The Disturbing Truth About the Florida Everglades

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Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for a 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees, extra cash, and more. New customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. In today's episode, we're heading to Florida, and not the version with the beaches and the palm trees and the family vacations. We're starting in the Everglades, where bodies have been dumped, people have vanished, and some of the darkest crimes in National Park history have quietly taken place. And then we're going underground at Vortex Spring, where a diver ignored one of the most terrifying warning signs that I've ever seen, and he paid for it. Now, my goal is to get this show to 1,000 five-star reviews, and we're getting really close. So please leave that five-star review. And while you're there, make sure you follow the show so you never miss a new episode. I'm Kyle Hates Hiking. Listen on if you dare. Everglades is one of the most beautiful national parks in all of the United States. It's also a literal playground for murderers. A man accused of shooting at park rangers inside Everglades National Park. Drew Curtis Sykes is facing charges for allegedly firing a gun at a man who was shooting at a man who was firing 50 rounds with an AK-47 at park rangers. Everglades was once the home of one of the most notorious serial killers of all time, until one day, he himself was killed by an angry mob. A Florida man once hired a 26-year-old woman to kill his ex-girlfriend, but before she could even act, she herself was killed, found dead, dumped inside Everglades National Park. Some people claim that there have been almost 200 bodies dumped in the Everglades just in the last few decades, and that's only the ones that were found. A local police captain was asked about this very thing, to which he said, quote, it's a convenient place to dump people because there are gators out there to eat them. Everglades National Park has a massive murder problem, and yet nobody outside of Florida seems to really be talking about it. Murder is so deeply ingrained in Everglades National Park's history that it goes all the way back to the year 1892, we're going to start here and follow this park's trail of bodies all the way to the present day, where some of the most disturbing murders, deaths, and of course disappearances in National Park history have taken place. There's this campsite in Everglades National Park called Watson Place, and if you're just glancing at a backcountry map, it probably looks like any other peaceful spot along the river. But what you have to understand is that this campsite is named after a literal serial killer. His name was Edgar Watson, and some people say that he committed his first murder at just nine years old. Born in 1855, his dad was a drunk Civil War vet who routinely beat him senseless, and over the years, Edgar kind of just bounced around through various states. I'm talking South Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, and he left a trail of bodies wherever he went. By 1891, Edgar had arrived to Florida, where he was promptly arrested for killing a man named Quinn Bass. By some stroke of luck, the jury would actually end up acquitting him, but then he was arrested again, this time for killing a man named Sam Toland, and somehow, the jury acquitted Edgar Watson again. After the second acquittal, he finally settled down in a place where nobody would really ask many questions about what he was up to. A place where he knew that he could continue killing without having to be placed in a prison. Edgar Watson was arrested for murder, in front of one of those pesky juries, right? Edgar Watson decided to settle down where else, but right in the heart of the Everglades. He bought land, he grew sugar cane, and he hired various workers from all over Florida. But what these workers didn't understand is that they weren't just farmhands, they were literal targets. Edgar quickly developed a habit, of hiring men with no families and no one to miss them. He worked them hard, and then, when they asked him to pay, well, he would just kill them instead. Eventually, the locals did begin to catch on, rumors began to swirl, but at least for the moment, no one ever dared to actually challenge Edgar Watson. At least, not until the Tucker family came along. The Tuckers had actually been farming a patch of land along Lossman's River for literal years, but Edgar all of a sudden claimed that it was actually Edgar Watson. He told them to leave his property immediately, but the family refused and said that they would stay until after they had finished harvesting their crops. For Edgar, this was completely unacceptable, and so he murdered the entire family. Which, you know, wasn't exactly out of the ordinary for him, but little did he know that this particular act of incredible violence was actually going to be the beginning of his end. The locals had been scared of Edgar for years, but now, now it was personal. A group of them even went to the sheriff all the way in Fort Myers, but they were then told that nothing could be done. It was a different jurisdiction, right? And so, that pretty much left them with no other option, and, well, they would end up taking matters into their own hands. On October 24th, 1892, Edgar sailed into the Everglades town of Chokoloskee, totally unaware that an angry mob was there waiting for him. I mean, word had gotten around, right? They weren't just going to let him walk away and continue to kill this time. And so, when Edgar stepped off of his boat, he was quickly confronted, and some words were exchanged, and eventually, he would end up raising his shotgun towards the crowd, pulling the trigger, but nothing happened. It would turn out that it was a misfire. I mean, what are the odds of that, right? And so, then, Edgar quickly reached for his revolver on his hip, but by then, it was too late. Absolutely unloaded on Edgar. Bullets tore through him, and he dropped dead right there on the spot before the crowd would end up dragging his body all the way to Rabbit Key and dumping him in a shallow grave. And in a totally astonishing move, despite Edgar Watson's history of violence and murder, you know, him literally being a serial killer, the National Park Service turned his first person to turn the Everglades into a graveyard, but he sure as hell was not the last. I mean, after he died, the bodies continued to stack up, and the truth is that people continue to vanish to this day, which is something you're going to understand very shortly when I tell you about one of the most disturbing coincidences in all of National Park history, but we'll get there. So, Edgar Watson's legacy didn't just stain the water of the Everglades. It pretty much set the murder of a man named Guy Bradley. So, this dude started out as just a young kid hunting birds for cash, but by the year 1903, well, he'd actually completely switched sides, going from the hunter to the person responsible for patrolling the hunter and making sure they're following the laws, aka a game warden. He was actually Florida's first ever game warden. He would chase poachers through the mangroves with nothing but a sailboat and a pistol. This was his job. And while I hope we all respect game wardens today, well, back then it was a total different story. And so, this new job that he was so passionate about, well, it would not end well for Guy. Guy had an old neighbor who was named Walter Smith, and Guy had actually arrested Walter's son not once, but two different times. And so, after this, Walter warned Guy, quote, if you ever arrest one of my boys again, I will kill you. And tragically, he would, end up making good on that threat, shooting Guy Bradley dead, dumping his body in Guy's own boat, and then just kind of pushing him out for the tide to carry away forever. And while Guy Bradley's murder did help spark conservation laws across the country, it definitely did not stop the bloodshed in the Everglades. The killings did not stop. They just got quieter and eventually more anonymous. I'm talking Jane Doe's shallow graves. And that's the stuff that we're about to touch on next year, because the truth is that the Everglades still has bodies. you just have to know where to look in the year 1969 someone in south florida had the misfortune we'll say of being bound stuffed inside a wooden trunk doused with gasoline and then set on fire and while the specific location of the killing remains unclear the charred body was discovered where else but in the everglades and as if that wasn't already crazy enough investigators quickly came out with a theory about the identity of this particular person that was well you'll see folks this was not your typical jane doe investigators initially believed that the charred body was actually that of ruth eisman sheer who was the very first woman in history to be placed on the fbi's top 10 most wanted list and the way that she ended up on that list will probably keep you up for a long time show button here football is finally back and prize picks is going crazy with the deals to start the season giving out promos every day in september on prize picks you can make all the picks you want all in the same app and now prize picks is available nationwide so what are you waiting for lock in for kickoff because everyone and everything is on prize picks what you want download the app today and use code spotify to get 150 instantly in lineups if you win your first five dollar lineup prize picks run your game do you hear that that sound right that means that summer is officially here it means that grown adults just sprint into the street for a frozen dessert shaped like a cartoon but this summer mint mobile has a better treat every plan including unlimited is 15 a month and unlike ice cream it won't uh drip down your wrist or look nothing like the picture does anyone have any cash give it a try at mint mobile.com switch upfront payment of 45 for three months 90 for six months or 180 for 12 month plan required 15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra new customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy terms star wars the mandalorian and grogu is now streaming on disney plus what are you waiting for hop on the must-see galactic adventure comes home on disney plus this is the way our only chance is to work together i like this kid always wear your seat belt star wars the mandalorian and grogu now streaming on disney plus read pg-13 hank joined bj's wholesale club the day he became a father of 30 i coach football now coach hank saves up to 25 off grocery store prices 30 pounds of pasta three cases of protein bars 75 sports drinks and that's just pre-game he knows teamwork and bj's knows savings this is your home coach home of the save join for just 20 at bj's.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months open soon limited time offer new members only bj's home of the save this episode is brought to you by txu energy for the first time ever texans have an energy plan that combines free nights all year with daytime summer savings it's called free nights and cool summer you get free nights every night all year long plus a 25 bonus toward your daytime use all summer it's a first of its kind plan created for how texans actually use energy discover how much more you could save with free nights and cool summer txu energy energy for everything visit txu.com for more information rep number one zero zero four so the previous year ruth and her then boyfriend who was named gary christ grabbed a 20 year old college student named barbara mackle right out of her hotel room at gunpoint they then proceeded to bury her alive in a fiberglass coffin with very little food water and just a few little air tubes and a flashlight barbara was stuck underground for 83 hours while ruth and gary demanded half a million dollars in a ransom payment from her wealthy father barbara spent three and a half days lying in the dark using this this tiny flashlight to kind of just keep track of time and to just kind of keep herself alive right and somehow when the fbi finally found her she was still breathing she somehow survived this insane ordeal and gary was caught just a few days later but ruth managed to pretty much drop off the face of the earth which ultimately drove the fbi to add her to the 10 most wanted list she remained completely undetected all the way into early 1969 and she matched the description of this everglades jane doe that was found in the wooden coffin and so they really believed for a while that that she was the jane doe however after further investigation it was eventually determined that the jane doe was not actually ruth eisman sheer who would end up being arrested all the way over in oklahoma just a few short days later and disturbingly enough the identity of this jane doe remains unknown to this day and tragically she is not the only one in early 1975 a peaceful family getaway turned into an absolute horror story when the family's young son found not one but two rotting bodies off of a dirt road in big cypress national preserve just north of the everglades national park border just like the previous jane doe i told you about these bodies have also never been found never been identified and then you want to flash forward to 2004 when yet another jane doe was found and her remains were accompanied by like multiple catholic symbols including like a cross and stuff like that and what made this one a little bit more unique was that unlike most of the other unidentified bodies this particular jane doe was found in an area that is completely inaccessible to vehicles like someone couldn't have just driven out there to dump her body and so it's unclear if this particular jane doe was actually a murder victim or just experienced an accident in the back country or something like that i'm not really sure but um for this next particular case uh well we definitely know that it was in fact murder i'm talking about this woman right here her name is marissa carp and just as you suspected she was found dumped in the everglades in the year 2002 the 17 year old was found stuffed inside of a green garbage bag and you know just dumped off in a canal off of alligator alley she'd been shot once in the chest and then just thrown away like garbage which is horrible right so marissa had spent much of her life kind of bouncing around in the foster system and eventually she started to kind of run with the wrong crowd and evidently well she fell in with some drug dealers who had ties to a ring in the bahamas and coincidentally the night before she disappeared she had actually gotten into a fight with one of these men whose name i'm gonna butcher but i believe it's elon ellian ingram something like that i don't even care this guy's a scumbag so she gets into this fight with this this bad bad dude and then right after that well she vanished off of the face of the earth her body would end up turning up miles away in the swamp of the everglades of course and something that's quite disturbing is that it took the police weeks just to even identify her just to even figure out who she was and so at this point everything in the investigation pointed to a very specific group of guys all involved with that drug ring i just told you about and one of the other men whose name i'm also gonna butcher but i also don't care almonto coakley again total scumbag well this dude was actually suspected in a different murder a double homicide in fact which happened just months later he would end up skipping town and going back to the bahamas where he would ultimately end up dead himself shot in the street before he could ever be dragged back to the u.s to face justice meanwhile ingram was finally arrested for ambushing and killing a sheriff's deputy but here's the thing he's serving time for this cop's death as he should but he's not serving time for marissa's in fact uh nobody is her murder remains unsolved to this day and that's despite her father gary putting up billboards offering rewards and even going to the bahamas himself to try to get some answers but tragically nothing has worked out so far every lead has either disappeared or ended up dead and so another murder in the everglades slipped through the cracks and trust me the stories don't stop here because next we're getting into another everglades murder and this one is somehow even more brutal than all of the rest so in 2007 a fisherman spotted something kind of floating along in a canal it was something wrapped in a plastic grocery bag and it literally had alligators circling around it turns out it was a human head no other body parts were found no id was found the cops had almost nothing to work with in this case except for that plastic bag they would end up tracing it all the way back to a grocery store chain in new york and with this information investigators took a long shot and started digging all the way up the east coast and folks that's when things started to get weird a guy in this like shady florida motel would end up coming forward and saying that his two sketchy roommates had been bragging about killing a woman and then dumping her body for the gators to find these two losers were named paul truccio and robert mackie and they had met while they were both in prison of course and then they got out and they various odd jobs together and then somehow they thought that they could get away with murder eventually the bag a new york license plate that they tossed off of a bridge and of course a few jailhouse confessions well all of this stuff pointed towards the victim being one particular woman whose name was lorraine hatzikorzian lorraine was a 41 year old single mom from long island new york and she had left new york with these two dudes paul and robert just before she vanished how convenient is that now no one knows exactly what happened and to be honest with you i'm not even sure if i'd want to know like all of the fine details but we do know that somewhere along this route from new york to florida something went horribly wrong the police believe that these two men beat lorraine unconscious dismembered her and then dumped her body along the way only her head was ever found and even today the rest of her body is still missing investigators tried for months to get robert and paul to to talk to confess and instead of doing this the two of them essentially played games they lied even after they were arrested they sent the police on these wild goose chases where they would lie about where the rest of lorraine's body was located and just wasted everyone's time and it gets a lot worse so witnesses said that after killing lorraine paul and robert would sit outside of their motel room patting this little alligator statue that they called the alligator god and they would literally pray to this alligator statue that the real gators would find the rest of lorraine's body and erase all of the evidence folks that's the kind of evil that the everglades hides and we're not done yet in february of 2020 a fisherman found the body of 26 year old brianna slabo rotting face down within the borders of everglades national park by this point brianna had been missing for days and at first it looked like a simple drug overdose you know a tragic end for this young woman who was struggling with addiction that's what the official report says anyways but when investigators started to dig a little bit deeper the story got way messier and frankly way darker it turns out that brianna was not just some random addict she was actually tangled up in the ground of the park and that's what the official report says anyways but when investigators started to dig a little bit deeper the story got way messier and frankly way darker it turns out that brianna was not just some random addict she was actually tangled up in the ground of the park in the borders of everglades national park by this point brianna had been missing for days and at first it looked like a simple drug overdose you know a tragic end for this young woman who was struggling with addiction that's what the official report says she was actually tangled up in the ground of the park in a murder for hire plot now by this point her father michael was still trying to kind of just figure everything out brianna had been talking about working as a private investigator for a man named daniel slater she had been doing things like renting cars making weird trips and hanging out with some shady people associated with daniel and as it would turn out daniel slater a 51 year old suburban landscaper well-earned and well-to-do landowner had been working as a private investigator for a man named daniel slater and as it would turn out daniel slater a 51 year old suburban landscaper well-to-do landowner well-to-do landowner had been working as a private investigator for a man named daniel slater and as it would turn out daniel slater a 51 year old suburban landscaper well-to-do landowner he had a lot more going on in his life than just landscaping daniel was plotting something extremely evil according to the fbi he was paying people to stalk and kill his ex-girlfriend and members of her family he suggested drive-by shootings he suggested acid attacks daniel slater talked about these evil evil acts like he was just simply ordering pizza in early february presumably while she was out working for daniel brianna was arrested for driving a stolen car she was also carrying a handgun at the time and she was so distraught that after she was released from jail her family would end up involuntarily committing her to a psychiatric hospital show button here football is finally back and prize picks is going crazy with the deals to start the season giving out promos every day in september on prize picks you can make all the picks you want all in the same app and now prize picks is available nationwide so what are you waiting for lock in for kickoff because everyone and everything is on prize picks what you want download the app today and use code spotify to get 150 instantly in lineups if you win your first five dollar lineup prize picks run your game ryan reynolds here for mint mobile with your summer price forecast now unfortunately we're seeing rising costs across the country with possibility that big wireless hates you 100 now over here at mint mobile we're seeing sunny skies and dropping prices every plan to just 15 a month give it a try at mint mobile.com slash switch up from payment of 45 for three months 90 for six months or 180 for 12 month plan required 15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra new customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy see terms star wars the mandalorian and grogu is now streaming on disney plus what are you waiting for hop on the must-see galactic adventure comes home on disney plus this is the way our only chance is to work together i like this kid always wear your seat belt star wars the mandalorian and grogu now streaming on disney plus read pg-13 hank joined bj's wholesale club the day he became a father of 30 i coach football now coach hank saves up to 25 off grocery store prices 30 pounds of pasta three cases of protein bars 75 sports drinks and that's just pretty good pre-game he knows teamwork and bj's knows savings this is your home coach home of the save join for just 20 at bj's.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months open soon limited time offer new members only bj's home of the save this episode is brought to you by txu energy for the first time ever texans have an energy plan that combines free nights all year with daytime summer savings it's called free nights and cool summer you get free nights every night all year long plus a 25% bonus toward your daytime use all summer. It's a first-of-its-kind plan created for how Texans actually use energy. Discover how much more you could save with free nights and cool summer. TXU Energy. Energy for everything. Visit TXU.com for more information. Rep number 10004. She was released on February 17th, and then three days later, she left to go meet Daniel Slater. After this, of course, she vanished, all the way up until her body was found inside the National Park on the 20th. But it gets worse. So Daniel actually was never charged with killing Brianna, but investigators did call him a suspect. And the more that they kind of looked into him, the uglier and uglier things got. Because it turns out, even after Brianna's death, Daniel Slater kept trying to hire more people. He kept offering cash and drugs to anyone who was willing to take out his ex, and he even coached them on how to fake the crime scene. His plan was to kill Brianna, but Daniel Slater didn't. He didn't. He didn't. He didn't. He didn't. Shoot the ex's family through their window, then spray paint Black Lives Matter across the house to make it look like some kind of weird political hit. I don't know. I say it's simple, but it's really just stupid, to be honest. And the FBI managed to actually get an informant that was inside Daniel's circle. And finally, after months of setting traps, they arrested him. Ultimately, Daniel Slater pled guilty to the murder for higher charges, and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. But as far as Brianna's death, well, it's still officially ruled as an overdose. There were never any murder charges or any real justice. But here's the biggest twist in this entire plot. So, it turns out that before she died, Brianna had confessed to the police that Daniel Slater hadn't just hired her as this private investigator. No, he had hired her to stalk, kidnap, and kill his ex-girlfriend. Brianna completely admitted that Daniel had pulled her into a full-blown murder for higher plots. She admitted that she was supposed to be his assassin. And then, of course, shortly after making this confession, she's found dead and dumped in Everglades National Park. Brianna's story is scary and very, very heartbreaking. And sadly, it's not the last. Because as brutal as it's already been up to this point, the next case out of the Everglades is quite possibly the biggest coincidence in national history. In the summer of 2011, rangers at Everglades National Park noticed something very, very strange. They saw a dark green pickup truck sitting abandoned near Pine Glades Lake baking in the sun for literal days. When they finally ran the license plates, it came back to a man named Jacob Olivier, who was a 23-year-old from Texas. And though his truck was left sitting there in the parking lot, Jacob himself was nowhere to be found. And even more concerningly, there was zero sign of him anywhere. There was no footprints. There was no signs of a struggle. All there was was his stuff locked inside of his truck, a hotel receipt from Daytona Beach, and a whole lot of unanswered questions. At this point, Jacob's family had no clue that he was even in Florida. He'd been living with his dad and his stepmom in Texas, trying to stay clean after a stint in rehab. But then, somewhere along the way, Jacob decided to make an impromptu trip over to Savannah, Georgia, hoping to rekindle things with an old girlfriend. Folks, this did not go well. When Jacob arrived in Savannah, he learned that not only was this former girlfriend not interested, but she was actually seeing someone new entirely. So, presumably heartbroken, Jacob hit the road again. And without any clear plan, he somehow ended up alone in the middle of Everglades National Park. This is from Savannah, by the way. They're not close together. And so, inside of Jacob's truck, park rangers found a gun case, but there was no sign of him. was no gun inside of it which is not a good sign there weren't any drugs found either even though jacob had a history with addiction a surveillance camera even caught him driving into the everglades right around 1 p.m his cell phone's last ping was at 4 45 p.m but then there was total total silence when park rangers realized jacob's truck hadn't moved in days a professional search was launched i'm talking helicopters canines and of course trackers on the ground and one thing that is a bit astonishing to be honest is that the police never contacted jacob's family even after the search for him was on even after they knew he was missing his mother was quoted saying i found out from a news reporter that called me and said are you aware your son is missing in the everglades and this must have come as a a double shock because not only was her son missing but he was also missing from the everglades and this must have come as a double shock because not only was her son missing but he was also missing from the everglades missing from the everglades and this must have come as a double shock because not only was her son missing which is shocking enough obviously but jacob had literally zero ties to the everglades at all it was completely random like why was he there and of course it was also very very concerning and so despite this massive search no sign of jacob ever turned up and so just like that he became yet another missing person in a place that is quietly becoming infamous for erasing people forever but here's where things start to get even weirder folks jacob wasn't the only one just five months earlier 67 year old roger sawyer had been traveling with his family through the flamingo district of the everglades and at one point they stopped to kind of just stretch their legs they were on this road trip and they briefly split up with roger for around 20 minutes as they all kind of went off and did their own thing roger would walk away and then was promptly never seen again to this day both of these cases got heavy initial searches right you know i i already said it planes canines search teams all these things they combed every trail every patch of water every stretch of mangroves that could possibly be reached and yet nothing at this point it's hard not to wonder right i mean two men different ages different backgrounds disappearing in the same national park just months apart no trace of either of them no witnesses two healthy men walked into the everglades and never walked out in the same place at nearly the same time and they were all gone and they were all gone and they were all gone and they were all gone and with that said i won't get ahead of myself it's probably just a coincidence right one of the biggest coincidences in national park history mind you but it probably is a coincidence and yet at the same time it does make you wonder what else everglades national park is hiding now we're leaving the everglades behind but we're not leaving florida because this next story doesn't start in a swamp it starts at a spring with a locked gate a warning sign and a diver who went past both i need you to listen to me do not ever ignore a warning sign when you're in nature because if you do your story is probably going to end up like his and by the way i don't mean like a subtle sign like the air shifting or the clouds darkening i mean a literal sign this sign right here you know a place is bad when there's a sign deep underground with a literal grim reaper on it it reads prevent your death go no farther there's nothing in this cave worth waiting for dying for now if i saw that sign i would turn around immediately and you would probably do the same thing but one man 30 year old ben mcdaniel well he looked at that very sign and then went right past it and when searchers went in after him they came back with a mystery that was far stranger and far darker than just a man simply getting lost in a cave that particular sign sits next to the locked gate of the cave at vortex spring in florida of all places where the tunnels get tight the visibility disappears and one wrong move means that you are not making it out alive enough people have died there that this this grim reaper sign isn't even over the top or overly dramatic it's just honest now if you're anything like me cave diving already sounds like the most terrifying hobby ever invented but there is a whole community of people out there who cave dive regularly and they love it maybe it's something about the risk or the challenge or the total immersive isolation something about that stuff that pulls these people in i don't know exactly but i do know that ben mcdaniel was one of those people ben had been obsessed with scuba diving ever since he first learned about it at age 15 however as he got older life started to get in the way and he kind of fell off with the sport it wasn't until his life began to completely fall apart that he was actually drawn back into it and this time much more passionately than he had ever been in 2010 ben had just turned 30 and his life was it was kind of a mess and i say that with the utmost compassion but things were really not going well for him he was going through a divorce his business had failed and he owed like fifty thousand dollars to the irs it was bad and so his parents trying to help actually offered up their beach condo in florida as a place for ben to go and stay out for a while and take a much needed break so do you hear that that sound right that means that summer's officially here it means that grown adults just sprint into the street for a frozen dessert shaped like a cartoon but this summer mint mobile has a better tree every plan including unlimited is fifteen dollars a month and unlike ice cream it won't uh drip down your wrist or look nothing like the picture does anyone have any cash give it a try at mint mobile.com slash switch upfront payment of 45 for three months ninety dollars for six months or 180 for 12 month plan required 15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra new customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy see terms show button here football is finally back and prize picks is going crazy with the deals to start the season giving out promos every day in september on prize picks you can make all the picks you want all in the same app and now prize picks is available nationwide so what are you waiting for lock in for kickoff because everyone and everything is on prize picks what you want download the app today and use code spotify to get 150 instantly in lineups if you win your first five dollar lineup prize picks run your game hello look what tj maxx dragged in the devil wears prada 2 is now streaming on disney plus and hulu we are digital we are downloadable we are streamable the fashion event of the year is certified fresh pull yourself together we have work to do critics say it's smart and witty and the perfect sequel that's all get runway ready for the devil wears prada 2 on disney plus and hulu rated pg-13 so hank joined bj's wholesale club the day he became a father of 30 i coach football now coach hank saves up to 25 off grocery store prices 30 pounds of pasta three cases of protein bars 75 sports drinks and that's just pre-game he knows teamwork and bj's knows savings this is your home coach home of the save join for just 20 at bj's.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months open soon limited time offer new members only bj's home of the save this episode is brought to you by txu energy for the first time ever texans have an energy plan that combines free nights all year with daytime summer savings it's called free nights and cool summer you get free nights every night all year long plus a 25 bonus toward your daytime use all summer it's a first of its kind plan created for how texans actually use energy discover how much more you could save with free nights and cool summer txu energy energy for everything visit txu.com for more information rep number one zero zero zero four and this was a very thoughtful gesture from ben's parents but of course they had no idea that this this innocent invitation would go on to change their lives forever and not in a good way so around this time not only was ben going through all the things i just mentioned but he was also mourning the tragic death of his 22 year old brother who had died two years earlier and like i said he was going through a lot of things and he was going through a lot of Like, my heart goes out to the entire McDaniel family because, unfortunately, their story just keeps getting darker and darker from here. So, after Ben moved to Florida, cave diving became a major part of his grief healing process. He felt like everything was simpler underwater. When he dove, for those brief moments, he could forget all about his life's problems and just let go. And again, while I will most definitely never go cave diving, hell, I don't even like snorkeling, I can see how it brought Ben some mental relief. I mean, it was his thing, right? We all have our thing, our hobby, our passion that we can do when we just need to, like, give our brains a break. For me, it's hiking and pickleball a little bit, but I'm probably better at hiking than I am at pickleball. So, after spending some time in Florida and a lot of time cave diving, it seemed like things were working. Things were actually starting to turn around for Ben. His parents even said that he seemed way happier. At this point, then he had been for the past few years and they could they could finally breathe a sigh of relief, believing that he was was going to be OK. But though Ben's life might have been finally looking up the last days before he entered that cave, well, they tell a much darker story. And one thing in particular that Ben did just before he vanished would go on to haunt his family afterwards forever. And I really mean that just before he left. Ben did something that seemed completely normal at the time, but would soon prove to be just incredibly disturbing. And that moment is where this story really begins to spiral on August 15th, 2000. 10 only three days before his fateful dive ben returned to florida from a week-long trip to memphis he was there visiting his parents and shortly after he departed his parents discovered that he had left something behind for them it was a note and it talked about how grateful ben was that they had let him stay in their florida house and that he would be there to take care of them as they got older he really sounded like a great son a son who was who was finally getting back on his feet after some of the hardest years of his entire life but when ben's parents shelby and patty when they said goodbye to him after this trip they had no idea about the hell that they were about to find themselves in they also had no idea that they would never see their son again so let me introduce you to vortex spring in ponce de leon florida it's a huge freshwater spring famous for its underwater cave system and even though it's known for being uh deadly hence the sign you saw at the beginning of this video cave divers flock there to explore its narrow passageways and honestly i'm guessing that the danger is a huge part of the appeal for you know the more adventurous members of the cave diving community and once again ben was one of those divers who was willing to tempt his fate for a chance to dive deeper than anyone else wanted to go by august of 2010 ben was a regular at vortex spring he had gone down into the shallower parts of the cave many times and all without incident he was even known by employees and other divers at this point i mean he was really there all the time and of course this was mostly due to the fact that ben just really loved cave diving but also due to the fact that he had aspirations of opening his own diving business one day now wednesday august 18th it started normally enough for ben it was a low-key morning before heading over to vortex spring for his first dive of the day and that was not a mistake he actually had two dives planned on this particular day the first was going to be a bit of a reconnaissance mission to kind of scope out the area for his second dive when he would actually go down deep inside this deadly cave two of the vortex spring dive shop employees eduardo taran and chuck cronin watched as ben suited up for his first dive he zipped up his wetsuits he secured his air and decompression tanks he put his face mask on and it's important to note that eduardo and chuck thought of ben as a little bit of a bragger perhaps an overly confident diver however they also understood that he was just a guy who was incredibly passionate about diving ben shot the pair a quick wave before he slipped under the water's surface the moment he submerged the entire world went quiet and ben could think clearly in a way that he just couldn't do while on dry land the water was also a nice break from the 90 degree heat outside this is florida after all and so after descending off of the dock and into the springs basin ben made his way down and over to one side of the fresh water pool here he would have found the opening that marked the very beginning of the 1 642 foot long cave like wow this is the first time i've seen a cave this big like wow ben swam into this opening and the world around him instantly fell into darkness he clicked on the light that was attached to his helmet and he might have even felt something slither past his legs since this cave was apparently known for housing a population of eels which is yet another reason why cave diving will not be found on my bucket list by the way however some stupid eel would not be stopping ben who was again the type of person that would push ahead no matter what even to a fault sometimes eventually ben passed some of the cave's early landmarks like two diving training platforms at around 20 feet deep the water got colder as he continued down and eventually he had to swim his way through an opening of about nine by twelve feet and things would only get more narrow from here on out like he hadn't even gotten to the truly dangerous part yet but i mean i can't even imagine at this point you're underwater you're going through small openings it's pitch black and it only gets worse because by this point ben started to come up on the weirdest and the creepiest part of this entire cave if you're an inexperienced diver the furthest that you're permitted to go is 115 feet into the cave system however if you're a more like intermediate level diver like ben was you're allowed to keep going for about another 200 feet which of course is exactly what ben did but then about 310 feet into the cave ben reached a dead end it was here that ben swam right up to a passageway that was blocked by a steel locked gate and right next to this passageway in this gate was that warning sign with the literal grim reaper on it there's nothing in this cave worth dying for do not go beyond this point and again this sign is obviously very dramatic but i promise you that it's not just there for show or for photos or or whatever um they had very very good reason for this sign to exist because back in the 90s 13 people died while diving at the vortex spring cave now i've covered many stories on this channel about people who ignored warning signs but to all of those other victims credit they never ignored a sign like this right the signs that they ignored were either smaller and less dramatic or they were more subtle signs you know maybe not even actual signs um i have never seen a warning sign this explicit or this intense it absolutely freaked me out the first time i saw it and i'm genuinely not trying to be disrespectful to ben here but i just cannot imagine seeing this sign and then thinking it was a good idea to go past it like anyways like i said a second ago next to this ominous sign was this locked gate and ben would have known about all of this by the way he would have known that it was locked he would have known that he couldn't go any further and he also would have known that in order to get a key to unlock this gate you actually needed a special diving certification that required over two months of training and 125 dives with a trained instructor and the problem was that though ben did have a decent amount of diving experience he didn't have any formal diving training and he definitely did not have that certification if he had then maybe everything that was about to happen could have been avoided and i wouldn't even be making this video right now ryan reynolds here for mint mobile with your summer price forecast now unfortunately we're seeing rising costs across the country with possibility that big wireless hates you 100 now here at mint mobile we're seeing sunny skies and dropping prices every plan to just 15 a month give it a try at mintmobile.com switch upfront payment of 45 for three months 90 for six months or 180 for 12 month plan required 15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra new customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy see terms show button here football is finally back and prize picks is going crazy with the deals to start the season giving out promos every day in september on prize picks you can make all the picks you want all in the same app and now prize picks is available nationwide so what are you waiting for lock in for kickoff because everyone and everything is on prize picks what you want download the app today and use code spotify to get 150 instantly in lineups if you win your first five dollar lineup prize picks run your game hello look what tj maxx dragged in the devil wears product 2 is now streaming on disney plus and hulu we are digital we are downloadable we are streamable the fashion event of the year is certified fresh pull yourself together we have work to do critics say it's smart and witty and the perfect sequel that's all get runway ready for the devil wears product 2 on disney plus and hulu rated pg-13 tammy regularly hauls stuff to her kids at college that's why she shops at bj's wholesale club saving up to 25 off grocery store prices beef jerky microwave meals laundry pods even they can't screw up have you met my kids and with bj's gas she gets there for less they call me the road warrior this is your home road warrior mom home of the save join for just twenty dollars at bjs.com mesquite and save ten cents per gallon for six months open soon limited time offer new members only bj's home of the save this episode is brought to you by txu energy for the first time ever texans have an energy plan that combines free nights all year with daytime summer savings it's called free nights and cool summer you get free nights every night all year long plus a 25 bonus toward your daytime use all summer it's a first of its kind plan created for how texans actually use energy discover how much more you could save with free nights and cool summer txu energy energy for everything visit txu.com for more information rep number one zero zero zero four since ben was a pretty decent diver and he was also incredibly headstrong and perhaps a little bit overconfident but he was a pretty decent diver and he was also extremely headstrong and perhaps a little bit overconfident but he was also extremely headstrong in his abilities something like this silly grim reaper warning sign that said you would literally die if you kept going well that didn't scare him off maybe he even took the sign and the locked gate as a bit of a challenge and maybe it made him even more determined to keep swimming now that's me editorializing to be perfectly clear but it does make me wonder while ben was floating on there next to the cave entrance, he mapped out the deeper dive that he planned to take later that night. Since everyone knew that Ben didn't have the right certifications for this cave, it would be a lot easier to go unnoticed if he went after the spring had kind of cleared out later in the day and there weren't really many people around. However, Ben was maybe not quite as sly as he thought he was because several people saw him diving that afternoon and they knew exactly what he was up to. They knew that he planned to break into the locked area later that night somehow. In fact, some people had suspicions that he had already been making progress towards breaking into that lock, but I'll get there in a second. Once Ben was done mapping things out, he made his way back up to the surface, making sure to follow the proper decompression procedures so he wouldn't get sick. The two dive shop employees, Eduardo and Chuck, watched as a mass of bubbles appeared on the water. And then a few moments later, Ben resurfaced, pulling himself out of the spring's basin, and he started stripping off all of his heavy gear. Now, he would take some time to regather his strength, take a little bit of a rest, and refill his tanks. Just like everyone else who had seen him that day, Eduardo and Chuck knew that Ben didn't have the right certifications to enter the cave, but they also knew that there really wasn't that much they could do to prevent him from going into the cave, right? They had even started to search for him, but he wasn't there. So, they were able to find him, but they didn't find him. So, they were able to find him, but they also knew that there wasn't that much they could do to prevent him from going into the cave, right? They had even started to search for him, but they also knew that there wasn't that much they could do to prevent him from going into the cave, suspect that he had actively been picking the gate's lock in order to one day let him in. It almost reminds me of like a prisoner who like tunnels a little bit every night before finally busting out. It was clear to the employees that Ben was going to do whatever he wanted to do. And for whatever reason, he really wanted to push himself as far as his body would allow. He really wanted to explore that mysterious cave. Warning signs be damned. As I said earlier, a lot of people would be surprised if they didn't find Ben. But if they did, they would be surprised Ben would describe Ben as being a cocky diver. But I do want to offer a more sympathetic perspective on him. Ben's dad, Shelby, well, he saw it like this. Ben was someone who had found his great passion in life and would not let anything stop him from pursuing it. And I have a lot of sympathy for Ben's father's viewpoint here. I mean, maybe losing his son, Paul, at such a young age meant that him and his wife would do whatever it took to support Ben. I'm sure that Ben would have been thrilled about Ben's obsession with cave diving. I mean, what parent would be? But they also didn't want to do anything that was going to push him away. After all, I mean, this was the happiest that they'd ever seen him since his brother's death. And so why would they want to criticize the one thing that had finally brought Ben some joy? Back at Vortex Spring, an exhausted Ben was resting on the shore, writing in his dive book and just regaining his strength for his next dive. Vortex Spring's security cameras, Ben was even captured refilling his air tank. As the day went on, more and more people began to leave the spring and head home. But of course, that did not include Ben. He waited around the spring, killing time, and eventually he even called his mother. Now, I'm not exactly sure what they talked about, but I am sure that despite the fact that no one realized it, this would be the last time that Ben would ever speak to his family. After he hung up with his family, Ben suited up once again, and he got in the water. It was now around 7.30 PM, and as Ben was getting ready to dive, Eduardo and Chuck were making their way out of the water after a dive of their own. The men greeted Ben, and they asked him if he was going to go down again. Ben may have tried to play it cool, but I mean, all three of them knew exactly what he was doing. I mean, the guy was fully geared up, and he even had a helmet on with a light on it. He was clearly going to the cave. He was going to the cave, and he was going to the cave. He was going to the cave, even though all three of them knew that he wasn't correctly trained for it. Eduardo in particular had long suspected that Ben was trying to pick and break the lock at the entrance of the cave, and so against his better judgment, he actually decided to do Ben a solid and go unlock the gate for him. He figured it was safer than Ben trying to break in and then squeeze past the gate and potentially get himself stuck, and it would also help to avoid any further damage to the lock, and to the gate. So Eduardo put his mask back on and swam down to the cave entrance. Ben took the last breath of fresh air that he would ever take before putting on his diving mask and slipping into the water for a final time. Eduardo unlocked the gate, and he watched Ben swim right past the warning sign, right into the cave, and then fade into the darkness. Eduardo then returned to the cave. He saw that he had just witnessed the last moment that Ben would ever be seen dead or alive. Now Ben was in the habit of staying pretty late at the spring, and most nights Eduardo and Chuck would stick around the dive shop until they noticed that he was about to resurface safely, and then they would go home. But on this particular night, for whatever reason, they actually deviated from that routine. Maybe they were sick of waiting on Ben, maybe they were fed up with him bending their rules, maybe it was something else entirely, I don't know why, but Eduardo and Chuck decided, instead of waiting, they were going to go back to Eduardo's house for a cup of coffee, and to be fair, they had every right to do this. It's not like they were responsible for Ben's actions. It is just unfortunate though, especially looking back, because if they had stuck to their normal routine, then the next series of events I'm about to tell you about might have gone a whole lot differently. Now, I don't know if you've heard a lot can go wrong while cave diving, obviously, but these days, most cave diving deaths happen because someone was inexperienced. As I've told you a few times, Ben had a pretty good amount of experience diving, and he had been doing it kind of off and on since he was 15, so like half of his life. But despite this experience, he technically was never properly certified or trained for cave diving specifically. We almost certainly will never know exactly what happened down there, but we do know that something went terribly wrong, because come Thursday morning, Ben's truck was still in the Springs parking lot, and the next day, it was still there too. This was right in the middle of the busy summer season, and so it wasn't until 9 a.m. on Friday, August 20th, like a day and a half after Ben made that dive, that his abandoned truck was finally noticed. Eduardo actually noticed that it was parked there, and then he realized that he hadn't seen Ben since he had been driving since Wednesday night, when he unlocked the gate for him. And that struck him as incredibly unusual. He knew that it meant something was seriously wrong, and so he ran into the dive shop, and he called the Holmes County Sheriff's Office. And with that call, folks, the rescue mission to find the missing Ben McDaniel was on. As soon as the police arrived, Vortex Spring essentially became a crime scene and was taped off. Captain Harry Hamilton was put in charge of the investigation, and even though he didn't know what was going on, he was able to find Ben McDaniel, and he was able to find Ben McDaniel. But he didn't have any answers yet. He knew that he had to let Ben's parents know what was going on. He needed to tell two already grieving parents that they might have just lost a second child. When a neighbor called the McDaniels to let them know that a sheriff's deputy was at their gates, Patty McDaniel immediately knew something horrible had happened. She tried to walk to the front door, but her legs collapsed out from under her, and so Shelby answered the door instead. He answered to the officer, and the officer told the parents that Ben had gone diving two nights ago, and no one had seen him since. And with that horrible realization, Ben's parents didn't even need a second to decide what they were going to do next. They were going to Florida right now to help look for him. I mean, losing one son was unimaginable. So losing two, well, I mean, that was just beyond anything they could comprehend. And so this meant that they were ready to do whatever it took to find their son. Though tragically, this drive for answers might have indirectly caused a different tragedy of its own, but I'm getting ahead of myself. We're going to get there. Back at Vortex Spring, Captain Hamilton and his team had wrapped up their initial search of the area by August 20th. They hadn't found Ben or his body yet, but they did find some of his personal effects. In his abandoned truck, they found his wallet with $1,100 in cash. They also found his cell phone, his dive log, which happened to have a map of the cave, by the way. And now would be a good time to note Ben's size. He was six foot one and weighed between 210 and 220 pounds. And that might seem like some random information to be giving you, but it is a very important part of this story. Ben was obviously a bigger guy and not someone who could easily just disappear or say fits into tiny cave openings, especially one that even most smaller people couldn't even fit into. Captain Hamilton was holding out hope that the diving team would have some good news for Ben's parents. I mean, the best case scenario would be that Ben had gotten stuck in a small space, but was in a large enough underwater air pocket to survive until the rescue team could reach him. Or maybe he was somewhere on land, alive, but hurt, and he couldn't walk himself back to his car. However, by the end of the day on August 20th, rescue divers met with the sheriff's office to debrief, and. They had no good news to share. The only thing they had found were these strangely placed air tanks that were set in spots that should have been easier to access, as well as more evenly spaced along the cave. And even weirder, the tanks had the wrong type of gas in them. They had standard air, or they were completely empty, instead of containing the specialized decompression mix expected for a dive like this. And so as midnight neared, there was still no sign of Ben. Captain Hamilton was starting to lose hope, and he had decided that they needed to pause recovery for the next day. He still had no idea where Ben was, but one thing was becoming clear. Ben must have gone even deeper into the cave than anyone thought possible. More days continued to go by, still with no answers, but Captain Hamilton was pushing ahead with the search anyways. He knew that he needed to find divers who were specialized in reaching the further depths of these deep cave systems. He knew that he needed to find divers who were specialized in reaching the further depths needed to call in the best of the best, a man named Ed Sorensen. By this point, everything in the search and the mystery had just gotten so complicated, the question was no longer just whether or not Ben had died, it was whether or not he had even been or died in the cave in the first place. And if anyone was going to be able to answer that question, it was Ed. Ed was the area's go-to rescue diver, but he had been away when Ben first went missing on the 18th. However, now. On August 22nd, he was back in town, and it just so happens that he was willing to go where almost nobody else was. When the news first got out that Ed was going to dive down and look for Ben, he received a flurry of calls from other divers who had also looked for Ben on previous search missions. One diver told him, quote, Another diver told him that he had almost died down there, just like Ben, presumably. Which wasn't exactly a vote of confidence. Before embarking on a dangerous dive, but regardless, Ed decided to move ahead with the planned search. Four days after Ben was last seen, Ed suited up with the smallest air tanks he could find, you know, so that he could fit through the narrower parts of the cave. He then submerged himself and began following the same path that Ben had followed four days earlier. He brought an underwater scooter with him, which I guess helped propel him forward so he could move more quickly. But he. Soon abandoned it when the tunnel got too small. Approximately 1,700 feet into the cave, Ed reached the end of what was mapped. And because the tunnel was so narrow in this particular area, if someone, i.e. Ben, had made it past that point, then there would have been markings on the cave's limestone walls. There would have been a sign that he or someone had been there. But instead, Ed saw nothing. Not a single marking. Not one scratch on the limestone. Not one sign of human life anywhere. This did not make sense to Ed. He was not only shorter than Ben, but also around 20 pounds lighter. And so, Ed was at a complete loss and couldn't give any answers to Captain Hamilton once he resurfaced. Things just didn't make sense. I mean, there was no way that Ben could have fit anywhere that Ed couldn't have. And again, he couldn't find any signs that Ben was still down there trapped, let alone that anyone had ever been there. Ed had this to say, quote, The last place I searched was pristine, without a mark that a diver had been there. It would be impossible to go through that restriction without making a mark on the floor or ceiling. He's not in there. And like, fair enough. But if Ben wasn't in the cave, then where the hell could he possibly be? I mean, all signs point to him having drowned down there. But if that were true, then why was his body nowhere to be found? If Ben went in the cave, then where could he possibly be? If he went into the cave, the cave should show it. And yet, there was nothing. The underwater searches during the first few days didn't find anything, clearly. But the above-water investigations did yield one very confusing piece of evidence. During the initial investigation, the sheriff's office had sent two cadaver dogs to the area, which would alert if they smelled any signs of decomposition. The dogs sniffed around the dive shop, the shore, the water. And then, sure enough, each dog ended up alerting. Once alerted, the sheriff's office sent two cadaver dogs to the area, which would alert if they smelled any signs of decomposition. Once along the bank, and then once at the water. And this seemed like a very promising lead. However, when the lab tested the water from the spring, the results were very confusing. Of the 30 tests conducted on the water, not one of them tested positive for the bacteria produced by a decomposing body. And so, who was wrong? The cadaver dogs or the lab? This is a prime example of the frustration in this case. I mean, every time they made some sort of. Every time they made some sort of headway, investigators immediately ran into another wall. Days turned into weeks. Before anyone knew it, over a month had gone by without any sign of finding Ben dead or alive. By late September, 36 days had passed since Ben had last been seen. But the Holmes County Sheriff's Office wasn't ready to give up yet. In those 36 days, 16 divers went out to search. They continued to go down into the cave. But at the same time, the investigators were kind of shifting their attention. They were starting to take a closer look into who Ben actually was and what was going on in his life at the time of his disappearance. And I touched on some of this stuff earlier, but Ben had gone through a lot in the past few years with his brother's death, his divorce, his failed business, among plenty of other things. When his parents offered up their beach condo, Ben was in a really bad place mentally. Those closest to him said he was, like, incredibly depressed. And that particular fact had Captain Hamilton wondering. If Ben had actually gone into the cave, never actually intending to come out. Captain Hamilton asked Ed Sorensen what he thought of this theory. And Ed told Captain Hamilton that it was a possibility that maybe Ben had gone further than Ed was willing to go. And that Ben had squeezed himself into a tight spot that he knew he couldn't get himself out of. But at the same time, Ed wasn't exactly buying this theory either. I mean, there would have been evidence that Ben had. been that deep in the cave, and there just wasn't any, right? And also, people who knew Ben at the time of his disappearance had seen a change in him. I talked about this earlier. Ben no longer seemed as hopeless or as depressed as he had been after his brother's death. Things were looking up for him, and he had even started to make some plans for the future. The theory that he took his own life, it just wasn't adding up. And so investigators needed to look into other possible explanations. If he didn't die in that cave, and if he didn't go there to end his life, they started to wonder if Ben had actually even made that second dive at all. There were some small pieces to the story that just didn't really line up. For instance, the decompression tanks found in the cave were placed in an odd position, and not where you'd expect them to be for a dive like this. And again, some of them had the wrong gas entirely. And there was also Ben's dive log to consider. Ben had a. notebook that he had been using to draw his own map of the cave. But when divers familiar with the cave took a look at this map, things didn't. they didn't really add up. Some notations didn't match the cave's actual layout. Individually, those things could be written off, of course, but combined together, well, they raised a bigger question. What if those weren't mistakes, but rather planned misdirections? Investigators started to consider whether Ben may have. staged the entire dive. That he left the tanks and the map to make it look like he had gone deep into the cave, when in reality, he had actually turned around quickly and then kind of ran off. And as far-fetched as that theory sounds, it would explain why no trace of him was ever found deep in the cave. The theory speculates that Ben had run away to start a new life somewhere, and he was still alive out there somewhere, living off the radar. And similar to the theory that he took his own life, investigators wondered if maybe he just couldn't take. he just couldn't take it anymore, and didn't want to repay his debts. He just wanted a fresh start. However, Ben's parents just couldn't believe that he would have done that to them. I mean, Ben knew the pain that losing one son had caused his parents, and so why would he put them through that for a second time, deliberately? Not to mention, he would have had to leave his girlfriend and his dog, by the way, who had been left alone in his house without any. access to food, which is really sad. And so, putting that theory aside, there was actually some new leads that were coming to light, and they gave way to another theory. What if Ben never made his second dive, but not by choice? What if Ben had been met with foul play? There was some evidence that supported this theory. Very loose evidence. Apparently, a fight had broken out at the Vortex Spring the day that Ben went missing, and witnesses remember. seeing a diver arguing with some drunk teenagers. And so, could that diver have been Ben? And what if those teenagers had been so mad that they came back later that day to finish the fight, and the confrontation ended with Ben's death? And look, I know what you're thinking. How is it that a few drunk, or at the very least, hungover teenagers could somehow pull off a murder and leave zero evidence behind? I mean, does that sound at all like something in the wheelhouse of high school boys? I agree, I'm not exactly convinced. besides no one even confirmed whether or not ben was the diver that was involved with this fight anyways but there was also the wild-eyed man who seemed drunk that the owner of vortex spring saw arrive at the dive shop after sunset on the evening that ben disappeared could this guy have had anything to do with ben's disappearance and again drunk people they are unpredictable but they aren't exactly known for their subtlety and their ability to pull off flawless crimes and so i'm not really sure about that theory either desperate for answers ben's parents went so far as to hire a private investigator but unfortunately that didn't yield any results and so the foul play theory wasn't really adding up because there were zero signs of a struggle at the bank of the spring the dive shop's cameras didn't show anything suspicious and ben's wallet was found with all of the money still inside of it in his truck which which didn't make sense for like a robbery gone wrong oh and speaking of money um things in this case were somehow actually able to get even darker because some pretty serious money was about to get involved with ben's search and this would take the story in an entirely new direction it was now april eight months since ben had disappeared and shelby and patty mcdaniel well they were running out of options so much time had passed and yet every potential lead was met by another dead end but shelby and patty were still willing to do anything to find their son and so they announced a ten thousand dollar reward for the diver who could find him but tragically just like every other thing they had tried up to this point it didn't work almost a year passed with zero new clues and so in march of 2012 a year and a half after ben's disappearance they increased the reward to thirty thousand dollars and to be frank this pissed off many members of the diving community especially because ben's parents had said that they would award the money to divers who were quote brave enough to find ben and while you and i might not see a problem with that experienced divers didn't see the search for ben as brave anymore they saw it as as reckless and they resented the mcdaniel's willingness to find him and so they were able to find him and so they were able to put others lives at risk in order to find their son they didn't want people going out and risking their own lives to try to get that money now i doubt that the mcdaniel saw it that way i'm certain they weren't trying to hurt anyone else obviously but let's just say that the diving community might have been on to something because the situation at vortex spring was about to get a lot worse on march 17th 2012 only days after the mcdaniels increased the reward to thirty dollars a diver deep in the cave noticed another solo diver at first it looked like this solo diver was just kind of taking a break but upon closer inspection they noticed that the diver was not moving he wasn't breathing either in fact there was no life behind his eyes uh he was dead and right next to him was a shovel this diver was soon identified as larry higginbotham and because of the fact that he was diving in the cave by himself with a shovel he was able to find the diver shovel only days after the reward had increased well many people in the diving community assumed that larry had been down there searching for ben you know chasing the money chasing this thirty thousand dollars and now to be clear this was never proven it is just an assumption but out of an abundance of caution larry's death prompted the mcdaniels to pull their reward anyways they wanted to find their son of course but another life was just too high of a price to pay for the answers that they desperately sought ben mcdaniel's case is just so haunting because what should have been a relatively straightforward body recovery mission ended up being you know anything but that a man went into one of the most dangerous underwater caves in florida experienced divers went in after him they searched for weeks they found tanks they found questions and contradictions but they never found ben hell they didn't even find any trace that he had even been down there in the first place which left us with the question of whether or not the diver was dead or not this family with literally zero answers and so maybe he's still hidden somewhere in that cave where no one can reach him maybe his disappearance has nothing to do with the cave at all i don't know but after 16 years to me the most unsettling part is that this entire story boils down to this ben mcdaniel went down into vortex spring he ignored the most ominous warning sign in existence probably and then he never came back and so may he rest in peace and my heart goes out to his his poor parents man please show them some love in the comments some love to ben as well i always appreciate it when you guys do that