10 Horrific Facts About The Death Of John Edward Jones, Whose Body Remains In Utah’s Nutty Putty Cave

6 /10 His Head Was Filling Up With Blood

Being upside down is dangerous even if you are not in a tight spot in some cave. When upside-down, the heart has to make a strenuous effort to fight gravity and prevent the body’s blood from going to your head.

After twenty-something hours, John’s heart couldn’t go any longer: he was losing consciousness and regaining it for moments, as his head filled with blood.

During those times, he must have felt an unbearably increasing pressure in his chair and an increasing sense of despair.

5 /10 All Rescue Attempts Had Failed Before His Death

But by a few hours before his death, all rescue attempts had already failed. A complicated system of ropes and pulleys was being put in place to extract him from the tight passage, but, at one point, after all, preparations were nearly ready, something terrible happened: one of the pulleys came out of its base, and the whole operation failed.

Unfortunately, the cave’s walls were made mostly of clay and couldn’t hold the force of all the ropes being pulled.

4 /10 He Died Of Suffocation

Finally, after a long and maddening ordeal, John Edward Jones died around midnight of the next day, after spending nearly twenty-eight hours trapped in that hole; his arms pressed against his chest and his head feeling like it was about to explode from all the blood.

But the cause of his death was, in the end, suffocation: he had been too long without breathing correctly, and the body, unable to expel it and obtain oxygen, filled up with carbon dioxide.

3 /10 They Made A Movie

In 2016, a movie was made about John’s death, called The Last DescentThe Last Descent. A dramatized account of the events, it features Chadwick Hopson in the role of John, Alexis Johnson in the part of his wife Emily, and Landon Henneman in the role of Aaron.

This troubled rescuer is with him until the end. Be sure to check it out if you are interested!

2 /10 The Cave Was Closed Forever

After what happened with John Edward Jones, authorities decided to close the Nutty Putty cave forever on November 27th, 2009.

This came out of a mutual accord between the Utah government, the owners of the cave (which sits on private land), and John’s family since an integral element of the closure required their collaboration: to leave John inside and seal the cave.

1 /10 His Body Is Still There

And, indeed, John Edward Jone’s body is still in there, in the same narrow passage where he died, in the Nutty Putty cave.

Though a decision motivated by the dangerousness of the operation to retrieve a person that was already dead, it’s sad to think that, after that, John never got out of that tight, asphyxiating hole where his promising life came to an end.