Tight Squeeze

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Today's podcast will feature two claustrophobia-inducing stories about cave explorers.

The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.

The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

The first story you'll hear is called Into the Dark, and it's about a man who faces a nightmare nightmare in a bat cave.

And the second and final story you'll hear is called Last Wish, and it's about an explorer who tries to find a new undiscovered chamber inside of a cave.

But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

So, if that's of interest to you, please offer to go skydiving with the Amazon Music Follow button, but be sure to replace their parachute with a trash bag.

Okay, let's get into our first story called Into the Dark.

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On August 4th, 2019, a 28-year-old man named Sumbora left his farm in rural Cambodia and headed off into the jungle.

His goal that day was to climb the nearby Chokrai Mountain and try to harvest as much bat guano as possible.

So bat guano is bat poop and it makes excellent fertilizer.

And in the jungles of Cambodia, there are all these mountains, including Chakrai Mountain, that have these cave systems full of bats.

So it's a great place to go looking for bat guano.

And Sum and his family, they would go out there and harvest as much as they could in order to support their farm.

This is kind kind of like their main business.

And so on this particular day, Sum was not just going to climb this mountain and go into random caves and hope for the best.

Today, his mission was to go to one cave in particular that he knew had a ton of Bat guano inside of it, mostly because the other people in the area that went out harvesting Bat guano, they wouldn't go into this cave.

And the reason for that is the cave was really, really narrow and tight and frankly dangerous because of it.

And so they didn't go into it.

But Sum was a very slight guy with a narrow frame, and so he could basically get himself into tight spaces and reap the benefits of places like this cave.

And so after hiking for about an hour through the jungle and then up this mountain, Sum finally reached the entrance to this particular cave.

And it was an opening that was about three feet by three feet, and you really couldn't see very far into it.

But Sum knew what he was doing and pretty much immediately got down on his stomach.

He got his flashlight out, he took his guano bag, which had a long strap coming off of it so he could drag it behind him, and he began wriggling his way into this opening.

Now, the way this cave system roughly worked is there was this narrow entrance that went kind of straight ahead like a tunnel.

And then periodically, as it continued along, there'd be these kind of like pockets, these openings, where it would get big enough where Sum could actually get up onto his hands and knees and kind of move around a little bit.

And it was inside of these pockets, these caverns, where all the bats would be.

And that's where most of their poop was.

And so all Sum was trying to do as soon as he went inside this cave is get to these caverns and then do his harvesting.

And so Sum, he wriggled his way forward, he got through that first tunnel section and he entered the first cavern.

And sure enough, there were quite a few bats on the ceiling and there was all this back guano, about a pound of bat guano.

And so he scooped it all up, he put it into his bag, and then he kept on moving through the tunnel into the next cavern.

And as he was making his way down that second stretch of tunnel, shining his light ahead, he saw what looked like the walls moving up ahead when he was looking into the next cavern.

But he knew that was not actually the wall moving.

There was a whole bunch of bats in this next cavern.

And so from his perspective, it seemed like there were way more bats in that cavern than this one.

And so in theory, this next cavern was going to have a ton of bat guano, potentially all he would need for this entire journey.

He could just pack his bag and leave after this next cavern.

However, there was a small problem.

Now, Sum had come to this spot many times before, and he knew that going from the first cavern to the next cavern had a little bit of a hiccup.

On the ground, as you crossed the threshold into this second cavern, was a crack in the ground that basically ran perpendicular to the way this tunnel ran.

Now, the crack was only about six inches wide, but when you were over it shining a light down into this crack, it was like it went on forever.

It was like this unending hole in the earth.

And so Sum always just got creeped out climbing over this crack because there was really no way to go around it.

You really had to go right over the top of it because all he was thinking about is like, what's down inside of this deep hole in this cave?

It's reminiscent of how people are scared of really deep oceans like the lassophobia.

It's fear of what's down there.

And so Sum just really didn't like it.

But again, he knew there was going to be a ton of bat poop if he could just cross over that crack.

And so it was worth it.

And so Summi wriggled his way through the tunnel.

He reached the crack.

He kind of shined his light down and again saw just this never-ending pit that just shot straight down into into the earth.

But Sum took a deep breath, he wriggled over the top of it successfully, and after he crossed it and he was about to enter into the cavern to get this huge bat guano payload, he felt something tugging on him, and immediately he was terrified and he whipped his head around wondering what could possibly be grabbing him.

When he realized nothing was grabbing him, it was his guano bag that he dragged behind him with that big strap.

It had gotten stuck on the crack itself.

Sum was immediately relieved because he had really hyped up the idea that maybe there was some monster behind him or something, but there wasn't, and so he just kind of grabbed his strap and kind of jimmied the bag out of the crack.

But as he did, he lost his flashlight.

So he's moving the bag and he kind of fumbles the flashlight and the flashlight rolled backwards into the crack.

And as soon as this happens, Sum is watching with horror as he's seeing the light kind of jostling around as it tumbles down into the crack, but then it comes to a stop.

Like it didn't just fall endlessly into the earth.

It got wedged at some point.

And the light from the flashlight was actually shining straight up.

So it was pretty near the surface.

And so Sum's thinking to himself, okay, that's bad.

I can't lose my flashlight.

I have to be able to see to get the bat poop and to get out of here.

But let me just turn around and I'll reach into that horrible crack and I'll get my flashlight and everything will be okay.

And so Sum carefully backed back down across the crack.

And when he was looking straight down into the crack, he could see the flashlight and it was wedged, pointing straight up, maybe a foot and a half or two feet down.

Now Sum did not want to reach his arm into this crack for all the reasons he was scared of the crack.

Like he doesn't know what's down there, but he really needs his flashlight.

And so Sum kind of backed himself up and mentally prepared himself and then reached into the crack and began blindly reaching down, hoping to grab this flashlight and yank it out as fast as he could.

But as he reached, he couldn't quite get to the flashlight.

And so he began turning and twisting his body and forcing his shoulder deeper and deeper until finally he could touch the flashlight.

And then finally, right as he grabbed the flashlight, something happened.

That night, Sum did not return to his farm.

Now, his family was not actually that worried about it because it was not uncommon for Sum to go out on these guano foraging adventures and be gone for, you know, a couple days at a time.

However, After another two days went by and still Sum had not returned, his family started to get worried.

And so ultimately, Sum's brother decided to go out and look for him.

Sum's brother had often collected guano with Sum in the past, and so he knew roughly where Sum liked to go, including Sum's favorite spot, that cave up in the mountain.

And so when the brother went out looking for him, pretty quickly he found himself in that favorite spot.

Now, Sum's brother was about the same size as Sum, and so he too could navigate this very tight tunnel.

And so that's what he did.

He got down on his stomach, he had his flashlight out, and he yelled into the cave for Sum, but there was no answer.

And so he eventually made his way to that first cavern.

He didn't find sum.

He kept going.

And right as he was about to hit that second cavern, as he shined his light ahead, he saw there was a bag on the ground and it was his brother's guano bag.

And so he knew his brother had to have come here and he began yelling out for his brother, but there was no answer.

And then right as the brother paused for a second just to listen, he heard a faint cry, a human cry.

And he called out, like, is that you, Sum?

And again, he heard another cry.

But he's looking around and he can't see Sum anywhere.

And so the brother just continues shimmying his way towards that second cavern.

And right as he begins to cross over that crack, he hears the cry again.

And it's coming from right below him.

It's coming from the crack.

And the brother takes his flashlight and shines it straight down into that crack.

And there, in the crack, was Sum.

He was wedged all the way inside of the crack.

It would turn out a few days earlier when Sum was in this cave reaching for his flashlight, he couldn't quite get his fingers around the flashlight.

And so he kept turning his body more and more until his body was parallel with the crack itself.

And then finally, right as he's leaning down and he gets his hands in the flashlight, he rolled and fell into the crack.

His whole body basically perfectly fit into the crack and down he went several feet where he wedged into the crack.

And then once he was wedged down there, there was nowhere to go.

He was absolutely trapped.

And so Sum laid in this crack for days, having no expectation he was going to get out.

He was totally wedged, no food, no water.

He was going to die and he knew it.

In fact, he actively wished he had a knife on hand so he could take his own life.

But luckily for Sum, his brother would find him, his brother would go and get help.

And on the fourth day of Sum being trapped inside of this crack, rescuers were able to pull him out and he would make a full recovery.

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The next and final story is called Last Wish.

A little after 3 p.m.

on March 22, 1959, A 20-year-old British college student named Neil Moss stood in a cavern about a thousand feet underground in northern England.

And as he stood there, he was staring with excitement into this dark hole right in front of him.

The cavern that Neil was standing inside of was known as Peak Cavern, and it was one of the biggest and most twisting cave systems in the entire country.

In fact, it was so big that at one point, an entire village of 30 rope makers lived inside of this cave.

And then also, after those rope makers, the cave system became a hideout for criminals and thieves because there were so many secret passageways and basically places to hide inside of this system.

So basically, Peak Cavern was a pretty famous place, and as a result, basically all of it had been mapped out or at least explored by scientists and spelunkers.

Except for this hole right in front of Neil.

It was an entrance to a tunnel that nobody even knew about.

Neil and the amateur exploration group that he was a part of had discovered this entryway about two weeks earlier.

Now, neither Neil nor anybody else in this group had actually gone into this hole yet, and the reason for that was it was pretty dangerous.

I mean, the opening to this tunnel was pretty small.

It was one and a half feet by two feet wide at the opening.

And just looking down into it, I mean, it's a dark hole that you really can't tell how tight or how far it even goes.

And so once you went inside of it, you know, the deeper you got, the higher the risk of entrapment.

And so whoever actually went into this hole really needed to be prepared.

But Neil and the rest of his amateur exploration group really felt like it would be worth it to try to go down this tunnel.

Not just because nobody had done it before, but specifically, they thought there was a chance that beyond this tunnel, basically deep underground, if you followed it long enough, it could lead to another big open chamber that nobody had found before.

And those types of big open chambers, whoever finds them, gets it named after them.

And so Neil and his group were thinking, you know, hey, if we find this big chamber, you know, it'll be named after us.

We'll be famous, at least in, you know, spelunking circles.

But they also understood that there might be nothing at the other end of this tunnel.

It could just be a dead end.

But the only way to know for sure would be if one of the members of this group went into the hole.

Now, in addition to a fear of being trapped in the hole, there were other big issues with blindly crawling into a tunnel no one's been in before.

Like, for example, there could be a sudden drop-off or running water or some other hazard that whoever went into the hole wouldn't know about until they were facing it.

And so naturally, everybody in this group was excited about the hole, but also a little apprehensive about being the guinea pig to actually go into the hole.

And so after the group had kind of stood around the hole for a minute, kind of talking through who was going to do it, Neil had finally courageously volunteered to be the guinea pig.

He would go down.

And in many ways, Neil was kind of like the perfect candidate for this job.

He was smart, he was strong, and most importantly, he was thin, which meant he could navigate a really tight space.

The only drawback to Neil was he was pretty tall.

He was over six feet.

And generally speaking, the best cavers in the world are very short and thin because it allows them to get into the smallest, tightest spaces underground.

And so Neil, who was standing over the hole, began to mentally prepare himself for what he was about to do.

He pulled out his flashlight and he shined it straight down into this hole, which again is a pretty narrow hole, and it basically went straight down.

And as he was shining it, he saw about 12 feet down, the hole kind of turned, and you couldn't see what was beyond it.

And so Neil knew the only part of this trip he would know about is that first 12 feet.

Once he made that turn, I mean, everything beyond that was totally unknown.

Literally no one in the world knew what was beyond it.

But Neil was about to find out.

The cave explorers anchored this 75-foot-long wire ladder that was all rolled up to this rock that was inside the cavern right near the opening to this hole.

And once that was in place, they spooled out the ladder and kind of dumped it down into the hole.

And so it fell 12 feet down and landed right where this tunnel turned and sort of went into oblivion where nobody knows what happened after that.

And so Neil, his job was going to be to go into this hole feet first, go down 12 feet, and then with his feet, as he kind of blindly crawled backwards feet first into the tunnel, he'd be kicking with his feet this ladder, extending it farther and farther into this tunnel.

The idea was this ladder was his way back out again.

So he's basically on top of the ladder, making his way, and at any point he can just grab the ladder and climb back out again.

And so once the ladder was in place and all the cave explorers were kind of waiting for Neil, Neil walked up to the edge of the hole, he took a deep breath, and then he swung one leg into the hole, placed it on one of the rungs of the ladder, put his other leg on the ladder as well, and kind of tested it to make sure the rock that was anchoring the ladder could hold his weight.

Once he was sure it could, he said goodbye to the explorers and then began his descent, feet first, down into the hole.

As Neil slowly and carefully climbed down this ladder during this first 12-foot section, he felt the walls of this hole closing in on him.

When he was close to the bottom of this first section, the walls were literally flush with his shoulders and back.

I mean, this was a really tight space.

And so finally, he got to the very bottom of this 12-foot section, and he was about to step onto what he thought was another rung, because he can't actually see where he's going.

He's just using his feet to feel, and he stepped down, and he felt something hard.

It was the ground, so he had reached the bottom of the 12-foot section.

He kind of tested the ground with his foot, you know, seeing if it would support his weight.

And after feeling confident, he stepped off the ladder and just stood at the bottom of the hole.

At this point, Neil used his feet to kick the ladder that was still coiled up at the bottom of the hole into the next turn, into the next section of the tunnel that he'd be going down.

And as soon as he kicked it, he heard it kind of spool out as it tumbled down this next section.

However, it was not a straight drop like this first section was.

This next section he'd be going into was more of a gradual decline, just based on the sound this ladder was making as it tumbled down.

And so after the ladder had stopped making noise and he knew it had stopped, Neil gave one final look up at his friends above, gave them a little wave, even though he could barely move his hands because it's so tight around him, and then he got down on his stomach and feet first, began shimmying himself down into this next section.

Now, during the first 12 feet and during the initial turn into this new section, Neil had been able to turn his head and basically look down and see where his feet were going.

But after only a few feet of going into this new section, the walls had become so tight on his body that he couldn't even move his head.

He really was blind and had no idea where he was going.

Now, for a lot of people, this would have been a claustrophobic nightmare.

Neil is in this unbelievably tight space.

He has no idea what's going to happen next.

He doesn't know if it's going to get so tight he'll get wedged in there.

It's cold, it's damp.

I mean, it's pitch black in there.

He does have a headlamp, but his head is like kind of pressed to the ground and he can't really move it.

So, you know, he's not really able to look around him.

And periodically, as he was shimmying his way down deeper into this tunnel, he would dislodge rocks from the wall and he would hear them strike the wall as they tumbled down into oblivion.

He had no idea if these rocks were tumbling into a dead end or if they were tumbling off a ledge somewhere, a ledge that he wouldn't be aware of until he got to it.

But for Neil, this environment was something he thrived in.

It was why he was so drawn to cave exploration.

As much as cave exploring was a physical exercise and a physical test, it was much more a mental test.

I mean, can you handle being in these tight spaces and persevering and continuing on when you're all by yourself and it's like danger's all around you?

And also, Neil just loved being alone and in the dark.

So cave exploration was like perfect for him.

When Neil had made it about 10 feet down this new section, his feet touched the rolled up section of the ladder.

And so with his toes, he kind of gave it a kick, and the ladder tumbled for a second and he could hear it, and then it just kind of vanished altogether, like the ladder had gone over a cliff.

And so Neil realized, very likely, just beyond his feet, even though he cannot see it, is a ledge, and very likely either a drop-off or a new cavern.

You know, the thing they hope is on the other end of this tunnel.

And so this was exciting for Neil.

He felt a rush of adrenaline.

You know, there's a new turn in the tunnel.

And for all he knows, this is the cavern they're looking for.

Or it's just another section of tunnel he would have to explore.

But either way, he's making progress.

And so Neil very carefully scooched backwards until he felt the edge, at which point he let his legs go over the edge, he found his footing on the ladder, and it was at this point when he kind of turned around a little bit that he could see this was not some big open cavern he had found.

It was just a turn in the tunnel system.

It was now going back to basically a vertical hole, big enough to fit inside of, but Neil has no idea how deep it goes or what it leads to.

But Neil was totally undeterred.

He lowered his whole body into the section, got on the ladder, and began descending.

And very quickly, as he began this descent, the walls of this section, this new vertical section, were so tight, it was about 18 inches in diameter, that he actually couldn't just go straight down.

His body didn't fit, just trying to maneuver down.

So the only way he could get himself to go down further was to like shimmy himself side to side like a corkscrew, basically forcing his body deeper and deeper into this hole.

And so Neil continued doing this for an additional 18 feet down in this new section of tunnel, which put him at a total of 40 feet down into this tunnel from the entrance where the rest of his friends were.

And when he got down there, 18 feet down, he went to step onto the rung to continue his descent, but his foot hit rock.

And he felt around with his feet, and he realized this tunnel did not lead to a big new chamber.

It instead was a dead end after all.

Now, just to be sure, Neil actually kicked as hard as he could.

You know, he's kind of restricted, but he kicked with his legs as much as as he could to see if maybe this wasn't a true dead end.

Maybe it was just an obstruction and he could clear it.

But he could tell, you know, after a few stomps, this was not moving.

This really was the end.

Now, part of Neil was disappointed because he was hoping that by doing this, they would discover this big new chamber and they'd get it named after them.

But on the other hand, he was also relieved because by this point, it was extremely claustrophobic, even for a guy who thrived in this environment.

You know, by the bottom of this 40-foot section, he is completely wedged in place.

And so Neil decided it was time to head back to the surface, but from where he was at, he couldn't even hear his friends.

He's way down deep in this tunnel.

It's totally pitch black.

And so what he needed to do was just begin climbing back up this ladder.

And then, you know, about halfway up, he could call up to his friends and tell them, hey, you know, I'm returning.

But remember, to get to where Neil is, he has literally forced his body down into this tiny hole, basically corkscrewing himself as deep as he could get.

And so he's totally restricted.

And his arms are basically by his side and his hands are basically pinned in front of his body.

And so Neil tried to grab the ladder, which is literally pressed up against his chest, to begin the ascent.

But even though his fingers could touch the rungs of the ladder, he couldn't actually move his arms to pull himself up the ladder.

He could just hold the rung.

That was it.

But Neil had been in similar situations before.

And what you do is you just use your legs.

You drive with your legs and push your body up until your arms can go above your head, and then you continue the ascent.

However, his legs also were basically in the same situation.

It was so unbelievably tight around his legs that he couldn't lift his legs up.

He could just basically wiggle his feet.

Basically, there was no way physically for Neil to get himself out.

He would need his team up above to pull him out.

And so Neil began shouting as loud as he could, trying to get the attention of his friends up above, you know, telling them, hey, I'm stuck, pull me out.

And then also as best as he could with his hands on the rung, he kind of pulled on the ladder, signaling to them like, hey, get me out of here.

Now, he couldn't really hear anything up above.

It was sort of muffled and, you know, he couldn't tell if they were yelling back down to him.

But as he was holding onto the ladder, he felt a little bit of tension, suggesting they were pulling on him.

However, as he held on, waiting to be pulled up and out, he didn't budge.

Like, despite the tension on this ladder clearly coming from the surface from his friends, he wasn't moving.

And that's when Neil realized he had made a critical mistake.

When he had reached the bottom of this tunnel, when he realized it was a dead end, he had stomped with his feet to confirm it really was a dead end.

And when he had done that, he had inadvertently kicked the rungs of this ladder into a crevice, and then rocks, which he had heard kind of falling when he was kicking, landed on top of it, basically pinning the ladder in place.

Basically, this ladder was now anchored inside the cave, which meant no matter how hard his friends on the surface pulled, they would not be able to pull the ladder up, which meant they couldn't pull Neil up.

And Neil, once he realized this was the issue, he tried to move his feet to clear the rocks off the bottom of the ladder, but he couldn't.

It was too tight around him.

And so, Neil was totally stuck.

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The members of Neil's exploration group pretty much immediately realized this was a crisis.

Because not only was Neil stuck in this cave, but in these tight little tunnels underground, there's limited oxygen.

So it's not just a matter of, oh, you know, we'll figure it out and get Neil out somehow.

It's like, no, you have a limited amount of time before Neil runs out of oxygen down there.

Even if you come up with a solution, it might be too late.

And so immediately, members of the exploration group left Peak Cavern to go get help.

And before long, over 200 people had flooded the cavern, including a mountain rescue unit and a coal mining extraction team and a whole bunch of civilians who were all there to try to figure out how to get Neil out.

Now, at first, Neil was very optimistic about his recovery.

He could hear clearly all the commotion 40 feet above him, he couldn't fully discern what was going on there, but he could clearly tell a major rescue operation was afoot.

And so as ropes were cast down and ladders were cast down to try to get him out and they continued to fail, and as the air he was breathing began to thin out and it was getting harder to breathe, Neil's reaction was to kind of be positive.

He actually began cracking jokes and calling up like, hey, how much longer do I have to wait down here?

But as the minutes turned into hours and none of the efforts by any of the rescuers were working, Neil began to panic.

His heart was racing, not only from his nerves, but also because he was running out of oxygen.

He had begun to grit his teeth really hard to kind of control his fear, but he was really starting to lose it.

At one point, the rescuers threw down an oxygen mask for him to breathe because it was clear the air was becoming a real issue.

But even though the mask literally tumbled down and hit him right on the head, so it's right here, he couldn't get his arms up to put the mask on.

And so there it is, salvation, but he couldn't use it.

And so before long, Neil sort of began drifting in and out of consciousness.

You know, one moment he'd be calling up to his rescuers, you know, asking for an update.

The next, they'd call down to him and get no response.

Clearly, this situation was becoming dire.

Now, to this point, the way the rescue had gone was the rescuers were basically throwing equipment into the hole, be it ladders or ropes or oxygen masks, for Neil to grab onto or put on him.

And they were hoping that basically Neil could get himself out of the hole.

Because the great fear was if we send a rescuer or rescuers plural into this hole to get him, they could get stuck.

And now we have an even bigger problem.

But when Neil began losing consciousness when they couldn't get him to call back to them, they knew they were genuinely running out of time.

And so they began pumping oxygen into the hole to hopefully buy some extra time.

And then they decided, we got to send someone into the hole.

Someone has to go in there, get Neil, and pull him out.

And so one by one, these courageous rescuers went down into the hole, and eight times they tried, and eight times they failed.

All eight either got stuck along the way or they passed out along the way.

Three people actually reached Neil and actually touched Neil, but there was no way to grab him and pull him out.

And so, Neil, who was conscious for a lot of this, like he's hearing and literally in some cases seeing rescue.

It's right there.

It's right in front of him.

But it just didn't work.

By the time the eighth man was pulled back out of the hole, they could hear in the hole this horrible sound, which was Neil gasping for air.

Even though they were attempting to pump air into this hole, it wasn't enough, and Neil just couldn't fill his lungs with enough oxygen.

And so the rescuers yelled into the hole for Neil to just hold on.

They were gonna get him out of there.

Just be strong, hold on.

But by this point, Neil, he wasn't even saying anything back.

He just continued making these awful gasping sounds.

By about 7 p.m., when Neil had been stuck in this hole for four hours, the rescuers decided to send one more guy into this hole, this really small civilian.

And he went down there with a rope to attach around Neil and hopefully pull him out.

And this little civilian managed to get all the way down, all the way to Neil, and when he found Neil, Neil was unconscious, but alive.

And the rescuer put the rope around Neil's shoulders and then signaled to the surface to begin pulling.

And so from the surface, they pulled on this rope, and slowly but surely Neil began to be pulled out of the hole.

And he moved about 18 inches being monitored by the civilian who was down there.

However, because they were pulling so hard on this rope to get Neil to move, the pressure from that rope was basically crushing Neil's chest and he stopped breathing.

And the civilian who was down there with Neil noticed it and yelled up to the group to stop.

And they had to take the rope off because, yeah, they might be able to pull him out this way, but they would kill him.

He would suffocate.

And so once the civilian rescuer came out of the hole, he told the group, like, look, Neil's body is simply too big to be yanked out of the hole safely.

He needs to be conscious and able to contort and twist his body, basically undoing what Neil did to get down there in order to get out again.

Like, we need his participation and he's unconscious, so we can't do that.

And so at this point, the rescuers were totally desperate.

You know, they know Neil is still alive.

They can hear some of his ragged breathing coming out of the hole, but they knew they had to do something drastic right now or Neil was going to die.

And so they came up with this plan for this even smaller rescuer, this woman, to go down into the hole, get to Neil, and break his collarbone to try to shrink his body to be able to pull him out.

And so this woman, she goes down there and she reaches Neil, but she failed to break his collarbone.

And so she too had to come out of the hole, leaving Neil behind.

And so once the woman came out of the hole, it became clear to the rescuers that Neil was not getting out of this hole.

Even though he was just 40 feet away and at this moment, still very much alive, they could hear his ragged breathing, but there was just nothing anybody could do.

And so one of the rescuers called Neil's father and told him, you need to come out to Peak Cavern.

Not long after that, Neil's father, Eric Moss, arrived at Peak Cavern.

Now, he knew going into this that his son was stuck.

That's why he got the phone call to come out here.

But he did not understand just how dire the situation really was.

But as soon as he got to Peak Cavern and saw all these vehicles outside and the hundreds of rescuers coming in and out of the cave with these sad, dark expressions on their faces, Eric knew this was really bad.

And so Eric made his way into Peak Cavern and for hours Eric just stood there in Peak Cavern, hoping to see his son emerge from the hole, hoping to come up and say everything is okay, but he didn't.

And things only got worse.

It eventually began to rain, and unfortunately, Peak Cavern and specifically the hole that Neil was stuck inside of flood when it rains.

And so as rainwater is pouring into this cavern and Neil is still alive but stuck in this hole, they had to make the heart-wrenching decision in front of Neil's father to abandon the operation and get out of the cave, knowing Neil was going to die.

Rescuers were finally able to get back into Peak Cavern at about 3 a.m.

on March 24th, which is approximately 36 hours after Neil got trapped.

By this point, the rains had subsided, the flood had cleared, and so they went in there hoping for a miracle.

And when they got to the hole and listened into it, they actually heard Neil still breathing.

He was still alive.

But it was very clear, he was at the end of his life.

And all they could do was just sit around this hole and listen as Neil took his last few final ragged breaths.

And then eventually they listened as Neil took his final breath, and the hole went silent.

Now, at this point, it was too dangerous to send anybody back down into this hole, and so no one could get physically close enough to Neil to actually confirm that he really is dead.

However, after the hole remained silent for quite a while, a doctor who was on site did walk over and declare Neil dead.

And so at this point, the rescue operation became a recovery operation.

However, as rescuers were getting ready to go back down into the hole to retrieve Neil's body, it was at at this point that Neil's father, Eric Moss, who had been there this whole time and had been witness to the doctor declaring his son dead, it was at this point that he stepped in and said, stop, get everybody out of the cave.

I don't want anybody else to lose their lives.

And so ultimately, Eric made the decision to leave his son's body where it was.

Eventually, once it was 100% certain that Neil really must be dead at this point, they would fill in the hole that Neil had climbed down inside of with loose rocks from the cave, entombing entombing him inside of it forever.

And in his memory, the tunnel that Neil died inside of was named after him.

It's called Moss Chamber.

A quick note about our stories.

They are all based on true events.

But we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

The Mr.

Ballin podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr.

Ballin.

Our head of writing is Evan Allen.

Our head of production is Zach Levitt, produced by Jeremy Bone.

Research and fact-checking by Shelly Hsu, Samantha Van Hoos, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway, and Camille Callahan.

Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Eyre.

Audio editing and post-produced by Witt Lacasio and Cole Lacasio.

Additional audio editing by Jordan Stidham.

Mixed and mastered by Brendan Kane.

Production coordination by Samantha Collins.

Production support by Antonio Minata and Delena Corley.

Artwork by Jessica Klogston-Kiner.

Theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden.

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