Hi everyone, this is Deb from Dying to be Found.
Before we get started, I just wanted to say that episodes contain disturbing discussions on harmful acts and crimes against animals and or humankind.
Recordings are not intended for young or sensitive audiences due to the content nature of this podcast.
Listener discretion is strongly advised.
That color looks good on you.
Thank you. Purple is technically my favorite color, but I don't wear it a lot. Yeah.
How come?
I don't know. I just, okay, do you know how far back my love of purple goes?
Not at all.
To Kathy's in my grape purple shag rug bedroom.
Oh my gosh. I forgot yours was purple and conservative. I don't want to say conservative me because I'm kind of wacky, but I had a choice of going with that red.
Do you remember the red?
I do remember the red.
But I went with beige because I might want to change my room color.
Oh wow.
So I was being practical.
You sure were and I was just being me.
Well, that's good. Remember we used to have the rakes and we raked the shag carpeting?
After we vacuumed. Yeah. Do you remember that time that the three of us got in a fight and it was always that that was always you and Kathy against me or Kathy and me against you?
Never was it you and me against Kathy, but guess, do you remember when I threw that pint of milk at you?
I thought that was Kathy that did that.
No, you were egging me on. I was at the bottom of the stairs. I said, if you do not stop, I'm going to throw this at you. And then you just kept at it. And so guess what?
Now you didn't. The bag exploded.
Yes, but do you know what you guys did?
What?
You guys helped me clean it up before mom and dad got home and never got me in trouble.
I remember cleaning it up.
I probably would have said it was your fault and then you would have gotten in trouble. So, you know.
Oh my gosh. Hi everyone. It's Deb.
And I'm Beth.
Beth, I am so excited. I'm loving this rotation. It's really, really working out really well. It's almost like it's a surprise to see you. We have so much to catch up on. I love this.
Great. I'm having fun too.
How's your business?
It's doing well. I went live on my blog and website and it is under BethStamps.com. If you want to see my blog and my Stampin' Up business is attached to that. So you'll see links.
I have a class coming up in two weeks and I have nine people attending and I expect them they'll all be buying because they want to just get into rubber stamping.
Wow.
Yes, I'm teaching them three cards.
Oh yeah.
It's easy for you because if you sat there all the pieces would be cut for you. So I have a lot of work ahead of me to cut up pieces of card stock and all that for three different cards for nine people.
I love that. I wish I was closer. I would totally do that with you.
Good for you. I'm excited.
Thanks.
I wanted to remind our listeners that you're the lucky recipient today of my oldie but goodie storylines because I don't think you are going to be disappointed, Beth. Do you remember when we talked about the Lake Bonham murders?
Yes.
I think that was around episode 38, something like that. So we had talked about this. You'd never heard of what we're going to talk about today and I thought, what the heck? I wanted to start this early on in the season and we're going to talk about the Dyatlov Pass incident. Have you looked that up yet?
No, I didn't.
Okay, good.
Shall I do that now?
No, no, no, because I have got a lot in store for you today. First of all, you get to hear my, let's call it North American pronunciations because we are going to Russia.
Ah, that'll be really interesting.
Won't it though. I'm going to totally use my phonics on this. I practiced a little bit. I know I'm going to mess it up. So I'm going to apologize if anybody wants to write in and tell me the correct pronunciation. I'm just going to do my best.
Yeah. So we are going to talk about the Dyatlov Pass, which this incident was named after the leader of this hiking expedition. And I'm taking you all the way back to Russia in 1959 because you get my oldie but goodies.
I love it because I am into the oldies.
Well, let's bring it up to date just a little bit. Have you ever seen that movie Frozen?
Sure did.
Oh, did you love it?
I did. I love that snowman.
Oh yeah. Olaf.
Olaf.
Oh, he's so cute. That is definitely one of my favorites. It's probably the last movie that I've watched with little kiddos in the house. I mean, I get sucked into these Disney movies all the time. It works on my emotions. They do such a good job on working on people's emotions. Yeah.
Oh, do they ever?
I just wanted to kind of bring that up to you. We're going to talk about that in just a little bit because you are not going to believe how that movie Frozen is going to come into play here.
Really?
Yeah. I mean, I was shocked when I was doing my research, but wow. Wow. So hang in there. Everybody hang in there. This is a good one.
It sounds it. Let's go.
On January 23rd, 1959, 10 experienced hikers set out on a 200 mile trek in Russia's Ural mountains. They got their bath by traveling by train and truck. So they kind of had to do a little trains, planes, automobiles to get to their starting point.
Okay.
By the time they left on their expedition, it was January 27th, 1959. Okay. So this is a group of travelers, hikers, mountaineers. They were all very experienced. They knew what they were doing. So they're going in a group. If there's one person who might get stuck, then somebody else is going to help them out because they know what to do. Right?
Good.
And one of the things that you should look at too is obviously if you're going to be taking a mountaineering trek like this, you'll want to look at the weather reports, right?
For sure.
Well, Russian weather bureaus classified the hikes in that mountain terrain where the group was headed. They classified that as a category three risk, which, you know, think about tornadoes and hurricanes. They also have that for snow and temperatures.
And this was the riskiest ranking of weather for that time of year because the average temperatures, Beth, was negative 30 degrees Celsius or negative 22 degrees Fahrenheit.
I don't know why they would have gone if it was the riskiest weather ranking.
That is a good question. And I read a ton of articles. Never did I see one thing as to why they chose this time of the year.
I will say this, though, the majority of the people that were on this trek were students. And so maybe they had holiday.
And that might have been the only time that they could go because, you know, with my career, I usually have to plan my vacations around when I do have that time off.
So they could have done the same thing. And Beth, I mean, come on, it's Russia. So, you know, it's going to be cold most of the time anyway, right?
Yes.
Yeah. So maybe that was I'm just guesstimating. I have no idea because I didn't really find any information on there.
But there was 10 of them that went on this trip. They'd all gone on multiple ski trips and tours and expeditions, mountain trips, hiking, things like that.
So there was no reason for concern since they had a safety in numbers.
For sure. Well, Igor Dyatlov was age 23 and he was studying radio engineering.
He led this group on their skiing and mountaineering expedition.
Now, Beth, I found this out just at the last minute while I was kind of closing up this research here.
I found out that he was supposed to send a telegram to the group's sporting club.
So they all belong to a sporting club and he was supposed to send a telegram as soon as they got back from their expedition, just letting somebody know that everybody was safe.
They estimated their time of return was going to be February 12th. So they left on January 27th. It was going to take probably two weeks.
They would be back from this trip February 12th, give or take a day because in expeditions like this, depending on the weather, things can either delay you or speed things up.
So let me tell you about the one other hiker. There was a man named Yuri Yidin and he had to actually turn back from this trek a little bit earlier than everybody else because he was not feeling well.
So he ended up saying, hey, I cannot take this journey with you. I'm just going to head on back.
So he was the one who took the information back to the sporting club that the rest of the group would be returning by February 12th.
Does that make sense? Yeah, total. Okay. So I'm going to start by talking about the hikers on this trip and Beth, spoiler alert, everybody dies.
Oh, and I don't want to be rough and tough about that, but that's a shame.
It is. When you mentioned the Lake Bodom murders, I thought maybe it would be a couple, but certainly not 10 of them. Well, nine of them.
No, there were nine because Yuri, there was several people named Yuri on this trip, but Yuri Yidin went back because he was not feeling well.
So the nine hikers that were left that continued on this journey, as I go through these names, I'm going to kind of set the scene up front for you.
And it's one of those stories where you kind of see the ending first and then we come back around.
Okay, so we're going to start off by setting the scene on how these people were found at their campsite a couple of weeks after they had initially left for their expedition.
And as we come back around, you'll understand more about how they were found, where they were found and really what happened.
Okay, so to start off, all of these hikers were students at the Ural Polytechnic Institute in Yekaterinburg, Russia, except for one of these people on the track.
We not only had a group of really highly skilled mountaineers, Beth, but they were all engineers.
They were highly intelligent as a group as well. Yeah. So you would think that nothing would go wrong, right?
Exactly. I'm going to start off by saying again that the group did start off with the 10 members and Yuri did drop out early.
Now, Yuri Uden was age 21. He was a fourth year student studying engineering and was one of those original hikers.
But again, he had to turn back, which left nine hikers to continue on with their venture.
And that would be seven men and two women. Going forward, you know that Yuri is the lucky one here.
He did not meet his fate as everybody else did. For sure. But it already arouses my suspicions.
Oh, like how? Well, if he turned back, was he the one that caused their deaths?
Wow, Beth. Hmm. Let's see. Let me continue and we will figure that one out. You never know.
OK. OK. Now here comes some more of these Russian names. So forgive me, but I'll do my best.
Yuri Doroshenko, age 21, was a fourth year student studying radio engineering.
He was found face down lying next to one of his fellow hikers named Yuri Krivenyshenko.
He was barefoot and only wearing underwear, Beth. That's strange.
Holy. He had burns on his foot and right temple, along with multiple abrasions and bruises on his body.
Do you know what liver mortis is? No. So I'll tell you by saying that liver mortis set in on his back,
which suggested that his body had been moved. What liver mortis is, Beth, is once we pass away,
obviously your heart's going to stop. And that's when gravity kicks in.
I'm just giving a really short, brief, abridged version of this. But when we pass away,
the blood will gravitate towards, obviously it's going to go down. So if you're laying on your back,
then your blood is going to gravitate towards the bottom of your back. If you're laying on your
stomach and you stop breathing, your heart stops, then your blood is going to gravitate to the front
of your body. Well, that's interesting. Yeah. So liver mortis set in on his back,
which suggested at some point that his body had been moved. If he had liver mortis on his front,
but he was laying on his back, his whole front side would be that darker color.
All right. The next person was Lyudmila Dubanina. This was a female, age 20,
and she was a fourth year student studying engineering and economics. She was wearing
somebody else's sweater, which Beth had some radioactivity on it. When they tested it,
they found radioactivity on that sweater. Did they have a hunch where it came from?
Yep. There are some theories out there and I'm going to kind of save that to the end,
but yeah, it definitely falls into one of the theories. Okay. Because it's kind of odd to have
radioactivity on you, especially if you're out in the elements and what's around there, nothing
that you would think would be radioactive. Oh yeah. Lyudmila's chest was caved in. She had broken
ribs and she was missing her tongue and eyes. Dear Lord. Right? What the heck? Exactly. And
honestly, that's probably what everybody, all the people that were out there looking for these
people that when they came upon them, they had to have been shocked. Tremendously. Alexander
Kolavetov, age 24, was a fourth year student studying nuclear physics. He was wearing someone
else's overalls, which also had radioactivity on it. So something was radioactive around them.
Soft tissue around his eyes and eyebrows were missing. His skull bones were exposed and he
had a deformed neck when they found him. This sounds like a science fiction movie.
It really does. Zaneta Komagorova, this was also a female, age 22, and she was a fifth year student
studying radio engineering. I mean, she was dressed for the weather, for whatever happened. She seemed
to be the, probably the one with the most clothing on, multiple layers. You know, from the cold,
you should be dressing like that anyway. Now, Yuri Krivnechenko, age 23, graduated in 1957 with a
degree in construction and hydraulics. Yuri was barefoot and only wearing his underwear. He was
found face up, laying next to the other man named Yuri. So there's two Yuris in this story going
forward. He had burns on his left leg and left foot, along with multiple abrasions and bruises
on his body. Rustern Slobodin, age 23, graduated the year before in 1958 with an engineering
technology degree and he had a non-fatal crack in his skull and was dressed in multi-layer clothing.
So not too much damage to him. Nikolay Thebo Brignel, age 23, also graduated in 1958 with
a civil engineering degree. He was wearing Duba Nina's fur coat and hat. He had major skull injuries,
which the medical examiner determined was likely fatal. Simone Zoloterov, age 38, graduated in 1950
with a physical education degree and was a World War II veteran and sports instructor. He was wearing
Yuri Doroshenko's hat. He had a caved in chest, broken ribs and was missing his eyes.
Beth, he died with a pen in one hand and a small notepad in the other, but he had not written
anything down. Darn. Isn't that something? Yes. Any ideas? So I've gone through all the names here,
Beth. Do you have any ideas what could have happened with this group? Because you just said
it was a sci-fi. Well, I'm thinking Bigfoot because it's hard for any human being to get together with
nine people where they can't defend themselves and it's just bang, they're all gone. I know. And
that's so interesting about this, but I knew you were going to say that because I remember one of
our episodes when we did talk about Bigfoot, I think it was with Teresa Bear. You told me that
Bigfoot was nurturing. Do you remember that? I guess I was wrong. Well, actually no. If you think
about it, Bigfoot is in North America on the Western side and Yetis are over across in the
European areas, right? Okay. Must have been a Yeti. Could have been. We'll continue. You got so many
theories going on here. All right. Let me talk just about one thing from some journals because
the hikers actually did a pretty good job taking lots of pictures, Beth, and journaling. They did
a lot of notes in their journals. One of the notes from the hikers journals told us what they
encountered on February 1st, 1959. That would have been right around just a few days after
their journey started and they only hiked four kilometers or two and a half miles that day.
They set up camp around 5 PM on a mountain slope. Then they ate dinner around six or seven o'clock
that night. Now, two of the hikers, likely Simone Zolotaryov, the 38-year-old Beth, if you remember
him, the World War II vet, and Nikolay Thebo-Brignel, the 23-year-old, it was likely that
they bundled up and went outside possibly to, I don't know, smoke a cigarette maybe or relieve
themselves, but they bundled up to go outside for a few minutes. I'm going to jump ahead to the
search and rescue that occurred on February 2nd of 1959. Obviously, Beth's family members became
worried and a search and rescue team did get dispatched out to look for this group on February
26th, 1959. They had that timeline of when they should have been returning somewhere around
February 12th. Now, one of the search member parties named Mikhail Sharavin was interviewed
just in 2019. This is what he said, Beth, that he found. You're shaking your head.
Beth Dombkowski Well, I'm shaking my head because I'm thinking 2019. That's so recent.
Beth Dombkowski That would have been 64 years ago. So, he's probably got to be definitely in his 80s
or 90s by now. But 2019, he would have been in his 80s when he was interviewed. Definitely possible
that he's still with us. So, Mikhail, when he came upon the hikers campsite, the group's tent was
barely visible due to the amount of snow covering it up at that point, the snowfall, what have you.
You could still see the tip of the tent, but there was definitely a lot of snow that they had to dig
it out. Once they were able to dig the tent out, the search team discovered that the tent was
half torn down and it looked like it had been cut open from the inside.
Beth Dombkowski Oh, boy. Well, didn't that same thing happen in Lake Bowdom?
Beth Dombkowski I think I remember you telling me that there were definitely a lot of tears
in that tent. But I don't remember if you said it was from the inside or out.
Beth Dombkowski Yeah.
Beth Dombkowski I guess we need to go back and listen to that, don't we?
Beth Dombkowski We do.
Beth Dombkowski No one was inside that tent, Beth, but rescuers found several items that they would,
you know, you're settling down for the night. They found a flask of vodka, a map, an abandoned plate
with some white pork fat on it. And they also found a journal from one of the hikers who had said that
the winds had really picked up on the day of February 1st. So that would have been maybe the
day before anything could have happened. I'm not really sure, but we're going to guess, Beth,
that somewhere around February 2nd is when this occurred. Footprints leading away from the tent
that some of the campers were barefoot and only one had a boot or a sock on.
Beth Dombkowski That just doesn't make sense.
Beth Dombkowski It doesn't. So they were leaving in a hurry or something was happening for sure.
Beth Dombkowski Mm hmm.
Beth Dombkowski The rescue team expanded the perimeter of their search and came upon
residuals of a campfire plus the bodies of both the URIs. Beth, I'm going to try not to chop up
these names. So I will say URI K and URI D. So they came across both the URIs. Both hikers were
barefoot. Those were the ones, Beth, that were barefoot and only in their underwear.
Beth Dombkowski That's cold.
Beth Dombkowski Oh, yeah. There was a nearby cedar tree where both URIs were found. And this tree
kind of plays a big part in the scene, Beth. The branches were broken up to five meters or 16.4
feet high. All the branches below were completely broken off.
Beth Dombkowski That's strange.
Beth Dombkowski Some of the hikers clothing that was not being worn,
they were hung from the tree limbs on that cedar tree. Beth Dombkowski This is getting stranger
and stranger. Beth Dombkowski It really is. Just wait till I get to these theories. I'm almost there.
Beth Dombkowski Okay.
Beth Dombkowski All right. So unfortunately, they could not search for several months due to the
snow, the weather and everything else involved, Beth. So they were able to find those two hikers,
but they had to kind of wait it out for a few months before they could look for their others.
But once they picked up again, they found a really gruesome discovery. All nine hikers had scattered
around that campfire and it had appeared that at least three of them were trying to get back to the
tent. These three did not appear to have any injuries on them. It's believed that they all
died from hypothermia. So some were really, really injured. Some were not. But let me talk about
a little thing called paradoxical undressing. I think this might have been what happened to
both URIs, URI-K and URI-D. I don't know if you've heard of this, Beth. There's a phenomenon that
occurs once a person reaches a certain stage of hypothermia. Beth Dombkowski
I never heard of anything like that. Beth Dombkowski
Well, what happens is that the blood vessels narrow to sort of help the bodies regulate a little
bit. You know, our body works really hard to keep our temperature, what is it, 98 degrees. So the
blood vessels narrow to redirect blood flow to try to maintain that proper body temperature. This is
a stage that when people enter it, it's called cold stupid, which is where they can become really,
really confused. And the person's body feels much, much warmer than it actually is, Beth. And this is
when they can strip down to their skivvies before they lose consciousness. So it's very likely this
is what happened to the URIs. URI-K and URI-D were both found simply in their underwear. This
obviously would have been really unheard of for the harsh winter conditions and unless they were
suffering from that hypothermia. And that is where the people that investigated this incident
came to the conclusion that it could have been paradoxical undressing that occurred. But I don't
know if you've ever seen the hypothermia come through the hospital systems, Beth, you and I
have talked about how we've worked at hospitals. Have you ever seen hypothermia patients come
through? Beth Dombkowski
No. Beth Dombkowski
Yeah, I hadn't either. After the bodies were taken to the morgue, the medical examiner stated that
many of the injuries on all nine victims could be equal to the effect of a car crash. Here's a couple
other things that they found. Some of the hikers skulls and chests had been smashed open. Blunt
force trauma and soft tissue damage was also evident. Four of the hikers had a fractured skull,
broken ribs and a gash on their head. One of the victims, Beth, also had their eyes missing in their
tongues like I had mentioned. So definitely a mystery as to what could have happened.
Lots of conspiracies have emerged from this Dyatlov Pass incident, mainly I would say because
this all took place back in 1959. And you know, Beth, that we know so much more today than
obviously they did back in those days. So let me talk about the theories here. Now,
Beth Dombkowski I'm interested in hearing these.
Beth Dombkowski I want to start it off gently. How about that? I'll give you the easy one.
Beth Dombkowski Yes, please.
Beth Dombkowski Okay, the Yarrow Mountains are home to indigenous people identified as the Mansi.
And this group is known to participate in various rituals. Some say that the hikers could have
succumbed to their fate based on trespassing onto sacred land. So short and sweet, Beth,
the hikers cross paths with the Mansi on sacred land. And that's that. Personally, I can't imagine
nine seasoned mountaineers getting ambushed. But I mean, you said yourself, it's just too curious
for all of this to happen. And I really don't know enough about the Mansi's to know what their
temperament's like. I didn't really take a lot of time to look into that because it was just a very
short theory, not a lot of substance to it. But if any of our listeners want to clue us in,
definitely send us a message. Beth Dombkowski
Yes, definitely send a message. I'm curious to know what the inside is. I'm going to have to
look up Mansi. Beth Dombkowski
Yeah. Okay, here is the next... Can you hear that outside?
Beth Dombkowski I can. Like, is it a truck?
Beth Dombkowski No, it's my next door neighbor doing stuff.
Beth Dombkowski It's too cold to be out there doing stuff.
Beth Dombkowski I know, but he's always doing stuff like that.
You all, I have to move a little bit. My next door neighbor at all hours, even after dark,
likes to run his wood chipper, leaf blower, whatever's going on.
Beth Dombkowski Better not be a wood chipper. Have you ever
heard of the stewardess that disappeared and her husband ended up putting her in the wood chipper?
Beth Dombkowski No. Do I need to do a story on that one? Is that recent?
Beth Dombkowski It's a more recent one.
Beth Dombkowski Are you kidding me?
Beth Dombkowski No. Well, it probably happened in the 80s,
is what I'm thinking. And they found splinters on the ground and that's how they were able to
solve the case. Oh my God. I feel like I heard that on a podcast recently.
Beth Dombkowski But can you imagine?
Beth Dombkowski No, I can't imagine. That's awful.
Beth Dombkowski Oh, wow. All right. Conspiracy number two.
Some of the bodies, like I had mentioned, showed evidence of radioactivity.
I'm going to answer your questions now. This was supposedly adding to the theory of Soviet
medical experiments. Beth Dombkowski
I agree with that already. Beth Dombkowski
Tell me why. Beth Dombkowski
Because the military is always doing experiments. That sounds like a very good theory.
Beth Dombkowski So two of them had radioactivity on them.
How would you explain the crushed chests? Beth Dombkowski
Yeah, I don't know. Beth Dombkowski
Well, the original theory stemming from radioactivity was that there was a military cover-up
from using secret weapons tested on those nine hikers. I can see if some of them had
radioactivity on them and of course several of the other hikers got in the way and you have
some military coming in, they're definitely going to know their tactical skills, wouldn't you say?
Beth Dombkowski Mm-hmm, for sure.
Beth Dombkowski Mm-hmm. Some experts believe that several of
the hikers left their tent in haste because they were being tracked and they were trying to escape.
I can see that based on the evidence of how these people were found, right?
Beth Dombkowski Mm-hmm.
Beth Dombkowski Yeah.
Beth Dombkowski Okay, Semyon Zolotaryov, the 38-year-old
military vet who was much older than the rest of the hikers. Some speculate that he was, quote,
planted amongst the group to lead the secret military experiment that went awry. What do
you think of that? Beth Dombkowski
Well, that doesn't sound far off because he is so much older than the rest of them.
Beth Dombkowski Mm-hmm.
Beth Dombkowski How else would they get nine people together or 10 people together
Beth Dombkowski Mm-hmm.
Beth Dombkowski without having somebody say, okay, let's go,
I'm going to lead you off and we'll go on a hike.
Beth Dombkowski Very true.
Beth Dombkowski Well, it's also speculated that Semyon was
working for the KGB and went on this mountain adventure to make contact with CIA agents.
So we have a little bit of James Bond stuff going on here.
Beth Dombkowski Yes.
Beth Dombkowski He was going to contact the CIA and our best
guess is that Semyon made the hike with the intent to take pictures and was caught red-handed,
which set off a mass attack on the hikers. Beth Dombkowski
So its intent to take pictures of what? Beth Dombkowski
The CIA agents. Beth Dombkowski
Oh, what do you think of that? Beth Dombkowski
Yeah, James Bond. Cue in the music, James Bond's music.
Beth Dombkowski I'll see what I can do when I edit this.
All right. Secondly, Yuri K is also linked to the Soviet military. He had previously
helped clear up, get this, a radioactive leak at a secret facility that was later compared
to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster that occurred north of the Ukraine. And also it was
compared to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster that occurred in Japan. Now I remember the 2011
disaster, but I don't recall the 1986 one. Beth Dombkowski
The 86 one, no. Interesting story. Friends of ours took in somebody for six weeks,
like a young girl after that Ukraine disaster. Canada brought in a whole bunch of kids to
experience life in Canada for six weeks to help with their healing process because they did have
radioactivity exposure. Beth Dombkowski
Wow. That's amazing. I mean, first of all, that is wonderful. That is what humanity is all about,
is giving people in these countries the opportunity because yeah, I mean, we just have to,
but that's so good. That is really nice to hear. All right. So I wanted to give you one last thought
on the radioactivity that you had mentioned, Beth. The camping lanterns that the hikers had
contained thorium. And if the hikers were laying near one of those lanterns, it would not be
unusual that they would have traces of radioactivity in their bodies, just from whatever
they had in those lanterns to either have the light on or keep them warm. There's an explanation
for everything as far as that's concerned, but definitely some theories that we would probably
want to consider if that makes sense. All right, Beth, I know I'm about to talk about one of your
favorites here, an extraterrestrial event. Yes. I watch a lot of that UFO stuff on TV. I know.
I'm telling you. It's all true. Well, when I saw this story, I knew it had your name on it.
Apparently that cedar tree that I had mentioned plays a very important role here. This is where
both URIs were discovered. One was face up and one was face down. The tree is said to have had
some questionable char marks that some say were caused by a heat ray set off by extraterrestrials.
So I know you're all excited about what I just said. You got this big grin on your face.
Yes. I do a lot of reading on the internet and I watch TV on a lot of UFOs and they're there.
They are there. They have astronauts and reputable people way up high in the government
who have said they have seen them. Really? I mean, we cannot be the only living beings
in the solar system. My theory is the reason people are not told the truth
because it would cause a mass panic. I agree with that for sure, especially if you don't
know what temperaments they have. Apparently these ones don't have good temperament because
they shot off a heat ray at the both URIs and left some charred remains on the cedar tree.
That's not good. Now, a man named Lev Ivanov led the Dyatlov Pass incident investigations
and wrote an article that he said he was ordered to censor from his findings in the incident report,
including the viewing of floating balls and unexplained rays of light in the area.
What do you think of that? Curious. Yeah. Or intriguing.
I have not said that word, just so you know, I'm saving that one for you. I use other words,
but I'm just sitting here thinking War of the Worlds. Wasn't that, was that the,
what was his name in the radio? Orville? Not Redenbacher. What is it?
Yeah, I know exactly who you mean. Wells? Orson Wells. Orson Wells. There you go. You
had the first name, I had the second. Well, I said Orville, like Redenbacher,
and I know it wasn't him. He was too busy making popcorn.
All right, Beth, the next theory here, you're going to love this just as much. And I've saved
this one to almost the last here. Okay. You've mentioned yetis. Olaf. Yes. He's a snowman,
Beth. He's not a yeti. Well, you said we were going to hear about the snowmen at the end.
Oh gosh. All right. So we're going to talk about yetis. One speculation is that a yeti attacked
Lyudmila Dubonina. She's the one whose eyes and tongue were missing. However, some experts
speculate that this could have occurred from scavenging animals. That to me makes sense.
Yep. Sounds very plausible. I'm thinking though, I mean, how many animals are going to be way
out there in those sub zero degree temperatures? Makes no sense. No, good point. I mean, a little
bit of sense. I don't know, but some speculate one of the photos found on the hiker's camera
captured a large dark figure lurking by a tree that resembled a yeti. Get out. Yeah. And notes
from the hiker's journals also said, quote, the yeti lives in the Northern Urals, unquote. Those
were the mountains that they went to, Beth. Okay. I just wanted to kind of mention to you, there's
not any connection between an actual sighting of a yeti by the hikers. Some believe that they just
kind of wrote that in there as a joke. You know, who's to say? I'm sure they're having a great time.
They're relaxing in the evening. They're just writing stuff down and just made mention of it.
So there's the yeti theory. All right. Let me talk about the most recent theory, Beth, and believe
it or not, it has everything to do with the weather conditions and national geographic.
According to a 2021 article, scientists actually believe that the hikers that fell victim to the
Dyatlov Pass incident were victims to a delayed avalanche. And they feel that this is the
likeliest cause of their deaths because they've been doing research over the years. They've gone
through all these theories, what makes more sense. And they've looked at weather reports and
everything else that goes with it. Again, Beth, back in 1959, scientists didn't have everything
that we have today as far as looking at weather patterns. So this is what scientists today in
today's age really feel could have been the primary cause because weather reports for February 1st,
1959. Remember, this is the night that some of the journaling was entered into the hikers notebook.
It indicated that the hikers set up their camp in a mild snowy area of Dead Mountain,
where the chances of an avalanche were relatively slim. Plus the blunt force trauma in soft tissue
damage that I mentioned was atypical of avalanche victims. Most people who are caught in an avalanche
bath usually suffocate to death from being covered up with that snow. So the conditions for an
avalanche weren't really a primary factor for that night. But I'm actually going to give you a little
bit more information to say that it's still plausible. Well, there were two Swiss scientists,
one named Alexander Puzrin. He studied the Dyatlov Pass incident very intently. He also published
a paper that suggests that an earthquake could have been the root cause of an otherwise abnormal
condition of an avalanche in that area. Puzrin believed that there could have been a time delay
between the two events. So time delay between the earthquake, which would have shaken the earth a
little bit and then caused an avalanche. There could have been a delay there. And he ended up
teaming up with another Swiss scientist named Johann Gomm from the Snow Avalanche Simulation
Laboratory located with the Swiss Federal Technical Institute. Between both scientists,
they created a simulation model of the site where the nine hikers perished. And what they discovered
Beth was that the slope where the hikers had set up their camp was around 30 degrees. So it was a
slope 30 degrees. And this actually met avalanche conditions. A lot of the time from what I read,
Beth, not a lot of avalanches can actually occur unless they have that 30 degree angle.
And so data from the original investigation showed that underlying snow had not clumped
together as it normally would, which could have created a weak foundation and any falling snow
could have built traction. So you have a lot of light snow beneath, but as the snow falls,
it gets heavier on top. So that means when the hiking team set up their camp, the poles that
they pounded into the ground destabilized that snow and contributed to a very small avalanche.
Well, I don't believe any of that. Why not? Because an avalanche is not going to affect the
bludgeoned chest. And what the coroner said was these were like impact in a car accident. You know,
you have an eye out and you have a tongue out. That doesn't, isn't caused by an avalanche. Yeah.
Yeah, that's true. But I'm actually going to tell you about something called a slab avalanche,
and it'll probably make sense to you. And I've saved this to last because what you just said,
I completely understand why you're talking in that direction, but it may make more sense when I talk
about slab avalanches. Okay. Most articles that I found since 2021, so just two years ago, talked
about this being the main cause of the Dyatlov Pass incident. When the hikers pitched their tent,
they destabilized the snow, like I had mentioned, but this is where that slab avalanche comes in.
I want you to think of a really large, icy brick. Do you remember when we were kids and I used to
go out and build igloos with that little block? Yes. You remember that? So I would pack the snow
down nice and hard, and then all I had to do was slide it out of there, and then I'd have a brick.
Right? Yes. I want you to think of that brick being millions of times bigger, like really,
really big. Okay? So if you had a slab of very dense snow, like the one I packed when I made
my little igloos when I was a kid, think of that on a 30 degree angle, sliding down a mountain,
like a high velocity sled barreling down towards a tent. True. I can see how that could have
impacted those people with their injuries. Okay. So do you think now with how I described that,
you can see how chests could have been caved in, somebody could have bitten off their tongue.
Well, what about the burning? Well, now it did say that both of the URIs, I believe that they
they bundled. Oh, just a minute. Somebody's at my door. Yep. Laudy, laudy. You all, Beth just
walked away. Oh my gosh. I haven't done this in so long. Let me think of a story. I was not prepared
for this. Okay. Since we're talking about snow, I will say that we went down. Oh, we love to go
tobogganing. And we had this really cool hill that we would go down. It was probably 30 degrees,
maybe a little bit more. But Beth used to get on that sled with me and we would just hoop and holler,
but you had to make sure that you got the curve just right or we would slam ourselves into a tree.
But Beth was really good at steering. So I think I always sat in the front. She was older than me,
so a little bit bigger. And I think that's about it. But we always had a good time playing out in
the snow. We would play outside until our toes got cold. We'd go in, warm them up, and then back out
we went again. Hey Beth. Hey, that was somebody at my door coming for my card class exactly two weeks
early. Oh, did you tell her to come back or did you just say, Oh, I'll be right with you? No,
I told her to come back. She just lives across the hall. All right. Well, I told a story while
you were gone. Just like my drop calls. Yeah. It's been a while. No, it was a really sweet one.
I was talking about us tobogganing. Oh, that was always so fun. It was. I don't think we ever
slammed into trees, did we? No, no, we did good. We just veered to the right to miss that one tree.
Yes, yes we did. That was so much fun. All right. There was that large slab of very dense snow coming
down the mountain and it was probably at least the size of an SUV. Now, if you're going to be hit in a
flimsy tent barreling down at you at 30 degrees at a high rate of speed, then definitely that could
have been one of the causes of all those injuries. Now you were asking about why some of them had
burn marks on them. The two URIs left the tent. They had been the ones that bundled up and went
outside. Okay. So they had bundled up. They went outside. They were near a campfire that was by the
cedar tree. Remember that? Yes. So remember they were found in their skivvies. They were bundled up
all nice and warm, but if they were getting hypothermia, they were getting overheated
and then they succumb to that stupid cold and they felt that they were really, really hot
and they probably stripped down to their skivvies at that point. Yeah. So they were not in the tent
when that occurred, but it seems likely that if other people were in the tent and they did
survive that, they probably tried to pull other people out to get them out and away from that
situation to try to help them. Does that make sense? Yes. Yeah. So Puzrin and Gom continued
their research with a very interesting simulation and this is a wild one, Beth. This is why I asked
you at the very beginning of this story, have you ever seen the movie Frozen? Because Puzrin and Gom
were so fascinated with the blizzard scene from the movie Frozen that they got in touch with Disney
executives to ask the animators how in the world they created that scene. And guess what? What?
After meeting with the special effects department, Gom modified the snow animation code from the
movie on his avalanche simulation model in his lab to see how it would affect a person's body
if they were indeed caught in an avalanche. That's very interesting. Smart. Uh huh. Puzrin and Gom
also visited the General Motors company because we talked about broken ribs and car accidents,
right? Yes. They went to GM. They saw how they simulated what car crashes do to us when we're
in an accident. And this goes back to the original examination of the hiker's bodies where the medical
examiner compared those injuries to a car crash. Now back in the 1970s, Beth, GM scientists took
cadavers and hit them at variable forces to see what would happen when we don't wear our seatbelts
and they've broken ribs. So the two Swiss scientists took that information back to their lab.
They reformulated their data for their simulation of the avalanche and discovered that an avalanche
occurred when the Russian hiking team were ready to go to sleep or were already sleeping,
which could have easily explained broken ribs and skulls and how some of the members were found.
How about that? Okay. Other experts not involved with the Swiss study agreed that the avalanche
could have been the root cause of the Russian hiker's demise and could have stemmed from a
combination of the high winds as suggested in the journal that they found. Remember I said on February
1st that the winds were picking up? That could have added to the destabilization of the snow slab.
But what about the burns? Yeah. That would be where the two URIs went out to relieve themselves.
They bundled up and they went out to the fire. Gotcha. Now ultimately scientists believe that
the Russian hikers cut themselves out of their tent after it was covered in snow to flee the camp
in a panic when they encountered that unexpected avalanche. Snow slabs or blocky chunks of ice,
whatever surprised them while they were either sleeping or getting ready to go to sleep. That
to me makes complete sense. Yes it does. And they also think that able-bodied team members
dragged the severely injured away like I had mentioned, but ultimately most of them died from
their injuries or hypothermia. That's very sad. It is. It is very unexpected. And that is the story
of the Dyatlov Pass incident. So we would love to receive feedback from any of our listeners. If you
have heard this story before, you need to correct us on anything. If you have anything you want to
say about any of our other episodes. Well Beth, that is the story of the Dyatlov Pass incident.
We would love to receive feedback from our listeners on this storyline. I know it's been
told a time or two, but Beth and I would really love to know how we did here because we love our
listeners to be engaged. Be sure to DM us on Instagram. Send us an email at DyingToBeFound
at gmail.com. And there you have it Beth, the Dyatlov Pass incident. Very interesting. Thank
you for sharing that. Yeah, you're welcome. So Deb, what's our teachable moment for today? Beth,
I really had to think about this for a moment because as I was reading through this, this group
did everything right. They packed accordingly. They went safety in numbers. There was not a lot
that they could have done to prevent what happened that day. However, I do want people to consider
donating your body to science. Oh, okay. Why? Well, Beth is great to donate blood and platelets
while we're here on this earth. But how about you're willing to put it down in your will that you
want to donate your body? I myself have it on my driver's license that I'm an organ donor. But Beth,
there was one time when Cathy, our sister, took me to this huge room of cadavers where she was
at medical school. I mean, it was scary yet fascinating for me being 20 something years old
at that time. But think about how the GM scientists would take those cadavers and put them in cars
and crash into something at various speeds just to calibrate that seatbelt that you put on every day
when you're driving on the roads. And that's not all. Have you heard of a body farm before?
Yes. Okay. It was on CSI. Oh, okay. So cool. What do you think of those?
That's the last place I would want to be. Okay. Well, let me tell our listeners. I mean,
I think it's fascinating because this is what happens on a body farm. Scientists place cadavers
out in the elements. It sounds really disgusting, but throughout the United States, scientists place
your corpse out in the elements to measure what bugs are attracted to you. And Beth is nodding
her head yes. So apparently I've done my research pretty well. Is that true? Is that right? Am I
right? Am I on the right page? Yes, that's right. You're right on.
Okay. So what happens is scientists measure how long it takes for your body to break down,
what bugs are attracted to you. And honestly, this is just one way that investigators can
determine how long somebody is deceased before they're actually discovered, especially if you
are outside in the elements. Plus, believe it or not, they can tell where somebody died in the
event that somebody's body is moved based on bug infestation. Isn't that fascinating?
Yes. So that's it. That's my teachable moment. Donate your body to science. And it doesn't have
to be to a body farm. It can be to the local medical facility, the medical schools, it goes
all the way back to H. H. Holmes and how we talked about how he would collect bodies for the purpose
of medical schools. And you've got to learn somehow. Why do you think that we're living as
long as we are these days? I don't know. Because there's people out there that donate their bodies
so that things can be discovered. True. And yeah, so that's my teachable moment.
And that's a wrap. That is a wrap. If our listeners have a story you want to hear,
shoot us an email, be sure to follow us on all our social medias and follow, rate and share our
episodes. Talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to Dying to be Found, True Crime Podcast
and our Dash mini series. Every week, we'll bring you a variety of true crime episodes,
a little dash of hope, plus special bonus episodes with some really cool guests.
Before we go, we'd love for you to share this podcast with your friends and give us a five star
review. Follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest at Dying to be Found,
or visit our website at Dying to be Found dot com spelled just like you see it in our logo.
Better yet, click on our Linktree account found in the show notes where you'll find
all the information in one place. Be sure to dash in every Wednesday for our mini episodes,
plus every Thursday when I get together with some of my family members.
Thanks again, everyone, and we'll talk to you soon.