Over a decade later, the body of a cave diver who died in what was called “the worst death imaginable” is still buried.
John Edward Jones, a medical student, and father of one went caving with friends and family in Utah’s Nutty Putty Cave on November 24, 2009, but he never came back.
Nutty Putty Cave is about 55 miles from Salt Lake City. It is known for its tight, winding passages that lead to large caverns. Most people thought it was a good cave for people who were just starting to explore caves.
Jones and his brother were both experienced cave divers, so soon after they got there, the group split in two. The kids and adults with less cave diving experience went into the easier parts of the cave, while the more experienced cave divers went deeper.
Utah's Timpanogos Grotto of @NSScaves had signed an agreement to manage Nutty Putty Cave. The once popular cave has been closed and sealed with concrete since November, 2009, when local caver John Edward Jones became trapped inside and never made it out. https://t.co/35PooL5EzP pic.twitter.com/5D0W3OC5kY
— Rocky Mtn Caving (@RockyMtnCaving) October 21, 2021
John and his brother Josh were exploring the depths of the cavern. He wanted to find a narrow tunnel that spelunkers called the “birth canal,” but he took a wrong turn and ended up in a different part of the cave.
John kept squeezing himself deeper into a tiny crack in the cave wall because he thought it would soon open up into a large cavern.
But because he was in the wrong part of the cave, his calculations were off, and he soon got stuck.
Since he couldn’t go backward, his only choice was to keep going forward. John had to hold his breath so much to crawl through a particularly narrow space that when he let out his breath, he got stuck.
He was trying to get through a hole that was only 10 inches wide and 18 inches high, about the size of a front-loading dryer.
John called out to his brother for help when he realized he was stuck. When his brother tried to pull him out by the legs, he ended up slipping further into the cave and getting stuck upside down with his hands under his chest and unable to move.
Josh couldn’t get his brother out of the cave by himself, so he went back up 400 feet to the cave to call for help. The first rescuer came at 12:30 a.m. on November 25, more than three hours after John got stuck in the cave.
Susie Motola was the first person to help. When she got to the part of the cave where John was stuck, all she could see of him were his shoes.
Hi Susie, thanks for coming,
John said as per a source.
but I really, really want to get out.
Over the next 24 hours, Susie and a team of up to 100 people worked hard to save John. The task was made harder by the fact that John was in “absolutely the worst place in the cave.”
It’s very narrow, very awkward, and it’s difficult to get rescuers down there,
rescuer Shawn Roundy said.
It’s a really tight spot, but we’ve been able to get around him. We were able to hold his hand at some point.
A source at the time said that after several failed attempts and about 19 hours after John first got stuck, the team finally came up with a complicated pulley system to get him out of the cave.
The plan almost worked, and John was even able to get himself partially free, but disaster struck when the pulley system broke at the last second, sending John back to the beginning.
At this point, John started to panic, and his body started to break down because it was under so much stress and pressure.
Rescuers put him back in touch with his wife, Emily to calm him down, and he told her he would get out to be with her and their kids.
After being stuck upside down for more than 25 hours and struggling to breathe, John stopped responding.
The cave diver died of heart failure and suffocation on November 25, when a doctor was finally able to reach him.
Emily, who was still outside, wouldn’t leave her husband’s body in the cave. The local Sheriff told her that they would get it out.
But even after he died, it was thought to be too dangerous to try to get his body out, so the entrance to the tunnel where he was stuck was blown up with explosives.
John Edward Jones’s body was left in the cave until it was sealed off with concrete. The whole place is now a memorial to John Edward Jones.
In the news, John’s death was called “the worst death imaginable.”
Emily has since found love and remarried, which is good news. But she recently said that cruel trolls still make fun of her on social media.
