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

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

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  Speaker 1: Today, we're going to look at three final messages from
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  Speaker 1: people who knew they were about to die. But before
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  Speaker 1: we get into those stories, if you're a fan of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: you come to the right place, because that's all we do,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and we upload three or four times every week. So
• 0:14
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• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the like button salted butter with unsalted butter.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Also, please subscribe.
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  Speaker 1: To our channel and turn on all notifications so you
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  Speaker 1: don't miss any of our weekly uploads.
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  Speaker 2: All right, let's get into today's stories.
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  Speaker 1: On December seventh, nineteen forty one, the Japanese famously attacked
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  Speaker 1: Pearl Harbor, the US military base in Hawaii, but Pearl
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  Speaker 1: Harbor was not the only US base attacked by the
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  Speaker 1: Japanese that month.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, just.
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  Speaker 1: Hours after the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese shifted gears
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  Speaker 1: and attacked US military personnel on Wake Island, which is
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  Speaker 1: a coral atoll in the northern Pacifico. After two weeks
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  Speaker 1: of fighting, the Japanese had taken Wake Island from the Americans,
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  Speaker 1: and they sent the majority of American military personnel and
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  Speaker 1: American civilian contractors to prisoner of war camps in Asia,
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  Speaker 1: but they retained ninety eight of these POWs to stay
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  Speaker 1: on the island and fortified offenses. Over the next couple
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  Speaker 1: of years, the Americans would periodically bomb Wake Island, but
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  Speaker 1: there was never any concerted effort to take it back
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  Speaker 1: from the Japanese. However, that all changed on October fifth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, when the Americans decided it was time
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  Speaker 1: to take it back. They launched a huge air raid
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  Speaker 1: on the island that was so violent the Japanese admiral
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  Speaker 1: on Wake Island was convinced a full scale invasion was imminent,
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  Speaker 1: and so, in his paranoia, he ordered the ninety eight
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  Speaker 1: POWs they had pertained on the island to be executed.
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  Speaker 1: And so they marched these ninety eight POWs to the
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  Speaker 1: edge of the sea. They blindfolded them, and then they
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  Speaker 1: gunned them down. But in the chaos of the air
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  Speaker 1: raid and the execution, one of the American POWs somehow
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  Speaker 1: managed to escape. After the Japanese had left the area,
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  Speaker 1: this pow snuck back down to the execution site and
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  Speaker 1: he carved into the rock a memorial for all ninety.
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  Speaker 2: Eight of the POWs.
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  Speaker 1: So he was including himself in that number because I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure he knew he would eventually be recaptured. This was
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  Speaker 1: a small area and he was the only American there.
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  Speaker 1: And sure enough, this pow was recaptured that day and
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  Speaker 1: he was personally executed by the Japanese admiral. The identity
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  Speaker 1: of this pow has never been determined. After the war ended,
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  Speaker 1: the Japanese admiral that ordered these executions was tried for
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  Speaker 1: war crimes, found guilty and put to death himself. The
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  Speaker 1: so called ninety eight Rock can still be seen on
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  Speaker 1: Wake Island today. On January twenty fifth, nineteen ninety eight,
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  Speaker 1: American tourists Tom and Eileen Lonigan boarded a vote in Queensland, Australia.
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  Speaker 1: The married couple was from Louisiana. Tom was thirty four
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  Speaker 1: and Eileen was twenty eight. They had spent the last
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  Speaker 1: two years in and Tuvalu serving in the Peace Corps.
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  Speaker 1: Australia was just a pit stop on their way back home.
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  Speaker 1: They both were avid scuba divers and they wanted a
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  Speaker 1: chance to dive on the world's largest coral reef system,
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  Speaker 1: the Great Barrier Reef. Once Tom, Eileen and the other
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  Speaker 1: twenty four tourists had boarded this boat. The captain did
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  Speaker 1: a head count, and then once he had everyone, he
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  Speaker 1: turned the boat around and headed out to sea. After
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  Speaker 1: traveling twenty five miles, the captain stopped the boat and
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  Speaker 1: then told the group to put on their dive gear.
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  Speaker 1: So Tom, Eileen and the others happily put on their
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  Speaker 1: fins and their masts and their tanks, and then when
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  Speaker 1: they were ready, they were inspected and then allowed to
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  Speaker 1: jump into the coral sea. Less than an hour later,
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  Speaker 1: the divers came back up to the surface and the
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  Speaker 1: captain began pulling them back into the boat. Once everyone
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  Speaker 1: was back on board the boat, the captain did another
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  Speaker 1: headcount just to confirm he had everyone, and once he
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  Speaker 1: was sure he did, he turned the boat.
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  Speaker 2: Around and he headed back to shore.
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  Speaker 1: Except the captain miscounted, and neither he nor anyone else noticed.
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  Speaker 1: Shortly after the boat had left the area, Tom and
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  Speaker 1: Eileen Lonergan came up from their dive, looked around, and
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  Speaker 1: realized they had been abandoned. After the initial panic war off,
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  Speaker 1: they probably told each other that don't worry.
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  Speaker 2: As soon as that boat gets back to shore, they will.
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  Speaker 1: Find inside the boat our wallets and passports and other
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  Speaker 1: personal items, and they'll know we aren't with them, and
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  Speaker 1: they'll come out and get us. And so most likely
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  Speaker 1: the couple was fairly optimistic, as they just treaded water,
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  Speaker 1: waiting for someone to show up any minute.
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  Speaker 2: Except they didn't show up any minute.
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  Speaker 1: It took forty eight hours before anybody showed up, because
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  Speaker 1: that's how long it took before someone saw their wallets
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  Speaker 1: and passports and personal items were still inside that dive boat.
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  Speaker 1: And in those forty eight hours, Tom and Eileen were
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  Speaker 1: exposed to intense summer heat, no fresh water, and sharks.
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  Speaker 1: When their personal effects were finally found, a huge search
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  Speaker 1: was launched for them, but there was no sign of them.
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  Speaker 1: A month later, a female wetsuit washed up on the
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  Speaker 1: shores of Australia and it was the same size as
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  Speaker 1: Eileen's and an expert analyzed it and said it had
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  Speaker 1: been floating in.
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  Speaker 2: The water for about a month, so that lined up
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  Speaker 2: with and Tom and Eileen went missing.
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  Speaker 1: Five months later, more diving equipment washed up on the
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  Speaker 1: shores of Australia. Among those items were life jackets with
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  Speaker 1: the Launargen names stenciled on the back of them, as
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  Speaker 1: well as an air tank and a dive fin that
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  Speaker 1: belonged to Eileen. But the most disturbing thing that washed
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  Speaker 1: up on shore was the couple's divers slate. A diver
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  Speaker 1: slate is like a dry erase board that works underwater.
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  Speaker 1: On this slate was the Lunargan's final message. It said,
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  Speaker 1: to anyone who can help us, We've been abandoned on
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  Speaker 1: Eigincourt Reef. Please help us before we die. Please help.
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  Speaker 1: Above the message was a date. It was January twenty sixth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight, so that would have been one day
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  Speaker 1: after they were abandoned at sea. So we know the
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  Speaker 1: couple was alive for at least twenty four hours, but
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  Speaker 1: beyond that, no one.
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  Speaker 2: Knows what happened.
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  Speaker 1: Some say the pair staged their disappearance so they could
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  Speaker 1: start a new life somewhere, or so they could take
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  Speaker 1: their own lives.
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  Speaker 2: Others say they were devoured by sharks.
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  Speaker 1: Most experts believe they eventually became delirious from the dehydration,
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  Speaker 1: and that would have caused them to willingly take off
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  Speaker 1: their diving equi whipment. And without that equipment they wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: have been buoyant and so at some point they couldn't
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  Speaker 1: have continued treading water and they would have drowned. But
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  Speaker 1: regardless of which theory is correct, Tom and Eileen have
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  Speaker 1: never been found. Bryce Gillies was born in nineteen eighty
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  Speaker 1: nine in northern Virginia, just outside of Washington, d c.
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  Speaker 1: From a young age, Bryce's parents knew he loved the outdoors,
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  Speaker 1: and so they signed him up for the Boy Scouts,
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  Speaker 1: and as a Scout, Bryce learned, amongst many things, how
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  Speaker 1: to survive in the wilderness, and he would routinely put
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  Speaker 1: this training to the test by leaving his house and
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  Speaker 1: heading off to the nearby Appellation Trail and hiking around,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes up to twenty miles in a single day. Bryce
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  Speaker 1: ultimately became an Eagle Scout, which is the highest rank
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  Speaker 1: anybody can obtain inside of the Boy Scouts, a rank
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  Speaker 1: that only about eight percent of Scouts.
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  Speaker 2: Will ever reach.
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  Speaker 1: After he graduated from high school in two thousand and seven,
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  Speaker 1: Bryce decided he wanted to go to school out west,
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  Speaker 1: and during a visit to Northern Arizona University, Bryce fell
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  Speaker 1: in love with their school because all around their campus
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  Speaker 1: with these unbelievable hiking trails that were totally unlike anything
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  Speaker 1: he saw growing up on the East Coast. Bryce decided
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  Speaker 1: this was his dream school, so he applied, and a
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  Speaker 1: couple weeks later he got accepted.
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  Speaker 2: He was totally thrilled.
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  Speaker 1: During his first couple of years at NAU, Bryce took
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  Speaker 1: full advantage of these totally amazing hiking trails within a
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  Speaker 1: couple hours of the campus. He also spent some time
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  Speaker 1: overseas in West Africa helping to build a medical clinic
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  Speaker 1: for people in need during the summer break of two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and nine, So, going into his third year at NAU,
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  Speaker 1: Bryce was still living out in Arizona in an apartment,
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  Speaker 1: and he still had a few weeks before classes started,
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  Speaker 1: and so he decided he would head off to the
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  Speaker 1: nearby Grand Canyon to do a little bit of hiking.
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  Speaker 1: He had recently read in an outdoor magazine about this
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  Speaker 1: lesser known but unbelievable trail that was just for experts
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  Speaker 1: in the canyon that he wanted to try. It was
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  Speaker 1: called the Deer Creek Thunder River Loop, and it brought
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  Speaker 1: hikers to this remote location where water gushed out of
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  Speaker 1: this huge limestone rock wall, transforming the desert landscape below
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  Speaker 1: into this unbelievable grid oasis. The article said very strong
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  Speaker 1: hikers could complete this nearly twenty eight mile loop in
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  Speaker 1: about three days. Since Bryce considered himself a very strong hiker,
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  Speaker 1: he decided this was perfect for him.
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  Speaker 2: Bryce called his parents.
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  Speaker 1: And let them know he was going to do this
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  Speaker 1: loop and that when he came back in a couple
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  Speaker 1: of days he'd be making a trip to Virginia to
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  Speaker 1: visit with them. Then Bryce called some friends in the
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  Speaker 1: area to see if they wanted to come with him
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  Speaker 1: on the hike, but no one was available, so Bryce
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  Speaker 1: decided he would go on his own. So the next day,
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  Speaker 1: which was Saturday, July eighteenth, Bryce loaded up his car
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  Speaker 1: and he began driving these several hours to the parking
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  Speaker 1: lot that was nearest the trailhead. Bryce parked his car,
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  Speaker 1: he got his gear out of the trunk, and then
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  Speaker 1: he set off down the trail. Bryce had not obtained
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  Speaker 1: a backcountry permit for this hike. This was a requirement
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  Speaker 1: for anybody doing an overnight out in the canyon, which
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  Speaker 1: Bryce planned on doing. Bryce also didn't file his route
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  Speaker 1: with the park rangers. Had he told them where he
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  Speaker 1: was going, they would have tried to talk him out
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  Speaker 1: of it. The Deer Creek Thunder River Loop had no
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  Speaker 1: protection from the sun the entire time, and since it
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  Speaker 1: was July, he would be hit with the highest temperatures
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  Speaker 1: in the most direct sunlight. All this on top of
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  Speaker 1: the fact that even in the coolest times of the year,
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  Speaker 1: this trail is still an extremely difficult trail because of
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  Speaker 1: the terrain you have to navigate. In fact, when hikers
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  Speaker 1: did file their route with park rangers and they indicated
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  Speaker 1: they were going to be doing this expert loop, they
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  Speaker 1: would ask them to provide next of kin information in
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  Speaker 1: case they died.
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  Speaker 2: During their hike.
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  Speaker 1: It's unclear if Bryce was just very confident in himself
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  Speaker 1: and his abilities or if he was being reckless. From
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  Speaker 1: his car, Bryce hiked about two miles down some switchbacks
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  Speaker 1: into the canyon. Once he reached the bottom, he would
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  Speaker 1: have found himself in this wide open flat area called
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  Speaker 1: the Esplanade that kind of looked like the surface of
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  Speaker 1: the moon with all these potholes all over it. At
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  Speaker 1: this point in Bryce's hike, it would have been dark out,
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  Speaker 1: so he would have set up his tent somewhere on
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  Speaker 1: the rocks and camped out for the night. People that
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  Speaker 1: have done this that have camped out on the Esplanade
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  Speaker 1: have said it's unbelievably beautiful because most people experienced the
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  Speaker 1: Grand Canyon from high up on one of the rims,
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  Speaker 1: looking down into it, But the Esplanade is literally inside
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  Speaker 1: the canyon, so you have this unobstructed view in both directions,
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  Speaker 1: and apparently it's quite beautiful. The next morning, Bryce got
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  Speaker 1: up at sunrise, he packed up his campsite, and then
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  Speaker 1: he continued on his hike.
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  Speaker 2: The first challenge you.
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  Speaker 1: Would come up against that morning was navigating down what's
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  Speaker 1: called the Red Wall, which is a fairly steep and
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  Speaker 1: treacherous descent that for an experienced hiker it would take
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  Speaker 1: about an hour to safely navigate, and then at the
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  Speaker 1: bottom of the Red Wall you would enter into this
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  Speaker 1: area called the Surprise Valley. No one really knows why
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  Speaker 1: it's named that, but hikers who have been down in
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  Speaker 1: this valley they think it's named after the surprise you
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  Speaker 1: feel when you get in there and you realize how
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  Speaker 1: much hotter it is. Typically it's about ten or twenty
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  Speaker 1: degrees hotter down inside of this bowl.
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  Speaker 2: After Bryce successfully.
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  Speaker 1: Navigated down the Red Wall, he entered into this totally
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  Speaker 1: miserable Surprise Valley, but he would have known he was
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  Speaker 1: only about a half mile away from his target destination,
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  Speaker 1: the Deer Creek Thunder River, where he planned to jump
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  Speaker 1: in and cool off. So eager to do that, Bryce
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  Speaker 1: took off, but made a critical stake.
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  Speaker 2: He went the wrong way.
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  Speaker 1: While it's unclear exactly how this happened, experts believe his
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: ears played a trick on him.
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  Speaker 2: Hikers are told, as.
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  Speaker 1: They're approaching this river in the middle of the desert,
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  Speaker 1: they should listen out for it, because when you get
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  Speaker 1: fairly close, you can hear the sound of rushing water.
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  Speaker 1: But hikers have to be careful because sometimes, when the
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  Speaker 1: wind is blowing in a certain direction, that sound from
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  Speaker 1: the river will echo off the inside of this bowl
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  Speaker 1: and it will appear to come from.
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  Speaker 2: The opposite direction.
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  Speaker 1: It's believed Bryce was following his map when he heard
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  Speaker 1: the sound of this river coming from a different direction,
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  Speaker 1: and so he abandoned.
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  Speaker 2: The map and followed the sound.
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  Speaker 1: Bryce walked for quite a while in the wrong direction,
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  Speaker 1: all the way up a hill, and most likely the
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  Speaker 1: whole time he was hearing the sound of the water,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: and he probably thought, once I get over the top
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  Speaker 1: of this hill, I'll look down the other side and
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  Speaker 1: I will see the water. But when he crested the hill,
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  Speaker 1: he looked down and just saw a barren valley. Had
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  Speaker 1: he continued another quarter mile down into the valley and
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  Speaker 1: then up the other side, he could have turned around
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  Speaker 1: and he would have been able to spot an obvious
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  Speaker 1: landmark that would have brought him to the river. But
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: most likely Bryce was exhausted from the extreme heat and
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the sunlight and trekking all this way, and so he
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: felt like it was probably too risky to keep going
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  Speaker 1: down into this valley because he had no idea where
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  Speaker 1: it went. So, in keeping with his wilderness training he
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: got as a boy scout, he dropped all of his
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: heavy equipment off the side of the trail in an
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  Speaker 1: area he had marked so he could eventually come back
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: and retrieve it, and then he took his water, food,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: and headlamp, turned around and began backtracking. After a little while,
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  Speaker 1: Bryce decided to abandon the trail and actually veer off.
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  Speaker 2: Onto a dry creek bed.
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  Speaker 1: And the boy scouts, they're taught any dry creek bed
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  Speaker 1: will eventually connect to water, and so at this point
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  Speaker 1: Bryce is probably running low on water. And figures whether
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: this leads him to the Deer Creek, Thunder River, or
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: some other water body. He didn't care. He just needed water,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: so off he went on this dry creek bed. But
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: after a while he saw less and less vegetation. It
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: was just this barren desert in all directions. After a
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: little while longer, Bryce dropped all of his deer on
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the ground after finishing his water. At this point, he
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: would have known that if he doesn't find a water
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: source soon, he won't make it. And so Bryce just
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: continues to trudge along on this dry riverbed, not seeing
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: any indication that he's getting any closer to water. But
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: then he looks up and he sees the land in
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  Speaker 1: front of him appears to slope downward out of view.
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  Speaker 1: And then beyond that he sees off in the distance
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  Speaker 1: what looks like the southern wall of the Grand Canyon,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: and below the southern wall is the Colorado River. And
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: so Bryce would have known, if he can just go
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: down this decline, he's certain to reach this river and
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: he'll be saved. And so Bryce made his way up
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: towere the ground started going down towards the river, and
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: he began safely descending fairly slowly, and then he reached
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: a very steep section called a spill, which is a
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: dry waterfall. And these vary in height, but they're pretty
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: steep and they're pretty slick. Once Bryce went down one
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: of these things, there'd be no way to get back
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: up again, so this was a one way trip.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: But Bryce was desperate.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: He knew his only chance was getting down to that
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Colorado River, which he could now see. And so Bryce
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: scrambled down this first spill, and then he found another
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  Speaker 1: one and another one, and he kept going down these spills,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: and they kept getting steeper and more challenging, and the
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: temperature continued to rise as he went down deeper into
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  Speaker 1: this canyon. Finally Bryce reached a spill that was very,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: very steep. It was nearly vertical. But again, Bryce couldn't
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: go back up the way he came. He had to
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: keep going. So at some point he threw himself off
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: of the spill and he fell down thirty feet, but
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: he lived. He stood up, he dusted himself off, and
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: he continued walking forward. He walked past these boulders into
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: this clearing, and right in front of him is the
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Colorado River. It's a half a mile straight down in
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  Speaker 1: front of him, but the only way to get to
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  Speaker 1: it was navigating another spill, and this spill was eighty
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: feet tall and it was almost completely vertical.
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  Speaker 2: There was no way to survive.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: That kind of fault, and Bryce couldn't just turn around
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: and try to find an ulternate route because this was
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: a one way trip. He could not climb back up
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: the spills. He had just come down to get there.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: And to his left and to his right were these
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: steep canyon walls that kind of bordered the space he
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: was in that had no handholds on them, so he
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: couldn't climb them up or down. Bryce was trapped and
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: he knew it. The following Tuesday, when Bryce was supposed
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: to be home in Virginia visiting his family, he didn't
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: show up, so his family tried calling him, but they
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: couldn't get through to him.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: It seemed like his phone was off, and so they
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: called the authorities.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: A search party was sent out in the Grand Canyon
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: to go look for Bryce, and on Saturday, July twenty fifth,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: so this is six days after Bryce has found himself
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: trapped on that ledge overlooking the river, a search party
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: was on the Colorado River, and they happened to look
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: up in the direction where Bryce had been, and they
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: noticed what looked like a person, And so they got
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: their climbing gear and they made their way up that
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: spill onto this ledge, and they found Bryce.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: He was sitting up against a boulder, and he was deceased.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: He had died from heatstroke and dehydration. In his hand
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: was his BlackBerry cell phone. It wouldn't have had any
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: service inside of the canyon, but Bryce used it as
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: a notepad to write a final message to his family
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: and to his friends. In it, he writes, life is good,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: whether it is long or short. I was fortunate to
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: do much more than most people, and for that I
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: am very thankful. His message also had some humor thrown
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: into it. He said to his family that he was
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: really thankfu he had his BlackBerry phone because it would
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: have been a lot harder to etch his final message
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: into a rock. He also said that he didn't know
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: what the afterlife held for him. He just hoped they
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: had water. Then, with his phone's battery dying, he wrote
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: one final sentence, I feel like going into the wild
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: is at calling.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: We all feel some answer it, and some die for it.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Then shortly after writing that message, Bryce clutched his phone
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: to his.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: Chest and he passed away. He was just twenty years old.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: So that's going to do it. Guys.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: If you found the secret in today's episode, let us
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: know in the comments what it is and where you
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: found it. And if you're the first person to do that,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: we will pin you at the top of the comments section.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: If you got something out of today's episode and you
• 16:36
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• 16:39
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• 16:48
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• 16:51
  Speaker 1: both platforms is the same. It's John Bollin four one six.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: I also have a ton of content over on TikTok,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: where my username is mister Bollin. I also have a
• 16:59
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• 17:02
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• 17:05
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• 17:07
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• 17:08
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• 17:10
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  Speaker 1: support and until next time, that's going to do it.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: See you