On November 24, 2009, John Edward Jones got stuck and died in the Nutty Putty cave after being stuck for 27-28 hours. The Nutty Putty Cave is a hydrothermal (circulation of hot water) cave, located west of Utah Lake in Utah Country, Utah, US. The cave was known for its narrow passageways that led to big caverns. Along the walls is a brown-like slime which gave it its name, Nutty Putty. The cave is now close to the public. It was closed off in 2009 after the incident.

Edward had a wife and a new baby when he went into Nutty Putty. He was on a family reunion when they decided to go spelunking (more dangerous caving). They had all been spelunking before, and were all very excited to do Nutty Putty.
Edward and his brother wanted to go down the birth canal, which is an area of the cave that is narrow but then opens to a big cavern. The Birth Canal is around 400 feet below the cave entrances.

Edward and his brother were looking for the small passage when Edward saw a small tunnel. He thought that was the way to the birth canal, and started shoving his way in head first. He then fell in this small passage and the only thing visible were his red shoes and ankles. His sister then came over and saw John Edward stuck, so she started pulling on his feet. However, it only made him fall deeper.

They contacted a rescue team that was soon on the spot. They didn’t know how they were going to get John Edward out. After a while, they were able to come out with a system of pulleys. They would drill holes into the walls of the cave and put in a pulley the holes. They then put the rope through the pulley and tied it around Edward’s ankles. This process took around 12 hours because drilling holes into completely solid rock takes a lot of time.
After the rescue team had finished drilling all the pulleys they were ready to pull Edward up. At the angle he was at they would have to pull a little then readjust the pulleys. After a few hours of doing this, they were almost able to make eye contact with Edward. But then, all of a sudden, he fell back into the small passage.

When they went back down to see what had happened, they saw that one of the pulleys had broken off. While one of the guys was drilling another hole to put the pulley back in they asked how Edward was doing, but they didn’t get any response. They then sent a doctor down to see if Edward was okay. When the doctor came back up they told the unfortunate news; that Edward was dead.

On November 25, about 28 hours after John Edward got stuck, he died. They then poured cement over the entries. If you go to the Nutty Putty cave today you’ll see the barrel of John Edward.