It was supposed to be a fun family outing. Instead, John Jones got stuck 15 years ago this week in Utah’s Nutty Putty Cave, upsidedown, with no way out.
For 27 hours, rescuers worked to get John free. They tried everything they could imagine: digging, chipping, lubricating with peanut oil. They squeezed a ball between his forehead and the cave wall so he could push with his head while they pulled with their hands and ropes on John’s ankles, the only part of him reachable through the narrow window.
Ultimately, they couldn’t extract John, nor bring out his body.
Brandon Kowallis was the last man to see John alive.
Kowallis, a caver who daylights as Salt Lake Community College’s concurrent enrollment director, got called out to Nutty Putty Cave at the 20th hour. The other cavers were injured or exhausted, and Kowallis, who helped map the cave, knew it better than almost anyone.
As the 15th anniversary of the tragedy approached, Kowallis took The Salt Lake Tribune to Nutty Putty’s entrance and then inside another nearby cave to show what it was like inside.
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