John Edward Jones, 26, became trapped upside down in Utah’s Nutty Putty Cave in after entering a narrow tunnel headfirst
A cave diver suffered a harrowing death, becoming stuck upside down in a tiny passage, emitting disturbing noises as he perished.
John Edward Jones, 26, a medical student and experienced caver (a recreational cave explorer), set off on an underground expedition with friends whilst staying with relatives in Utah over Thanksgiving in 2009.
On 24 November, the party ventured into the Nutty Putty Cave, a popular caving destination famed for its narrow corners, turns, and confined spaces.
John attempted to find the feature called the Birth Canal, an incredibly tight vertical shaft. The father-of-one’s devastating mistake was accidentally accessing an uncharted section named Ed’s Push and dropping into a cul-de-sac tunnel.
He manoeuvred in head-first, edging forwards with his hips, abdomen, and fingertips. Yet within moments, he discovered he was jammed in, with no room to rotate or retreat.
His sole option was to continue, releasing air from his lungs to fit through the “L-shaped pinpoint” measuring just 10 inches wide and 18 inches tall.
John’s brother Josh was the first to locate him, trying to drag him free by his lower legs but without success.
In a horrifying turn of events, John then slipped further down into the passage, becoming wedged with his arms trapped beneath his chest. Josh had no choice but to leave his brother behind and find his way out of the cave system, where he sounded the alert.
Cave explorer and YouTuber Brandon Kowallis was called in to assist with the rescue mission and became the last person to see John whilst he remained alive.
After their failed attempts the following day, he wrote a chilling description of their frantic rescue efforts. He disclosed that John “had started talking about seeing angels and demons around him”.
Brandon wrote: “John’s feet were about 6 feet past the constriction and I was able to shift myself to the side of him and down the 4 foot wide fissure.
“After stabilizing myself by jamming my body into a narrower section of the crack I began speaking to John asking him how he was and introducing myself.
“There was no response. I shifted my position a little and tapped him on the leg. I could hear him breathing a deep gurgling breath, as though his lungs were filling with fluid.
“Then his feet shifted as though he were trying to maneuver his legs out of the crack he was jammed in. The kicking looked fairly frantic and after a second he stopped and it looked as though he had drifted into unconsciousness.
“I continued tapping him on the legs and hip to see if I could get a response, but there was no response.”
The only option was repositioning John horizontally, though this would mean manoeuvring through the most dangerous section of the passage where he remained trapped.
Even if he had been conscious and in perfect physical condition, there would have been merely a “minute chance” of success. A radio was handed down to John’s family, enabling his mum, dad and wife to tell him they loved him and were praying for him.
Whilst rescuers battled frantically to free John from the cave, he breathed out with “gurgling breaths” and kicked desperately in a superhuman attempt to escape.
Brandon tried using his jack hammer to chip away fragments of rock, but it kept vanishing into the sand at the edges. He checked John’s temperature later that evening, which had plummeted to nearly match the temperature of the cave wall rocks.
Brandon added: “From there I removed his shoe and attempted to check his temperature. The thermometer read nothing, which the paramedic said was because the temperature was below the range.
“As I took his shoes off and moved his feet I noticed that his feet and legs were significantly stiffer than they had been earlier and it was difficult to his leg more than a few inches.”
A paramedic was able to get near enough to confirm he had died from cardiac arrest. The Nutty Putty Cave entrance was then sealed off and deemed a public health hazard.
About a week afterwards, concrete was poured into the cave’s primary opening, permanently entombing John. He was survived by his wife Emily and their baby daughter Lizzie.
Emily was also expecting their second child at the time, a son who was born the following year and named in honour of his father.
