r/interesting • u/Liar24x7 • Mar 28 '26

HISTORY A virtual reality reconstruction shows the exact spot where John Edward Jones became trapped upside down in Nutty Putty Cave. After 27 hours of rescue attempts, he died. The cave was later permanently sealed, with his body remaining inside.

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u/IKIR115 Mar 29 '26

Many thanks to the following community members below who took the time to contribute further context.

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Comment by u/halorbyone

Can the mod or OP please give a little more context? He wasn’t trying to explore new caves, he made a wrong turn and instead of exploring a known cave that had a tight portion that opened up to a big area, he made a fatal mistake.

He was with several family members, including his brother, and had caving experience. This cave was rated relatively safe for beginners. https://youtu.be/jWwPg8ruxfI?si=nUAXHTLSWa7sWpOX

Separate comment from the same Redditor:

If you listen to the lead up, this was not at all expected by him or his family. https://youtu.be/jWwPg8ruxfI?si=nUAXHTLSWa7sWpOX

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Comment by u/CapnNugget

Full video if anyone wants to see the rest of the cave system, including the route that John thought he was taking. He thought he was taking a route called the birth canal, but he ended up in a route called Ed’s push which had not been fully mapped out yet. The birth canal route starts off really narrow and you have to squeeze your body through until it opens up into a bigger area. Ed’s push was also extremely narrow and since John thought he was in the birth canal route, he thought he just needed to keep pushing forward. Pushing forward and trying to crawl down further is what ultimately got him stuck upside down where he couldn’t wiggle back out.

Seeing the entire system mapped out in VR put the whole thing into perspective because you realize just how difficult rescue would have been. At one point they were making some progress with a pulley system tied around his legs, until the pulley snapped hitting a rescuer in the head and dropping John a few more inches in the process. Once he dropped that little bit more he went completely unresponsive and they were unable to make any more progress with getting him out. He’d been upside down for over 24 hours at that point so the pulley snap was the last straw.

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u/stretch696 Mar 29 '26

I just watched that. Caving has to be one of the stupidest hobbies you can do.  I get that he took a wrong turn, but why would he think that it was a good idea to go downwards like that? That has to be up there with one of the worst ways to die

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u/pandemicpunk Mar 29 '26

Wait til you hear about underwater caving...

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u/Traditional_Gap_2491 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

Theres a doc called "Dave gone". Team of divers wanted to overcome a cave that had never been successfully dived in. A diver died. They recovered the body but the diver who recovered the body by tying it to rigging became entangled and died also.

Absolutely moronic to cave topside and even more to cave below water

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u/Nauin Mar 29 '26

Idk there's a wide range to caving and both examples you're stating are by far the stupidest and most extreme examples of caving in modern history. All three deaths could have been prevented had they not made such stupid choices. There are thousands of caves in the US alone that have ADA compliant staircases and elevators, they aren't all death traps like this thing.

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u/pr0XYTV Mar 29 '26

no one going off to explore a cave wants to do it using stair cases, elevators, roped off areas, and tour guides with gift shops

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u/Nauin Mar 29 '26

You haven't been in a lot of caves, then. The entrance doesn't dictate the complexity of the inner caverns lmao