Expedition Files (2024) s01e03 Episode Script

1
Tonight on "expedition files,"
deep in the wilds of Siberia,
nine young adventurers are
violently killed by someone or something.
Finally, we may know how.
In Egypt, the discovery of
king tut's tomb is said to unleash
a deadly curse.
But could the legend be real?
And explorer Kenny
veach investigates area 51,
then disappears off the face of the earth.
Now, for the first time ever,
I'll share new revelations
about history's most bizarre deaths.
In the corridors of time
Are mysteries that defy explanation.
Now, I'm traveling through history itself
On a search for the truth.
New evidence,
shocking answers.
I'm Josh gates,
and these
Are my "expedition files."
While none of us like to think
about death, the fact is that
it comes for us all.
We hope when it does that
it's peaceful, at the end of
a long life, surrounded by
our loved ones, but the hand of
fate often has other plans.
Some of us will die strange, horrifying,
and even unexplainable deaths.
Tonight, we peer into three
files chronicling the most
mysterious deaths in history.
The settings for our stories
could not be more different,
taking us from the icy
mountains of Siberia to
the burning sands of Egypt,
to the vast mojave desert.
But in each of these shocking
cases, one question remains
starkly the same "how
did these people die?"
We begin in 1959 with
a not-so-warm welcome
to the siberian wilderness
of the Soviet union.
Deep in the ural mountains,
hundreds of miles from
civilization, this frigid tundra doesn't even
have a name.
That is, until this man, Igor
dyatlov, leads eight other
adventurers on an
expedition through the desolate
ural mountains.
In a matter of days, every
one of them will be dead,
in a manner so disturbing, that
many will label these the most
violent, unexplained
deaths of the 20th century.
What happens next will be
debated by investigators for
more than 50 years.
Theories include a secret weapon test,
a murderous rampage,
a yeti attack, or even
a ufo encounter.
Tonight, we will share
remarkable new discoveries that
could unmask the culprit
and reveal the truth of
the infamous dyatlov pass incident
for the very first time.
Like most mysteries, this
story begins innocently enough.
January 23rd, 1959.
Buoyed by youth,
camaraderie, and adventure,
ten college students venture
into the siberian wilderness.
Led by 23-year-old engineer
Igor dyatlov, they're on a 16-day
journey deep into the ortorten mountains.
And let's be clear,
although they're college kids,
they are also well-trained
and well-experienced hikers.
And they bring along several
journals and five cameras to
document their trek, not
knowing that their words
and photos will soon serve
as a trail of breadcrumbs in
a terrifying mystery.
Their journey is immediately
intense, as they hike and ski
through the punishingly
cold siberian wilderness.
But their mood remains
high, as team member
lyudmila dubinina writes in her diary.
But despite their high spirits,
after five days, one member of
the team is injured and can't continue.
Yuri yudin begins to experience
extreme joint pain, and on
January 28th, leaves the
group to head back to civilization.
As Yuri parts ways with his
comrades, they head deeper
into the foreboding wilderness.
This is the last time that he will ever see
his friends alive.
As the nine hikers reach
higher altitudes, they begin to
experience the skin-shredding
weather that only the infamous
sub-zero siberian climate can inflict.
Showing remarkable
fortitude, the team battles on.
Dyatlov writes
On their seventh day, with
temperatures plummeting to
25 degrees below zero,
they pitch camp along
the shoulder of a barren
and exposed slope that
the local mansi tribesmen call
"dead mountain," a fateful name
since it is here that
our horrifying mystery
is about to unfold.
On the slope of the mountain,
they cut into a thick slab of
ice and set up camp for the night.
No one knows exactly
what transpired after
they hunkered down,
only that night fell,
bringing with it dizzying cold
temperatures and powerful
winds the group described as,
quote, "the draft of
an airplane taking off."
No more diary entries
were recorded after that day.
A tragedy beyond understanding
was about to take place.
When the hikers don't arrive
at their exit point on the day
they're due, concern grows.
A search party is
dispatched to check on them.
Searching the urals is no easy
task, particularly when you're
searching an area covering
hundreds of square miles.
After a multi-day hunt,
the rescuers finally discover
the missing hikers' tent.
It's mostly intact, but
there's no one inside.
And shockingly, given
the negative 35-degree
conditions, the students have
left behind their warm winter
clothing, shoes, food,
and an unused stove.
Strangest of all, the tent has
been cut open from the inside
as if to facilitate a quick escape.
But what were the hikers running from?
And where are they now?
And then the searchers find them.
Almost a mile from the tent,
the search party discovers
the frozen bodies of two
of the hikers, wearing only
underwear, and near
the remains of a campfire.
Horribly, their bare feet are
burned, suggesting they were so
cold that they were willing to
force their naked feet directly
into the fire for warmth.
Three more of the victims are
found frozen to death on a path
leading back to the tent.
Searchers continue to
scour the area, but the other
students are nowhere to be found.
It isn't until three months
later, when the spring thaw
begins, that the missing hikers
are all found huddled together
in a snow den.
Had they hid there on their
own, or were they placed
there by someone or something?
The injuries alone are
the stuff of nightmares.
Chest wounds, broken
ribs, fractured skulls.
Two were missing their
eyes, and one, her tongue.
An autopsy concludes most
of the hikers likely died from
internal bleeding.
Their multiple broken
bones point to some sort of
physical attack. The
mystery is only deepening.
What caused their horrific deaths?
One theory immediately presents itself.
Perhaps a blizzard triggered
an avalanche, causing these
brutal injuries.
But experts say that's unlikely.
The slope of the hill next
to the campsite is under
30 degrees.
It's not steep enough to
create the force required for
a typical snow avalanche.
Speculation quickly shifts elsewhere.
Some theorize that the hikers
stumbled upon a secret military
operation and were
perhaps killed by soldiers.
1959 was the height of the cold war.
On orders from the kremlin,
Russia had launched one of
history's most drastic political, moral,
and economic wars, a cold war.
The arms race in a full sprint,
the Soviets were surely engaged
in secret military testing.
Could the hikers have stumbled
across something they were
never meant to see?
Might the Soviet military have
accidentally killed the hikers
with some kind of weapons test?
Surely, if they had, the
Soviets would have been
inclined to Bury the entire scandal.
Others suggest something stranger still.
Local legend talks of a
cryptid that lives in these parts,
something the local
tribe refers to as the menk.
But we would call it big foot.
Could the adventurers
really have encountered
the mythical menk?
Some of the last photos
taken by the group seem to lend
credibility to the theory,
such as this image.
Then, in another final photo,
bright lights and massive lens
flares imply lights in the sky.
Did the hikers encounter
something from out of
this world?
And in recent years, a
new theory has gained
traction infrasound.
Sound waves below the level of
normal human hearing are known
to cause sensations
of confusion and fear.
Could wind coursing over
the siberian mountains have
created this infrasound phenomenon?
And could it have sent
the hikers running from
their tent into the unforgiving elements?
But this theory does
little to explain the hikers'
perplexing injuries.
Decades passed with no answers
as to the cause of this strange
and disturbing tragedy.
But shocking new evidence might
show that one of these theories
about how these young explorers
died might actually be true.
Coming up, the archaeological find of
the century brings with it a deadly curse.
And later, the unsettling
mystery of an adventurer
who goes missing near area 51.
Something about that
cave just spooked me.
For 65 years, the world has
wondered what caused the savage
deaths of nine young explorers deep in
the siberian wilderness.
I became fascinated
by this enduring mystery.
Let's go.
And traveled to the dyatlov pass in 2019.
Every step of this journey
is just leading us further
and further into the unknown.
This just feels like the end of the world.
I investigated many theories
on that trip, including one in
which people believe the group ran into
a cryptozoological monster.
In some areas, it's known as the almas.
Here, it's known as a menk,
a hulking six to eight foot
tall bipedal primate covered in
reddish-brown fur.
As evidence, many people
have pointed to one photo from
the hikers' cameras, which
shows the blurry image
image of someone or something.
But by examining the
pictures before and after it on
the camera roll, we proved
that the blurry photo is one of
the other hikers
emerging from the woods.
And no mention of a yeti
ever appears in their diaries.
At an abandoned gulag, we
investigated the theory that
an escaped prisoner killed the hikers.
Look at this. That's a boot.
Unbelievable.
But no prisoners were reported
missing, and it's unthinkable
that a fleeing convict wouldn't
have grabbed the hikers' money
or warm clothes.
I mean, I think we can
discount that theory out of hand.
- Absolutely.
- Don't you?
100 percent, mathematically, no way.
But incredibly, before leaving
Russia, I uncovered remarkable
evidence of a possible
government cover-up.
This is a document that shouldn't exist.
Do these documents prove that
the accepted timeline of events
here is wrong?
Is this a smoking gun?
It's possible.
In the end, our
investigation made an impact.
The questions I raised,
alongside the impending 60th
anniversary of the deaths,
prompted the Russian government
to officially reinvestigate
the dyatlov mystery.
The Russians asked a team
of Swiss scientists to reexamine
a previously ruled out theory
that the hikers fell victim to
some kind of avalanche.
Swiss investigator Alexander
puzrin may have proven that
a smaller avalanche, known as
a slab avalanche, may have been
the cause after all.
We started exploring the
slab avalanche hypothesis.
But if this theory that a small
avalanche fell on the tent is
correct, how can we
explain the massive injuries
the campers sustained?
Imagine the horror of waking
up and being partially buried in
your tent,
your comrades all around
you screaming in pain.
Injured but running on
adrenaline, you frantically cut
your way out of the tent
into the violent elements.
You have only minutes to
make life or death decisions.
What do you do?
The Swiss team has seemingly
brought fascinating new insight
to a mystery that's haunted
the world for half a century.
It's a remarkable theory,
but questions remain.
Questions like, "how can an
avalanche explain the deeply"
"disturbing fact that some
of the bodies were missing
their tongue, nose, and eyes?"
Well, that may be the
easiest explanation of all
scavenging animals,
known to feed on carcasses.
Grim, yes, but it's nature's way.
So is the slab avalanche
theory enough to explain
the mysterious deaths of
Igor dyatlov and his intrepid
friends once and for all?
Given the strange nature
of this mystery, for some,
perhaps no single
theory will ever be enough.
But if we take the time to
look at the dyatlov incident,
it does seem that the murder
weapon is right in front of us,
an unforgiving mountain
in a frigid wilderness where
it's always easier to die than it is to live.
Still, for decades, the
story of the hikers has
been remembered for their demise.
Yet, these remarkable young
adventurers deserve to be
remembered for so
much more than that.
In their final, desperate moments,
we can understand that
truly, this is a story of youth,
of friendship, and of true
bravery at the ultimate cost.
In our next file, the deaths are just as
mysterious, but the temperature
is a whole lot warmer.
Welcome to the valley of
the kings, or under it, rather.
The date is February 1923.
The daring British egyptologist
leading this group is hoping to
make a name for himself as
he approaches a mysterious
golden shrine.
His name, Howard Carter,
and he is just one step away
from discovering the
sarcophagus of the long
lost pharaoh tutankhamen,
better known as king tut.
Carter is joined by his business partner,
lord carnarvon, the
wealthy British nobleman
bank-rolling the years-long expedition.
As they prepare to enter
the tomb, they're on the edge
of the greatest archaeological
find, well, maybe ever.
Little do they know, their
discovery of a lifetime
will be linked to a series
of mysterious deaths,
including their own.
It's 1923, about 18 miles
from the city of Luxor.
Egyptologist Howard Carter has
spent five long years searching
for the tomb of king tut. Time
and money are running out.
His financier and business
partner, lord carnarvon,
agrees to fund one
last season of digging.
This is the final chance for
this self-taught egyptologist.
On November 4th,
Carter gets lucky at last.
He hits pay dirt when a
12-year-old local water boy
stumbles over a low hill,
dropping his jar but revealing
a hidden stair.
Over the next 24 hours,
Carter and his team uncover
16 steps leading down to a wall.
What they find on the other side
of the wall is astounding
a room packed with the
treasures of a pharaoh,
hundreds of artifacts,
chariots, and weapons.
Never before has such a
complete royal Egyptian tomb
been found.
Carter has discovered
the antechamber containing
the pharaoh's riches.
But there is one thing
missing the sarcophagus of
the king buried here.
He believes the shrine
might be behind the next wall.
However, before they
continue, Carter, lord carnarvon,
and the crew have a hearty
lunch in the tomb of ramses xi.
The photo of this lunch will
take on tremendous significance
as the years go by.
Many of the guests at this
table will mysteriously die
before the decade is through.
After they finish eating,
Carter and his team break
through another wall in the antechamber.
On the other side, there's
an open area leading to
the door of a burial chamber.
Carter's team is ready to
break through to the next room.
But in Carter's way stands a
lock made of rope and a Clay
seal of Anubis, the god of
the underworld, that hasn't
been touched by human
hands in over 3,000 years.
Carter doesn't think
twice about cutting it open.
Under four outer shrines, the crew finds
a quartzite sarcophagus.
Inside is a series of
nested, gilded coffins.
And at the center lies a mummy,
hidden behind a now-famous
golden mask. King tut has been found.
The tutankhamen discovery
makes news around the world.
But it doesn't take long
before very bad things
start happening.
Just days after the discovery,
lord carnarvon falls ill,
developing a nasty blood infection.
His condition worsens.
Less than two months after
entering tut's burial chamber,
carnarvon dies from
pneumonia and blood poisoning.
His death makes worldwide headlines.
A new mania takes hold
fear of the pharaoh's curse.
But is it merely a
catchy tabloid headline?
One person who promotes
the curse is the master of
whodunnit murder mysteries,
sir Arthur con an Doyle,
creator of Sherlock Holmes.
For all of Sherlock's cold
calculating reason, con an Doyle
is a spiritualist and a firm
believer in powers beyond
the grave, an idea present
in some of his short stories.
The day after carnarvon's death,
con an Doyle tells us reporters
the death may have been due
to elementals primitive spirits
invoked by ancient Egyptian
priests to guard tombs,
and that this must have
been a peculiar element of
an Egyptian curse.
World leaders even get in on the panic.
After reading about
lord carnarvon's death,
Italy's dictator Benito
Mussolini frantically orders
a mummy he had received
as a gift to be removed from
his private home in Rome.
There is one man who
is certainly skeptical
of the curse, the man who discovered
the tomb, Howard Carter himself.
Though Carter is distraught
by the death of his friend
and patron, he calls
the curse "Tommy rot."
In other words, nonsense.
Carter gets back to work.
But then, rather
inconveniently, other people
connected to the discovery
of the tomb start dying.
George j. Gould,
an American financier
and railroad executive,
falls sick after visiting the
monument, and dies from
pneumonia one month
after lord carnarvon.
Two other men who
helped with the excavation,
including carnarvon's own
half-brother, die from pneumonia
in the years following.
Newspapers sensationalize
tut's curse and report when
a premature death strikes
anyone who enters the tomb.
Multiple men are later killed by gunshot,
including an Egyptian prince
who was shot in the head
by his wife.
One man is smothered to death
with a pillow in a gentlemen's
club, and archeologist Hugh
Evelyn white dies by suicide,
reportedly leaving a note
that says, "I have succumbed to
a curse which forces me to disappear."
The curse of king tut is one of
the great unsolved
mysteries of the 20th century.
But is the curse real,
or is it just a series of
unfortunate tragedies?
In 2003, two London physicians,
sharif and tariq El-tawil,
publish a letter in the lancet
medical journal proposing
a possible origin for the notorious curse.
The unexpected culprit? Fungus.
It is believed that a toxic
fungus could have festered for
centuries in the tomb.
Just waiting for Carter's
crew to breathe it in.
This could explain the deaths
that were caused by respiratory
diseases and pneumonia.
Some say that toxic fungus
is the true culprit in the curse
of king tut's tomb.
But there's one problem with that theory.
It doesn't explain the death
of the very first man inside,
Howard Carter,
who was killed by something
more deadly than any curse
you could conjure.
Despite rumors of a
curse on king tut's tomb,
archaeologist Howard
Carter continues to catalog
and examine the tomb until 1932.
That's a solid decade of
getting on the wrong side
of the pharaoh. What happens to him?
Well, nothing for a long time.
Carter, the man most
responsible for the excavation
and the first one into the
tomb, does die relatively
young at age 64, passing
away from lymphoma.
That isn't a condition
a fungus could cause.
If there were a curse on
king tut's tomb, did it miss
its main target?
Or could there be some
other unseen force at play?
In 2024, a scientific paper
makes a different case for
the pharaoh's curse poisonous radon.
Bioarchaeologist rosalyn
Campbell has studied the theory
and believes it makes sense.
Radioactive gas could
explain the mysterious deaths.
So the symptoms of radon
poisoning can be very similar
or identical to the symptoms
of different types of cancers.
One of the things that we
know about limestone is it emits
radon, which is a radioactive gas.
And in the valley of the kings,
all of the tombs are cut into
the naturally occurring
limestone that makes up
this valley.
Normally, this isn't
necessarily a huge problem,
but if you're in an area with
a lot of limestone and very
poor ventilation, then you
are being exposed to potentially
unsafe levels of radon that can
cause serious health problems.
Tutankhamen's tomb is
actually unusually small for
a royal tomb.
They would have been in
daily contact with a lot of this
limestone that was emitting radon gas.
And we do see, for example,
various other people who worked
in that tomb also were
diagnosed with cancer.
And Howard Carter died of lymphoma.
So radon might have caused
very serious health concerns over
the years and eventually led
to the death of these individuals.
The curse of the tomb
of king tut has fascinated
and frightened adventurers
for over a century.
Did Howard Carter and
his team die because of
an honest-to-goodness Egyptian curse?
Well, the newest evidence
suggests the shocking string of
deaths may have been caused
by a hidden earthly power, be it
fungus or radioactive gas.
Still, that doesn't explain
the visitors who were
shot, smothered, or committed suicide.
Today, though, most of
the tomb's 5,000 artifacts are
housed at the grand Egyptian museum.
Tutankhamen himself is
sealed in an airtight case, with no
signs of danger for visitors.
It seems he and his curse
are now safely at rest.
Our next file takes us to
another extreme landscape,
but one that's a little
closer to home, just north of.
Las Vegas, near the infamous area 51.
You know, the top secret
military base that may or may
not be hiding ufo
wreckage and alien corpses.
Anyway, it's here that a
lone explorer made a strange
discovery that captured
the attention of millions on
social media.
But then, Kenny veach
vanished without a trace
leaving the world to wonder
what happened to him.
It's November 10, 2014.
That's Kenny veach, inventor, dad,
loving boyfriend, and extreme hiker.
I just came across
these gigantic, sweet
pine nuts, or pinyon nuts,
whatever you want to call them.
This is the kind of
food that saves your life.
It's on one of these extreme
hikes that he finds a cave that
will change his life.
And he shares his extraordinary
discovery on social media.
I found a hidden cave.
The entrance to the cave
was shaped like a capital m.
But as I began to enter this
particular cave, my whole body
began to vibrate.
Suddenly, I became very, very scared.
Kenny is certain something
in the cave is causing
the terrifying vibrations,
which become more
intense as he enters.
He finally gives up,
running away from the cave
all the way home.
Kenny's posts about
the terrifying experience
quickly gain a following.
But commenters suggest
he is exaggerating or was
just dehydrated.
Kenny feels challenged
to prove them all wrong.
I talked to some people
on YouTube, and I told them,
"hey, I'm coming out here,
you know, because they kind of
called my hand."
And something about
that cave just spooked me.
Closer I got to it, the crazier my body felt.
I got to relocate it. If I
do, I'm going in there.
I'm gonna put on my light, walk in there,
see if I find anything. We'll see.
Kenny spends an arduous
day looking for the cave,
with no luck.
It's a big freaking mountain range.
He posts a video of his failed
search, but with a promise to
not give up.
I'm going again this weekend.
I'll be hiking solo for three days.
I plan on covering about 40 miles.
Kenny's growing fan base
encourages his risky return
to the desert.
Although, there is one
dissenting voice that gets
everyone's attention, an
ominous warning not to enter
the cave, adding that if he does,
Kenny will not get out.
On November 10, 2014,
Kenny straps on his
gun and ventures into
the mojave desert on
another three-day quest
to find the m cave.
This time, he's sure he'll locate it.
But, four days later,
Kenny's girlfriend reports
him missing.
No one will ever see Kenny veach again.
The discovery of tutankhamen's
tomb a hundred years ago set
off a worldwide frenzy of "tut-mania."
It revolutionizes egyptology,
and Egyptian motifs
find their way into artwork,
architecture, music,
movies, and even fashion.
Tut-mania even finds its way
to the white house in the form of
Herbert hoover's
Belgian Shepherd named,
you guessed it, "king tut."
It's amazing to think that
tutankhamen only ruled for
10 years, had an uneventful reign,
and did not leave an heir.
But 3,000 years later, he's
become so famous that he's
the one Egyptian king
that almost everyone across
the world can name.
Now that's one heck of an afterlife.
Kenny veach has gone missing
in the desert during his search
for a mysterious cave.
The red rock search and
rescue teams are dispatched,
and his car is quickly located.
Ground teams scour every
peak and canyon, but they
find nothing.
Then, eight days after
Kenny was reported missing,
they find his cell phone,
which miraculously
still has battery life.
It is found right next to
the derelict mine where
he filmed his previous
attempt to find the strange
m-shaped cave.
The authorities lower a
camera into the mineshaft,
expecting the worst. No
trace of Kenny is found.
After many heartbreaking
weeks, the official search is called
off, and Kenny veach is assumed dead.
But how did he die?
It's possible that Kenny had an accident.
Perhaps he was bitten by a snake,
or succumbed to the elements.
But Kenny was an experienced
outdoors man who should not have
fallen into misfortune so easily.
Some have even
suggested that he might have
committed suicide.
But if he was dead in the
desert, why has no one ever
found his remains, his clothes,
or his camping supplies?
The one thing authorities
did find, Kenny's cell phone,
raises more questions than answers.
Those following Kenny's
disappearance find the cell
phone discovery odd.
Why did it take eight days
to find the phone in such
an obvious spot?
And how could the phone
reportedly have a charged
battery after more than a week?
Some believe the
phone was placed there,
but by who and why?
The fact that area 51 is nearby
helps fuel the speculation.
Many believe that Kenny got
too close to a restricted area,
perhaps uncovered a secret that
the government could not allow
to go public.
Some propose that the
vibrations Kenny felt were
the result of a nonlethal weapon.
Some have suggested
even alien technology.
So we've got a guy missing,
trying to figure out what
the truth is.
Ever since Kenny vanished,
investigative vlogger
Sean horlacher has been
obsessed with solving the case.
So Kenny was talking
about finding these caves.
He's talking about it a lot.
And I believe that's where
he got noticed, to where
he started getting watched.
They knew he was going
out there, so I believe
the government just flew
a couple guys out at night
and covered it up.
So this time, as I'm
walking through, I'm looking
for, you know, not a cave this time.
I'm looking for a cover up.
We were all looking for a
real cave that was still open.
I don't think that's the case anymore.
That changes everything.
One of the things that
drew me to this case was,
Kenny witnessed something
that the government did not want
the general public to know
about, and may be why Kenny's
not here anymore.
It's right here.
I think this is a clever little coverup.
That's not a normal
piece of the landscape.
This and this aren't really matching up.
This is, like,
looks like it might have been
the top of the cave right here.
And then this was put here,
this was put here, this was
put here. This was put here.
This was put here.
And then, down here,
you have this seam.
And it's got this white stuff in here,
sort of like a sealant.
This is a freaking covered-up m cave.
Perhaps the most convincing
evidence that this is the m cave
was the physical effects Sean
experienced after being close
to the barricaded entrance.
Something's hitting me right now.
I start getting sick, like deathly ill.
This is where that cave
was that Kenny witnessed,
but it's covered.
Intrigued by Sean's discovery,
I've gone back through Kenny's
final video before he disappeared.
The kind of cave I'm looking
for is deep, and it's dark.
I wanted to see if he
recorded this same strange rock
formation, or perhaps
it was still an open cave.
And there it is.
It seems Kenny really was at
the exact same strange place
Sean found.
Even more haunting, listen to
what Kenny says, as he seems to
pause here, 10 years ago.
It's about level with
the ground, like right in
an area, like this.
So I really got to keep my eyes
peeled, because I don't want to
pass it.
If this is the m cave, it's
as if Kenny instinctively
knew where it should be.
Whatever happened that day
in the desert, there is one thing
we can sincerely say
wherever Kenny is,
we hope he's at peace.
I'm Josh gates.
Until next time, travel adventurously.