Inside the Heartbreaking Rescue Attempt: Why Saving a Man from the ‘Worst Death Imaginable’ Was Impossible

Ever wonder what happens when curiosity meets a cave just a bit too squishy for comfort? The Nutty Putty Cave, a slippery labyrinth west of Utah Lake, lured thrill-seekers and Boy Scouts alike for decades — until 2009, when medical student John Edward Jones got himself stuck for a harrowing 27 hours in what can only be described as pure, unfiltered hell. Despite a battalion of rescuers, including one last-ditch caver who’s since opened up about why saving John was practically a pipe dream, the tight, treacherous passageway claimed his life after a grave navigational mistake. Could things have been different if John had been at his full strength, or was this fate sealed the moment he crawled in? As the cave now rests sealed and turned memorial, the story still gnaws at us — a chilling reminder of nature’s unforgiving grip and our own human limits. LEARN MORE.

A caver who attended the Nutty Putty Cave, where a medical student was stuck for 27 hours of ‘hell’ in 2009, revealed the reason why he was unable to save the man from his fate.

The Nutty Putty Cave, discovered in 1960 by Dale Green, was situated west of Utah Lake, attracting both amateur and professional cavers, as well as Boy Scout troops and adrenaline junkies alike.

However, the slippery and tight cavern was permanently sealed in 2009 after a man named John Edward Jones died after making a grave navigational error.

Last year, one of the last responders to the incident revealed why Jones was unable to be saved, claiming the outcome may have been different if the man had been at his ‘full-strength’.

John Edward Jones was a 26-year-old whose body has never been recovered from the Nutty Putty Cave (Family Handout)

Who was John Edward Jones?

John Edward Jones, a 26-year-old medical student from Utah, was a keen caver who decided to go to the Nutty Putty Cave with his brother Josh and nine of their friends just months after the cave was reopened.

Jones came from a large Mormon family and was expecting his second child with his wife, Emily Jones-Sanchez, before venturing into the once-popular amateur caving destination, which has been sealed off since the incident.

How did John Edward Jones get trapped in the Nutty Putty Cave?

Upon entering the Nutty Putty Cave on November 25, 2009, the six-foot man and his friends explored a large room in the hydrothermal cave known as the ‘Big Slide’.

Wanting something more of a challenge, the party tried to scout out ‘The Birth Canal’, a tight but navigable passageway with a turnaround at the end.

Unfortunately, Jones travelled to an unmapped passageway and moved into a narrow vertical downward fissure that he believed was the turnaround.

The father was trapped for hours (Family handout)

The father became trapped in the gap, which was just 10 inches by 18 inches wide.

After seeing his brother slip deeper into the hole, Josh returned to the surface to recruit people to help get Jones out of the crevice, which he was trapped headfirst in.

Despite working for 27 hours to free the Utah man eventually became unresponsive, with his cause of death confirmed to be cardiac arrest and suffocation.

The man’s body was not recovered, due to officials deeming the rescue mission too perilous.

The passageway was later collapsed with controlled explosives to prevent future accidents.

Why John Edward Jones rescuer couldn’t save him

Cave explorer and YouTuber Brandon Kowallis, reportedly the last person to see Jones alive, detailed how the failed rescue mission was doomed from the start in 2024.

Kowallis, who lives in Salt Lake City, explained that when he arrived at the scene towards the end of the rescue efforts, he learned Jones was ‘quickly going downhill’.

“He was in and out of consciousness and had started talking about seeing angels and demons around him,” he wrote in a blog.

Brandon Kowallis was one of the last rescuers to arrive on the scene (YouTube/brandonkowallis3343)

He added that at one point, Jones’ legs were twitching and that he was expelling gurgling breaths – an indication that fluid was building up in his lungs.

Upon further assessment and trips to see the stuck man, Kowallis wrote that getting Jones, who had since become unconscious, out of the crevice seemed ‘pretty much impossible’.

“Even if we could get him into a horizontal position, he would then have to manoeuvre the most difficult sections of the passage he was trapped in. If he were conscious and had his full strength, there was a minute chance he could possibly do it.

“But even if that was the case, it looked grim.”

He continued: “To get a 210 pound, unconscious person out seemed pretty much impossible.”

Despite the damning assessment, Kowallis spent hours chipping away at rock using a jackhammer before realising it would take him and the team ‘anywhere from three to seven days’ to get Jones out of the hole.

As the team regrouped, the man’s family sent him encouraging words via radio.

The former cave has been made into a makeshift memorial (Find A Grave)

“His wife mentioned a feeling of peace, that everything would be OK. She talked to him about 5 to 10 minutes before I told her that we needed to get back to working at getting him out,” he recalled.

The cave expert later went to check Jones’ vitals and, after reporting his findings to a paramedic, helped the medical expert pronounce Jones dead.

What is at the Nutty Putty Cave now?

Friends, family and mourners have turned the now caved-in entrance of the Nutty Putty cave into a memorial for Jones.

A plaque in honour of the late medical student has been placed at the front, acting as a tombstone as his body lies below.

A movie called The Last Descent, released in 2016, retells John’s story with Chadwick Hopson Jones as Jones and Jacob Omer as his sibling, Josh.