The Final Descent Vol. II

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[1] Download the Amazon Music app today.

[2] Today's podcast will feature three underwater diving horror stories.

[3] The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.

[4] The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

[5] The first story you'll hear is called Devil's Hole, and it's about two divers who disappeared inside of an underwriting.

[6] underwater cave.

[7] The second story you'll hear is called No Limits, and it's about an extreme version of an already extreme sport.

[8] And the third and final story you'll hear is called Into the Heart, and it's about a cave diver who made a critical mistake.

[9] But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange Dark and Mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[10] So, if that's of interest to you, please ask the Amazon Music Follow button to take a bike ride with you, and while they're moving, jab a stick in their front wheel.

[11] Okay, let's get into our first story called Devil's Hole.

[12] I'm Dan Tibersky.

[13] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York, a mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[14] What's the answer?

[15] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[16] Hysterical.

[17] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street studios.

[18] Binge all episodes of Histerical early and ad -free on Wondon.

[19] On the evening of June 20th, 1965, four high school friends set off for a remote desert location about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada that was within the very famous Death Valley.

[20] They arrived at their destination, which, if you didn't know any better, would just look like the middle of nowhere in the desert.

[21] But to them, they knew exactly where they were.

[22] And so they parked their car, they got out, and they began unloading very heavy underwater diving equipment and began walking it up a nearby hill.

[23] The group was made up of 19 -year -old Paul Gian Contieri, his brother -in -law, 20 -year -old David Rose, 19 -year -old Bill Alter, and his younger brother, Jack, who was 16 years old.

[24] As these four boys walked their diving equipment up this hill, they were hit with sign after sign after sign that was telling them, do not go any farther, turn around.

[25] They made it to the top of the hill, and they were met with a huge fence, which once again said, do not go any farther.

[26] Without any hesitation, they went right under the fence and began walking down the other side, which was a very steep, 30 -foot rocky slope that led down to this very narrow strip of water that was the entrance to a very famous underwater cave called the Devil's Hole.

[27] Their plan was to dive all the way down to the bottom of the cave, which was at 325 feet.

[28] So they get down to the bottom of the hill, and they begin putting on their scuba gear, and Jack, the youngest, he's like, you know what, guys, I'm having second thoughts, and I don't want to do this anymore.

[29] And they're like, I bet, suit yourself.

[30] And so Jack volunteers himself to sit on the outside and be there lookout.

[31] The other three, Paul, David, and Bill, they're totally still doing this dive.

[32] And so they put on the rest of their equipment.

[33] They hop in the very warm water.

[34] It stays at about 92 degrees Fahrenheit year -round inside of Devil's Hole.

[35] They check their flashlights a couple of times.

[36] And when they're ready, they signaled to each other and they begin their descent down into the dark abyss that is the devil's hole.

[37] So for the next couple of hours, Jack just sat on the surface waiting for his brother and his two friends to return.

[38] And just after midnight, David and Bill did return, but Paul didn't.

[39] And so So when David and Bill got to the surface, they asked Jack, hey, have you seen Paul?

[40] Because we got separated on the way up, and we figured he was already up here.

[41] And Jack said, no, it's just you two.

[42] I haven't seen Paul.

[43] And so David and Bill look at each other, and they know they have a problem.

[44] And they're like, we got to go back down.

[45] And so they put the regulators back in, and they turn and start swinging down.

[46] Bill would say, when they went back down to look for Paul, Dave was leading, and Dave was going really fast to the point where Bill couldn't keep up with him.

[47] And you've got to remember, it's pitch black down there.

[48] And Bill's got his flashlight.

[49] That's the only way he can see Dave.

[50] And Dave was creating separation and getting farther and farther away.

[51] Bill had no way to stop him.

[52] And at some point, he lost him.

[53] Dave was just gone.

[54] And so Bill, not wanting to turn this into an even bigger problem, stopped where he was and went back to the surface.

[55] And he and his brother Jack just sit there anxiously waiting for Dave and Paul to return, but they don't.

[56] And so at some point, Jack went and got authorities.

[57] When the police got the report about the two missing divers inside of Devil's Hole, I'm sure on some level they were like, that's why the signs are there.

[58] You're not allowed to dive in there, but they put that aside, and instead they contacted a guy named Jim Hoots, who was a professional diver who regularly dove inside of Devil's Hole, so he was very familiar with it, and they got him on scene within a couple hours to go looking for these guys.

[59] And originally, the hope was Paul and David had found their way into a section of Devil's Hole called Brown's Room, which was this big air pocket, that perhaps in an emergency situation they had found their way in there, and now they're trapped.

[60] So Jim and his dive partner get to the edge of Doubles Hole, they put on their gear, they hop in the water, and they begin their descent.

[61] It's totally dark, they've got their lights, and they go down about 90 feet to where the tunnel basically funnels down to a point.

[62] And through this point, you have to wriggle through and push through.

[63] Once you get through that, you enter into this massive chasm, that if you shine your light in any direction, the walls are so far away that initially it looks like you're shining a light into infinity.

[64] It's this massive, massive space.

[65] But for them to get to Brown's room, the first place they're going to look for these guys, they needed to push through that little funnel and then immediately turn left and track the ceiling until they find a tunnel that goes back up again.

[66] And that is the tunnel that's very claustrophobia -inducing.

[67] It's very tight that if you take it 90 feet back up, you get to Brown's room, and that's that big air pocket.

[68] And so Jim and his dive partner, they make their way up this tunnel, they get to the air pocket, and there's no divers.

[69] And so they go back down through the tunnel, back into that huge chasm.

[70] And instead of going back to the surface, they knew that if they didn't find them in the air pocket, they were going to go down a little ways and see if they could find them on this one area called the lower ledge.

[71] And so the lower ledge was just a rocky outcropping that was about halfway down to the bottom of the cave.

[72] It was a natural break point before you went to the bottom.

[73] And so as they're descending in this infinity chasm, Jim is shining his flashlight in every direction looking for signs of these guys.

[74] And at some point, his light picks up a reflection on the lower ledge.

[75] And so they get down to the lower ledge, and that reflection was from a dive mask, the glass of the dive mask.

[76] It was sitting right on the lower ledge, and then next to it was a single dive fin.

[77] So Jim and his dive partner, they pick these items up.

[78] They go back up to the surface, and they confirm with Jack and Bill Alter that, yes, that mask and that fin belonged to Dave and Paul.

[79] And then afterwards they say to the search party, look, we were in Brown's room and they weren't in there.

[80] And so there's nowhere else they could be alive.

[81] And by now they've run out of air.

[82] And so that mixed with the fact that we're finding their equipment strewn about the chasm, it's safe to say they're more than likely deceased.

[83] Jim and his dive partner said, look, we'd like to go back in and go all the way to the bottom.

[84] We stopped at the lower ledge so we don't know what's down there.

[85] We anticipate we'll be able to find their bodies and we can at least confirm they're down there and then shift to a body retrieval mission.

[86] So Jim and his dive partner get back in the water.

[87] They go down the 90 feet to that little section you have to wriggle through to get into the chasm.

[88] Once they're inside, they keep going down.

[89] they pass the lower ledge and they go all the way down to 325 feet now this cave is huge and the floor bottom is huge but it's not so huge that you wouldn't be able to spot two bodies that have just recently landed down here and so jim and his partner are scanning their light across the bottom which is relatively flat you can see pretty far because of how clear the water is and they're not seeing anything on the bottom they're looking all over the place and there's no bodies there's no equipment there's nothing and they're thinking how are we missing this how are we not able to this.

[90] And it was at this point that Jim noticed a little hole in the bottom of the cave floor barely big enough for a full -sized person with tanks to fit through that he hadn't seen before.

[91] And so they made their way over to it and Jim says right when he was on the edge, he felt a fairly strong current being pulled past his legs down into this hole.

[92] It was almost like this was a drain on a bathtub and someone had pulled the plug and now all the water is draining into this little hole.

[93] And so Jim and his dive buddy kind of pushed themselves back to make sure they don't get sucked in, then Jim pulls out a weighted piece of string that goes out to 932 feet.

[94] And he would use this if there was ever a tunnel that he wanted to go down and he wanted to size up how deep it was.

[95] He would extend the line and he would let it fall until it hit something and he would stop it and on the line were marks of how deep it was.

[96] And so he let this line go inside of this hole and it went all the way down to 932 feet without touching any surface, meaning it's at least 932 feet deep from that point down.

[97] So Jim just pulls his line back up and he looks at his dive partner and he's like, yeah, no, we're not going down there.

[98] Not only were they not equipped to go that deep.

[99] They also both knew if we go in this hole, there's a good chance we won't be able to get back out again because the current is so strong.

[100] So Jim and his dive partner go back to the surface and they say, look, we couldn't find their bodies.

[101] But what we think happened is they developed nitrogen narcosis where you're in this sort of drunken state.

[102] You don't really know what's going on around you and that suction slowly pulled them into this hole and they weren't really aware of their surroundings and they didn't stop themselves before they got pulled in and then it was too late and they were pulled down into oblivion to this day they've never found their bodies and scientists still don't know how deep that hole is but in 2012 there was an earthquake in mexico so 2 ,000 miles away from devil's hole that caused a tsunami to come through devil's hole.

[103] I don't know how that actually works, but the scientists say that's what happened.

[104] And so scientists believe that hole leads to an underground ocean that connects to other parts of the world as far away as 2 ,000 miles.

[105] Today, diving is still strictly forbidden inside of the devil's hole, unless you're a scientist, and they stay far away from that hole at the bottom.

[106] If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good.

[107] You are a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.

[108] And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.

[109] We just launched a brand -new, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[110] And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge, and the show is awesome.

[111] In this free, weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between.

[112] Each story is totally true and totally terrifying.

[113] Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, wherever you get your podcast.

[114] and if you're a prime member, you can listen early and ad -free on Amazon music.

[115] Hey, all you fans of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.

[116] It's me, Mr. Ballin, and today I have some big news.

[117] It's something I'm holding in my hands right now, and so obviously you can't see it, but this is something you're really going to want to see.

[118] It's the first ever official Mr. Ballin publication.

[119] It's a graphic novel, and it's called Mr. Ballin Presents, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, The Graphic Stories.

[120] It's an anthology of both classic and brand -new.

[121] terrifying stories that we've never covered on any of my other platforms because we created them specifically for this first book each of these stories in the book are feature -length mr. Ballen's stories that really needed to be told visually and the artwork in this book is I mean I'm looking at it and it's just absolutely stunning so the book is not actually coming out until my birthday this year October 1st but you can pre -order it right now at book .bolland studios .com again that's book dot Ballin Studios .com Our next story is called No Limits.

[122] Free diving is one of the most dangerous sports in the world, even though technically pretty much anybody who's ever swam before has then also free dived because all free diving is is diving underwater without the use of a breathing apparatus like a scuba tank.

[123] But when people talk about free diving, they're not talking about the kids down at the local swim club.

[124] They're talking about those crazy people that go out into the middle of the ocean, take huge gulps of air, and then dive down to unbelievable depths and stay down there for several minutes before returning to the surface.

[125] And within this already extreme sport, there's an even more extreme version of it called No Limits.

[126] Instead of the diver taking that big gulp of air on the surface and then turning around and thinning themselves down to depth or pulling themselves down on a weighted rope, in No Limits -free diving, the divers are allowed to use whatever they want to get as deep as they can possibly handle.

[127] Again, the only rule is you can't use.

[128] a breathing apparatus.

[129] The most common no limits technique is to grab hold of this sled that is connected to this bottom weighted vertical cable and the free diver holds onto that sled, it's released from the surface and the sled rockets down to whatever their desired depth is and the diver just holds on and then once they reach the bottom the diver then turns a switch which shoots air into this big balloon that's attached to the sled and once the balloon is filled enough it will pull the sled and the diver who's hanging on to it, back up the cable, back up to the surface.

[130] Normally, a no -limits free dive using this technique takes approximately three minutes start to finish.

[131] The reason no limits is considered a more extreme version of free diving is because it allows the divers to go to these extraordinary depths that they physically are not capable of getting to on their own.

[132] We're talking about over 100 meters below the surface.

[133] There's just no way a person can just kick themselves down there.

[134] You would need the sled.

[135] And then conversely, you would not be able to swim 100 meters back up to the surface before you drown.

[136] You would have to use that balloon.

[137] And so in No Limits free diving, when you go down to these crazy depths, if your equipment fails, it's usually fatal.

[138] On October 12, 2002, 28 -year -old Audrey Mestry was sitting on a floating platform off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

[139] The French native No Limits diver was mentally preparing herself for what she was about to do.

[140] Audrey was one of the best free divers in the world, and this day she was trying to become the best free diver in the world by breaking the world record for the deepest depth achieved by a no -limits free diver, which was 170 meters, and that record was actually held by her husband, Pippin Ferraris.

[141] But as she sat on that platform, doubt must have crept into her mind, because storm clouds began to roll in, and in the world of no limits free diving, where so many things can go wrong, there's no way.

[142] reason to add in another risk factor like bad weather.

[143] It could affect the people on the surface that are trying to support you.

[144] It could affect the line that you're using to bring you down to depth.

[145] It's just an unnecessary risk.

[146] Also, Audrey was using a new piece of equipment.

[147] She had a slightly thinner cable that was going to bring her down to the bottom that her sled was attached to, but she didn't know if it would work for this deep of a dive.

[148] And her husband, who was in charge of safety for this dive, had been criticized in the diving community for rushing this record attempt that he hadn't enough preparations, there weren't enough medical staff, there wasn't enough standby divers that were going to be on -site or onshore at the time of this dive.

[149] And Audrey was aware of these criticisms because her husband was regularly criticized in the no -limits -free diving world, because six years earlier, he had had two separate people on staff died during different diving accidents, and people accused Pippin of being very reckless.

[150] But despite all of these red flags and reasons not to do this dive on this day, Audrey was really confident and wanted to do this, and so she signaled to her team that she was ready to start.

[151] She zipped up her yellow wetsuit and then checked her sensors and video cameras she'd be using for the dive, and then she put on her fins.

[152] Meanwhile, her husband checked the balloon that was there to inflate and bring her back up to the surface.

[153] And because this piece of equipment was so crucial, Pippin insisted he was the only one that could touch it, even though normal procedure was that at least two other people would inspect the balloon before the no -limits dive.

[154] But But regardless, after Pippin inspected the balloon bag and determined it was good to go, he signaled to Audrey to tell her it was time to start, she slipped off the platform and waded her way over to the 200 -pound sled that was going to take her the equivalent of two football fields below the surface.

[155] Just before Audrey gave the final go -ahead to actually release the sled and begin this dive, she did a procedure known as packing, where free divers basically take a full breath of air in and then gulp down additional bits of oxygen to pack their lungs full, and then when Audrey was done with this process and was ready to go, she did give that final signal, they released the sled, and she began rocketing down towards the bottom of the ocean.

[156] If all went to plan, she would be back on the surface in three minutes.

[157] Audrey's descent was going perfectly until she hit the 164 meter mark.

[158] Now, because of the bad weather on the surface and all the rough water, that new lightweight cable she had, it was too light.

[159] And so the waves caused it to sway, and down at 164 meters, that swaying caused kinks in the line itself.

[160] And so as the sled was coming down, it caught one of those kinks and stopped at the 164 meter mark.

[161] And so Audrey just had to sit there for 30 seconds until finally that kinks straightened out, and she was able to continue down past the record -setting mark of 170 meters.

[162] Now, that 30 -second delay might not have mattered if everything else in the dive went perfectly.

[163] But unfortunately, it did not.

[164] Once Audrey had set the record by hitting 171 meters, her sled came to a stop, and now it was time for her to go back up to the surface.

[165] On the video, you can see Audrey begins following procedure, same as always.

[166] She reaches over and turns the valve that's supposed to inflate the balloon that's going to bring her back to the surface.

[167] But after she turns the switch, nothing happens.

[168] The balloon does not inflate.

[169] For a second, you can see a hint of panic in her body language, as she's almost out of breath.

[170] She's already had that 30 second delay the beginning, and she's pressing up against that three -minute mark, and she needs to get to the surface right now.

[171] But she stays calm, she reaches over, and she turns the switch again to see if maybe she hadn't turned it all the way the first time.

[172] But again, nothing happens.

[173] At this point, a standby diver noticed the sled was not moving up when it should have been, and so he rushed over and jammed one of his extra hoses with extra air up into the balloon and tried to inflate it himself.

[174] But there wasn't enough air coming out of this tank for it to fully inflate, and so the sled began to move painfully slowly up in the water column.

[175] Now you would think this standby diver, who did have all sorts of extra air, would just give the mouthpiece to Audrey to let her breathe on that.

[176] Forget the world record attempt.

[177] Let's just save her life.

[178] But unfortunately, Audrey and the standby diver knew that because she was so deep, the pressure was so immense on her lungs, that had actually constricted her lungs to the size of oranges, that if she took even a tiny gulp of air at depth, that air would expand so dramatically on the way up, it would kill her.

[179] And so all Audrey could do was cling onto the sled and very slowly ascend and try to hold her breath as long as she could, but she knew at some point she was going to drown.

[180] And the video shows her absolutely stoic, just riding that sled, knowing that that's about to happen.

[181] On the surface, when the three -minute mark came and went and Audrey did not surface, her husband immediately threw on Scooby Gear and leapt in to try to save her.

[182] And by the time he got down to her and brought her out of the water, she had been underwater without air for eight minutes and 40 seconds.

[183] When she was put on the boat, she had a pulse, but there wasn't a doctor on standby to treat her right away, and Pippin had kept her underwater for a couple additional minutes trying to resuscitate her underwater.

[184] Audrey was ultimately rushed to a hospital where she was later pronounced dead.

[185] The cause of death was drowning.

[186] Some believe Pippin, her husband, had intentionally sabotaged her dive in order to kill her.

[187] But the official investigation determined her death was accidental.

[188] The next and final story of today's episode is called Into the Heart.

[189] There is an island off the coast of Croatia called Shulta.

[190] Only 19 kilometers long by 5 kilometers wide.

[191] This tiny island is a short ferry ride and an ideal day trip from Split, which is Croatia's second biggest city.

[192] It's a hilly island with these beautiful pebble beaches and absolutely crystal clear water.

[193] It's a very popular tourist destination that's actually famous for its honey, as well as an underwater cave that kills virtually everyone who goes inside.

[194] On September 10, 2002, 31 -year -old Miroslav Ku Klux was enjoying a vacation with friends on Shulta Island.

[195] It was a little after 8 .30 in the evening when one of his friends suggested they go scuba diving.

[196] Because of its beautiful clear waters, Shulta Island is a very popular scuba diving destination.

[197] And so as such, scuba diving takes place really at all hours around Shulta Island, but the vast majority of it takes place in these safe, little alcoves, where it's not very deep and you can see fish and wildlife and it's very controlled.

[198] But Miroslav and his friends didn't want to do regular scuba diving.

[199] They wanted to check out the underwater cave they had heard about just south of Shulta Island in Pogana Bay.

[200] They had heard this cave was extremely, dangerous and only expert divers were allowed to go in there and even though they were not expert divers they were barely novice divers they thought you know what how bad can it be let's go check it out for ourselves so they convinced one of the boat drivers to drive them out to the area in pocanica bay that sat over where this cave entrance was and so they put on their gear they hop in his boat they drive out they jump in the water and sure enough right below the surface about ten meters down is this hole on the sea floor and that is the single entrance into this cave when you go in this hole you have to go down head first because it's so tight and once you go down about 10 meters you reach this junction where to one side it leads to the shallow gallery which is the space that goes down to 36 meters and there's no other caves or entrances or anything off of it it's just kind of like a chasm inside of the cave from the junction if you go the other way it brings you to the deep gallery which is just a bigger version of the shallow gallery and it goes down to 57 meters inside of the deep gallery however at the very top on the ceiling, there is a very thin air pocket.

[201] Now, there's a few reasons why this cave is so dangerous, beyond just being an underwater cave, which in and of itself is quite dangerous.

[202] The first one is the visibility inside of the cave is basically zero.

[203] The only light that comes in is through that single entrance that leads to that junction, but the light doesn't make it past the junction into the two galleries.

[204] So it is truly pitch black inside of those two galleries.

[205] You also have all this silt that's caked to the inside.

[206] of the cave.

[207] So as soon as you get in there, your flippers and your movement, it kicks the silt off the wall and muddies the water around you to where even if you had a flashlight, it's like driving in fog.

[208] The lights only pick up the fog right in front of you, you can't see beyond the fog.

[209] Well, in a tunnel, you shine your light on silt, and you're just going to see the silt, not beyond it.

[210] So basically going into this cave, you're going to be blindfolded.

[211] Another significant danger of being inside of this cave is after you've gone down to your respective gallery, whether it's the shallow or the deep gallery, when you're going back up again on your ascent and you're getting to that junction point, it is possible to confuse the other entrance to the other gallery with the exit to the cave.

[212] And so if you make that mistake and you go into the other gallery, remember, you're blind, you've got silt kicked up, it's already dark.

[213] You need to, by touch, figure out you've made a mistake, and then backtrack and go out the right way you came.

[214] And so if you're low on air and you make this mistake, you better hope you catch it fast enough that you can get out before your air runs.

[215] out.

[216] So a little after 9 .15 p .m., Miroslav goes in first, followed by his other two friends, Miroslav reaches the junction, and he turns towards the deep gallery.

[217] He goes all the way down to 57 meters, he touches the bottom, he turns around, and he starts making his assent.

[218] On the way up, he gets to the junction, and he makes the critical mistake of going into this shallow gallery believing that is the exit of the cave.

[219] He probably got in there, bumped his head, started feeling around he's kicking up silt he's starting to panic he's looking for the way out again he finds the exit to the junction but instead of taking the exit out of the cave he makes the same mistake again and goes into the deep gallery and now he's in the deep gallery he's feeling around he's running low on air and based on his dive computer he was fumbling around in there for quite some time and having spent some time underwater myself in the pitch black as a navy seal i can tell you that it's very easy to imagine, you know, oh, it would be so easy to stay calm and have your bearings and know where you are.

[220] But when you are completely in total pitch black underwater, it actually is hard to tell what's up, what's down.

[221] You can feel the pressure in your ears.

[222] That's a good way to tell where you are in the water.

[223] But, you know, realistically, it's totally possible to get completely disoriented underwater.

[224] And my guess is Miroslav was totally disoriented.

[225] And so he stopped and he's trying to make sense of what's happening.

[226] And at some point, Miroslav must have looked at his air gauge and realized, I'm out of air now.

[227] And he made one last push to try to get to the surface, but he hit a ceiling, and that's when he realized, based on maybe the touch and feel, maybe he took his gloves off and he was feeling around, he felt that he was in the air pocket, that thin amount of air that sat right at the top of the deep gallery.

[228] He must have realized at this point that there was so little air down here that he probably only had maybe a few minutes that he could be down here breathing before he was going to drown.

[229] And in terms of making his ascent to the surface on a breath hold, the only place where there's an air pocket is the deep gallery.

[230] And so probably he knew that.

[231] And so he's thinking I'm, you know, maybe 40, 50 meters under the surface right now.

[232] And I can barely catch my breath now.

[233] I'm not going to be able to hold my breath to the surface.

[234] And so staring down a certain horrific drowning death, he pulled out his dive knife and he plunged it into his heart.

[235] And when they did his autopsy later, it would show he did not drown.

[236] He died because he had a knife in his heart.

[237] Back on the surface, the other two divers had gotten out successfully and they're in the boat and they're waiting for Miroslav.

[238] But after over an hour went by and he hadn't surfaced, they contacted the police.

[239] The police show up and they send two special divers down into the cave to look for Miroslav.

[240] One of those divers was a 25 -year -old named Oliver Merrich.

[241] And so these two divers go down and they're looking for Miroslav and they can't find him and they're running out of air.

[242] And on their ascent, Oliver Merich makes the same mistake that Miroslav did and gets trapped inside of the shallow gallery.

[243] The other diver initially made that mistake but managed to get out again, but Oliver went back and forth between the deep and the shallow gallery until he too drowned in that cave.

[244] It would take three days for the police to find and remove Miroslav and Oliver from this cave.

[245] And to this day, the police warned divers not to go in this cave unless they're experienced enough to be going in there.

[246] But year after year, inexperienced divers try their luck, inside of this cave, and they make that same mistake, they get trapped, and they die.

[247] Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

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[256] So, that's going to do it.

[257] I really appreciate your support.

[258] Until next time, see you.

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[264] I'm Dan Taberski.

[265] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[266] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[267] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[268] She's like, I can't.

[269] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[270] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls.

[271] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low.

[272] Everybody thought I was holding.

[273] something back.

[274] Well, you were holding something back.

[275] Intentionally.

[276] Yeah, yeah.

[277] Well, yeah.

[278] No, it's hysteria.

[279] It's all in your head.

[280] It's not physical.

[281] You're, oh my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[282] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem?

[283] Or is it something else entirely?

[284] Something's wrong here.

[285] Something's not right.

[286] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[287] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.

[288] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast.

[289] You can binge all episodes of hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondry Plus.