US3 min(s) read
Published 17:31 29 May 2026 GMT
A harrowing new simulation has shown the very moment that a caver who died one of the worst deaths imaginable in ‘Nutty Putty Cave’ would have realized he was done for.
Be warned, if you are in any way claustrophobic, this video is a difficult watch.
It’s already terrifying enough - John Edward Jones, an amateur caver, decided that he wanted to try to squeeze himself through Nutty Putty Cave, a tight and complex network in Utah.
In November 2009, he decided to enter the cave, blissfully unaware that it would be the last thing he ever did.
Not before he died a horrific death stuck inside, though.
He knew to expect tight passages and unmapped caverns, but still, Jones and his brother, also a spelunking enthusiast, decided to press on.
In the end, one wrong turn left him wedged headlong in a cave too tight to pass through, with no hope of being able to climb out and very little chance of rescue.
Despite that, the rescuers tried to help him, before eventually he died one of the worst deaths imaginable and the decision was taken to close up the cave so that no-one else could meet the same grim fate.
Now, a new simulation has shown exactly what that moment of horrific realization would have looked like.
The video, which is mocked up in video game graphics, shows a pair of strange disembodied hands (presumably through the magic of VR) crawling through the labyrinthine cave system.
It’s tight enough, but as the hands continue on down the tight rock tube, things start to get even more narrow and difficult to traverse.
Despite that, the virtual caver presses on, as the pathway turns downwards through an even tighter pass.
He would have believed that he was heading somewhere traversable, but passing over a ledge would have quickly realized that there was no way forward or backwards, and no way out.
That must have been the most horrific feeling possible.
Hell, it’s hard to watch in the simulation.
In real life, Jones became stuck head first in an unmapped area of the caves called the ‘birth canal’ that is just 18 inches wide.
Only 122 meters from the entrance to the caves, it really does go to show how unpredictable this hobby can be.
Just think of the cave divers in the Maldives in recent weeks - not far from safety when tragedy ensued.
Before he died, Jones spoke to his family via a radio, and his wife recalled him having a strange peacefulness towards the end.
Let’s hope so.
After his death, the cave was filled with concrete and a plaque was erected to his memory, and to stand as a warning to other cavers about the inherent dangers of their pastime.
Online, there have been many comments about the terrifying nature of this video.
One person wrote: “You can just see the exact point where that realization would have set in in the real situation.”
Another said: “Watching this makes me breathe manually.”
“He basically just crawled into his own coffin,” wrote a third.
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