Utah’s Nutty Putty Cave remains a testament to one of the most tragic incidents that resulted in a caver’s worst, unimaginable death. 26-year-old John Edward Jones was a medical student and an experienced spelunker, always eager to explore caves. Back during Thanksgiving week in 2009, he went on a cave-diving trip with a group of his friends and stepped into the notorious Nutty Putty Cave, which are infamous for their sudden twists, narrow crawls, and sharp turns.
According to reports, Jones was curious to locate a particular formation in the cave known as the Birth Canal, an extremely tight vertical passage. However, fate conspired for a blunder as the caver entered an unmapped section of the Nutty Putty cave known as Ed’s Push. The place descended into a dead-end tunnel, where the man squeezed in headfirst. He wriggled forward a few paces using his hip, stomach, and fingers, but unfortunately, it took Jones minutes to realize he was stuck in this position. Unfortunately, John had gone so far into this very narrow tunnel that he could not turn around and back out.
In such a difficult moment, the caver had only one choice: keep moving forward inside the narrow space. The space was so tight that Jones found it difficult to breathe while traversing the L-shaped pinch of the tunnel. The Mirror later reported that his brother, Josh, was the first person to locate John Edward, but it was too late. Josh could only reach out to his brother’s calves but failed.
It’s a shame they sealed the entire Nutty Putty cave entrance after John Edward Jones died there.
They should’ve just sealed off that one passageway, labelled it “Jones’ Locker” as a warning for others.
Instead, people will just end up dying in less explored caves.
— Robbin Banks (@RobbinBanks2016) November 11, 2025
In the heat of the moment, Josh decided to leave his brother and call emergency services to rescue him. John, on the other hand, had by then slipped deeper into the tunnel. The space trapped him in a way that his hands were pinned underneath his chest. Notable YouTuber Brandon Kowallis assisted in the rescue attempts the next day. However, the effort was unsuccessful, and John Edward Jones could not be evacuated from the place.
The rescuers planned to reposition John horizontally, for which they would need some kind of navigation to pull him out from the cave’s deepest part. But the ordeal’s success was very slim. The family of the medical student was informed at this point, alerting them to the gravity of the situation. Rescue teams later heard John kicking frantically and continuing with his gurgling again, as he attempted to break free. Brandon tried using a jackhammer to break the rocks surrounding John Edward, but they only crumbled into loose material.
Brandon Kowallis later revealed that, by this time, John had been making some strange sounds, including deep, gurgling breaths as if his lungs were filling with fluid. He even recalled, shockingly, that John had told him he could see angels and demons around him.
They sometimes do when they are mapping virgin caves these days. Nutty Putty had been mapped for the most part, the caves do go further but the squeezes are too tight and too angular. John Edward Jones thought he was making his way down a long push called the Birth Canal that…
— A Recluse (@northicex2) November 11, 2025
In his words, “I shifted my position a little and tapped him on the leg. I could hear him breathing deeply, as though his lungs were filling with fluid. Then his feet shifted as though he were trying to maneuver his legs out of the crack he was jammed in. The kicking looked fairly frantic, and after a second, he stopped, and it looked as though he had drifted into unconsciousness. I continued tapping him on the legs and hip to see if I could get a response, but there was no response.”
Later that night, Brandon again crept inside to check on John Edward Jones. The former tried to remove the caver’s shoe and check his temperature, but the thermometer read nothing. Kowallis then tried to shift John’s legs and shoes a little, which felt noticeably heavier than before. The evidence was clear, and a paramedic who went the closest to his body pronounced him dead due to a heart attack.
Since the body of John Edward Jones was never brought out, the entrance to the Nutty Putty Caves was permanently sealed off. A week later, the caves’ central openings were filled with concrete, entombing the trapped traveler forever. The place was thereafter declared a public health risk.
