Entering the cave
On 25 November 2009, a man entered Nutty Putty Cave.
John Edward Jones never came back out after getting trapped.
John entered with three others to explore the ‘Big Slide’.
It is a vast underground space inside the cave.
A fatal wrong turn
However, the group chose a tighter route called ‘The Birth Canal’.
It had cramped conditions and a turnaround point at the end.
Unfortunately, the 26-year-old took a wrong turn.
He went into an unmapped passageway by mistake.
He believed he had reached the turnaround point.
Instead, he became trapped headfirst in a tiny space.
Last person to see him
Cave explorer and YouTuber Brandon Kowallis was reportedly the last person to see John alive.
He joined rescue efforts near the end and wrote about it in a blog.
Kowallis was told John’s condition was ‘quickly going downhill’.
He heard John was “seeing angels and demons around him”.
Rescue attempts fail
Kowallis crawled in until his feet touched John’s.
He tried to speak, but heard only ‘a deep gurgling breath’.
Attempts using pulleys and drilling away rock did not work.
Later, Kowallis checked vitals near midnight.
He could not hear a heartbeat or detect breathing.
A paramedic then went in and pronounced John dead.
Final words and sealing
Susie Motola spoke with John while he was trapped upside down.
He told her: “Hi Susie, thanks for coming, but I really, really want to get out. I’m going to die right here. I’m not going to come out of here, am I?”
It was then decided to seal Nutty Putty Cave.
The aim was to stop anyone else getting trapped.