The tragic last words of man who died after being ‘swallowed’ by tiny gap in Nutty Putty Cave

On November 24, 2009, 26-year-old medical student John Edward Jones died after becoming stuck in the Nutty Putty Cave for around 28 hours.

John, alongside a group of three friends, had been attempting the locate The Birth Canal, a tight but navigable passageway west of Utah Lake, when disaster struck. The group had misidentified Nutty Putty Cave as The Birth Canal, resulting in John becoming wedged upside down in a 10-by-18-inch fissure.

A huge team of rescue workers came to assist in John’s retrieval, but despite employing a range of tactics and measures, they were unable to save John from the tiny enclosed space. He died from the combination of cardiac arrest and the intense strain placed upon his body from being upside down and compressed.

I looked up “nutty putty cave” to find this graphic obviously but was confronted with real pictures of the guy stuck in the cave and I didn’t like that. pic.twitter.com/ziLNSdl4SO

— Curious Jordan (@fatherjo_) July 1, 2025

Rescuers found that it would have been too difficult to retrieve John Edward Jones’ body from Nutty Putty Cave, so his family agreed that it would serve as his final resting place. Explosives were used to collapse the entryway, and concrete was used to prevent the horrific incident from happening again.

It’s been 15 years since the tragic accident, and now a whole new generation of people are heeding the devastating cautionary tale.

John Edward Jones’ final words in Nutty Putty Cave

Credit: Family handout

According to The Salt Lake Tribune, local rescue volunteer Susie was the first on the scene, and she managed to get to John by tying ropes to her feet.

“Hi Susie, thanks for coming, but I really, really want to get out,” he said upon meeting Susie. “It sucks. I’m upside down. I can’t believe I’m upside down. My legs are killing me.”

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Susie, along with a dedicated team of rescue professionals, spent the next 28 hours trying to get John Edward Jones out of the Nutty Putty Cave. But as the hours rolled on, and all the while John was hanging upside down, panic naturally began to set in.

His last words were allegedly: “I’m going to die right here. I’m not going to come out of here, am I?”

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Featured image credit: Family handout