The Dyatlov Pass Incident – The Bodies

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Part 2:

The Bodies.

After discovering the collapsed tent of the Diatlov group, rescuers searched in vain for the missing hikers, hoping they were braving out the harsh Russian winter in a cave or abandoned hut.

The truth, however, was far more gruesome.

Only meters away from the abandoned campsite, the bodies of their friends lay silently beneath the pristine snow, each having suffered a multitude of mysterious injuries.

On the morning of the 27th of February, the search and rescue party made an early start, keen to determine the missing hiker's direction of travel away from their abandoned tent.

They were soon joined by a larger group of volunteers as well as members of the Russian military.

Looking down the hill from the campsite, the rescuers discovered at least eight sets of footprints, possibly nine, descending the slope towards the edge of a wood at the very base of the mountain.

Bizarrely, most of the tracks looked as if they had been made by people wearing only socks.

In some instances, the people appeared to be barefoot.

Only a few photos of the footprints survive to this day as, at the time, there was not much effort made to catalogue them.

By the time the rescuers had arrived en masse, all that was clear was that the prints surrounded the tent at first, then turned towards the tree line at the foot of the hillock.

As the rescuers followed the prints, they could not help but wonder what might have sent the hikers rambling into the freezing cold without proper footwear.

Even more curious was the fact that the order of the prints changed dramatically as the rescuers followed them down the slope.

The steps at the campsite clearly indicated a haphazard and panicked flight away from the tent, diverging outward in multiple directions.

But a hundred meters or so further down the mountain, they seemed to regroup.

Later examination of the reports and the photos indicates that the group was walking in single file.

Based on the stride lengths, a particularly tall man seemed to be walking at the back of the column.

Even more curious was the fact that the path seemed to give an impression of a deliberate, almost orderly descent.

Though several trails split off from the group at times, they soon rejoined the singular line.

Other footprints were also discovered and photographed, but both investigators and those present that day have been unable to determine if these were left by the missing hikers, the rescuers, or another party altogether.

From the weight distribution, they could tell that the hikers were no longer running but taking calm, methodical steps.

Finally, after roughly 500 meters, the prints seemed to disappear completely, apparently covered by snowfall.

The woods were situated almost a mile downhill on the opposite side of the pass.

They were not particularly thick, but one tree clearly stood out amongst the rest.

A large cedar towered over the surrounding saplings, yet this was not the only reason rescuers gravitated towards it.

Mikhail Sharovin, who had helped find the tent the previous evening, noticed something dark next to the larger tree.

As he and the other rescuers got closer, they found their next clue, the remnants of a small fire.

Moreover, many of the branches of the cedar tree had been broken off or snapped.

In some cases, the broken branches reached heights of up to 5 meters, suggesting that someone had almost certainly climbed it.

Another rescuer, Gayorgi at Menaki, stated that there was further evidence of branches being cut off fir trees situated some 20 meters around the fire.

The find was promising, as it proved that someone had made it down the mountains and had taken deliberate steps to ensure their, and possibly others, survival.

But the excitement was fleeting.

No more than 3 meters from the fire, Rescuers discovered the body of Yuri Doroshenko.

At 180 centimeters tall, Doroshenko was most likely the member of the party walking at the back of the column as they descended the mountain.

His reputation for being brave in the face of danger further supports this assumption.

By all accounts, he would have absolutely done everything possible to save his comrades, especially Xena.

Still,

No amount of bravery could make up for the fact that Yuri was vastly unprepared for the weather conditions he would face outside the tent.

He wore only a sleeveless cotton undershirt under a short-sleeved checkered shirt and shorts.

Curiously, his underwear had been ripped inside the thigh on the left side and his socks were mismatched.

The 21-year-old wore no shoes and the sock on his left foot had been burned.

A post-mortem examination of Doroshenko would reveal minor cuts and bruises all over his body.

Not only were his nose, lips and one of his ears covered in dried blood, but his upper lip was swollen, as if he had been struck in the mouth.

His fingers and the backs of his hands were all severely frostbitten, to the point that the examining technician said he would have required amputation had he survived.

He also had bruises and bleeding on the back surface of his right hand.

Both Yuri's left foot and the hair of his right temple had had been burned, with the latter showing evidence of pine needles and moss.

But perhaps most interesting of all was the grey foam-like substance found on his cheeks, which suggested Doroshenko had suffered from a pulmonary edema.

Lividity, a term referring to the pooling of blood at the lowest part of the body after death, suggested that Yuri had been moved at some point after he died.

His official cause of death was listed as hypothermia.

As the rescuers removed the snow from Doroshenko's body, they quickly discovered that he was not alone.

Next to him, lying perfectly parallel, was the body of 23-year-old Gyorgi Krivonoshenko.

The practical jokester and musician wore nothing but an undershirt, a long-sleeve checkered shirt, swimming pants and long underpants.

His left sock was torn whilst his other foot was completely bare.

As with Doroshenko, minor bruises and abrasions were found on his abdomen and various limbs.

There was also a particularly large bruise on his left buttock, as well as abrasions on both his left thigh and shin.

Later examination revealed that pieces of skin had ripped off the top of Krivonoshenko's hands.

In a horrific twist, the flesh from one of his knuckles had later been found in his mouth, suggesting that he had bitten himself, possibly as a way of staying awake or, if he had been hiding, in order to stifle a cry.

Unlike his dead comrade, Krivonoshenko had bleeding at the back of his head and occipital region, which the attending physician equated to damage to his temporalis muscle.

The tip of his nose was also missing and, like Doroshenko, he had suffered burns on his leg and hands.

Krivonoshenko's death too was listed as hypothermia.

In the case of both men, the time of passing was roughly estimated to be around 6-8 hours after their last meal.

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From the moment Doroshenko and Krivonoshenko's bodies were discovered, the tone of the rescue efforts became far more somber.

But the fire was not only the scene of two grisly deaths, it offered important clues as to what might have happened to the other seven hikers.

There were several woolen cotton socks scattered around the site, and the number of cuts to nearby trees clearly indicated that more people had been here at some point.

In fact, one of the rescuers pointed out that many of the higher-up branches from the cedar tree had simply been broken and not used for the fire.

To some of the men, it almost seemed as if the person who climbed the tree was looking to get a clearer view of the tent from which they had fled.

By now, the route between the cedar tree and the campsite had been well trodden by dozens of rescuers, but the snow was only just beginning to reveal its secrets.

Not long after the discovery of the two Yuris, a rescuer came across the barely visible body of Igor Dyatlov, 300 meters from his companions, heading back towards the tent.

The group's 23-year-old leader was found face up and completely covered with snow.

Both his hands were clasped together in front of him, with his arms tight against his chest.

He wore an unbuttoned sleeveless vest made from fur that had originally belonged to Yuri Yudin, who would later say that he gave it to Doroshenko before leaving the group.

Diatlov also wore a blue sweater and a long-sleeved cotton shirt.

Unlike his fellows, he also wore snow pants.

However, he was shoeless.

On his left foot, he had a cotton sock, on his right, a woolen one.

The watch on his wrist had stopped at 5.31am.

Like the other bodies, Igor was covered in minor abrasions and bruises.

Blood was found on his lips and his lower jaw was missing an incisor.

Given the intact mucosa, This tooth was most likely lost long before the trip.

The coroner reported that injuries to his hands were consistent with those which tend to occur during a fistfight, but there were no internal injuries.

Eventually, Dyatlov's death was ruled due to exposure.

The search of the hillside intensified after the discovery of Dyatlov, and as the day wore on, the rescuers stumbled across the body of Zeneda Kolmogorova.

The 22-year-old was discovered 640 meters from the cedar tree, roughly a third of the way back to the tent.

Unlike Igor, she was face down and more heavily dressed.

In total, she wore two hats, a long-sleeved undershirt, two sweaters, and another shirt boasting a torn right sleeve.

The attending physician took note that both of her sweaters were inside out.

which is not an uncommon practice amongst hikers who are trying to dry clothes whilst wearing them.

From the waist down, Xena wore layered cotton pants, trousers, ski pants and three pairs of socks.

She also had no footwear.

She had suffered an injury to the lower right lumbar region, which left a bruise measuring at least a foot long.

One physician noted that she appeared to have been hit with a blunt object, such as a baton or the butt of a rifle.

Though many have and continue to speculate that Zena's relationship with her ex, Doroshenko, and potential new boyfriend Dyatlov had caused friction in the group, medical examiners determined that she had not been sexually active at the time of her demise.

Her cause of death was ruled hypothermia, with the addition of a rather cryptic phrase, due to a violent accident.

When the sun finally set on the 27th of February, hope amongst the rescuers had dwindled.

However, they at least had work to do.

The four bodies discovered thus far needed to be thawed and examined as soon as possible.

With any luck, a closer inspection might provide at least some clues as to what happened to them, and to the others.

Unfortunately, Rushtem Slobodin's body was not discovered until the 5th of March 1959.

To the rescuer's shock, his corpse lay almost directly between Dyatlov and Kolmogorova, around 480 meters from the cedar tree.

Right away, one thing stood out about Slobodin's body.

He was wearing footwear.

Although this amounted to only one felt boot on his right foot.

He also had on a long-sleeved undershirt, shirt, sweater, two pairs of pants and four pairs of socks, making him amongst the most warmly dressed of the hikers so far.

The other difference was in his injuries.

Like the others, Slobodin had minor wounds all over his body, but at some point he had fractured his skull.

The fracture ran about 17cm up the side of his head and had caused significant hemorrhaging.

But despite suffering such a horrendous injury, it was not serious enough to have caused his death.

Nor were there many bruises on his knuckles and face or the skin that seemed to be missing from his right forearm.

In the end, Slobodin also died from exposure.

At this point,

even the rescuers who had no reason to suspect that anything but a terrible accident had befallen these five people were having trouble putting together the clues before them.

For instance, Doroshenko and Krivonoshenko had been very lightly dressed, their bodies found wearing little more than their underwear and longjohns.

Diatlov, but especially Kolmogorova and Slobodin, on the other hand, were better dressed, although the clothing they had on was nowhere near sufficient to withstand such low temperatures.

The completion of the autopsies only deepened the mysteries, especially when it was discovered that, with the exception of Dyatlov, all the other bodies had been moved after death.

Ten people had gone into the Ural Mountains that January, and thus far only six had been accounted for.

Whatever condition they were in and wherever they were, it was imperative that the other four hikers be found, but the wait would be agonising.

Indeed, the bodies of the last four hikers were not discovered until two months later when the snow began to melt.

A Mansi native by the name of Kurakov was out with his dog when he noticed cut branches forming a trail, which receded some 75 meters further back into the woods behind the cedar tree.

The path led to a 6 meter deep ravine where rescuers were greeted with an intriguing clue.

A pair of black cotton pants.

Despite their excitement at the find, the ravine was still half filled with snow.

However, on the 5th of May, crews worked tirelessly to dig it out, finally bringing the four-month search to its conclusion.

Inside the den were the remaining four hikers, two hastily constructed shelters and several piles of cedar sticks which they likely used to minimize their contact with the surrounding snow.

To many of the rescuers, the discovery of the den brought some long-awaited answers.

For instance, all four of the hikers found inside were better dressed than the previous victims.

In fact,

It was later discovered that only one of them had died from hypothermia.

It was therefore assumed that these four had taken clothes from the other dead bodies found near the cedar tree.

They also seemed to have survived for at least some time following the events that sent the party fleeing from the tent.

However, as they began to recover and examine these remaining cadavers,

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At first, things appeared fairly similar.

Alexander Kolevatov was wearing multiple layers of clothing on his upper and lower body, some of which had burn marks.

Though he wore no shoes, his feet were protected by several layers of socks.

He had clearly died of hypothermia, though he also had a broken nose and an open wound behind his ear.

His neck was described as deformed during the autopsy.

indicating that he may have suffered an injury to the upper spine as well.

Hauntingly, Alexander was missing his eyes as well as the soft tissues around them, which left his skull exposed.

But even that was not the strangest part of his autopsy.

At some point during the investigation, portions of his clothing were found to be slightly radioactive.

Alexander Zolotoriov's body was right next to Kolevatov's.

as they had died embracing one another back to breast.

Those who knew the man said that the den was most likely his idea.

The oldest and most experienced member of the group, he had seen military action on the Russian front, where such dens were a common method to stay warm.

And in a way, it worked, because Zolotoriov had not died from hypothermia.

In fact, He had multiple layers on both his upper and lower halves as well as a set of leather shoes known as burka.

However, his fate had been far worse.

His autopsy revealed that all of the bones in the top half of his right rib cage had been fractured.

He also had a gaping wound to the right side of his head, a cut so deep that the skull bone had been exposed.

Like Kolevatov, he was also missing his eyes and eyelids.

Curiously, he was found with a pen in his right hand and a piece of paper in his left, but had died before he could write anything down.

As if his fate were not bad enough, Zolotoriov's birthday was the 2nd of February, meaning he either died on or just before he would turn 38.

Just two meters away from the other two lay the body of 23-year-old Nikolai Tibubrinyul.

He too was well insulated from the Siberian elements.

In fact, it has been theorised that he and perhaps Zolotoriov might have been outside of the tent when the unknown tragedy struck, as they were the only two individuals wearing shoes.

Unfortunately they were also amongst the worst injured.

Bryn Yul had died from a massive impact to the skull, with multiple fractures to the temporal bone and extensions to the frontal and sphenoid bones.

The autopsy technician was adamant that this sort of injury would have left him unable to move and would have most likely left him unconscious.

Minus the glaring head wound, Bryn Yul's injuries were light, just a bruise on the upper lip and a hemorrhage on the lower forearm.

The last of the bodies to be retrieved was that of Lyudmila Dubanina.

the young girl who had written so cryptically about her experience in the days leading up to the mysterious mysterious deadly event.

Unfortunately of all the group members, her body was found in the worst state.

She was discovered lying up against one of the walls of the den with her head tilted back.

Though well insulated otherwise, her feet were covered only by parts of a sweater she had managed to cut into two pieces.

Like Zolotoriov, she had also suffered a mysterious crushing injury to her chest.

All but eight of her ribs had been broken.

Her eyes, tongue, and the soft tissues around the mouth and eyelids were also missing.

As if that were not horrific enough, the coroner found a significant amount of blood in her stomach, which suggested her tongue was likely removed while she was still alive.

The injuries to Dubanina, Zolotoriov, and Brynyol were of particular interest.

The coroner reported that they did not exhibit the blunt force trauma associated with any kind of attack using melee weapons.

Instead, they were the sort of injuries only seen in car accidents or explosions.

They were inflicted at high speed and caused by a huge amount of pressure.

Needless to say, Authorities were initially baffled.

They could have accepted one or two hikers having lost their lives, but the deaths of nine highly experienced individuals seemed incomprehensible.

The campsite was examined and re-examined countless times, and from the evidence gathered, investigators were able to piece together a rough idea of what happened.

Forensic examination of fibres in the tent material determined that the cuts had been made from the inside, though this was later debated.

The main entrance was still buttoned up, suggesting that none of the group had left the tent in this way.

They had all exited through the large hole in the side canvas.

Many of their belongings were left behind, things that would have otherwise saved their lives, including layers of protective clothing.

As previously noted, The footprints leading away from the tent indicated panic, but this seemed to wear off by the time the group was halfway down the hill when they started slowly walking almost in single file.

Upon reaching the tree line at the bottom of the slope, it is assumed that Doroshenko and Krivonoshenko, the least well-dressed, quickly began to suffer from hypothermia.

The hikers huddled around a hastily lit fire in order to keep themselves warm.

but it was most likely not sufficient enough.

And as they could not see the tent from their position, it is surmised that somebody climbed the large cedar tree in order to survey the scene and ascertain whether it was safe to return.

Investigators believe that three members of the group, freezing and already in the initial stages of hypothermia, decided to brave the elements and make their way back to the tent.

The remaining four members stayed behind to look after Doroshenko and Krivonoshenko, hoping the other three would return with provisions.

Little did they know it, but Dyatlov, Slobodin and Kolmogorova would expire at various stages of their ascent.

After the deaths of Doroshenko and Krivonoshenko, and with still no sign of the other three, The remaining four members decided to head into the woods for better protection from the weather.

Stumbling through the darkness, three of them fell from a height of six meters into the ravine and suffered appalling injuries.

An alternative to this theory is that they all made it to the bottom of the ravine, but were crushed under a massive collapse of ice and snow from above.

All members of the group now lay dead or dying, as the snow and wind howled across the slopes of Holot Siakul.

Authorities were fairly confident that this is what happened, or some small variation of it at least.

However, the question on everybody's lips was, what on earth compelled these individuals to leave the safety of their tent in such a panicked and distressed state?

Something must have taken place at the campsite, which disturbed them so much that they prioritised fleeing the scene over the structural integrity of their only shelter and of protecting themselves against the sub-zero temperatures.

And this is the crux of the entire mystery.

What was that event?

Join us tomorrow for our final part, where we discuss the various theories surrounding what might have taken place.

Bedtime stories.