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Hey weirdos, I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid.
Alright, so... This week is going to be a little different from last week.
Last week we talked about Big Ed. Big old Eddie.
And... This week we're kind of taking a sidestep.
Yeah. Into the Siberian wilderness. Hashtag Soviet Union.
So it's kind of a big sidestep. Yeah. A side leap, if you will.
Yeah, a side leap. This week, we're going to be talking about the Dilatov Pass incident.
Or it could be the diatlov, or it could be the dilatom.
I don't think that it's dilat. What's the first one you said?
Dilettante. I don't think it's that because the...
L comes after the T. I know, I thought that too, but I've heard it called that before, so I think I'm just being American and I'm following what everyone else says.
I think it's dial-up. It's like a diet that you love.
Diet love. Wow. That's actually a really good way of saying that, now that I'm looking at the word.
Right? It kind of makes sense. So, dietlov...
Diet love. Diet love. Huff. Huff. So we're going to sound super Russian every time we say it.
I don't think we actually will. Hell, we might say it different every single time.
It's going to be said a lot. So this is like spooky as fuck.
I'm not going to lie. I was spooked researching.
I was spooked on the drive here on the way up the stairs to where we're podcasting.
And I'm spooked right now. It's one of those things that, like, it's super spooky, but if you don't hike into the Siberian wilderness, you might not have to deal with this, so...
This might be one for everybody. That's a good takeaway from this.
Don't hike into the Soviet Union of Russia.
It's really a good life rule. I just said the Soviet Union of Russia. of Russia.
I'll leave now. Goodbye. That's your IQ of 12 speakers.
I told you. Look at me just calling back to last week.
You know? Just calling it back. Just calling it back.
If you want to know what that joke is, go listen to last week's episode.
Or else you won't know. Before we get started I thought it would kind of be fun to talk about something spooky that happened this week because something spooky did happen this week.
Ashley doesn't even know what I'm talking about right now.
Nobody's looked at her with a furrowed eyebrow.
So she's going to be right in here with all of you.
So this week... around us in, you know, if you're from Massachusetts, you'll know what I'm talking about.
Unless you're Ashley. Unless you're Ashley.
Off of $4.95 this week. In the Bridgewater Triangle.
I don't know if it's part of the Bridgewater.
We're kind of part of it. We're part of the Bridgewater training.
We'll definitely do that on an episode for sure.
Oh, good luck. So there was a ton of traffic.
Like, my husband got caught in it. Yeah, me too.
A bunch of people I know got caught in it.
On Wednesday night? On Wednesday night. Oh!
So you want to know what happened? Yeah, I do.
So what happened was the state police got a ton of calls in.
And all of them were saying that they saw a woman carrying a lifeless child into the woods.
I just got the most amount of goosebumps that I've ever gotten in my life.
Because when I heard this and read this...
I was so spooked out just by thinking of this happening.
So I drove by that. Several people called with this same thing.
A woman is carrying a lifeless child into the woods.
I don't even know if I want to hear the rest.
Well, so they had police helicopters. They had police.
They had helicopters searching the area because they were like, now we need to find.
They found nothing. several people said... Annie's not going to sleep tonight.
She's looking over at us. So I don't know if it was like... mistaken what people saw and maybe she was carrying something else.
I don't know. Maybe people... I have no idea, but no matter what, they didn't find anything.
I was so glad I wasn't one of those people and that I had to work late and got caught in the backdrop well cause I'm wondering like why didn't anyone take a picture I would snap a photo of that and then I'd call the police and be like I just saw this or I'd pull over down the street and be like hey, I feel like I couldn't go by, but again, I wasn't there, so maybe I would have just driven by, but Oh, the picture in my mind right now is so spooky.
Right? The picture in my mind is super spooky too.
That's why I had to share it. I thought this was just too spooky to not share.
So, well, the good news is they didn't find the woman and they didn't find a lifeless child.
So that's... Annie's listening in the corner and I bet she wishes that her podcast that she was listening to has turned up a little more because she said she wasn't going to listen to us.
How do you feel now, Annie? The best part about this is I looked over in the corner and Annie just suddenly sat up.
And started listening intently. She's like, why the traffic?
Oh, fuck, I don't want to know anymore. I'm part of this now.
Can I unknow things? Sorry, I just brought you all into my spooky-ass world.
Wow, I was in that traffic. And I've been dealing with this image in my mind for a week, and I felt like I needed to share it with everybody.
Nightmare. So you're welcome for that. Sleep tight.
If you see any women carrying lifeless children into the woods, call the police.
Maybe snap a photo if you can. Don't pull over.
I mean, don't pull over. That's dumb, but... Yeah.
But maybe snap a photo. Yeah. snub us snub us a pic I would want to see where she was going so you know There's that.
So, why did they, they just released that that's what happened?
Yeah, they just released, well, they released that that's why, like, there was so much backup and there was, like, police helicopters and activity.
Yeah. was helicopters everywhere yeah and i literally said something must be going on yep it was that so and they did release that like nothing was found they searched for hours so They didn't find anything.
Imagine being the people that had to search for that.
Imagine being the people who saw it. and then we're like no I saw that like I and several people said the same thing they're not sleeping yeah It's kind of bananas.
Oh, I'm so spooked. So, that kind of segues... perfectly into our super spooky topic.
Oh my gosh it does. So this one Goes way back.
We are taking a trip in the way back machine for this one.
It's back in January of 1959 when a young 23-year-old man named Igor...
Igor. Igor. Pause for reaction. Dyatlov. because I'm going to go with that from now on.
Dyatlov. Eagle or Dyatlov led nine hikers into the Ural Mountains of Siberia.
The group had seven men and two women, and most of them were university students or engineers.
So they were pretty young. Yeah, they were young.
They were in their 20s, like early 20s. They were all super smart, super experienced hikers.
And hikers and hikers. Like super experienced hikers.
They all had been on several excursions.
They were like wilderness survival people.
So they knew what they were doing. So I'm going to go through their names and I can't promise you that this is how they're going to say them.
So, what's funny to me is there's several Yuris.
Yeah, there are. Yeah, there's a lot of Yuris.
I think Yuri is a nickname, though, actually.
No, I think it's an actual name. Oh, where I found it, the guy's name was Yuri, and then in parentheses it said...
It maybe looks like Georgie, but it's G-E-R-G-I-Y.
Yeah, I don't know about that one. Yeah.
Maybe it is a nickname. Maybe you're right.
So here, I'm going to try to get through these.
So let's see. Yuri Doroshenko. Yuri Krivonishenko, Igor Dayalov, Zinaida Kolmogorova, Rustam Slobodin Ludmilla Dubonina Semen Solotarev who also went by Sasha or Alexander and I kind of see why Alexander Kolovatov, and Nikolai Thibodeau-Brignoel.
Exactly. Or not laughing at your names. No.
We're just trying to pronounce them. This is going to be a tough one.
We are stupid Americans. We are definitely dumb Americans, so just go with us.
Um, so the goal of this whole hike that they were taking back in 1959 was to reach Mount Ortorten.
Ortorten. which translates to... Don't go there.
No way. I didn't know that. So I did like the basicest amount of research and I was like, I'm just going to sit here and comment for the most part.
Hashtag basicist. Hashtag I'm such a bad deal.
So... There's like a local tribe called the Mansi tribe or Mansi.
I'm going to go with Mansi. That sounds better.
The Mansi tribe. In their language, this mountain peak translates to, like, roughly to, don't go there.
Which... Sounds like a warning sign. It's a pretty good warning to heed, I would say.
Because they're not, like, having you guess anything.
Like, maybe should we go there? It's not.
Maybe we shouldn't. It doesn't translate into maybe come here.
Come here. Maybe come here. Maybe there's spearmint at the top.
Yeah, it doesn't translate to, like, sometimes bad things happen here, but sometimes you get cake.
It's literally like, just don't go here.
Do not come here. So my advice to everybody, just listen to that.
But that's not what happened. They went there.
They did not listen to that. So the trip was going to be a 350 kilometer ski trip.
What does that translate to? Do you know?
Did not do the math. But maybe I will later.
And I'll add it in. Or somebody can let me know.
But whatever. It's a good trip. Like I said, all these skiers and hikers were super experienced, so this was not supposed to be something that was going to Be a big problem or have any kind of trouble.
I mean, it was going to be a tough trip, but they were ready for it.
Right. There was only one survivor of this trip.
And his name was Yuri Yudin. Yuri Yudin survived because he happened to fall ill.
And stayed at the last place that they were all seen alive, which was like this little village settlement.
He's glad he got sick that day. Yeah, and Yuri has a lot of information.
We'll see later that Yuri kind of started piecing some things together for everybody a little bit.
Didn't come up with that in my basic research.
In your basicest research. In my most basicest research.
And Yuri actually said that he recalls hearing a conversation when they were at that village. between Igor Dalatov and a member... Yeah, Igor, who was, like, kind of the leader of this whole shebang. and a member of this village where the two of them were talking about it, and it looked like Igor was being warned about something, but he couldn't make out exactly what it was.
I'm going to really step out on a limb here and I'm going to go with maybe he was being warned about going to the place that translates to don't go there.
Maybe. I mean, like, maybe. I'm not going to say, like, factual.
I mean, who knows? We weren't there. Nope, not at all.
But if you're going to warn something like that, it's probably going to be about the place that...
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It's called Don't Go There. So, obviously, he did not heed that warning.
He went there. If that's what it was. He definitely went there.
Um... So everything was pretty good for a while.
This group took a lot of pictures. They kept a ton of journals.
And they were following a specific Monzi trail that was set out for them.
So this was a trail that was already set out.
The last diary entries from all of them were, like, super happy, super carefree.
They talked about the weather, but, you know, they were just like, the weather sucks here because it's in Siberia.
Um, But, you know, it was just, that's it.
It was all about the weather and the trail conditions being kind of tough.
But other than that, they were like, we're having fun.
Everything's great. We're rushing. And they even created their own newspaper, which is adorable, called The Evening or Torton.
What is terrifying about this is one of the last things the headline was, from now on we know that the snowmen exist.
So... Hate that. The word that comes to mind is ominous.
Because that could either be super adorable and like, we snowmen exist.
We made a snowman. Fun. Siberia or it could be there's fucking angry yeti here and we know they exist now So we've just begun.
Yeah. And after you hear everything that happened to them, that's going to sound a hell of a lot more ominous.
Yeah. So if you have a delightful, whimsical image in your head right now...
Keep it in mind for a little while, but it's going to leave.
Yeah. So February 1st is when they made the decision to set up camp.
They ended up setting up camp on the bottom of the mountain slope on the flanks of a mountain called Dead Mountain.
Or Mountain of the Dead. So, you know... I'm sorry, there's a lot of coincidence happening here.
There's just a lot of things working against...
Having a fun time, I feel. Right. You know, the whole don't go there, dead mountain vibe. snowmen existed was it called that back then or were people doing it it was no this is like translated from you know back then The first one is translated from the Manzi language, and then this one was called Dead Mountains.
So solid choice to set up camp there. Solid choice, guys.
So I looked up some information on like where they set up camp because I don't, I know shit all about camping and hiking and all that.
Nope. especially on a mountain I don't know where to put a tent I'd put a tent anywhere I don't even glamp Yeah, I do nothing of the sort.
So apparently the slope of a mountain is a really bad idea to set up camp.
Well, that does make sense. It does make sense when you think about it.
There's the remote possibility of avalanche.
And specifically in the Siberian wilderness...
They're pretty common. Yeah. Although this is, I guess this place isn't especially prone to avalanches.
Right, I read that. That could have been like a very long time.
But also like the thing that sucks about the slope is that cold air will settle at the lowest point.
Like in valleys and such, which are a bad idea.
So in the slope, you're getting all the really cold air.
Right. And it's all shooting down there.
And it's an average of negative six degrees in January here.
Whoa. And that's during the day. So at night it's going to drop to like negative 20 and stuff like that.
So that was already kind of an odd choice.
And especially since Dylatav was such an experienced hiker, and all these people were such experienced hikers, they kind of wondered why that would happen.
Later, Yuri said that maybe either he didn't want to lose the progress they had already made by going back down to the tree line.
Right. which was, I think, a mile away.
Or he just wanted to try it. Exactly. He wanted to try it out.
He just kind of wanted to test and experience it and see how he would Fair.
Which was bad. You know, spoiler alert. But, um...
So, it was on February 12th that this group was supposed to make contact with Yuri again.
Mm-hmm. And they were supposed to kind of like update everybody.
Yeah. With Uden again. That's what they told him at least.
They did not make contact with him. No. So by February 20th.
That's when family members and friends started getting nervous because they were willing to let a few days go past the day they were supposed to hear from them because obviously with trips like this...
You're not going to be right on schedule.
Yeah, exactly. So it wasn't until February 26th is when the camp was finally found by search and rescuers.
So this is basically a month afterwards.
Yeah, and it was by volunteer searchers and also the military got involved.
They brought in helicopters and all that.
So the things that were found are very bizarre.
They're very bizarre. So the first thing that was found... was in the campsite.
They found the tents that they were sleeping in and they were shredded apart from the inside.
That is so unsettling. So these people were frantic to get out of these tents.
Right. They didn't unzip the tents. They didn't do anything.
They shredded them from the inside to get out.
So, like, what the hell came that quick and that scary that they had to get the hell out of there so fast?
I don't want to know. I don't even know.
So all of them ran out of the tents towards, first of all, it looked like all of their footprints went in different directions.
And all of them were either barefoot or just wearing socks.
And I think only one of them had one shoe on.
Which it was by this point in the middle of the night, it would have been negative 24 degrees out.
Oh, Again, experienced survivalists, hikers, all that good stuff.
They would know that that is... completely ridiculous to do in negative 24 degree weather.
Right. So something had to have literally threatened.
Scared the shit out of them. their lives in the immediate like right yeah exactly so it's like something had to have been happening right now where they had to make the decision To just get out of there.
We either put on shoes and we die here or we run and we try to make it.
It's insane. So, um... It was over one mile away from the tent that the first two bodies were found.
These two bodies ended up belonging to, I'm just going to go by their last names right now, from now on.
This is belonging to Doroshenko and Khrushchev. uh they were found lying perfectly side by side and wearing only their underwear Weird.
No shoes. Nothing else. That's insane. I don't even know why they would be just in their underwear at any point during this trip.
Right, it's not even like you're, like...
Like, you're not sleeping in their underwear in Siberian wilderness.
So, why? why like that's insane uh they were found under a tree i believe it was a cedar tree um in branches very high up in the tree, like 15 feet up. were broken, like, all cracked up.
Almost like they had climbed up the tree.
And you could say, like, maybe they got broken by elements or whatever, like, whatever, but...
Oh my god. So basically it seems like they were frantically crawling up this tree trying to climb the tree.
Get away from something. And their hands were like bloody messes.
Like they were trying to frantic, you know, clearly they left some of them in the bark.
Uh, so they were really trying to get up this tree as fast as they could.
Um, It looks like there was a remains of a fire, which is even weirder because...
They're frantically trying to get up this tree.
They're running away in their underwear.
And then they make a fire. So that's weird.
Doron Shanko was found with burns on the side of his head.
Yeah. His ears, nose, and lips were covered in blood.
He had multiple abrasions and bruises on his arms and legs and torso.
And there was also a foamy gray discharge that seemed to come from his mouth and was left on his cheek.
And you would think maybe that's just putrefaction after death.
But doctors later said that this could be the result of something causing great pressure on his chest and causing that discharge to come up.
Krivononshenko had bruises on his forehead and his left temporal bone. bruises on his chest legs and hands he had pieces of skin that had ripped off the tops of his hands And pieces of the skin, the epidermis that was on top of his hands, were found inside his mouth.
I don't even know how to react to that. I have nothing.
I don't even know what to say about that. one of the investigators for this case you're trying to figure out what the hell's going on this doesn't make any sense well and it sounds like they kind of Tried to cover some stuff up, which we'll talk about later.
But yeah, Kriven and Schenkel also had a burn on his left leg.
Huh. So weird. And it's like, so did they just sit in their underwear by the fire after they tried to get up a tree?
Did they try to get up the tree afterwards?
I don't know. Did they stick their heads in the fire to get burned?
Did they play patty cake with the fire to burn their hands?
I don't understand what... So that's a whole bunch of craziness.
A little bit away from these two bodies, they found three more bodies, including Diletlov, Kolmogorova, and Slobodin.
Are these the ones that were all basically almost exactly 200 meters apart?
Yeah, they were very close. Like, they were very, like, you know...
At really specific. Yeah. They were found like they were going towards the campsite, like they were running back towards the campsite.
I think they were at distances of 300, 480, and 630 meters from the cedar tree. like in between the campsites yeah very specific and very weird um So it looked like they fell dead as they were trying to run back to the campsite.
Uh, Diletlov, Igor the leader, was found face up.
He was obviously frozen with weather and rigor. and he was clutching a birch branch in his hand, and his other arm was shielding his face from something.
And it was frozen like that. So he was holding a birch branch like he was bending something off.
He was also found with a photo of Kalma Grova because they were dating.
I'm not okay. Yeah. I'm not fucking okay.
They were dating. He had a picture of her.
No. On his person. So it's like, did he run out of the tent and grab... I don't know if he had actually clothes on.
He did have clothes on. Did he run out of the tent and make sure...
I wonder, or if it was just in his pocket, but I think they had some clothes on.
Just the fact that he had, I can't. I'm done.
I know, right? He had no internal injuries at all.
And his cause of death was hypothermia. The next person who was found in that whole thing of three people... was Rustam Slobodin.
He had some of the weirdest injuries. Okay, yeah.
Yeah, he's got some weird ones. They said he was lying face down in the snow.
He had bloody discharge from his nose, swelling and weird bruises and abrasions on the right side of his face.
There was more abrasions on the left side of his face.
His skin was ripped off his right forearm.
He had bruises on the joints of both hands. which seems to indicate that he was literally fighting someone with his hands.
Right. He had a fracture of the frontal bone of his skull that was really deep and nearly seven inches long.
Oh my gosh. Yeah. He also had hemorrhages in his temporalis muscles.
In this way. He died. where this hemorrhage began, he probably immediately suffered loss of coordination, like right after this trauma.
Which could have definitely sped up his death due to hypothermia.
Because he wouldn't have been able to get himself together to fight off the hypothermia, basically.
So those were weird. Um, the last one in that group of three was Zineda Cole-McGrove, who was the one whose picture was found with Igor.
Oh. um she was the farthest body from the rest of the group and she was found with blood around her body but it wasn't determined if it actually came from her if it was from someone else Her cause of death was hypothermia due to a violent accident.
Oh. That's what it stated. So she froze to death because of a violent accident?
Yeah, I guess. That doesn't really make any sense.
There wasn't a lot for hers. But what is a real bummer is...
After all of these people were found, they had to wait until the mountain began to thaw in the spring to find the rest of them.
Yeah. They didn't find them until May. May 4th.
They had a present. Yeah, so that's rough.
So the last four people, the last four group members... were instructor Alexander Zolotarov, engineer Nikolai Thibodeau-Brignolel, And students Alexander Kolovatov and Ludmilla Dubonina.
I think I said it right. Again, I apologize.
I'm really giving him my all. They were found in kind of like a gully downslope from the tree where the other one, the first two were found.
And a few of these injuries get super real.
This is where it gets real. If you have a weak stomach, just fast forward 25 minutes.
And the four of these people, their deaths were not due to hypothermia.
Nope. Um... They were also, these four were found to be wearing, they were very clothed.
Right. And some of them were wearing each other's clothes.
Yes, and they were definitely found to be wearing other skis, the hikers' clothes.
They could have even taken clothing off of the dead bodies.
Right. Which could explain why some of the other ones aren't as dressed as you would think.
Right. Um... These four had taken so much precaution that they'd actually dug themselves into the ground to stave off the cove.
The cold. I said cove. The cold. They'd actually dug themselves into the ground to stave off the cold. which is like a survival tactic because you're warmer inside there.
And they had actually... placed branches from the cedar tree around themselves in those ditches to, you know, keep contact, like, to not have contact with the walls, with the snowy walls.
It's interesting that they had time to do that.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So basically they were trying to minimize their contact with the snow, with these branches.
And it also appeared that they had started a fire for at least a small part of the time.
Another fire. So that takes time. Yeah, and it also kind of shows that... You wouldn't do that in a panic.
Yeah, and this can't be one singular event, it feels like, because...
These people are having different experiences and different time frames.
And they're dying at different times and in different ways.
Huh. So it's like, I don't know. Well, the autopsy report was done by Dr. Boris.
This one's a doozy. Vazrazdini. And he stated that all the four of these people, their internal injuries were similar to that, like Ash said. of someone who had been in a car crash.
And it required that much force to cause these injuries.
But they didn't have much external damage.
Exactly. Or, not damage, but, like... Yeah, they didn't have a lot of soft tissue damage, like the other people kind of had some weird stuff.
A lot of these people didn't even have a lot of bruising.
Like marks or anything? So these ones, let's start with Zolotarev.
He had crushed ribs and a legitimately crushed in chest.
Like everything in his chest was broken.
Oh my gosh. Massive internal damage. No soft tissue damage or bruising, but like I say, massive internal damage.
How do you have that much internal damage without soft tissue damage?
That's why it's so bizarre. Because it's not even bruising.
Like, what possibly could do that? Well, and Zolotarev was also missing his eyes.
Like they weren't there. Like, he had no eyes.
Like, you have two eyes. He had zero eyes.
Oh. He also had five broken ribs on either side of his body.
He had an open wound on the side of his head with exposed bone.
Oh. And... It looks like on the autopsy report it says both Zolotarev and Dubonina have an interesting pattern of injuries.
They are very similar in direction and force despite difference in shape, height, and body composition of the two.
This would suggest that whatever caused these injuries was not a single uniform event.
Like an avalanche. I said huh so many times because I'm straight up stumped.
We're just, we're stumping everybody. He also, weirdly enough, was found with a camera strung around his neck.
And they never released the photos from that camera.
And why did he grab his camera? Like, they ran out of those tents.
They didn't even take clothes, some of them.
They didn't take knives. They didn't take anything.
He took his camera. And he took his camera.
And it turns out that the camera that he had around his neck, Yuri Yudin, the guys that survived this whole thing, said, that camera...
He had never seen it. So they had a few cameras on this trip that they were taking pictures with.
And Yuri said that camera was a hidden camera.
Like he was like, he had that camera and I've never seen it.
Are we saying this is like a photo camera?
Yeah, like, well, it's 59. I don't know about that time.
So, he's basically saying there was a lot of cameras on this trip.
I've never seen that one. I don't like... And that, like, this guy, Zolotarev, like... might have been hiding this camera.
Why? Exactly. There's just a lot of questions.
Please keep going. So investigators claim...
That the film got damaged in water. It didn't.
But I... Sounds weird. I think that camera has some pictures on it that might explain what's going on.
And again, we're going to get into theories later about this.
We're going to lay them all out for you and we'll discuss which ones we think are more likely.
I need answers. But, like, we're going to go back to this camera.
Actually, part of me doesn't want answers.
I know. We might not want the answers that are the truth here, because...
I think they're scarier than what we can come up with.
So, Dubonina... was found now she by far has the most insane entries She was found with her head tilted back and her mouth open wide like she was screaming.
And I've seen pictures because you can go online and you can see all the pictures.
Guess who didn't do that? Raise your hand.
Me. Elena did do that. Nope. Because I always do that.
Not interested. See you later. They're pretty fascinating though.
Yeah, I'm sure, but I'm not. In the picture, Dubonina is exactly how I described it.
It literally looks like she's screaming.
It's pretty scary. Yeah, so... So you looked at a photo of her eyeless.
Yeah, but she was frostbitten and frozen, so it's a little different.
It's not like a fresh... Yeah, it still sounds horrible.
Oh, it's awful. You're also an autopsy technician and I care.
Exactly. I've seen much worse. The worst I've seen is dead ends.
Yeah, I've seen much worse than this. So Dubonino was also, now this is the clothing she was found wearing compared to everybody else. she was found wearing a short-sleeved shirt a long-sleeved shirt two sweaters underwear long socks two pairs of pants and the outer pants were burnt by fire.
And she had a hat on and two pairs of socks.
She also had cut up a sweater and used it to wrap around her feet as well.
So she was wearing a lot of clothes. Yeah.
And some of them were burned again. Like, why is everybody getting burned?
Like, it's weird. Well, I wonder if she took those from other people.
Yeah, maybe those might have been the ones that were on the first two.
Right. That had the fire going. I mean, who knows?
Because they had some burn injuries. Her injuries were the worst and definitely most bizarre, though.
There was some soft tissue missing, but that can be attributed to frostbite.
Okay. So we do have to keep that in mind.
She... Had soft tissue damage around her eyes, her eyebrows, her left temporal area, and there was bone exposed in that area.
Uh-huh. She was also missing her tongue. which it is stated in several places that I found that it looked like it had been torn out from the root.
Where's the root of your tongue? It looked like it had literally been yanked out of her mouth.
Like, torn out. I... I... I... Yes. Aye, aye, aye.
Now, one might want to immediately say maybe an animal ate it.
But one, why would she be the only one whose tongue was eaten by an animal?
And two, these people were found under like 12 feet of snow.
Right. So no animal was getting to them.
Yeah. And she was missing her eyes. Her nose was completely busted.
It was broken and completely flattened. Four ribs were broken on her right side and six were broken on her left side.
Oh my god. Yeah. She had a massive hemorrhage in her heart's right atrium, a huge bruise on her left thigh.
And this is even weirder. This is going to blow your face off.
Her stomach had about 100 grams of coagulated blood in it.
Which indicates that her blood was flowing and her heart was pumping when her tongue was ripped out of her mouth.
I don't want to know anything. Which means she was alive when her tongue was removed.
So regardless of how it was removed, she was alive when it happened.
Yeah. Her official cause of death. It's awful.
It's awful. And the official cause of death for her was the heart hemorrhage because it was massive.
In their families, can you imagine if that happened to your family member?
No. And you just never have any answer? No.
I can't even fathom that. That makes me feel so sorry and like my heart hurts.
It's literally, it's, I mean, this is like horror. like horror happens for them to die like this is true horror So that was Dubonina.
And Kolovatov had a broken nose and a deformed neck.
But his autopsy report doesn't share a lot more.
And it might have been that he... possibly was more decomposed than the other ones.
So when they found them, so maybe there was a lot to go on.
Um, Brignolel. had multiple fractures to his temporal bone in his skull, a big bruise on his upper lip, and a hemorrhage of the lower forearm.
The doctor ruled out an accidental fall on like a rock or something for that break because it was such a massive and really weird fracture, they said.
It just didn't make sense to that. He like fell or something and broke it.
Right. So that's weird. all of those last four bodies, it seemed like their chests had been crushed with immense pressure.
One of the things that a lot of people like to go to with all these weird people being in their underwear in negative 24 degree weather is called paradoxical undressing.
It's like a phenomenon that only happens in like, I think like 20% of hypothermia cases where like your body starts tricking It's self into believing that you're getting hot.
So you start like frantically getting your, taking your clothes off, but it's really just going into hypothermia and dying.
But that doesn't make sense because why would they suffer all those astronomically insane injuries?
Exactly. And it doesn't explain the injuries and it doesn't explain why they ran out of the tents in the first place. first place so we can check that off but a lot of people bring it up the known some of the known cameras in the group they were able to get photos off of.
There's a lot of photos of the group hike on the way up here.
And there was one from February 2nd, right before they set up camp and everybody's happy and everything looks normal.
So there's nothing weird to see there. Yuri Yudin, the survivor, he testified that Alexander Kholovatov kept an avid personal diary and that it was with him the whole time and that he remembers it being with him when he left that village.
Like he had it. That diary has never been found.
Why? And there was also a camera that went missing too.
I mean, it could be buried under crazy amounts of snow.
It's true. But it's weird that those things... Because you would think those things would be in the campsite.
So they would know where to find us. Either the campsite or on there.
And that campsite they were able to get to.
And they were able to search it. So the fact that those two things aren't there seems like they were taken from there.
Of course. For a reason. And the fact that this is like a personal diary and a camera that could have a lot of information that maybe it...
I don't know, a Soviet government might not want people to know about.
Okay, we can get to that theory, but why would the Soviet government really go that hard and crush people in torture style?
Well, if they were, I mean, we're going to get into this theory in a couple minutes, but if they're doing, I mean, there's like a lot of, you know, nuclear...
Testing and stuff if they were maybe these people stumbled into an area that they were doing some kind of weird ass weapons testing, and they got in the middle of it.
And maybe they had started seeing weird shit leading up to this, and the government doesn't want people to know about it.
It could be totally classified information.
That much horrible things to them. Well, these, these weapons that they're testing are meant. to destroy.
Do you think they were testing the weapons on them?
They could have. I mean, who knows? That's one of the theories.
And that's one of the really scary theories.
Yeah. And in fact, later at the people's funerals, It was mentioned by some witnesses that the bodies appeared to have a weird deep orange tan.
Yeah. And their hair. Their hair looked gray like it had no pigment.
Again, those are people saying things, so maybe it's not... This could be hearsay, but it's still weird.
And to further this whole theory... Some of the articles of clothing found with the bodies contained high levels of radiation.
Yeah. In particular, Yuri Krivonishenko had very high levels of radiation on his clothes when they tested him.
Now, Yuri Krivonenchenko was once working in...
It's called Chelyabinsk Forty, which is a secret nuclear plutonium plant. that experienced a disaster on September 29th, 1957.
Basically, it was a radioactive leak. This incident became known as the Kush-Tomkoi incident.
Krivoninchenko was among some of the people that were sent to clean this up.
He was an engineer, though. So Yuri would... He would know enough to not... keep those clothes from that day.
And he certainly probably wouldn't be wearing them like two years later.
Without washing them or anything. So that is a thing that's weird, but it just doesn't make sense to why his would have reacted that high.
Uh-huh. And on another note, why the fuck did they test them for radiation in the first place?
Oh, that's not something that just pops up, you have to be tested for it?
Like, if... Well, think about it. If you found some dead people out in the woods...
Are the investigators going to test them for radiation?
Especially not in the snow. That's literally never something that would come up in a...
Right from the beginning of an investigation.
They would never, like radiation does not come up as a thing.
Like let's just test them. Just let's just see.
Like, they have to have tested them because they knew something.
But they never said what they knew and why they were testing for it.
Oh, young Ash. I'm young. The government.
Does a lot of shit that they don't want you to know about.
I know, it scares me. You're gonna learn a lot during this podcast about your...
We'll go into subject. I'm going to become like a, I don't know.
Yeah. You thought I was a hippie. No, it's going to get weird.
It's gonna freak you out. More? Oh, yeah.
Some of these. I feel like I'm you guys right now that are listening.
And I feel like I'm just like experiencing this for the first time.
Because I thought I did some research, but I guess I didn't.
So, let's... Wikipedia, let me just tell you, has the basic amount of the basicest.
The basicest. The basicest amount of basics for you.
So, all right, let's talk about some of the theories here.
Now that we have all the information. Oh, man.
So one of the theories... Well, let's just go with the one that's going to make people be like, come on.
But then at the end of it, you're going to be like, hmm.
The Yeti? Maybe. No, we'll get to that one.
The first one we're going to go to is aliens or extraterrestrials.
Maybe. So... Now, let's see, on March 31st, so right after this whole thing was happening, A group of rescue.
This was like between when they found the first set and when they found the second set.
There was people searching through them.
So on March 31st, a group of rescue and search volunteers saw glowing, pulsating orbs in the sky.
One of these search and rescue people named Valentin Yakomenko said, and I quote, it happened early in the morning while it was still dark.
Victor Mesher Kurov, who stood guard that night, left the tent and saw a large glowing sphere in the sky. he woke everyone up he watched this orb or disk for about twenty minutes until it disappeared behind the mountain We saw it in the southeast direction from our tent.
It was moving in a northern direction. This event freaked everyone out.
We were sure that this event was somehow involved in the death of the Dyletlov group.
I'm not okay. I've said it once, I'll say it probably 500 more times during this, I'm not okay.
So that's weird. And it turns out that...
These pulsating orbs were seen in January, February, and March by students, geologists, natives, and even local military.
Even Mansi hunters in the area saw them too and reported them.
And in early April, several testimonies... were taken from local soldiers who said that they thought they saw UFOs on February 17th around 6.40 a.m.
And they all describe them as the same thing.
Slow, pulsating, moving orbs that were moving from south to north in a weird way. like cloud of dust or fog.
The guy who was in charge of the investigation, named Lev Ivanov, actually gave an interview in the early 90s where he told this reporter.
Mm-hmm. that during the investigation, he and E.P.
Maslenikov... who I don't, he must have been part of the investigation as well, but he named him.
He said both noticed that the pines in the forest in this area were burned on the top.
What? Yeah. So he claims, he also claims... that the member of the soviet congress along with his advisor forced him to take out all the references of any kind of UFO or weird strange shit.
Do you think that the government there is friends with the aliens?
Or has some kind of agreement with them?
No, I think that they're like our government and they cover this shit up because they don't want us to know about it.
This is exactly what our government does too.
The government knows way more than what they tell us.
Are they going to listen to our podcast and then fuck with us?
Please don't. I don't want it. I'm just a sweet hairdresser.
You are. She's just saying all the information.
It's her. Exactly. I'm just passing it on.
So actually, Monty hunters had actually even drawn pictures of these flying spheres, and they made them take them all out.
So this guy was suspected, he was believed to say, and I quote, I suspected at the time and am almost sure now that these bright flying spheres had a direct connection to this group stuff it makes sense so that's weird it's there's some things in there that are at least weird to consider So, another theory is that there was a military or government experiment that went wrong. tragically arrived.
Now this one I need you to explain to me because in my head it just doesn't make sense.
I'm so naive. The Soviet government could have been testing some kind of classified weapon.
So there were people there testing the weapons, is what you're telling me.
Well, there's an entire branch of people that test these weapons.
But there was humans there. Testing the weapons.
Yes. We have not. In 59, we had not advanced to using AI.
Okay. I don't even know what AI is, so. My God.
Artificial intelligence. Here we are. I have none of that.
So Yuri Yudin is actually a supporter of this theory.
He thinks that this is what happened. Okay.
He's the survivor. Yes. Okay. So he thinks that the group maybe stumbled on some kind of crazy...
Covert testing ground Like accidentally Like this wasn't planned And that they were basically dispatched by the government as a result of this, because they had stumbled to this thing.
So they were, quote unquote, taken care of, essentially, is what you're telling me.
They think this because this is why, because the investigation was very hurried and it was very secretive.
Even now, the Soviet government doesn't want you asking about this.
And they don't want you digging into it.
They just... They close the mountain for three years afterwards.
Exactly. And it's like, why? I have the chills.
So this could be explained by some weird things.
Why would they rip her tongue out? That you didn't saw.
What did you didn't see? So you didn't claim to see.
At least from what I saw. I feel like I might cry.
I'm just overwhelmed with a lot of emotion right now.
You are very overwhelmed by this. I hope everybody feels this way about this.
I hope you guys do. So you didn't... was used to identify some of the items that they found.
Okay. Since he was with these people, he knew what was going on.
So, Yudin saw amongst their items a torn piece of fabric that resembled something...
That looks like it could have come from a soldier's coat.
That he said did not, was not there. He also found a pair of glasses and skis that didn't belong to anyone there.
Okay. That's weird. That's really fucking weird.
So there was also testimony from Uden. that he saw documents that said that the investigation actually began two weeks before the official discovery of the camp.
So that would indicate that the camp was found two weeks before they quote unquote found it.
Or, even further, that the investigation began two weeks before the camp was quote-unquote found.
Right. So if that's the case, then the government was really cleaning this up.
Yeah, so there's something where maybe they were testing some kind of infrasound experimental weapon.
And infrasound experimental weapons would be like, using sounds that are on such crazy frequencies that they cause havoc in the human body.
Okay. And these kind of infrasound weapons would cause, like, feelings.
And this is, like, they've done experiments on people with these.
And people can, like, there's research on this.
Do people go crazy? Well, and people report feeling like an immense feeling of dread or panic.
And, like, they can sometimes feel like they're being attacked by, like, paranormal things or, like... And that's why they clawed the insanity out.
And it also causes sickness because it, like...
It messes with your inner ear. And once you fuck with your inner ear, it throws your whole body off.
And so this would cause dread, panic, paranoia.
This is fucking wild. And full on sickness.
Yeah. So that's something. So that's something to think about.
That's a good theory, I think. I mean, that's one of the ones that I really think stands out.
Yeah. The test of time. So another theory is that the local Manzi tribe had followed and attacked this group for what they saw as trespassing on sacred land.
I don't like to think that. This one doesn't hold up.
It's very unlikely because the land they were on was not considered sacred by the Mansi tribe.
It was their land, but they didn't consider it sacred.
And they were using a Mansi trail. that was set out for them.
And multiple people had hiked around there before, right?
Yeah. Not the same trail, but around there.
So some researchers say that... maybe Soviets had attempted to hide any evidence of this, if that's what did happen, like if the Manzis did attack them.
And that would have been because they didn't want to start, like... A war.
A war with the Manzi tribe kind of thing because...
Basically, they wanted to, in the future, exploit the oil-rich soil that exists on the Munsee tribe's land.
Wow. So... But, again, that's... That doesn't seem likely.
It's a little far-fetched. Because these people, the Manzis, assisted in the search and rescue.
Like... they actually helped with it. Okay.
So that one's unlikely. So we'll scratch it off.
The other one that a lot of people go back to is the avalanche.
But I don't think that makes sense. Avalanche doesn't make a lot of sense.
Avalanches don't rip your fucking eyes out.
No, they definitely don't. Or your tongue from the root.
They do not. This place isn't prone... I mean, a lot of these places do have a lot of avalanches, but this one isn't particularly prone to avalanches.
There was also a thin layer of snow over most of it, which doesn't coincide with an avalanche.
Yeah, there would be shit ton of fucking snow everywhere.
Yeah, and I mean, their tent position was on a very bad area if there was an avalanche, like I said earlier.
Uh-huh. But the problem is people with broke, several broken ribs and like literally crushed in chests are, wouldn't be able to dig themselves out of an avalanche.
And these people clearly were... Moving about.
And they wouldn't have been that far apart from each other.
It just doesn't. And they wouldn't have. got out of their tent, most likely.
I mean, they could have... The Kong out of the tent makes sense, because if they heard the avalanche coming, they would want to get the fuck out of there.
Right. But... Their footprints were like agile.
It looked like they were moving fine. And again, with a crushed chest and broken ribs, you're not trampsing through snow.
It's just not going to happen. And another weird thing with this is there's a picture of the camp before this whatever unknown event occurred.
Uh-huh. And there's a ski pole that's sitting in a position, like stuck in the snow, in a vertical position.
Is it the same way after? Afterwards, that same ski pole is in the same position and has a move.
So if an avalanche came, it would have knocked the ski pole then.
Of course. And also the members of the group died at different times.
Which doesn't make an avalanche likely. Like they made camps in different areas and they tried to, it just doesn't make any sense.
So I say no to avalanche. Scratch it all. another one is uh i think this is this might be the last one actually that i have is the yeti theory I feel like it would have had to have been multiple Yetis.
Well, that snowman comment... Now we know the snowmen are real.
That also falls into the military one. It kind of does, yeah.
Like, maybe they were hiding the fact that the Yeti exists.
No, I'm saying like maybe they were calling like the military people that they stumbled across.
The snowmen? The snowmen. Maybe. Far-fetched.
I don't know. I think it makes sense. I like it.
I could get behind that. The Snowmen Exist is a good band name.
But I also would wonder why they would use a code word for it if they were trying to warn people.
Like, wouldn't they just be like, now we know that the corrupt government exists?
Yeah. Because that is way too obvious. But, like, then they're leaving it up to us to decipher.
Well, what did the article say? I don't know what the article... Well, that's the thing.
The article didn't contain any information about what exactly the snowmen are or anything.
Oh man. So who knows? Not me. Not anyone.
Well, the Mansi do believe in something called a mank or a mankvii. which are basically like super angry yetis and they're super aggressive super violent beasts that they believe live in the Ural Mountains.
Okay. So that is part of their, like, lore, you know?
Yeah. Um... The Mansi searchers that were part of this were, by all accounts, noticeably very upset and nervous finding these people.
Aww. and the conditions of their bodies, like, freaked them out.
Well, they were probably scared that's their home, too.
Well, and they immediately attributed it to these...
To the Yetis. Minkvies that they believe in.
Because they also had believed that Minkvies had killed... a group of caribou or reindeer that were belonging to their tribe like weeks before this.
So they had already had something happen that they were like, you think these are the yetis?
And then all of a sudden all these, you know, young Russians are, you know... demolished on a mountain so it's not so crazy I don't believe in Bigfoot And what's weird is there was something that came out that, like... referenced yetis and so the american embassy in nepal sent a document to the department of state in washington and it was entitled So this is like a government thing.
It was entitled Regulations Covering Mountain Climbing Expeditions in Nepal Relating to Yeti.
Okay, so that's... So they kind of acknowledge that that's something.
Right. And it contained three regulations... that climbers must abide by should they encounter a yeti.
What were the regulations? Do you know? I don't know.
I couldn't find it. That's okay. But the date on this document was December 20th, 1959.
So it was a couple years after this happened that this regulation came out.
Like, oh, just in case you fucking come across a Yeti, be prepared.
Like, no one's ever going to be fucking prepared to come across a fucking Yeti.
I never want to come across one, and I also don't want to be prepared to come across one.
I mean, personally, I never want to hike.
I don't even like to hike through the hills.
So I don't think I'll stumble across this problem.
Yeah, I'm not going to be poking my head into Siberia anytime soon.
I don't even want to hike a hill. No. I don't want to go into the forest.
I'm definitely not going to go on a mountain.
But interestingly enough, on February 2nd in 2008...
So not too long ago. An investigative conference was organized by Ural State Technical University.
And the Dyatlov Foundation in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
Okay. Something like that? Yeah. Jekin Terenberg.
Okay, one more time. I'm just going to tell them.
Jekin Terenberg. This was run by six surviving members of the search party, the original search party.
And 31 technical experts. And they basically went back and looked at all the evidence, and they just, like, researched the hell out of this.
And what did they say? They concluded that the deaths were likely the unintended result of a secret military test. even want to come to that conclusion if i was like on that board i'd be like actually i'm leaving it's a dangerous conclusion to come to the most especially in russia man Nope, I don't want to go anywhere near that.
No, thank you. People can trek up there today.
No thank you. You can take a little hike through Dyatlov Pass.
One, two, three, not it. But people are encouraged...
Do not do it in groups of nine. Why? I don't know why.
I think that's just a random thing they came up with.
Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't happen. yeah they just were like you know what just don't do it like do it in 8 or 10 yeah I don't know maybe they don't like odd numbers yeah they don't yeah I don't know Fuck, dude, that was a heavy one.
So yeah, that's diet club pass. Are we done here?
Because I've got to go home and somehow figure out how to sleep.
Yeah, I think we're done here. My life cycle is going to be disturbed.
So, you know, sweet dreams of Siberia. No thanks.
And losing your tongue on a mountainside.
No. From the root. From the root. Bye. While you're alive.
Fudge. Yeah. So unfortunately, nobody, you know, we don't have an actual closure to this.
We don't really know. So I feel like this is going to be debated forever.
I feel no sense of relief whatsoever. I feel like we're just leaving everybody within.
I came here feeling like a little disturbed.
But come to your own conclusion. And now I feel like I'll never be the same.
That's my job. Is it? Is to make people feel like they'll never be the same.
Does it pay well? It doesn't, but it makes me feel good inside.
You're so weird. You're a real weirdo. I'm a real weirdo.
Listen to the second episode. Bringing it back. yeah so come to your own conclusions friends I think it could be either aliens or a military test gone bad.
Post on our Facebook page what you think it is.
Yeah, definitely. I want to see you guys, like, what you have to say about this one.
Seriously, post on the Facebook page. Let us know.
We have an Instagram. get at us on any of the social media sites oh I want to shout out the girl that wrote to us oh yeah she was awesome Yeah, she was really nice.
Hold on, I'm going on her Instagram page.
Going on the Instagram page. Sing a song until I get there, please.
The Instagram page that is Morbid Podcast.
That's it. Just morbid podcast. Morbid podcast.
And... Oh, girl. You have a weird handle.
Tatasone. Or Tatasone. You were so nice.
I hope you're listening still. And she requested that we cover Joel Rifkin.
So maybe we should do that for her next week.
So we'll definitely be covering Jill Rifkin.
Let's do it next week. You know what? Tata soon!
Merry Christmas. This is all for you, girl.
You were our first DM. Yeah, you were our first DM.
Hopefully not the last. But we will do that for you.
And you know what? I encourage other people to let us know what you'd like to hear.
Yeah, we want suggestions. We are all about taking listener suggestions for weird... Any weird... you know it doesn't have to be murder it can be murder serial killing it can be weird crimes it can be like yeah things like this like weird you know things that we can come up with weird conspiracy theories for.
I said weird like 17 times. Weird. Weird.
Just say it one more time to lose complete. of what that word means.
Time is a flat circle. Christopher Columbus?
No. Exactly. I don't know. Nailed it. People are going to listen to this and be like, who's the dumb girl?
You funny though. Look at Andy in the corner.
She wasn't even fucking listening. She was listening to another podcast.
Well, we record our podcast. Alright, so next week we're going to do...
We'll hit Joel Rifkin. Yes, yes. For you, girl.
Tata Sone. For you, Tata Sone. I bet that's not how you say it.
But you know what? We appreciate you reaching out.
I do. And hopefully we'll do you proud. Yes, girl.
And again, everyone let us know what you want to hear next after Joel.
Yes. And we'll definitely take suggestions.
First GM will win. I bet we'll get one and that's it.
Keep, oh, and you know, I'm going to start now being obnoxious and saying subscribe.
To our Facebook page. And subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, because we are on iTunes.
Rate us. Let us know what you think. Five stars.
Five stars. Don't write comments about how dumb I sound sometimes, please.
I have feelings. Just do us a solid and subscribe and rate so that we can keep doing this.
Because we want to make it really good for you.
Yes. We want to make it good for you. So we want to hear suggestions, anything you guys need.
So on that note, you know, come to our social media channels or Instagram or Facebook, all that good stuff and subscribe and subscribe. subscribe did we tell you to subscribe subscribe subscribe do you know what that means now So keep listening.
We hope you keep it weird. And we will see you next week.
Bye. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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