2, 2009, contractors poured concrete into the main opening of the cave. 1, 2009 the county’s bomb squad entered Nutty Putty to place explosive charges around the opening of the passageway in which Jones remained trapped. Uniformed deputies remained at the opening of the cave 24-hours a day from the night of Jones’ death until Nutty Putty’s permanent closure the following week.Ī memorial plaque located near the former entrance to Nutty Putty Cave, placed in remembrance of John Jones. “Ultimately the decision was made that it was too much risk for the rescuers to remain there in an effort to get him out and the decision was made to leave him in place.” “Once John had been declared dead, there were discussions about ‘how do we get him out?’ There were some rather distasteful discussions as well, things that nobody really wanted to do,” Cannon said. In the wake of Jones’ death, the Utah County Sheriff floated the idea of permanently sealing the cave. on the night before Thanksgiving, the search and rescue team determined Jones had died. Jones stopped responding to the rescue team late that night. That relief evaporated when the rigging failed and Jones dropped back into the same trap from which he’d been freed. It worked to get Jones past the “fishhook” of the rock lip, causing some relief on the afternoon of Nov. They succeeded in rigging a rope and pulley system to help lift him past the obstacle. To further complicate the situation, Jones’ ribcage would catch on a lip of rock when the rescuers attempted to pull him back up and over the crux. Jones died after being trapped for 27 hours. The rescuers had little room to move and very little grip with which to pull.Ī rescuer working near John Jones in the Nutty Putty Cave on Nov. His head pointed downward at an angle of 70 to 80 degrees. Jones had been descending head-first when he became pinned in place. They struggled to free him in part because of the angle and position of his body. The rescuers worked through Tuesday night and into the day on Wednesday attempting to free Jones. It had only reopened under an online reservation system managed by a local caving organization in early 2009. In fact, Nutty Putty had been closed to public access for years after those earlier rescues. The other one was about 11 hours long,” Cannon said. One was, I don’t know, maybe 6 or 7 hours long. “We had two rescues within about a week of each other about four years earlier. Utah County called out its search and rescue team, which had prior experience working to extract stuck spelunkers from Nutty Putty’s depths. We got the notification sometime I believe just before 9:30,” Cannon said. “They told us that John got stuck about 8:45 p.m. Spencer Cannon stands near the former opening of Nutty Putty Cave on March 7, 2019.
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