and Raffi are already totally exhausted. They have
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: no food, no water, and so this is miserable. But
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: eventually Dave and Raffi were able to get up onto
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: this ridge and they looked out and there was no road.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: There was nothing. It was just pure desert as far
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: as they could see. And so they had no idea
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: what those lights were that they saw. Clearly it was
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: not headlights. I mean, for all they knew, it could
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: have been a figment of their imagination. You know, they're
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: desperate to be saved, and so maybe it was possible
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: that they imagined seeing this road. And so as the
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: two men stared in stunned silence at nothingness in front
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: of them, they noticed that a buzzard had actually begun
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: flying in slow circles over their head, almost like it
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: was just waiting for the two men to die. So
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: the buzzard could come down and eat them now. Dave
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: was ready right then and there to head back to
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: their campsite and just wait, but Raffi was insistent that
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: they just keep on going because you never know, maybe
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: there is a road just a little bit farther along.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: But after walking for maybe a couple more hours, they
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: did not see a road, and by this point both
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: men were beyond exhausted, and so the two men did
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: finally turn around and painstakingly walked their way all the
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: way back to their campsite. And as they're walking, they're
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: telling themselves, you know, maybe we'll get there and park
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: rangers will be waiting for us, you know, a search
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: party will be here. But when they got to their campsite,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: there was absolutely no sign that anybody had come to
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: their campsite, since they left their journal with their note
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: and their crude map and all that was still just
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: sitting right in the middle of their campsite, untouched. And
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: it was at this point that Dave and Raffi's spirits
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: were just totally broken. The next morning was Saturday, August seventh.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Raffi were now beginning their fourth day in the desert
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: and their third day without any water, Raffi had gotten
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: really sick from drinking his own urine, and Dave had
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: begun to experience all these horrible stomach cramps, very likely
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: from eating unripe prickly pears. Also, Dave's legs were starting
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: to seize up, which made it nearly impossible to walk,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: and so the two men knew they had no chance
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: of hiking out of here to safety. They really just
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: had to wait for their rescue to come. And so
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: that day Dave and Raffi attempted, with the little energy
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: they had to make a huge SOS symbol on the
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: ground using rocks, but after putting the S down and
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the O down, they didn't have enough energy to collect
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: more rocks to make the last S, and so they
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: did not finish their SOS symbol. And then also Raffi
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: at some point soaked his sleeping bag and fuel and
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: lit it on fire to try to create a smoke
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: signal that somebody might see, But the smoke didn't get
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: high enough and so it didn't work, and so all
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: that really accomplished was it destroyed Ravie's sleep deeping bag
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: and also created this terrible stench around their campsite of
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: burning chemicals from having burned the polyester material that made
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: up the sleeping bag. And so by that afternoon, when
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: the sun was right over their head and beating down
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: on them, Davi and Raffi just crawled inside of their
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: tent and laid there in silence. And as they did,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: they noticed the stones underneath their tent felt kind of cool,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: and so they cut the bottom of the tent out
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: and just laid directly on these loose rocks inside of
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: their tent. By that evening, when still no rescuers had arrived,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Dave and Raffi really began to realize that this could
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: be the end, and so Dave he grabbed that notebook
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: where they had drawn that crude map of where the
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: lights in the road had been, and he flipped the
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: page and then he wrote a note to his girlfriend
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: basically saying goodbye because he knew he was probably going
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: to die. And then Raffi he took the journal and
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: he did something similar, but also included that he would
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: not allow the buzzards to get them, that they would
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: at least ensure their bodies were intact for their family
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: release to find. And then after writing these notes and
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: tucking the journal away, Dave and Raffi crawled out of
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the tent because by now at starkouts the sun's not out,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: it's a little bit cooler outside. And the two men
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: they sat down and they began having a fairly matter
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: of fact conversation about the situation they were in. Both
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: men were very emotional. At one point, Dave began screaming
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: and crying, just out of despair. But at the end
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: of this conversation, the two men made a decision, an
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: unthinkable one that really would only ever be made in
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: a situation like this, And so after both men were
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: on the same page, they crawled inside the tent and
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: zipped it up. It was the next morning, August eighth,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, when that park ranger and his volunteer
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: that was with him had walked along the trail towards
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Rattlesnake Canyon and discovered David Raffi's ransacked campsite. And they
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: had walked up and they had seen all the burned
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: materials nearby, which was Raffi's sleeping bag and other bits
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: of trash they had tried to burn, and then they
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: had gone to the front of the tent and Lance
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: had opened it up, and when he looked inside, he
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: saw Raffi, who was alive. He was laying on his side,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: and he was only wearing these filthy green shorts, and
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: he just looked totally emaciated and terrible and haggard. I mean,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: the guy really looked like he was on death's door.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Then Raffi, when he saw Lance looking in, he just said,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: please tell me you have some water. And Lance did
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: have some water. He gave it to him, and then Lance,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: knowing that Raffi was with another person, Dave, he said, hey,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: where is the guy you were with? And Raffi, as
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: he's drinking the water, just kind of casually pointed out
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: of the tent somewhere off behind where Lance and his
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: partner was. And so Lance and his partner they turned
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: around and they didn't see anybody. They were just kind
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: of looking off towards the canyon wall and there was
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: nothing there. And so Lance turned around again and he said,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: are you sure he's over there? And Raffi, without any
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: expression on his face, just continued to point and said, yes,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: he's right over there. And so Lance he got up,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: he turned around and he began walking towards this canyon wall,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: but before he got there, he nearly tripped over or
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: this arrangement of rocks on the ground, and when he
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: looked down at them, he knew someone clearly had arranged
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: these rocks in a particular way. And so, with a
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: growing sense of dread, Lance reached down and he moved
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: aside one of these rocks, and underneath it he saw
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Dave's face. It would turn out. The night before, when
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Raffi and Dave had crawled outside of their tent and
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: began having that very intense conversation, what they were talking
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: about is what do we do. We know we're going
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: to die. No one's going to reach us before we
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: die of starvation or we die of dehydration, or maybe
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: some animal is going to come attack us and kill us,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: like we don't have any hope. And so as they
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: were sitting there, Dave actually pulled out his pocket knife
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: and attempted to cut his wrists, but he couldn't cut
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: deep enough to actually kill himself, and so Dave said
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: to Raffi, you're gonna have to kill me, and then
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: after that you're gonna have to kill yourself. And Raffi
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: had agreed, and so Raffi and Dave. They went back
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: inside their tent with no floor, it's just opened rocks
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: in the bottom, and Dave he lied down on his
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: back and he pulled his shirt up and he exposed
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: his rib cage. And then Raffi pulled out his four
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: inch pocket knife and he placed it right up against
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Dave's rib cage. And then, with Dave basically egging him
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: on to stab him, Raffi attempted to push the knife
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: into his heart, but he couldn't break the skin, and
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: so Dave he's now screaming out in pain, but he's
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: still urging Raffi to come on, just do it already.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: And finally Raffi does manage to get the knife right
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: through his ribs and into Dave's heart. Dave did not
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: die right away, but Raffi covered his mouth and continued
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: to push that knife in until he did die. And
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: then once Dave was dead, Raffi used a little bit
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: of energy. He had to drag his body away from
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the tent where he buried him under those rocks. And
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: then Raffi, who now has no energy left, just crawled
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: back to his tent and laid down on those loose
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: rocks inside of his tent and waited to die. But
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: just a few hours later, on the morning of August eighth,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Lanced the park ranger along with volunteer, had come down
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: and discovered Raffi before he had died. Little did Dave
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: and Raffi know this campsite where they had been for
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: the past few days, was just a fifteen or twenty
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: minute walk from their car. Nine months later, on May eleventh,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: two thousand, Raffi pled guilty to murder and was sentenced
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: to sixteen years in prison. However, Raffi insisted throughout the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: trial that the reason he killed Dave was because Dave
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: asked him to. It effectively was a mercy killing, and
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: that Raffi intended afterwards to die himself. This was murder suicide,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: and Dave's family believed Raffi, and so did another judge,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: and so ultimately Raffi would only serve sixteen months in
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: prison before he would be released. So that's going to
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: do it. If you got something out of today's episode
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: and you want to hear more stories like this one,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: be sure to check out our podcast called The Mister
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: ball In Podcast, where we have literally hundreds more stories
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: of available right now again. The podcast is just called
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: The Mister Ballen Podcast and it's available exclusively on Amazon Music.