One of the Most Horrifying Deaths in Caving History

On November 24, 2009, a medical student named John Edward Jones entered the Nutty Putty Cave and never came out. John was home visiting his family for the Thanksgiving holidays with his pregnant wife and one-year-old baby when his brother planned a caving expedition.

The family was not new to Spelunking or Caving and started exploring when they were kids. Ten of their friends and family members embarked upon this journey to the Nutty Putty cave at 8 pm on November 24.

The cave is located southwest of Utah Lake, approximately 55 miles from Salt Lake City. The cave has had a history of issues, and before the group could enter, they had to apply for permits 21 days before; entering, as well as have two experienced cavers in the group, John and his brother, Josh. However, John was not the same size as a teenager; now, he was 6ft tall and weighed 200 lbs.

Nutty Putty Cave was discovered in the 1960s and got its name from the putty-like dirt that lined the walls of the caves. The cave was full of narrow and slippery passageways and often led to bigger open rooms inside the cave system. The cave was known as being a good cave for beginner cave explorers. With a lot of mazes that made it fun to explore, including the Big Slide and the Birthing Canal.

The birthing canal was the cave John thought he was in when he got stuck. He kept pushing forward, thinking that he just had a little further to go before being released into a bigger room to explore; however that was not the case; he was in an unexplored part of the cave, and it did not open up into a big room.

Once he realized that he was in the wrong cave, it was already too late; John had sucked in his stomach so much to crawl through the narrow passage that it lodged him inside the narrow canal when he released his breath. The space was 10 inches across and 18 inches high, the size of a front-loading dryer.

At this point, his brother realized he was stuck and tried to pull him out by his legs, thinking he would slide back the way he wiggled his way in, but that did not happen. So instead, he became trapped, and now his arms were pinned underneath his chest, making it impossible to move. Josh realized the situation and went out of the cave to call for help.

The first person to help was Susie Motola, who arrived around 1230 am, and it took her about an hour to get to him. At this point trapped for over 3 hours. He expressed his desire to get out of the cave.

"Hi Susie, thanks for coming," John said, "but I really, really want to get out."

Susie was hopeful that her team would be able to pull John out of the cave; the plan was to tie ropes to his feet and pull him out the same way he went in, slide in, slide out. She tied a rope around his feet, and they attempted to pull him out; she even cut off his pants to loosen the area.

They thought it would work until his feet hit the tunnel's roof. But unfortunately, it also caused extreme pain to John and his lower extremities due to a lack of blood flow. The team, at that point, realized they would not be able to pull him straight out and thought they would have to bend his legs backward to break them to get him out, which would also cause a shock to his system and possibly kill him before they could pull him out.

Not only was John stuck, but he was also stuck with his head and body at a downward angle, causing blood to rush to his head and making it harder for his heart to circulate his blood properly. Susie noted this when speaking to him; it sounded as if his lungs were beginning to fill with fluid.

The next stage of rescue would be using a pulley system to get him out, as they did the boy who was stuck in 2004 and was rescued successfully. First, however, this system had to be set up, and they had to drill holes in the cave before attempting; it took another 6 hours for the system to be ready.

At this point, John had been stuck for over 12 hours and panic was beginning. Finally, the rescue team got his wife on the radio with John to try to calm him down. Both panicking and scared, he promised his wife he would get out to be there for her and their children.

When the pulley system was ready, it was over 19 hours since John was stuck in the cave. As soon as the system began to pull, the rope at the mouth of the cave went slack. And the rescuer in the cave with John was knocked unconscious from falling debris.

A stone arch had broken, and the system could not pull him out. Once the rescuer regained consciousness, he was removed, and a new rescuer was at John's side; it was reported that John was concerned about the health of the rescuer but was only said to have a broken jaw.

At this point, John began to ask if he was going to die, and they put his wife Emily back on with him. She believed John would survive but had gone unconscious. After 25 hours of John being stuck in the cave and not responding, a paramedic went in to see if he was still alive, once he came out he reported John dead.

Emily, still outside, refused to leave her husband inside the cave and the Sheriff said they would remove him, which was also an impossible task. So the cave was sealed with his body still inside, and now remains a memorial to John Edward Jones.

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