John Edward Jones, 26, got stuck in the cave just days before Thanksgiving in 2009

It was a few days before Thanksgiving in 2009 when John Edward Jones, his brother and a few others went to explore a cave in Utah, about 55 miles from Salt Lake City.

An experienced spelunker, Jones — a father of one with another child on the way — chose to explore a section of the Nutty Putty Cave known as the “birth canal,” a narrow passageway that eventually opened to a larger area, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

As he worked his way through the cave system, he discovered that he wasn’t in the intended location, but rather an unmapped chamber, which was even more narrow.

He tried to turn his 6-foot, 190-pound frame around, but became wedged headfirst with no wiggle room inside the “L-shaped pinpoint,” which was just 18 inches by 10 inches wide, according to the outlet.

The 26-year-old medical school student was unable to back up and wedged himself further into the small space with each breath.

“Seeing his feet and seeing how swallowed he was by the rock, that’s when I knew it was serious,” his brother Josh Jones told The Salt Lake Tribune. “It was really serious.”

Initially, Josh tried to rescue John and pull him out of the passageway, but was unsuccessful. He then alerted authorities to the Nutty Putty Cave, named due to the soft, brown clay found in its passages.

Shawn Roundy, a rescuer with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, told the Deseret News that there were difficulties reaching John, as he was stuck in “absolutely the worst spot in the cave.”

Nutty Putty Cave

“It’s very narrow, very awkward, and it’s difficult to get rescuers down there,” Roundy said. “It’s a really tight spot, but we’ve been able to get around him. We were able to hold his hand at some point.”

Initially, the rescue seemed promising when a rope-pulley system was used, helping to hold his weight as he pushed himself out of the cramped space.

At that point, however, John had been hanging, headfirst, at a near 80-degree angle for more than eight hours, said Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tom Hodgson.

During the attempted rescue, rescuers were able to give John an IV, food and water, and he was able to speak to his pregnant wife on a police radio.

For several hours, things looked optimistic, as John was freed from the crevice. However, police told Deseret News there was an “equipment failure,” causing the rope system that was hoisting the spelunker to drop him back into the same, narrow gap, 125 feet below ground level and 700 feet into the cave.

After 27 hours of rescue efforts, police reported that John was no longer responsive. He died just minutes before the calendar flipped to Thanksgiving Day.

“Due to the circumstances with his body being held the way it was and being wedged, it was most likely difficult to get a full, deep breath,” Sgt. Spencer Cannon told Deseret News. “It would have affected his ability to breathe adequately.”

Following John’s death, the family issued a statement, noting that he will be remembered for “his good nature, delightful sense of humor, strong work ethic, a genuine love of people, a masterful ability to relate to children, a love of and unwavering faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and his commitment to his family as an amazing husband, father, son and brother.”

Utah County Sheriff car

“We’ll never fully understand how or why it was John’s time to leave us. But we find comfort knowing that he fulfilled his purpose here on Earth, and that we will be reunited with him again. Thank you, and God bless all of you on this Thanksgiving Day,” the statement at the time read.

Following the tragedy, questions arose about what to do next, and it was determined that retrieving the body was too dangerous. Instead, explosives were used to seal the cave permanently, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. The entrance of the cave was filled with concrete, entombing the body inside.

Today, the inaccessible cave acts as a memorial and is informally known as John Jones Hill. A bronze plaque with John’s face is mounted on a rock.

John Edward Jones, John Jones Hill

The location of John Jones Hill.
Google Maps
Five years after his death, his widow, Emily Jones-Sanchez, spoke to Utah’s Deseret News about the lasting effects of that pre-Thanksgiving day.

“Definitely for the first few months, I just felt really buoyed up, I felt okay,” she said. “I was obviously devastated, and I missed John, and it was rough, but I felt full of faith. I felt like Heavenly Father is going to take care of us and it’s going to be okay.”

She later added, “The part that got me down was the feeling that my whole life, all my plans had been totally obliterated. I planned on helping John get through medical school, raising our family together and being a mom.”

In 2016, a documentary titled The Last Descent was released to document the incident.