![]() This unmapped passage of Utah County’s Nutty Putty Cave was no wider than the opening of a washing machine, and Susie had ropes tied around her ankles so other rescuers could pull her out if she got stuck. Crawling on her belly, Susie Motola inched her way through a cramped limestone tunnel that wound through the earth like the path of a worm. What was the initial assessment of rescue personnel? "They traversed its chambers for about 30 minutes before reaching the 135-foot tunnel where John was stuck. Andy Armstrong, Cave Rescue ( Incident Report) Another call for small cave rescuers went out at midnight." The fact that John was upside-down made this rescue more difficult than the previous ones. ![]() Having rescued others from this cave, including the same spot where John was stuck, the rescuers were confident they would get him out. ![]() Utah County SAR, including several members that are experienced cavers responded. Joey Stocking, Caver with Jones ( Personal Blog) "Seeing that they were unable to free John, his family called for help at approximately 10:00 pm. I crawled out and Josh crawled in to see what he could do." But after an hour I was becoming tired and scraped up and started to get psychologically messed up. Mike, John's brother, was outside of the tight spot talking to me, which I much appreciated because it helped keep my spirits up. I did the best I could to keep him in good spirits by giving him little goals to reach. So I crawled in above John (it was a very tight spot and I often would panic because it was difficult to move) and John and I tried several things to move him up. He came out in a mix of calm and panic and said he was going to go up and call for help and asked that I go in a comfort John and maybe try to help, because I was the only adult that would fit. After about 15 minutes I hollered to Josh if things were okay. We could not find where it continued, so sat waiting near the area. The rest of the group joined us at this point. When he did we told him (without much thought) to go in and see if John needed help, meanwhile Jessica and I explored two other spots where the cave could have continued. Jessica and I waited for Josh to get out of the hole he was exploring. Josh Jones, Brother of Jones ( Salt Lake Tribune) "We didn't know he was stuck for several minutes. Josh crawled back up to the surface and called 911 while a friend went into the tunnel to stay with John." "I was only able to see his two feet that were hanging there in the crevice, I wasn't able to see more because he was engulfed in the crevice itself." He knew they needed search and rescue teams. His older brother was helpless in a dark hole. John’s body inched up, but he had nothing to hold onto and slipped back into the crevice as soon as Josh released him. ![]() 'It was really serious.' He wrapped his feet around John’s calves and pulled. 'Seeing his feet and seeing how swallowed he was by the rock, that’s when I knew it was serious.' Josh said. By then he could see his brother, and dread settled in. When he reached the corkscrew, he got stuck himself. "As Josh wound through the tunnel, crab-crawling feet first between the cramped, muddy walls, he felt a creeping apprehension. ![]()
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