No Way Out Vol. II

[0] Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad -free on Amazon Music.

[1] Download the Amazon Music app today.

[2] Today's podcast features three stories that involve people who were trapped with no way out.

[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 Intelligence Quotient, and it's about how even incredibly smart people can make incredibly bad decisions.

[6] The second story you'll hear is called Gold Digger, and it's about how quickly things can snowball.

[7] And the third and final story you'll hear is called All the Way Down, and it's about a boy who got trapped in Italy.

[8] 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've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[9] So, if that's of interest to you, please bring the Amazon Music Follow button to Komodo Island to go Apple picking, but secretly tape a steak to their back.

[10] Okay, let's get into our first story called Intelligence Quotient.

[11] I'm Dan Tiberski.

[12] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York.

[13] 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 hysterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

[19] IQ, which stands for intelligence quotient, is a measure of someone's intelligence.

[20] To find your IQ, you need to take an official IQ test, which gives you an IQ score.

[21] The vast majority of people will score about 100 as their IQ, and so that's considered to be the average intelligence for any given person.

[22] But a very small number of people will score someone, between 130 and 160.

[23] And so that's considered to be a very high IQ.

[24] Those are very, very gifted people.

[25] And then there is an even smaller group of people that score above 160.

[26] And so that is the genius class.

[27] Anybody who scores above 160 is literally a genius.

[28] To give you a sense of just how rare that is, Albert Einstein, who is largely considered to be one of the smartest people to have ever lived, he was not even considered a genius, at least not by his IQ.

[29] He was about 160, so right on the cusp of geniusness.

[30] But as we will learn from this story, having an exceptionally high IQ does not make you immune to making unfathomably bad choices.

[31] In 1991, 31 -year -old Jackie Katarik, who had a genius IQ of 170, so she was smarter than Albert Einstein, she graduated from UCLA Medical School with honors.

[32] She completed her medical residency, which is like a multi -year apprenticeship for new doctors, at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, which is one of the very best hospitals in America.

[33] After that, she opened her very own practice just north of L .A. in a town called Bakersfield, California, and she also became a part -time professor at her alma mater, UCLA.

[34] By all accounts, Jackie was brilliant, she was successful, and she loved what she did, and her patients and her students loved her right back.

[35] Fast forward to 2010, Jackie was 49 years old, and she was still running her very successful practice, and she was still teaching at UCLA, and she was in an on -again, off -again relationship with a 58 -year -old man named William Moody.

[36] While the details of their relationship are not really publicly known, it's fairly easy to deduce from the reporting that came from this case that Jackie and William fought a lot.

[37] On Wednesday, August 25th of that year, Jackie was spotted by herself at a Mediterranean restaurant in Bakersfield, California, having some drinks.

[38] And then at some point during the night, she called a ride service to pick her up and take her home again.

[39] Even though we don't know this for sure, it's assumed she was too intoxicated to drive, and that's why she called the ride service.

[40] The following morning, Jackie did not show up for work.

[41] Her assistant at her medical practice is the one who noticed Jackie had not shown up, and so when she didn't, she called her.

[42] her boss, but her boss didn't pick up.

[43] And so after a couple of failed attempts at getting in touch with Jackie, this assistant called Jackie's boyfriend, William.

[44] And so William, he picks up the phone, and when the assistant asks him, hey, have you seen Jackie?

[45] She has not come into work today.

[46] William actually says, yes, I saw her last night.

[47] William would explain to the assistant that the night before he was in his house by himself in Bakersfield, California, not far from this restaurant where Jackie was last seen.

[48] And he said that at some point, unannounced, he saw Jackie pull up in front of his house.

[49] And so he could tell from her general demeanor and her look and her pace that she was upset about something, or he just sensed there was going to be some conflict if he went to the door.

[50] And so he decided to actually slip out the back door and kind of run away from his property before Jackie could see him.

[51] And so he actually left the property and went to a friend's house who was nearby and spent the night with this friend.

[52] And so when the assistant called William, William was actually still at this friend's house.

[53] He had not been back to his actual property.

[54] And so he would tell the assistant that, you know, the last I saw of Jackie, it was late at night.

[55] She had pulled up in front of my house, but then I split.

[56] So I don't know what she did.

[57] I assume she left.

[58] But William would tell the assistant that, you know what, I'll go back over to my house and I'll see if she's still there or if there's some indication of where she might have gone.

[59] And so William hangs up the phone, he leaves his friend's house and walks the couple of blocks back to his own property.

[60] And when he gets there, sure enough, right out front of his house is Jackie's car.

[61] Now, William knew his house was locked and Jackie didn't have a key.

[62] And so Jackie must just be sitting in her car waiting for him to return.

[63] And so William walks up to the car expecting to see Jackie and expecting probably to fight about something, but when he gets up to the car, Jackie's not in there.

[64] But her purse, her cell phone, her wallet, that's all over the inside of the car.

[65] And so William turns and looks at his house thinking, is she in the house?

[66] Did she somehow get in?

[67] Is she on the back of the house?

[68] And so William just starts yelling out for Jackie as he begins to walk around his house.

[69] And so as he goes around towards the back of the house, he's yelling out for Jackie, no one's calling back.

[70] And then he reaches the back of the house.

[71] And there's no sign of Jackie.

[72] But he sees there's a shovel on the ground near his back door.

[73] And then he looks at his back door.

[74] and it looks very obviously like someone, probably Jackie, had been using the shovel to try to pry open the back door, like they were trying to break in, but it hadn't worked.

[75] And so William just kind of sees that and then continues walking around the other side of the house, so he's completely walked around the entire property.

[76] There's no sign of Jackie.

[77] And so he's thinking, okay, I guess she must have gotten in somehow.

[78] She's in the house somewhere.

[79] And so William goes to the front door, he unlocks his front door, he goes inside, and even though he knows all of his doors have been locked, all the windows are locked, because he's thinking she's got to be in here but he walks through his house and there's no sign of jackie and there's no sign that anybody else had been in there since he was last in there and so he's totally puzzled because it doesn't really make any sense that jacky's car is out front but he's thinking okay you know maybe she got here and then she called a ride service and went somewhere else you know i'm sure she's fine so william calls the medical assistant and says look you know her car's here or stuff's here but she's not here i don't know what she's doing i'll let you know if anything comes of it the assistant said, I really feel like something's off here and we really do need to call the police.

[80] And so William would say, you know what?

[81] I think that's a good idea too.

[82] Let's just get them involved and make sure she's okay.

[83] And so they call the police and the police start by going to Jackie's residence.

[84] But Jackie's not there and there's no sign of her.

[85] The neighbors haven't seen her.

[86] And so the police go to William's household and they search Jackie's car and they search William's house in the surrounding area right outside.

[87] But there's really no clues as to what actually happened to Jackie.

[88] And so after the police talked to a bunch of neighbors and friends and family, they just told William and this medical assistant that at this point, they just need to wait and that hopefully Jackie will just come out of wherever it is she's hiding or wherever she's gone.

[89] Maybe she's upset.

[90] Maybe she was fighting with William and she's run off somewhere, but we just got to wait and see what happens.

[91] Two days later, Jackie was still unaccounted for.

[92] No one knew where she was.

[93] No one had heard from her.

[94] No one had seen her.

[95] when William's friend went over to his house.

[96] William, the day before, so 24 hours after Jackie had been reported missing, he had left the country on a prearranged trip.

[97] But he was not being looked at as a potential suspect or having anything to do with Jackie's disappearance, and so he was allowed to go, and so this friend had been asked to go to his property to feed his fish.

[98] And so he shows up on Saturday, that's 48 hours after Jackie has been reported missing.

[99] He goes inside the house, and immediately he is hit with this terrible, smell inside of William's house.

[100] So he's covering his face and he's walking around the house, trying to figure out where the smell is coming from.

[101] He thinks it could be the fridge, maybe something's rotting, that's fallen out or the doors open or something, but it's not the fridge.

[102] He goes to the trash, it's not the trash, he goes to the fish, it's not the fish.

[103] He makes his way over to the fireplace and he realizes that's where the smell is coming from.

[104] And so kind of reluctantly, he gets down and he kind of smells inside the fireplace, but it's not really coming from the area where the logs would be.

[105] It's coming from up in the chain.

[106] chimney flu.

[107] And so he puts his head down and kind of turns and looks up the chimney and about two feet up the flu dangling down are two human legs.

[108] And they would be Jackie's legs.

[109] It would turn out a few days earlier when Jackie was at that restaurant drinking by herself.

[110] She did call that ride service to come give her a ride home, presumably because she was too intoxicated to drive.

[111] But before they showed up, Jackie just got into her car anyways and drove to her estranged boyfriend's house.

[112] And so she gets there.

[113] William, meanwhile, is sneaking out the back and running off to his friend's house.

[114] Jackie does not see him.

[115] She makes her way up to the front door and presumably tries to knock and get William's attention.

[116] But when no attention is given to her and it seems like no one's inside, she decides she's going to try to get into the house.

[117] And so the front door was locked, the windows were all locked.

[118] She got to the back door and that was locked.

[119] So she tried the shovel and tried to pry it open, but it didn't work.

[120] And so eventually, Jackie climbed up the permanent ladder that's on the back of the house.

[121] There isn't much online describing this permanent ladder.

[122] It could be a fire escape or it could be some sort of lawn decoration.

[123] But there was something on the back of the house that you could climb up if you wanted to.

[124] And so Jackie climbed up this permanent ladder and actually got onto the roof.

[125] And then when she was on the roof, she walked to the center where the chimney was.

[126] and there was this cap over the top of the chimney to prevent things from going into the chimney.

[127] She removed the cap and then lowered herself feet first into this chimney.

[128] Now, it's unclear how quickly she descended this chimney, but eventually she got stuck because the width of this chimney was not uniform.

[129] It started fairly wide at the top and then narrowed as it went down.

[130] And so at some point, as she went down, feet first, she would have gotten completely wedged.

[131] it wouldn't have mattered if her hands were above her head or by her side because either way they were useless she couldn't bend her arms and there was nothing to grab onto so her arms couldn't do anything and then below her there was nothing for her feet to push onto and so she was totally stuck and since William was not in his house he had left there was no one there to help her and so Jackie probably started screaming for help but as soon as she did that and she exhaled that huge scream her chest would have constricted from exhaling, and that would have shrunk her chest, making her thinner, and she would have dropped a little bit farther into the chimney.

[132] And then when she breathed back in again, her chest would not be able to expand back to its original position because the chimney would be restricting her.

[133] It's like this brace that's around her chest that as she gets lower and lower and lower, it gets tighter and tighter and tighter.

[134] And so her lung capacity is shrinking second by second.

[135] And as her lung capacity shrinks, she would not have had the lung strength to emit a loud enough sound to get anybody's attention.

[136] Basically, she couldn't scream.

[137] She couldn't take in a big enough breath to scream out.

[138] And so she was just stuck in this totally compromised position, in this claustrophobic little chimney where she could do nothing but wait and hope.

[139] Maybe William or someone took notice of the fact that she was in here, even though, again, she couldn't get anyone's attention.

[140] And so most likely she would have begun rationing her breaths, because again, every time she breathes out too much, she goes farther and farther, making it harder and harder to breathe, and at some point, starting on Thursday night, she would have heard William in the house.

[141] He would have been only a few feet away from her, but she can't make a sound loud enough to get his attention.

[142] And we know she was alive by Thursday night, because neighbors heard someone faintly yelling help on Friday night.

[143] So nearly 48 hours after she got stuck in the chimney, it's believed she was still alive.

[144] And those neighbors, when they heard that faint call for help, they assumed it was kids in a nearby pool, and so they didn't do anything about it.

[145] When they found out what had happened, they thought, you know what, it was coming from that chimney.

[146] That's where we heard it coming from.

[147] Jackie would die shortly after the neighbors heard her calling for help because she was dead by the time the friend found her in the chimney, the following day on Saturday.

[148] Jackie would die from mechanical asphyxia, which is basically suffocation, but it's caused by some physical obstruction, and in this case it was the chimney.

[149] The chimney literally crushed her chest to the point where she could no longer inflate her lungs.

[150] It would take firefighters approximately five hours to break this chimney down to finally retrieve Jackie's body.

[151] No charges were filed against anyone for Jackie's death.

[152] It was ruled to be an accident, an accident caused by an unbelievable error in judgment by an unbelievably brilliant woman.

[153] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

[154] She had been under the influence and she left him there.

[155] In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[156] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.

[157] What happens next depends on who you ask.

[158] Was it a crime of passion?

[159] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.

[160] This was clearly an intentional act.

[161] And his cause of death was blood force trauma with hypothermia.

[162] Or a corrupt police cover -up.

[163] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of their own from going down.

[164] Everyone had an opinion.

[165] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not.

[166] not come to a unanimous decision.

[167] To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

[168] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen.

[169] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondry Plus.

[170] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

[171] I'm Dan Tibersky.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[179] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[180] Well, you were holding something back intentionally.

[181] Yeah, yeah, well, yeah.

[182] No, it's hysteria.

[183] It's all in your head.

[184] It's not physical.

[185] Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[186] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the witches of Sam?

[187] them?

[188] Or is it something else entirely?

[189] Something's wrong here.

[190] Something's not right.

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

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

[193] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[194] You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

[195] Our next story is called Gold Digger.

[196] In July of 1988, 18 -year -old Adiana and her husband, Jay Dickison were living in Anchorage, Alaska just one month after getting married in Nevada.

[197] Jay, who had lived in Alaska for several years before Adiana joined him, had taken up an interest in something called placer mining, which is basically mining riverbeds for minerals like gold.

[198] And as soon as Adiana moved in, she picked up the hobby as well.

[199] The area they mined for gold was south of Anchorage in Cook Inlet.

[200] Jay owned a gold claim there.

[201] Over the years, Jay had found it to be very cumbersome just getting to cook inlet.

[202] Even though it was just south of Anchorage, the roads forced him to drive all the way around the inlet before being allowed in.

[203] However, he had discovered a shortcut.

[204] During low tide in the inlet, one of the two northern waterways that fed into the inlet, called the Turnagain Arm, would be completely dried up and it would turn into this huge open mud flat.

[205] And so Jay could leave Anchorage, go south, leave the highway at the Turnagin Arm, and drive directly over and across the mudflats, and reach his gold claim in half the time.

[206] On the evening of July 14, 14th, the young couple decided that the next day they wanted to go gold mining.

[207] And so Jay checked the tides of the inlet to see what the status would be for the next day.

[208] And he was pleasantly surprised to see that very early the next morning there would be a low tide, perfect for them.

[209] And so the next day, the couple got up at sunrise, they hopped in their Jeep, and they started heading south.

[210] They left Anchorage, they hopped on the highway, and they went south all the way to the access point to turning an arm, and they looked out in front of them, and sure enough, it's completely low tide, and it's ready for them to drive over.

[211] As they turned off the high and drove down the small access road that brought them to the actual mudflats, they passed by a series of signs telling them not to go on the mudflats.

[212] But Jay had done this dozens of times without any incident, and Deanna, she'd done it only a couple of times, but both times it had been no big deal, so neither of them paid any attention to the cautionary signs.

[213] Soon they were rolling across the mudflats on their way to Jay's gold claim.

[214] But on their way, their Jeep suddenly got stuck in the mud.

[215] And Deanna, she hopped out, she went to the back of the Jeep and began pressing as Jay pushed down on the accelerator, the Jeep eventually lurched forward and was free of the mud, but Deanna was actually now stuck in the mud because as she pushed, she drove both of her legs down deep into this mud.

[216] She tried to pull herself out.

[217] She couldn't do it.

[218] And so Jay hopped out of the Jeep, walked around the mud, and got to his wife and began pulling on her.

[219] He couldn't get her out, but he told her he had a good idea.

[220] He went back to his Jeep and he got his dredge that he was going to use to try to look for gold, and he pushed it down into the mud and began sucking up the mud around one of her legs.

[221] And he figured if he just created enough of an air pocket, by sucking out enough mud, she could pull that leg out and then he could do the same thing with the other leg.

[222] And although it was a slow process, it was working and slowly but surely they managed to get one of her legs out of the mud right as the 38 degree water began coming in because tide was starting to come in.

[223] Neither of them were panicking because the dredge was clearly working and if they could just get her other foot out, it wouldn't matter that the water was starting to come in.

[224] They would be able to get back to land back to the highway before they got caught in the high tide.

[225] And so he put the dredge down next to her other leg and he began pulling the mud out and it was working but then the dredge broke and he couldn't fix it and diana's starting to panic jay's starting to panic he puts the dredge back in the jeep he gets a shovel and he runs back to his wife and begins frantically trying to dig her out but he can barely move the mud it's like it's cement and that's actually the reason why there's so many signs around these mud flats telling people to not go on them because there's a very small window of time between low tide and high tide where the ground goes from being solid and you can drive a car on it to being very soupy and it's very easy to get stuck in it but before the tide completely comes back in again it re -hardens and so if you're stuck in the mud and you don't get out again before it hardens again you will remain stuck in the mud and 30 feet of water will come in on top of you and so diana's trying to pull her leg out and she's panicking and jay is doing everything you can to try to get down there and get her foot out but the ground's hardened at this point her leg is completely trapped inside of the mud, and the water is starting to come in faster and faster and faster.

[226] Jay told her he had to run back to the highway to try to get some help.

[227] He couldn't take his Jeep.

[228] There was too much water that had come in.

[229] It's now up to their knees.

[230] And so their Jeep's worthless.

[231] And so Jay is running away from Adiana, who's screaming for help.

[232] She's trying to get her leg out.

[233] There's nothing he can do.

[234] And so he's running through the water.

[235] He gets up to the highway, and he manages to flag down some motorists, and he pleads with them to please come out into the water and help me get my wife out.

[236] She's stuck in the mud.

[237] And they look out.

[238] and she's flailing around and screaming and the water is now up to her waist.

[239] And so two of these motorists actually run down into the water with Jay and risked their own lives to try to get Adiana out.

[240] Meanwhile, another motorist took off for a nearby cafe where he could alert authorities that someone is trapped and they need someone out there right now.

[241] Very quickly, the fire department and the state troopers arrived on scene and they look out and they see the motorist and Jay trying to pull Adiana out and the water is crept even higher up on her body.

[242] She's screaming.

[243] She's panicked.

[244] and Mike Opulka, who's one of these state troopers, he immediately ran over to the fire department, and he got this big rubber tube, and he charged into the water and ran out to Adiana and grabbed her and said, everything's going to be okay, we're going to get you out of here, and he gave her the tube, and he says, you need to start breathing through this, the water's going to be over your head soon.

[245] And so Adiana, who's shaking because she's hypothermic and because she's terrified, she takes this tube and she's clutching it as the other rescue workers are running down with all their equipment to try to get her out.

[246] And then not that long after that, the tide had come into the point where it was over her head and all they could see of Adiana was this rubber tube she was keeping out of the water.

[247] But unfortunately, every attempt the rescue workers made failed, including getting a helicopter in and attaching a harness to Adiana and trying to pull her out that way.

[248] Nothing worked.

[249] The first responders and the motorists and everyone stayed with Deanna holding on to her and trying to pull her out, but at some point the water was too cold and it was getting too deep and they could not stay out there with her long enough.

[250] Michael Polka, the state trooper, was the last one out there with her, and he was struggling to keep his head over the water as he's still trying to pull her up.

[251] And at some point, he noticed the tube she had been breathing in popped up on the surface with both ends exposed, so it'd come out of her mouth.

[252] And so he fumbled with it, but his hand was so cold from the water, he couldn't really grip it.

[253] He tried to reach down to give her the hose, but she was flailing and panicking, and she couldn't get the hose.

[254] She could not breathe through it.

[255] And at some point, she went still.

[256] And Mike knew there was nothing he could do she was gone and so he let go of her and being hypothermic himself he barely was able to swim back to the shore and get out and go up onto the highway with the others and there they sat for the next six hours as they waited for the tide to come all the way in and then go all the way out again and loosen up to the point where they could go out and retrieve diana's body unfortunately had authorities been alerted to diana's situation a little bit earlier they could have got a special water pump out to the mud flats and it would have been able to get her out even if the mud was hardened.

[257] But by the time that pump arrived unseen, it was already too late.

[258] The water was well over Tiana's head, and she'd already let go up the tube.

[259] The next and final story of today's episode is called All the Way Down.

[260] Midday on June 10, 1981, an Italian man and a six -year -old son walked to the edge of their property in Frascati, which is an area in Italy known as the hub of Rome's local wine industry.

[261] The father needed to repair a section of their fence, and his son, who he said had the soul of Huckleberry Finn, wanted to tag along.

[262] But as soon as the work began, Alfredo just wanted to go play in the vineyards, and so he ran off.

[263] And the father didn't think much of it, because his son always played in the vineyards and just figured he would see him back at the house.

[264] When the father finished up the work around 7 p .m. and walked back into his house, he was surprised that Alfredo wasn't there.

[265] And so he asked his wife, you know, have you seen our son?

[266] And she said, no, can you go out and find him?

[267] Because dinner's going to be on the table any minute.

[268] So the father goes back outside, expecting to see Alfredo come running out from behind some hiding place, but he doesn't.

[269] And he yells out for his son and doesn't get a response.

[270] And so he begins walking his property and yelling for Alfredo and he's not finding him.

[271] And so after two hours of looking, he finally just calls the police.

[272] The police arrive and initially it's just a couple of officers with flashlights and they spend about two hours looking as well.

[273] They can't find him.

[274] So they call in backup in the form of officers with sniffer dogs.

[275] And the dogs began searching the property for another three hours and they still couldn't find him.

[276] A little Until after midnight, the fire department, known in Italy as the fire brigade, they joined in his well.

[277] Shortly thereafter, a fire brigade officer was on the edge of Alfredo's property when he discovered a small hole in the ground.

[278] It would turn out, Alfredo's neighbor had dug an illegal well, which was a common practice at the time, and generally, if you dug one of these wells and you struck water, you would report the well.

[279] But if you dug down and you didn't find water, you would just cover it up with a girder and you wouldn't tell anyone.

[280] In this case, however, the hole the officer was looking at did not have anything covering it.

[281] And so he knelt down and he yelled Alfredo's name into this hole, and at first he didn't hear anything.

[282] Then he yelled again and he heard Alfredo yell back for his mother.

[283] Alfredo must not have seen the opening as he was running around playing, and he fell feet first into an 80 -meter deep shaft.

[284] After Alfredo was found, the Fire Brigade took over rescue efforts, and so additional fire brigade units were called to help.

[285] But as soon as those additional units showed up, the captains of the different units began arguing with each other because it wasn't really clear how they were going to get him out.

[286] And unfortunately, the fire brigade immediately made a very bad decision.

[287] They decided to lower a plank into the shaft attached by a rope that he could grab onto and they could pull him out that way.

[288] But when they lowered it at about 24 meters, the plank got stuck inside of the tunnel.

[289] And when they yanked on the rope to try to free it, the rope came off of the plank, but the plank remained wedged in the tunnel, blocking the tunnel.

[290] By the following morning, TV crews had swarmed the area, and one of them offered up a two -way microphone that could be lowered down into the hole so they could talk directly to Alfredo.

[291] When the microphone was finally lowered down next to his face, he was crying and pleading for them to get him out and that he missed his mother.

[292] Amateur Spalunker Tullio Barnaby, a 23 -year -old, had come over and joined the vigil that night.

[293] The Plank Plan shocked him for its foolishness, and so too did the scene.

[294] It was like everyone and no one was in charge.

[295] The well opening had been widened in hopes that a very skinny person would be willing to be lower down to remove the piece of wood that was obstructing the tunnel.

[296] And since Tolio was a spalunker and was comfortable in confined spaces and was pretty skinny, he volunteered himself to do it.

[297] As he was lower down, he quickly realized the inside of this tunnel was not a straight shot.

[298] It was more like a corkscrew.

[299] And so because of its windy nature, he was not able to get down to the wood.

[300] And so he signaled to go back up again.

[301] And when he reached the surface, you know, he didn't have the wood in hand.

[302] But he told the fire brigade that because of the windy nature, it's unlikely Alfredo fell all the way to the bottom.

[303] He's probably stuck somewhere in the middle, which is a good thing.

[304] But we have to be really careful as we pull him out that we don't do anything that unintentionally causes him to slip farther into the hole.

[305] Tullio's suggestion was that go out and recruit professional Spelunkers to be involved in the rescue because they would understand how to get someone out of such a tight space so far down in the ground.

[306] But the fire brigade disregarded his advice and said we don't have enough time for that.

[307] that.

[308] At 6 a .m. the next day, about 12 hours after Alfredo's fallen into the swell, the fire brigade would make another very poor decision.

[309] They decided they would drill down another hole parallel to the one Alfredo was in, and they would drill down past to the point they believed Alfredo was, at which point they would turn and drill laterally and connect to the tunnel Alfredo's in, grabbing Alfredo, pulling him across, and back up the new tunnel.

[310] Tolio objected, and he said the vibrations from this drill are almost certainly going to dislodge the boy and caused him to slip farther into the tunnel.

[311] But once again, the fire brigade did not listen to him.

[312] The drilling began about two hours later, and by that afternoon, Alfredo's plight had become major national news with every single TV station playing a 24 -7 live broadcast of the well watching the drilling take place.

[313] Even the Italian president made a special trip to the well to see how it was going.

[314] But the drilling was very slow, and Alfredo, he had that microphone next to his head, and he was crying half the time, and the other times he was just pleading with them to get him out and saying he was cold or that he was tired and the rescuers would say we're going to be down there to get you don't fall asleep we're going to get you out of there finally after 36 hours they had drilled all the way down to their intended stopping point and they began drilling across into alfredo's well when they finally broke into alfredo's well rescuers rushed in with flashlights and looked up and looked down and there was no sign of alfredo and they called it up to the top and they said he's not here and then all of a sudden they heard a faint voice coming from all the way down at the bottom of the well.

[315] The vibrations from all of the drilling had indeed caused Alfredo to slip all the way to the very bottom.

[316] They estimated he was approximately 30 meters below this new parallel tunnel, and at that depth, the temperatures would be freezing, and so now Alfredo, on top of everything else, was facing hypothermia.

[317] They quickly lowered the microphone again down to Alfredo, and they told him, we're going to get you out of there, we're sorry we dropped you, but we're going to get you, and Alfredo's voice came back weak.

[318] He was tired, he was sore, he was freezing, he was crying.

[319] It was like the situation was just getting so much worse by the second.

[320] And rescuers knew they had to get to him probably in the next couple of hours where that was it.

[321] And so another skinny man volunteered to go down into the hole and they lowered him and he would go all the way down to the bottom where Alfredo was.

[322] And he would call up that he found him and that Alfredo was alive.

[323] But Alfredo was stuck waist deep in this mud that that, the guy could not pull him out of.

[324] And so every time he'd begin to raise him slightly out of the mud, he'd lose his grip and he would fall back into the mud going deeper into the mud each time.

[325] And after the seventh time of not being able to do it, Alfredo was getting dangerously close to being neck deep in the mud.

[326] And so the guy had to be pulled back out again.

[327] As soon as he was pulled back out again, more men volunteered themselves to go in there and try to gang him out, but many of them were not able to even get down to Alfredo.

[328] They would get stuck along the way.

[329] A couple did get to Alfredo, but they said his condition was worsening, he was weak, he wasn't even assisting trying to get pulled out.

[330] It was clear they were reaching the end.

[331] Finally, at 6 .36 a .m. on Saturday, so two and a half days after Alfredo fell in, they could not get him to respond on that two -way microphone.

[332] And so they sent down a sonar probe, and they could not detect a heartbeat, and doctors declared him dead.

[333] The next day, liquid nitrogen was poured into the hole to preserve the body, and then 31 days later they were finally able to extramed.

[334] it.

[335] After it was all over, the 25 million plus people that watched this take place live on television were crushed with what happened to Alfredo.

[336] There was a general sense that lots of people let this poor child down, which led to his death.

[337] But the person who was ultimately held accountable for it was the neighbor who had illegally dug the well.

[338] And so the neighbor was charged with manslaughter and was sent to jail, but their sentence is not publicly available online.

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