MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Trespassers Be Warned

Episode Date: January 5, 2023

Today’s podcast features 3 unique stories that all involve trespassers. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#3 -- "The Bonfire" -- 2 girls accidentally make a HORRIFYING discovery in a cemetery (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tFsZGrU6uk)#2 -- "The Raptor" -- A sudden lapse in judgment at an amusement park (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUFf4QGj0kY)#1 -- "Siren" --7 friends are walking in a New Zealand forest when they suddenly hear a siren (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWzGEIQdChM)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast features three unique stories that all involve trespassers. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

The first story you'll hear is called The Bonfire, and it's about two girls who accidentally make a horrifying discovery in a cemetery. The second story you'll hear is called The Raptor, and it's about a person who has a serious lapse in judgment while visiting an amusement park. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Siren, and it's about seven friends who go for a walk in a forest in New Zealand when all of a sudden they hear a very loud alarm go off somewhere in the distance. But instead of turning around, they keep on going. But before we get into those stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Deliberate in Story format, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious Deliberden story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you,

please replace the Amazon Music Follow Buttons hairspray with Gorilla Glue adhesive spray. Okay, let's get into our first story called The Bonfire. Hello, I am Alice Levine and I am one of the hosts of Wondery's podcast, British Scandal. On our latest series, The Race to Ruin, we tell the story of a British man who took part in the first ever round the world sailing race. Good on him, I hear you say. But there is a problem, as there always is in this show. The man in question hadn't actually sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't seaworthy. Oh, and also tiny little detail almost didn't mention it. He bet his family home on making it to the finish line. What ensued was one of the most complex cheating plots in British sporting history.

To find out the full story, follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. I'm Peter Frank-O'Pern. And I'm Afua Hirsch. And we're here to tell you about our new season of Legacy, covering the iconic, troubled musical genius that was Nina Simone. Full disclosure, this is a big one for me. Nina Simone, one of my favourite artists of all time, somebody who's had a huge impact on me, who I think objectively stands apart for the level of her talent,

the audacity of her message. If I was a first year at university, the first time I sat down and really listened to her and engaged with her message, it totally floored me. And the truth and pain and messiness of her struggle, that's all captured in unforgettable music that has stood the test of time. Think that's fair, Peter? I mean, the way in which her music comes across is so powerful, no matter what song it is. So join us on legacy for nina simone simply put a goth is someone who finds beauty in things that most other people consider to be

pretty dark but most americans tend to associate the term goth with the teenagers of the late 90s and early 2000s that wore all black and wore heavy black boots and would hang out in cemeteries. And while that representation of goth culture is of course limited, it is a good representation of the two protagonists in today's story, best friends Rachel and Molly. In the 1990s, Rachel and Molly were full-blown goths. They had black hair, black makeup, black clothes. They had the black heavy combat boots. And at one point, they and their other goth friends started hanging out in a cemetery to be kind of ironic and funny. Like, look at us. We're goth. We hang out in cemeteries. And then they actually enjoyed it and began hanging out in a cemetery like every weekend. One Friday night, Molly calls Rachel to go hang out in the cemetery.

And as it happened, Rachel was just sitting at home and she was bored out of her mind. And so the call came at a perfect time. And so Rachel's like, yeah, I'd love to go. So she flies downstairs and she sits on a front step and she's waiting for Molly to show up. And eventually Molly's car rolls down the street and Rachel immediately recognizes that Molly is the only one in the car. And Rachel, whenever she would go to the cemetery at night with Molly, they were always there with a group of at least four people. Even though they liked hanging out in the cemetery, they did recognize that it was a little bit creepy at night to be out there. And so they liked kind of rolling in a fairly big group.

And so Rachel hops in the car and her first question to Molly is, where is everybody? Are they meeting us there? And Molly said, oh no, everybody else is either working or they're kind of hung over from the party from last night. So it's just us two. I hope that's okay. And at the time, Rachel actually in her head was like, no, I don't really want to do this anymore. But she was like, oh yeah, that's fine. Yeah, we'll just go. Just the two of us. It'll be fine. Molly takes off from Rachel's house and she makes the familiar kind of winding commute to the front gate of this enormous cemetery that sits right in the center of town they drive underneath this massive wrought iron gate that looks very medieval very foreboding it looks like it's out of a cheesy horror movie this like cliche entrance to a cemetery and so they go through there and they're on this road that

stretches all the way down through the cemetery and basically splits it in two. On the left side as you're driving in was an area closest to town and also it butted up against a major public university and then on this side of the cemetery you had a bunch of residential houses that butted up against the side of the cemetery and where Molly and Rachel and their crew like to go was on the right side all the way back in the corner because there was a section that was kind of situated between these two hills where not only were they obscured from the cemetery road and the main road once they were down in this little depression there was also no houses that happened to look over that spot so it was kind of like the hidden section of the cemetery.

And there was also this big boulder that people sat on and a big tree you could lean up against. So that was their spot. So Molly drives in the gates. She heads down that road and she turns right onto a dead end road. She takes that down about a couple hundred meters till it dead ends and they park. And then the girls get out of the car. They light up cigarettes and they walk down this hill that's just beyond where this dead end comes to an end and so they walk down this hill and it brings them

to this clearing where this big rock and tree is rachel hops up on the rock and she turns around so she's facing back up the hill they just walk down and molly is right next to her on her right leaning up against the tree and for the next hour or so, they just crushed cigarettes and talked about their various boyfriend drama and life drama and whatever else they wanted to talk about. After a while, the girls started to smell a bonfire. And from where they were sitting,

they could see a hill in front of them. And there was actually another hill over here. And so their view is pretty obscured out of this little valley they're in. So they can't see any fires anywhere. And so they assumed that what they're smelling was a fire coming from the other side of the cemetery because there's that huge university over there.

And they knew sometimes the college kids would come onto the cemetery and they would light fires over there. And inevitably the police would get called and they would break up the fire because you're not allowed to have a fire on the cemetery. And whenever they did that, the police would actually make rounds around the entire cemetery. And historically, basically, if you were

there hanging out, they would tell you to leave. And so they think, okay, this is probably a good time to leave because probably in the next 30 minutes to an hour, the police are going to be here. They're going to come over here, see our car, and they're going to ask us what we're doing, and we're going to have to leave. So let's just, let's just leave now. So Rachel hops off the rock and the two of them begin meandering their way back up the hill towards the car. When they get about halfway up the hill, they notice to their right something bright.

Now, because they were higher up, they could actually see over the hill to their right. And what they were seeing was the top of a bonfire. So the girls take a couple more steps up the hill to gain some elevation to hopefully be able to see better down into where this fire is. But even when they're up almost at the top of the hill, that fire is too far down on the other side of that hill that they can't see any people and they can't really tell how big the fire is. They're just basically seeing the top flickers of it.

Even though they don't know anything about the people over there at this fire, what they do know is when they showed up, there was no fire over there. They would have recognized it. So whoever's over there had to have shown up and built this fire while Rachel and Molly were down at the rock and tree, which means there's a pretty good chance they didn't see Rachel and Molly. This is a pretty private area. Their car was parked a little bit off to the side of the trail. And so Molly picks up on this and she says to Rachel, hey, let's sneak back down and walk up their hill and look down and see who's here.

I bet it's a bunch of college kids. It'll be funny to see what they're doing. But Rachel had a weird feeling about it. She's thinking to herself, if this is college kids, why would they have their bonfire this far away from campus? I mean, this is literally the farthest point away from the side of the cemetery that's close to their campus. I mean, this is literally the farthest point away from the side of the cemetery that's close to their campus. If they're having a party over here, there's a good chance that anybody going to it is going to need to drive. And that just doesn't make sense if you can just walk to the other side of the campus and have a bonfire over there. And so Rachel is logically deducing

that this is probably not college kids. But who else is having a bonfire in the secret section of the cemetery in the middle of the night and rachel's thinking that now if the police come here they're definitely going to see us because we're so close to this bonfire and so it's probably not a good idea to stick around much longer but despite rachel's hesitations she is intrigued and she does want to see what's going on over there so the two girls walk down the hill they make it down to the rock and the tree. Then they turn left and they begin walking up this other hill, the hill that's going to bring them up to this fire.

And so they only get a few steps up this hill when they are suddenly hit with this disgusting putrid smell that just encompasses them and it makes them gag. And they're covering their mouth and their nose. And Rachel exclaims, my god what is that and then as soon as she says it she realizes she was really loud and they both freeze wondering if the people on the other side of the hill have heard them and after a little bit of silence Molly's like you want to keep going and Rachel's like no we gotta go between the horrible smell that's

obviously coming from this weird fire and the fact that rachel basically just gave them away and so for all we know these people on the other side of this hill have hurt us and now they're waiting for us to come over the edge and it's gonna be really awkward if we suddenly crash their bonfire rachel she's thinking about these things and so she's like let's go we gotta go molly's disappointed but she gets it and the two girls turn around and begin walking back and so they walk past the tree and the rock on their left. They turn right and they're about to walk up the hill that's going to bring them to their car when Rachel just turns around to look at the hill towards the fire where they were headed before. And standing at the top of that hill is a man

just looking down at them. And the fire is illuminating him from behind and they can clearly tell it's a man standing there looking at them and immediately the girls felt really uncomfortable it was almost like they had just been caught spying even though they didn't actually get caught spying it was what they were going to go do and so they felt like they had almost been caught red-handed and so molly and rachel just turn and begin walking up the hill kind of with their heads down they just felt kind of awkward and so they move a few more steps up this hill and Rachel looks again at where this guy was standing and he's now gone. And Rachel's relieved. But then she realizes he's gone because he's walking, power walking down the hill towards them. And Rachel gasps and she grabs Molly and pushes

her and says, go, go, go, go, go. And they start running up the hill and Rachel looks around and now this guy is running towards them. He's down now at the rock and the tree. He's gaining on them. They sprint up over the top. They run to Molly's car and Molly's fumbling with her keys to get the car open. And Rachel's yelling, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. Finally, she gets it open and they both jump inside.

Rachel locks the car doors. And as Molly is turning the key over, Rachel's looking out the back and she's waiting to see this doors. And as Molly is turning the key over, Rachel's looking out the back. And she's waiting to see this guy. And sure enough, as they pull off, she sees his head come up over the ridgeline. Just enough that he can clearly see them leaving. And then he ducks back down and he disappears. And the two of them speed down the road.

They make a left onto that main drive. And they speed out of the cemetery. For the first few minutes of their drive, neither of them say anything. This was just a very traumatic experience. And it was also very confusing because they thought they were going over to spy on college kids having a bonfire. And then they're hit with that horrible smell. Like what was that horrible smell? And then they leave and there's this guy who did not look like he was a college kid. He looked like he was probably in his 40s. And then he's chasing them.

You know, what was that? And when they did start talking about it, they couldn't really come to any sort of rational conclusion of what had just happened. And so they were both very spooked. And they decide, let's just go home and talk about this tomorrow. And so Molly drops Rachel off at her house. And Molly goes home. And both girls go to bed.

The next morning, Rachel gets up. and she heads down to the kitchen where her mom is already there having her morning coffee and Rachel sits down and you know she's not a big talker. She's not about to start by saying hey guess what happened to me last night at the cemetery. Instead she just sits there and for a little bit her mom just kind of rambles about work and what she's doing that day and And then all of a sudden, her mom, it's like she has this epiphany. And she goes, Rachel, Rachel, did you hear what happened last night? And Rachel's like, no, what? And her mom's like, someone I work with. I don't know her personally, but she works in the same building as me.

She got kidnapped from the parking garage where I parked my car. I have seen her park her car in this lot. And she got kidnapped. And Rachel's like, oh my God, really? Like, what happened to her? Did they find her? And her mom was like, yeah, but it was too late. The person who had kidnapped her had killed her and then tried to dispose of her body at the cemetery by burning her in a bonfire. Rachel suddenly felt sick because now she knew what was happening last night. And knows what that smell was Rachel immediately pours her heart out about everything that happened the night before and her

mom is totally horrified but she's in particular horrified that they clearly had been there when the killer had arrived and set up shop and began burning this body they were just literally 50 meters away the whole time and so her mom tells her you and Molly have to go to the police station and make a statement they have not caught this person yet you've seen this person you got to tell them and so Rachel calls Molly and breaks the news about what was actually happening the night before and who was actually chasing them to their car and says we have to go to the police station and so they agree they go down to the police station and they tell them what happened but they didn't get a great look at him they could

only say that he was maybe in his 40s and maybe average height and so the police wrote it all down but they basically said look if you can think of more details we would love to hear those because this isn't really enough to go on and so the girls go back home and they're thinking to themselves did he see us does he know that we saw him? Do you think he knows that we know he's a killer now? And so they're freaking out. But luckily within 48 hours, the police actually caught this guy because he was driving around in the murder victim's car and someone spotted him. They pulled him over and he confessed. And so he went to jail. Needless to say, Rachel and Molly thanked their lucky stars that when they started ascending that hill and they were hit with that smell, that Rachel said, let's not go any farther. Let's leave.

Because had they continued and gone to the other side, they could have wound up in the bonfire too. Hello, I'm Emily, and I'm one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And they don't get much bigger than the man who made badminton sexy. OK, maybe that's a stretch, but if I say pop star and shuttlecocks, you know who I'm talking about. No? Short shorts?

Free cocktails? Careless whispers? OK, last one. It's not Andrew Ridgely. Yep, that's right, it's Stone Cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet, join us for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom. From the outside, it looks like he has it all.

But behind the trademark dark sunglasses is a man in turmoil. George is trapped in a lie of his own making, with a secret he feels would ruin him if the truth ever came out. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to your podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good you are a fan of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. And if that's the case, then I've got some good news. We just launched a brand new Strange, Dark, and Mysterious podcast called Mr.

Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years. And we finally decided to take the plunge and the show is awesome. In this free weekly show, we explore bizarre unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between. Each story is totally true and totally terrifying. Go follow Mr. Balan's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a Prime member, you can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Our next story is called The Raptor. In June of 2015, 45-year-old James Young landed his dream job.

For the last several years, James had been a fifth-grade teacher in East Canton, Ohio, teaching special education. And while he loved his job and he loved the kids he worked with, he had always had his eye on becoming a guidance counselor for high school students. In 1988, James had actually graduated from East Canton, Ohio high school, and ever since his graduation, he had wanted to come back to the school and help the next generation of East Canton students prepare for their lives as adults, and a guidance counselor was designed to do just that. James had applied for the job before, but every time he applied, they would tell him that while he was qualified, there just wasn't a spot open for him. However, at the end of that school year, he was told a guidance counselor spot had opened up at the high school and the job was his if he wanted it. And so of course, James said, yes,

I'll take the job. And immediately he told his mother about this amazing news. And his mother, who lived only a block away from him in East Canton, Ohio, would say that her son was so ecstatic about the job that normally when summer break was coming up, he would really look forward to that time off from school. But now that he had this new job to look forward to, he was already anxious for the summer to be over. James was a single man, but he was not lonely. He had a number of very close lifelong friends that he would spend virtually all of his off time with. And that summer, he did just that. He went out with his friends. They explored all of Ohio and outside surrounding areas,

they spent a lot of time outside, and they enjoyed each other's company. Towards the end of the summer, James and his friends knew it was time to schedule their annual trip to Cedar Point. Cedar Point is an amusement park about two hours northwest of East Canton, Ohio. It's situated right on the shores of Lake Erie and it's known for its incredible roller coasters, of which they had 17, making them the park with the second most roller coasters in the world. Every summer, since James could remember, he and his very close friends would make a trip out to Cedar Point, usually at the end of the summer, to kind of cap off their vacation. After looking at their calendar, they decided that the best day to go would be Thursday, August 13th. This would give the group of friends one more fun thing to do

before the following week, James started his new job. So on the morning of that Thursday, the friends piled into a car and they made the two-hour commute up to Cedar Point. And as soon as they got there, they went inside, they grabbed a map, and they began systematically hitting as many rides as they possibly could. And so by 4.30 p.m., they were totally exhausted. They'd been on virtually every ride. And so they were about to call it a day when James and his friends decide, hey, let's go on one more ride before we pack it in.

And so they pull out their map and they're looking, and they realize they haven't gone on one of their favorite rides. It was called the Raptor. The Raptor was not Cedar Point's biggest roller coaster, but it was their fastest. It would reach a top speed of 57 miles per hour. Passengers are seated four across with their feet dangling below them in these suspended chairs with the big harness that comes down. And then once the ride starts, they're brought slowly up this 137 foot hill. And then at the top, they pause before being dropped down into this nearly 4,000

foot long track that spins them upside down six different times. So James and his friends they closed up their map and they ran their way over to the Raptor. They got in line and by 4 50 p.m they'd made it to the front of the line. They got into their seats, their harness came down and then the ride started and they were pulled up to the top of the hill. They paused and then they were launched down the track. And for two minutes, they zipped and zagged and looped all through this track. And then it was just suddenly over. The friends had a great time on the ride, except James realized about halfway through

the ride when they were upside down, his phone and wallet had come out of his pockets and he actually saw them fall down towards the ground. And although he didn't see exactly where they landed, he had a pretty good idea of where they were. And so after they got off the ride, the friends were kind of talking about how much fun it was. And James said to them, hey, I lost my cell phone and wallet. Will you guys come with me while I go look for them? And so the friends agreed. They left the Raptor station and they walked down the paved path until they were in front of this fence that said no trespassing. And so James gets up to the fence and he's looking inside of this fenced in area and he sees right in the middle of this restricted area is his phone and his wallet and before james's friends could tell him not to do this he had climbed over the fence and entered

into this restricted area he ran over to his phone and his wallet he picked it up and then when he stood back up again the next wave of raptor riders came blazing through the area and the underside the steel underside of the ride hit james right in the back of the head he never saw it coming it threw him forward he landed on his face and immediately the park officials saw this happen they stopped the ride but the riders on board the raptor they didn't know what was going on and so they're stopped on the ride they're looking down and they hear people screaming and they look down and they see there's this man james lying face down on the ground with blood pulling around his head the fence james had climbed over was there specifically to keep visitors from

getting too close to this one low point in the raptor ride where the ride can come through and it can hit you and so medical workers they rush over they hop over the fence they get to james but it was too late he was pronounced dead at the scene that day cedar point was put under investigation for james's death but after reviewing the footage and talking to witnesses the investigation was closed and they determined that the park was not at fault james despite being a very intelligent and sensible man, had a brief lapse in judgment and it unfortunately cost him his life. Today, Cedar Point is still open for business and the Raptor ride is still operational. The next and final story of today's episode is called Siren. On the morning of Monday, February 6th, 2017, a group of seven friends who were all college-aged and living in New Zealand began packing up their

cars and getting ready to drive back to Auckland, the biggest city in New Zealand. The night before, the group had been out on Lake Tikitapu for a big concert called Flocella, where audience members would listen to the music while floating around on big blow-up rafts and floats. After the concert had ended, the group of friends had left the lake and headed to a nearby relative's house, where they had a quiet after- with a couple of drinks and then everyone went to bed a little bit after midnight. This morning, the group had gotten up early because they wanted to get on the road as soon as possible to try to beat the holiday traffic that was sure to crop up that day on the way back to Auckland. February 6th is a big national holiday in New Zealand. It's called Waitangi Day and it's to commemorate the initial signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, which is considered to be the founding document of the country. But right as the seven friends had finished packing up their three cars and were

getting ready to begin their three-hour drive north to Auckland, one of the friends, a 21-year-old named Rachel DeJong, suggested they take a quick detour before they head back home. Rachel, along with another girl in this group of friends named Maddie, had several months earlier discovered this secret swimming spot that was located only about 15 minutes away from where they were now, and it happened to be on the way back to Auckland. This swimming spot was this beautiful green-blue pool of fairly deep water that was located in the middle of a forest. This swimming spot was this beautiful green-blue pool of fairly deep water that was located in the middle of a forest. This pool was actually a part of the Waikato River, however, this stretch of the river where the pool was was either very shallow or dry most of the time,

so as a result this pool actually looked like a standalone body of water. While there was no official trail that led through the forest to this pool of water, there was an unofficial trail. It was basically a dirt trail that cut through the woods that had formed over the years of locals tromping their way to this pool of water. After hearing Rachel's suggestion, the group of friends all agreed that this sounded like a great idea. And so the group piled into their three cars and then by around 11 40 am Rachel and Maddie had directed the convoy all the way to the start of this unofficial dirt trail which was located right on the side of a winding main road. After pulling their cars safely off to

the side of the road the group got out and then Rachel and Maddie led them to the start of this trail and they began walking through the forest. Fifteen minutes later, at 11.55 a.m., the group was getting very close to the water because the trees up ahead were starting to thin out. But also at 11.55 a.m., the group suddenly stopped because from somewhere out in the forest, way off in front of them, came this loud, shrill siren sound.

And it went on for nearly 20 or 30 seconds and then it just came to a stop and the group kind of looked around at each other no one knew what to make of the siren and so eventually they just kind of shrugged it off and kept on walking. Within a minute of that siren sound coming to an end the group had made it to the end of this unofficial dirt track which placed them at the edge of this beautiful overlook down to the end of this unofficial dirt track, which placed them at the edge of this beautiful overlook down to the pool they were going to swim in. And so they began one by one climbing down the rocks in front of them, where there were some ropes that had been put up to help people climb down to the water. And so after they got down to the water, all of them stripped down to their bathing suits,

they jumped into the pool, and they began swimming out towards the center of the pool, where there were these two big rocks that jutted up out of the water almost like miniature islands. And so Rachel and the other women, so five of them, they climbed onto one of the rocks and the two men who were part of this group climbed onto the other rock. And so they got up onto these rocks and they're looking around, taking in the sights, and then at 11 58 a.m. another siren blasts across the forest. It's the same sound as the one they heard three minutes earlier when they were on the dirt track. And so once again, all seven of them are kind of looking at each other, wondering what is this siren about? But after the 20 or 30 second long siren came to an end, they glanced around them and there was no sign of any danger.

There was no sign of really anything happening at all. It was just this beautiful, peaceful seeming oasis. And so before long, they had forgotten about the siren again, and Rachel had gotten at her camera, and she was taking pictures, and others were taking pictures as well. And then two minutes later, at 12 p.m., the siren sounded for a third time. Now, at this point, the group has heard the siren two other times. And even though the sound of the siren was kind of jarring because it was so high-pitched and shrill and really cut into their ears, this time, because they've heard it two other times and nothing happened, they all pretty much immediately wrote it off.

So the siren's sounding for the third time, and the group is not really paying attention. But when the siren finally stops this third time, something very different began to happen, and the group immediately noticed it. When the third siren finally stops this third time, something very different began to happen, and the group immediately noticed it. When the third siren came to a stop, the friends started to hear a new sound, and it was coming from the same direction the siren had been coming from, which in effect was upstream. Even though this river was basically dry, they could turn and look uphill, and they could clearly see where the river would go if it

was full. And so the friends turn and look upstream, and they're listening to this really loud kind of smashing sound that's coming from that direction, and they're exchanging curious looks at each other trying to figure out what that sound could be, and then all of a sudden they see it. A white wall of water comes crashing around the corner and began barreling straight down the riverbed towards them. By the time the friends had even processed what they were seeing, the water had reached the pool they were in, and it was flooding the pool so quickly they could literally see this huge pool rising. Its water levels were going up and up and up all around them. And so as the rocks they're standing on began to slowly submerge under all

this rising water, the group collectively decided that this can't go on for very long. Whatever this is, it's going to stop. So just stay put, stay on these rocks. We're going to be okay. However, within seconds, the rocks they were on were completely submerged and the water was still tumbling down the hill towards their pool and then spilling out over the other side, down the other end of the riverbed. And they're thinking to themselves, if we don't get off these rocks soon, we're going to get swept downstream with this water. And so the two men who were on their own rock, they leapt to a rocky outcropping that was slightly higher up and was connected back up to the forest. And so this rocky outcropping represented safety. And so once they were up there, they turned around and they yelled to the five women still stranded on their rock to try to swim over to them.

And the guys would grab them and pull them to safety. But by this point, the girls are looking around. The water's up to their knees and it's rushing past them. They can barely keep their balance. They know if they attempt to swim in this water, they're going to immediately be taken downstream with it. And so the group very quickly decides their only choice is for the women to literally jump and grab the men who have their arms outstretched for them. And so Rachel DeJong, she was the first one to try this. She leaps off the rock, she grabs the guy's arms, and she gets pulled to safety. And then she

turns around, and she and the other two men continue to get the women to jump off the rock to them. And at first it's going fairly well until they get down to the second to last woman who leaps. She grabs one of the guy's arms and then both of them lose their footing and the guy and the woman, they both get swept away downstream. They're gone. Rachel stays calm and she moves to the position where the guy had been, who just got swept away. And she takes out her GoPro camera selfie stick and she extends it out to the last woman who's out on the rock. Her name is Alice. And she tells Alice, jump and grab the selfie stick. And so Alice, who's almost completely submerged in water now, makes this frantic jump

to grab onto the selfie stick. She grabs it for a second, but then loses her grip and she begins being swept away. And Rachel, who at this point was completely safe, immediately jumped into the rapids after Alice. She grabbed Alice, she attempted to turn around and grab the rock to stop them, but she couldn't get a grip. And she and Alice were also swept downstream out of view. and she and Alice were also swept downstream out of view. Two weeks before Rachel, Maddie, Alice, and the others had gone to this secret swimming spot,

a warning sign, like a physical warning sign that warned people not to go near this river, don't go near this pool, was stolen. And that warning sign was normally placed at the very beginning of that unofficial dirt track that the seven friends took to get to the pool. Meaning when the seven friends got out of their cars and began hiking into the forest to go to this pool, they would not have understood the danger of where they were going. Now it is true that Rachel and Maddie had previously discovered this swim spot several months earlier, however it seems like they had just learned that

this swim spot existed and how to get to it. It did not seem like they had literally walked this trail and gotten to the pool, and so very likely they would not have known about the dangers this place posed. The pool of water they were swimming in was not actually dangerous itself. It was only dangerous because the pool was located in the middle of a spill zone. About 650 feet upstream of the pool they were swimming in is a dam, and three to four times a day, they open their gates, releasing 20,000 gallons of water per second down this mostly dry riverbed, and the water comes careening across that pool all the way to the bottom. The gates stay open for about 15 minutes, and the only reason this is done is for the spectacle of it.

It's to show tourists what this riverbed looked like before the dam was built. And what this riverbed looked like before the dam was built was a raging rapid. dam was built was a raging rapid. On February 6th, 2017, the dam was set to spill at 12 pm. So those sirens the friends heard at 1155, 1158, and then 12 were all warnings that a spill was about to occur. But of course, the seven friends had no idea. After the 12 pm spill had finally ended, the three friends who had made it to the rocky outcropping and had not been swept away by the current went looking for the four other friends who had been swept away, and they would find them. Three had miraculously survived, but one had not. The sole fatality was 21-year-old Rachel DeJong, whose idea it was to come and swim at this spot in the

first place. Rachel also was the woman who had left safety and jumped back into the rapids to attempt to save her friend Alice. Today, there are many more warning signs and fences that have been put up around the Waikato River to prevent people from getting too close, because the dam still, despite the fatality, spills several times a day. However, despite all these precautions and all the notoriety around Rachel's death, people still today sneak in and go swimming in that secret pool. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. If you got something out of this episode and you haven't done this already,

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