Is this the most UNHINGED Death Story in National Park History?!⚠️
Вставка
- Опубліковано 11 лют 2025
- Thank you Helix Sleep for sponsoring! Helix is offering my followers an exclusive discount this month: 27% off your mattress purchase. Visit helixsleep.com... and use promo code HELIXPARTNER27 to take advantage of this special offer. And act fast: this discount ends after Labor Day. If you miss my limited time offer, you can still get 20% off using my link! Offers subject to change. #helixsleep
The insane story of Raffi Kodikian and David Coughlin in Rattlesnake Canyon.
⚠️KEEP YOURSELF SAFE with a satellite GPS with an SOS button:⚠️
Garmin inReach Mini: amzn.to/4b7CFEU
ZOLEO: amzn.to/3JVZzDc
SPOT X: amzn.to/4b8q0BJ
If you're looking for some more light hearted hiking content, SUBSCRIBE to my podcast🔥🎙:
UA-cam: @trailtalespod
Spotify: open.spotify.c...
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple...
... or on any other podcast app!
Follow me on Instagram 📸: / kylehateshiking
My Gear spreadsheet: lighterpack.co...
BIG FOUR 🤘
Backpack: ula-equipment....
My FAVORITE Tent: zpacks.com/pro...
Sleeping Pad: amzn.to/35rlMIw
OTHER SLEEPING STUFF 💤
Pillow: amzn.to/3he3mgX
FOOD & WATER 🍴
Filter: amzn.to/3pfZ25j
Stove: amzn.to/3simgd1
Cook Pot: amzn.to/3LSjqmJ
Spork: amzn.to/3shROja
Water Storage: amzn.to/3sinBk3
Spice Container: amzn.to/3LZ2ISz
CLOTHING 👔
Shorts: amzn.to/3sdiQrL
Socks: amzn.to/3M2nPUi
Rain Jacket: amzn.to/3JPMBoy
Down Jacket: amzn.to/3UrHG2Q
ELECTRONICS 🔌
Power Bank: amzn.to/3t4fDds
Headlamp: amzn.to/3M9yrke
Wall Plug: amzn.to/3pa3JNJ
MISCELLANEOUS 🤘
Trekking Poles: amzn.to/3hqT39n
Ultralight Knife: amzn.to/3t0m3dL
Trowel: amzn.to/3CL0Ys6
Shoulder Pocket for Backpack: ula-equipment....
For business inquiries only: kyle.s.ogrady@gmail.com
This video and description contains affiliate links, which means if you click on one of the product links, I'll receive a small commission at no cost to you. This helps support the channel and allows me to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support!
"Lets go hiking in the desert in August"
"How bout no"
Yes, I heard the first rule in survival training is to avoid situations in the first place that might get you into trouble.
Yeah . Never.
I hiked Rattlesnake Trail in September of that same year. It was still pretty hot out there. That trail is not a joke. Carry plenty of water or face the consequences.
I'm outdoors a lot year round. I'm better than I used to be, but I often forget to hydrate enough and have a bad habit of pushing through discomfort whether or not I should. There's a reason I avoid living in deserts...I feel like I could get into trouble very quickly.
😅 exactly
This happened here in Australia some years ago. Two young, inexperienced Jackeroos on a cattle station got lost while checking the water bores for the cattle. They were completely alone on the huge station, and no one was checking in on them and so they were not reported missing. They drove until the vehicle ran out of petrol, or broke down. They then walked. No one knew their fate for years, until human remains were found with a note scratched on a plastic item telling the finders the poor guy had shot his friend to relieve his suffering. He walked some more, then also succumbed. I believe they were only about 16 or 17-19 yo. This led to demands for better supervision of our young inexperienced workers out in the remote deserts of the outback.
James Annetts and Simon Amos. It's reported that the bullet wound was self-inflicted. The plastic just said "my follt" it doesn't state he killed him. There's definitely stuff in that case that makes no sense.
@@roseduste80 I think it was Simon Amos. *Leave out the T at the end.
@@loverlyme Fixed. Copy paste fail. Thanks.
Here in Canada, the cold is deadly, so you gut your friend and crawl inside him.
@@bimmjimMy friend packs fava beans and chianti and promises he'll share them with me if there's an emergency.
I backpacked rattlesnake canyon with my brother in law in March of 1998. I had never heard this story before. One reason why they might have gone there on their road trip is because, at the time, if you had a national parks pass, you could camp on the surface of the caves for free.
My brother in law and I had the trip of our life that week. He ended up passing from leukemia in 2001. Every time I go backpacking I think of him.
Stay safe.
Amazing experience and may he rest in a world to explore! ❤
great memories
😐
Sorry for your loss. Hope the memories bring you comfort. I love Carlsbad Caverns National Park and have been there 4-5 times in my life. New Mexico feels like coming home for me.
Your back country “permit” isn’t for your safety. It’s to see how much a trail is used. They are not followed up on to make sure you made it out safely. That is your job! Tell someone! If you don’t contact them by a set time, they are to call you in as missing. Get a personal locator beacon. One for each hiker.
You are 💯 right! Thanks for reenforcing what I said down in the comments below.
This
Exactly. In fact, I remember signage in the parking lot there which said, "This area is not patrolled regularly. Carry enough water per person. watch out for snakes."
Absolutely. I day hike alone (greatly preferred it to hiking in a group). I plan to invest in a beacon soon in case cell service isn't an option. But I wear a whistle and ALWAYS tell someone exactly where I'm going and when to call the rangers if I haven't checked in.
Absolutely, and it can be a dangerous misconception. You don't "check out" at the end of your hike. They're controlling who goes in, not monitoring who comes out.
The only way they will know you did not come back is by happening upon your vehicle, by you using some emergency beacon, or by your family members contacting them.
That's why you tell people where you are going and when you'll be returning. This all could have been avoided by one call to any of their acquaintances.
"Hey. We are camping in Rattlesnake Canyon. Plan to leave tomorrow. Call you when I'm out."
That alone saves so many lives.
backcountry ranger for the nps here! we do not keep detailed track of people once they enter the backcountry. permits allow us records of visitors planned itineraries which are pivotal in SAR operations, but we are not camp counselors nor are we keeping watch over people once they start their trips. we start SAR operations based off of overdue hiker reports from their points of contact at home, from inreach activations, and from reporting parties in the field. if a car is sitting at a trail head for a really significant time it might be noticed but 3 days is a very short time period. no one is watching out for you except yourself when you enter the backcountry and there are a lot of reasons any SAR team could delay responding to a SAR once it's initiated.
I completed that hike when I was 12 years old with my parents. Dad always amazed at my stamina. Mom had to turn around but Dad and I did it!
Okay Mr. "I'm not a camp counselor." So, you just check permits for $$$ so you can collect your paycheck? What's the point of your job then? We need security that acts LIKE a "camp counselor," as you so lovingly put it. And if that's NOT what you are, then who is going to serve that role? It's OBVIOUS humans should not be allowed to be responsible for themselves. There are countless lawsuits and warnings and deaths to PROVE how humans WILL make MISTAKES in their judgements. No matter HOW responsible or intelligent they are. I mean, look at Olympic athletes! They are PROFESSIONALS! And they still make errors and get injured. If watching out for the people who CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR PAYCHECK and pay taxes that allow YOU your way of living, then it either needs to be added to your job description (with appropriate pay of course), or we need an additional member to be on the lookout. That doesn't have to be a person either. Technology could serve that role so long as there are proper COURTESIES in place. It's also just the kind thing to do A-hole. You ever think maybe your attitude towards the common folk is the reason so many people strong dislike law enforcement? You know you're SUPPOSED to be protecting people. I don't care what your supervisor says. I don't care what the law says. I don't care what your job contract says. It's the image. Like we view firefighters as heros. Use USED to view cops as heros. Because they take RESPONSIBILITY for others. Like that "camp counselor," you belittled earlier. Either step up or someone in politics and the law needs to change what you do for a living because that CALLOUS attitude towards people is NOT okay. And before you come after me, I DID work for the government. I worked for DHS. And I have a lot of family in the military. I understand the pressure. I understand you have orders. I understand it's stressful. But EXCUSE ME Mr. NPS!!! you're supposed to be serving our country. OR wait, I'm sorry, maybe it's only DHS that actually CARES about the people's lives and it's NPS that only cares about the trees and the grass... that would make a lot more sense for your total disregard towards others safety as "not my problem." It's "supposed" to be your problem.
You can only do so
much for people that don't sign in before entering the park and let you rangers know they are out there and in case they don't show back up to sign out, then you know to look for them.
I can appreciate that that is how it works. However, that seems like an oversight in the system. If you have to get a permit to be there longer than a day and stay overnight, why not have the permit holders report back in once they returned? Feels farely easy. You check in when getting the permit, and check out after you returned. This gives the visitors some security, reduces the time they are waiting for SAR to be initiated and barely places any administrative burden on the Park Service (they have to be there for the permits anyway).
If people don't show up, initiated SAR. Maybe even make it mandatory to have locators on them, maybe even rent them out, as a mandatory object, when they sign there permit. They will return it when checking out and get their deposit back or whatever. This would most likely also redue costs in the long run, as if someone needs to be searched and rescued, the locators will make that easier, and shorter, saving money. You'd reduce a 2-3 week search, that maybe doesn't even suceed, to a 2-3 day one with much higher chances of actual sucess.
@@berkeleyblue4247 from my experience most people do not need any help when they're recreating in wilderness. day hikers do not need permits where i work. some people do not get permits for their trips. there are other land management agencies that border the NPS land I work on that do not require permits at all. from my experience people want to go home after getting out of the woods, they are not going to check in. it is also not the point of the permit, the permit isn't a SAR tool it is a record keeping tool and a way to protect backcountry campsites and monitor use. in a perfect world your suggestions are great but it's not the way it looks. not to mention the federal government uses a third party site for all permit transactions (recreation.gov), making a post itinerary check in more complicated. most of the time a SAR is initiated it needs to be substantiated and go through an ICS/law enforcement. it would be impractical to just send, what is usually volunteer teams, into an unneeded SAR because someone potentially decided to stay an extra night on their trip or was too tired/forgot to check in after. there are a lot of good books and web sources about SAR work if you're interested in learning more about it or the ICS systems that are used nationally for incidents.
The biggest question is why didn't the dead guy write in his journal that he asked his friend to kill him??? Why would he leave him to be charged with murder?
Precisely I thought this myself as soon as I heard about the journals
Implied at 29:30
@@chriskasulke3492 Because if they both thought they'd never get out of there alive they just wanted it to be over
That’s a really good point, I guess they weren’t thinking clearly, but I don’t know..🤷♀️ So many unanswered questions, which is crazy since one of them lived! 💕🐾
@@jamienicole2122 it makes me wonder if he killed his mate to keep the few resources they had for himself.
My nephrology (kidney) professor in med school spent a whole lecture doing the calculations to show that drinking your urine if dehydrated will not help, but instead just make things worse.
Very interesting! It’s not something that I would ever think of doing…. But it’s good to know anyway lol
I've never thought it sounded like a good idea. Re-consuming a whole pile of stuff that your body has already decided is waste & at best not required, at worst going to make you ill.
There is a case with castaways being stranded on the coast of west Africa and needing to trek through the Sahirah to survive and drinking their own urine was literally the only water they were able to obtain while trekking. It did keep them alive long enough to be captured and enslaved. So I do believe in some rare cases where death is imminent it can prove to (not be healthy at all) be lifesaving at least for a short duration. But its not like drinking actual water and might only extend survival for a short period, only being a fraction of what you might get from drinking actual water.
It's taught and show in movies and TV they you do it to survive. You might not have been taught it but millions of others were@@FruitarianFran
Another thought: it's possible with the vomiting that the friend was having a severe dehydration migraine and genuinely believed he was imminently dying.
Yes. It's also possible that Coughlin truly thought he was near to death if he was vomiting non-stop from dehydration. I've been seriously dehydrated from an infection with non-stop vomiting and other symptoms to the point of needing hospitalization, it was terribly scary and disorienting. Coughlin may have been mentally unprepared to handle the thought of dying slowly from worse and worse symptoms of dehydration and just didn't want to suffer a prolonged death in the scorching heat, with him assuming there was no help coming. Still, Raffi killing him is a huge question mark that the jury evidently didn't find reasonable.
I also think the cactus fruit caused them problems.
New Mexico is really large. When I lived in Socorro, friends would say, "Let's run down to Carlsbad Caverns or, "Let's run up to Gallup," not realizing it was going to be a 5-6 hour trip. I can imagine a couple of guys looking at a map and saying, "my uncle said the Caverns are worth seeing (they are)" not realizing they were going to be gone for a while. Part of the trip from Socorro is through the Badlands and there isn't even water or gas for over an hour.
I, too, remember in the early 1970s when we were living in north central NM, when we would drive east to visit family in the Midwest, there was nothing but highway between Clayton and Springer, about a 90 minute trip with early ‘70s 55 mph speed limits. Crossing this expanse, I almost wondered if NM was actually larger than neighboring Texas! :) Eventually, thankfully, the state put in a rest stop. New Mexico is a beautiful state with many wonderful people, but to this big-city born gal, some of those NM wide open spaces could seenm and likely were really desolate. That was long before cell phones. We were young. I don’t know what we would have done if we’d would have had car trouble or a medical emergency!!
Born and raised in NM. I don't know the distance to anywhere in the state (in miles). I do know how many hours it will take to get there.
😮
@@debbijames7950 that’s brilliant! I can’t tell you the names of the streets in my town, but I can give you land marks to look for and tell you when and where to turn. Lol! 😂
Aussie here there is a road here that you might not see a human, a fuel station or water for 6-12 hours. If your car breaks down you are in serious danger.
I'm a fairly experienced desert hiker. A few points:
1. Sightlines in desert terrain can be very deceptive. With low and sparse bushes on a seemingly flat landscape, you expect things like roads and cars to be visible from far away. But that's often not the case. On the plain, subtle dips and swells can hide things until you practically bump into them. From a height, low dust haze and heat shimmer can make things on the plain below practically invisible. There have been plenty of times I've stood on a hill enjoying a nice crisp view of distant mountains, while at the same time being unable to spot the road or my car a mile away. You need good map, compass, and landmark navigation skills to hike safely in the desert; the friends in this story had none of these.
2. I once got so dehydrated I passed out. Fortunately, I was near civilization, and EMTs showed up quickly and started IV hydration in the ambulance on the way to the ER. Within 15 minutes, I was fine (other than having a pounding headache). They kept me in the ER for observation for a couple of hours, then gave me a stem lecture about proper hydration and released me. So I don't find the quick recovery in this story to be implausible.
3. The combination of dehydration and panic can lead to really poor decision making. That's the recipe for how many desert-hiking situations rapidly escalate from "not good" to "life threatening" . People make bad decisions that get them into a pickle, then make much worse decisions trying to get back out.
4. Euthanasia is obviously a difficult issue, both philosophically and practically. My view is that a person who is in severe discomfort, has no reasonable hope of recovery, and is coherent enough to make such a decision should be able to choose to die. Further, it is entirely ethical to assist another person in carrying out this choice. The case under discussion is doubly problematic because it doesn't sound like the victim met the coherency requirement, but his friend was also incoherent and thus not fully responsible for his actions. I think the verdict and sentence were reasonable in the circumstances.
Well stated
I really like your comment thank you you put it right :)
I think there are ethical issues with making the request. If indeed he did ask his friend to end his life then he was putting his friend in a very bad position of having to stand trial for his murder. Although I also realise that if Raffi is telling the truth, the plan was for him to also end his own life. Potentially David was 'well enough' to kill himself if he was so convinced he needed to end his life. He didn't have to ask his friend to do it.
kyle mentions that the ranger said the friend who lived seemed coherent when he found him
@@corey_5758 , I'm interested in how you evaluate my carrying capacity from a photo of my head. Typically the maximum load up there consists of a hat and sunglasses. 🙂
Tip here...
If you're ever lost or injured and isolated w no cell service and no one knows your whereabouts change your voicemail greeting and to your location and injury, will save a life. Happy trails.
That’s a great idea!
I don't see how that would work because you need cell service to upload the updated voice mail on a standard cell phone. You need an inreach or the like to get reception in a place with no cell service.
@gjmottet not to change your greeting
I grew up in the desert and i was a runner, so i would regularly take to the trails. But that's the thing. There weren't real trails. It was just routes that we knew that other people had run, almost impossible to notice unless you already know to basically stare at everything around you. One time, a friend called for me to turn around and wait for her. I turned around and didn't recognize anything! It's just weird how going in one direction can look completely different from the other direction.
Anyway, I see how they could get lost.
It seems that most people at least know if they’re hiking N, W, E, or S?
I've had a severe heat stroke and only needed about an hour in the hospital. Once they crack the IV open, you can feel the hydration entering every single place inside your body. It's really freaky feeling
It truly is. I was shocked how quickly I went from barely conscious misery to mostly normal.
The part that felt the most strange for me was how my mouth wasn't dry anymore even though I was not allowed to drink anything. Like how you can also taste stuff they put in the IV like pain meds or contrast dye.
@@phaedrapage4217you actually breathe out moisture in your body when you exhale. That’s why you can smell alcohol so strongly on someone’s breath even the next day. That would be why you can taste the meds. It’s super weird.
This and he likely got an IV and water en route to the hospital.
@@devsie11915 , also, many meds (or their metabolites) end up being excreted in your saliva. For example, anyone who has experienced the dreaded "Paxlovid mouth" while being treated for COVID-19 can attest to this. A saline IV will make your saliva saltier, and you can usually taste the extra salt.
I live and work in a sub-desert/steppe area and have been inflicted by heat exhaustion and even heat stroke several times. Despite being native to this area, my job demands I spend many hours outdoors in the heat of the summer, often moving continually and on foot. If you aren’t careful (and knowledgeable of the symptoms), it is very easy to fall victim to the effects of heat exhaustion/heat stroke without realizing you are inflicted.
Though I can’t comment on many of the details of this case, I will say that suffering under a heat-related illness can rapidly hamper your abilities to keep calm and think clearly. Not to mention the fact that they were suffering from dehydration and, probably, panic, which would further alter one’s state of mind. I think it’s very plausible that this altered state of mind could have severely impacted their perception of events. This, mixed with the physical pain and exhaustion they had to endure, is a sure-fire path to disaster.
Also, a note about the rocks. This is purely speculation, but I believe that after the deed was done, the surviving hiker could have completed the burial due to adrenaline. Adrenaline is one hell of a drug, and after such a traumatic event, I can see it playing a big part in influencing his next move(s). Maneuvering the heavy rocks, as well as his friends’ dead body, would probably have then sapped up the last of his strength. After the adrenaline wore off, I fully believe he could have been left so weak that he was unable to finish their morbid plan. Makes it all the more heart-breaking, too.
Like I said, this is all speculation. Besides watching this video, I haven’t done any deep research on this case, so my theory is definitely flawed. In the end, this was an ugly tragedy that should have never happened. My deepest condolences to the families of those affected.
edit: edited for clarity
I don’t think your theory is flawed at all. I can’t think of his theory that could possibly make more sense.
You write very well!
This is a very insightful take. Thank you for taking the time to write this out!
Very well written - from an English teacher. Also: What you say definitely seems to make a lot of sense. Do you happen to work in Southern Border Patrol?
@@andrewpearce2562 Hah, no. I work in weed control throughout the summer. It requires me to wear a plastic backpack with several galleons of herbicide and trawl properties/roadside areas, so not unlike backpacking in a way. Generally, it’s important work, though there are things about it that can be difficult (obviously).
But thank you for the compliment. Writing has always been a passion of mine.
It doesn’t make sense that one person was begging for death and the other person had the strength to kill him, move his body, cover it with rocks, and still only spend a few hours in the hospital. Something isn’t adding up…
But even if we accept the survivor’s story at face value… I would never kill someone because you never know if help is 5 minutes, 5 hours or 5 days away.
The narrator did not ask the fairly obvious question (at least to me). Did one guy get rehydrated/recharged by drinking the other guy's blood? You cannot hydrate yourself with urine, but what about blood?
@@tkoch7503blood has the same salt concentration as urine, it’s no good for rehydrating
😢
Hindsight 20/20
Wondered if there was some water left or since he was smaller in size could hold on longer than his friend?
unless he killed him so he could have all of the water
There’s a book about this story called Journal Of The Dead. I read it years ago. It’s such a disturbing story.
Good job covering this one.
Panic makes people do wild things. I could see the guy who died being panicked enough to think he was close to death and ask for it to happen quickly rather than slowly. It’s harder to wrap my head around how the other guy could agree with that assessment enough to follow through with the request, but then grounded enough to bury the body. Unless he really just didn’t have a realistic grasp on the situation in general and was prone to interpreting things more dramatically than they were in reality.
Yeh, I think similar to you....
It's a very scary scenario and they were both so young and obvs inexperienced so I can understand the panic. Such an unfortunate set of circumstances. 😢
Dramatic? Dudes were listening to in the wilderness and thinking they were going to die. Pretty sure that’s the time to panic a little dude. I’m sure you from the comfort of your home has a lot of ideas on wounds coulda shoulda but you have zero idea of how’d you feel, think, the deterioration of your rational thinking etc.
you’re clueless about how you’d actually react and you’ve no idea what their life up until this point caused them to think how they did.
Seems pretty dramatic to act like you know what they were going through.
@@lisaspencer1057 Dramatic may have been a poor choice of word- maybe “more intensely” would have done a better job. In any case, in a survival situation it’s really important to try to remain as calm as possible.
I was actually trying to make the point that, when those of us who weren’t there are analyzing the situation, it’s sometimes helpful to factor in the possible mindset of the people involved- which in this case likely includes panic and elevated emotions, which could have led the people involved to make different decisions than we think we would have as observers. Personally I think it’s important to empathize with that while still recognizing the adverse consequences that a panicky mindset likely had.
@@lisaspencer1057 why did he waste his energy burying him?
I’m wondering how you get lost in the desert but still find your way back to camp
I've never had any interest or desire WHATSOEVER to go hiking, I've never even been camping. But this is my favorite channel. Never thought I'd be interested in any of these kinds of stories, but I can't get enough.
Same here!!!
I agree: I have no interest in either hiking or camping either but I've been following this channel for a few years now.
Same here.... and now I feel too old to do anything like that, my arthritis would be shouting at me....😂🤣
Yep. It's kind of perverse though, ain't it...
I am like you. I love this channel. It’s one of my favorites. It’s great!!
I’m 83 years old, by the way.
In 2000 I was in school for western herbal medicine, a school that required travel & camping to study dessert plants. We were in AZ & had a guest speaker who’s name was “Peter Bigfoot” (one foot was larger than the other, not a Sasquatch). He told us stories by a campfire, very unique. He testified in this trial for the defense. He was an expert on local flora & testified that Prickly Pear Cactus is great when ripe but painfully toxic if eaten unripe. “It feels like a block of ice in your gut.” Obviously he felt that it was possible his friend begged him to kill him bc they ate unripe cactus fruit. I always thought that was so interesting, and incredibly sad.
No one eats plants for dessert : )
The fact it took him little to no contemplation to just kill his friend because he asked in a moment of weakness is crazy
You weren't there but yea I'm sure you know all about it 25yrs later 🙄
@@6Haunted-Days He didn't say he knew all about it. He was just making an observation based on the facts given in the video. I agree that the guy's story sounds suspicious. In crises like that it's not unheard of for some people to panic over the scarcity of life-sustaining resources and commit murder. I believe that's what happened here, although, like you said, we weren't there. Only one person knows for sure what really happened.
😢
Hindsight is 20/20
@@larapalma3744 and making the decision to murder someone takes a LOT
@@noelleirina5628 of hindsight?
You know, in college I travelled around Europe with a good friend. After a week of close proximity we were ready to kill each other. I remember him complaining about the sound of my breathing! So we split up for the final week and come next semester we were besties again no harm no foul. This might have been a more extreme case of that kind of thing?
Exactly what I thought.
No. David thought he was dying and taffy thought they were both dying
@@MOI-qq8zc OK so you uncritically believe what the killer says.
@@Big_Texthey both wrote in a journal. Messages to their friends and families. It wasn’t just “hearsay of the killer”.
I think there’s a lot at bs in this story… to believe that the two of them had enough sense of direction to return to the same camp… but not enough to find the trail they walked in on, and that a university student couldn’t plan a search
I've lived in, and hiked, NM and AZ. Done a lot of different terrain from high desert in Grand Canyon, AZ to low desert in Havasu. From high elevation in Taos, NM to lower desert in Carlsbad. One thing I have seen too many times is unprepared 'experienced' hikers. Experienced in Michigan is not equivalent to anything in high or low desert.
They don't carry enough water... not even for a basic day hike. Life Flight rescues in Grsnd canyon and in Havasu canyons are numerous all the time. Rule #1: if this isn't your backyard, don't do it, especially in JULY AND AUGUST!! Daytime temps reach 120 to 125, even in shade. A person can easily dehydrate, which causes dizziness and nausea, then the vomiting starts. Then the muscle cramps. It's horrible.
This man thought he would die after his friend, who begged him to do it. Very sad. Between heat exhaustion effecting judgement, and dehydration, a brain is not functioning well.
As to the rangers. The west is waaaay different than the east. Our national parks are huge and probably not enough rangers to cover all those square miles. The concept of that much open, unattended space is new to many people. It's complete self responsibility. ALWAYS,take more water than you think you'll need! And yes, I've seen people recover within an hour of IV fluids. I don't get a sinister vibe from this. Just a couple of guys from back east that had no idea about the vastness of the desert southwest. Easy to get turned around, heat shimmer is deceiving, and there's a very narrow margin for error. It's always sad when these avoidable mistakes result in the loss of life.
I was born and raised in the east (PA) and have flown and driven all the way to California with stops in AZ, NM and NV in June and July and you DEFINITELY notice the temperature difference, especially if you've flown then get out of the airport. You notice the "dry heat" right away. Now I LOVE the hot temperatures but I can see how with no water you can seriously get yourself in trouble. I hiked partway down the bright angle trail (in the grand canyon) but had to turn around bc everyone else was too hot. We all still had plenty of water left and my dream my whole life was to hike to the bottom of the canyon, camp then return. Well I never made it to the bottom bc I was not about to force my kids to finish with me when they already couldn't take the heat halfway down, knowing it would be harder hiking back up. We are ALL still alive today bc of clearheaded decisions, while we were still hydrated enough. I worked in the medical field and knew how bad getting dehydrated could get you killed, just with bad decisions alone from it. This is so sad. Idk if I could ever make that decision. I'd have to be in that same situation to actually know what I would do.
My first thought was, if he was so weak, how did he have the strength to move David's body (if he was killed int he tent) outside and then cover him with boulders?
Can you be in that much severe pain, that you'd want to die, in just 2 days without water? I'm thinking they probably drank all the water they brought with them on the first day.
I could see if it was 5-7 days, but it was only 2-3. This doesn't make sense.
They may have been dehydrated going in to the hike. Remember they're college kids with little hiking and no desert experience. They may have been "hydrating" themselves with beer during the trip.
@barbarawilcox182 that would have been tested at the hospital.
@@CynLouWho
He was discharged in an hour from the hospital after receiving only one IV of fluids and said he was as good as new.
I hope they checked his deceased friend at the morgue to see if he could have been dehydrated enough to be in so much pain that he wanted his buddy to end his life.
@@n8iv386I was thinking the same thing
I wouldn’t want the other person to die because I’d be left alone. That to me would be most terrifying.
Paradise for me😊
I don't believe the survivor was thinking about themselves.
Seriously, you would condemn someone you liked, trusted, maybe even loved, to suffer horribly and die a terrible death just so you would have company while they were doing it? Please rethink that.
Dude, great production value! Those intro shots are slick. Killer writing. Your channel has matured and evolved so quickly. Amazing content. Congrats, I’m a huge fan.
The first thing that made me raise my eyebrows was the stones he put on top of his friend. I watch a lot of survival shows to know ppl who are weak do not have the energy or strength to do what he did. Three days without food is not at your death end. I guess we will never know what really happened out there.
Plus, they had to know the people would start looking for them, and the fact they weren't too far from their car is crazy.
Right why would you waste the rest of the energy if you had any but then again maybe he was determined to bury him so the animals wouldn't eat his body for his family but then after he was at hospital for an hour I can't decide cause it could have been a planned killing also .
@coryhoornstra6781 True, because ppl can envy you and pretend to be your friend or something happened during their friendship for him to not want him alive anymore. People are crazy. The people that are the closest to you. do the most harm to you.
I'm an EMT, I see people in pain. But to decide not to encourage them to hold on, and just take a suffering person's word that they want to die, knowing there's a possibility of being rescued... no. I cant imagine any time I'd give in like that.
Having bad dehydration plus no food, their bodies and minds would have been going through straight up miserableness, leg cramps, vomiting, dry tongue, throat blood getting thicker.... and I'm sure the miserable pain that went on & on...all this affected both of these young guys judgement and logic. Seeing no way out & fully expecting to only lay there & suffer more & more for maybe 24 or more miserable hours of hell.... with their brains affected by lack of potassium, sodium, water, and glucose in the bloodstream and all.....they could not have been themselves by the time the last tiny bit of water was gone. Unless we've endured such, I don't think it's fair to judge the actions they took, either of them.
@@KathyHussey063that's what I was thinking. Extreme dehydration causes kidneys to shut down, which causes toxins to not be removed from the body, leading to vomiting and even brain malfunctioning. I'm surprised that he got as many years as he did, considering his kidneys were actually failing. You can't think straight when that happens.
I picked this point up right away and I agree with you. Burying his friend even with small stones would have been extremely difficult in the state we’re told or he’s said he was in. But using large boulders wouldn’t seem even possible if he were that far gone.
Truly a disturbing and sad story. Preparation is the #1 rule. And locating devices are a must. 😢
This was 1999. I don't believe they were available back then.
I agree today, you would be crazy not to have one.
No one I know carries any kind of locating device.
I know of a guy who drank his own urine from the beginning on a ledge and it enabled him to survive.
You SHOULD drink your own urine as soon as you realize you don't have water. You will get some fluid and again dispels salts, then drink it again, etc.
This guy drank his urine until it was dark brown. He was rescued, finally.
He was able to conserve some fluids until his rescue by drinking his urine.
Bear Grylls says to drink it from the beginning.
Years ago I lived in Arizona and would frequently go exploring in the desert areas east of Phoenix. I had a four-wheel drive truck and was always copiously supplied with fuel. water and food when I made these explorations. One day I was several miles out in the desert and came across a couple of young people (man and wife in their early 20s) who had been driving a small car and had run out of gas. They had a couple of plastic bottles of water and no gas can or food. I stopped to assist them and lo and behold they told me they had just moved from New York city and were just out for a drive. I gave them enough gas to get to Roosevelt Lake so they could fuel up and get more water. They followed me to the gas station there in Roosevelt and it turned out they were about 14 miles away from civilization. Keep in mind the outside temperature was in excess of 100 degrees and extremely dry. They were extremely lucky as the chances of some desert tramp like me coming by were extremely remote. They had no idea of the ruggedness of the terrain or the vast distances out west where there was absolutely nothing for miles and miles. Not to mention their vehicle was totally inadequate for where they were driving. I have always thought that I had probably saved their lives that day and hope they learned from the experience. As you can guess they thanked me profusely for helping them and I was happy to do so.
Pretty remarkable story. David's family are some remarkable people. I have no clue what it is like to die of thirst, however, three days without water can certainly do the job. However, they were not without water for three days. It is not clear if they were completely without water any longer than a day or day and a half. I would assume that David would have a more difficult time due to his size and stature. Being much larger he would likely have dehydrated faster with all of the exertion from walking and climbing.
It amazes me how people pay no attention to general directions based on the sun. If you have no clue from which direction you came, you may never walk in the proper direction....it is a crap shoot on which direction to travel. Also, in that environment, you had best conserve your water and energy.....hang out in whatever shade you can find and travel at night only. Anyone who ventures out in the wilderness should have basic navigation skills. Stars and planets will guide you with very basic celestial knowledge, as will shadows in the daytime, particularly in the desert.
They did say David was vomiting so he would have been severely dehydrated from that if he wasn’t able to get water. It can lead to kidney shutdown quite quickly and that is very painful and can lead to you not being able to breath as well.
I agree. I don't think either guy knew how to read sun direction. When they set off from the trail, they should have taken notice of its direction and of any visible landmarks. At night, they could have located the North Star or a constellation to guide them. I don't think either one of them would have been able to read a compass. Also, why didn't they have a topographical map or even just a trail map with them?
@@osakarose5612 Yep. Always pay attention to the sun, road lay, terrain, and landmarks. Planets and variuos constellations, pegasis, orion, casiopia, big dipper, and little dipper for instance, make great navigation aids, particularly the planets because they follow the ecliptic plane much like the sun and moon. At least four planets are quite bright and large, don't twinkle, and will be found on the ecliptic plane. Finding east or west will give you north and south. The area they were in is famous for its night skies...how hard is it to locate the Big Dipper? Three lengths of the outer bowl rim and in that same line, points right straight to the north star. Casiopia looks like a big W when in the East and Northeast and like a big M as it sets toward the west. It is very distinquishable. Yep, a map, a compass and some common knowledge damn sure doesn't hurt. A compass without a map can get you just as lost as without one if you are clueless to your surrounding and lay of the land.
I always place little rock cairns for reference. Also, turn around & look back when hiking once in a while - the trail looks different going back.
Interesting regarding migraine dehydration. For several years, I had severe migraines that would last for five days. (Migraines run in my family, but not five day long migraines.) I would be puking every fifteen minutes, and unable to keep even a teaspoon of water down. I'd lose 18 to 20 pounds in those five days. (Wish that weight would have stayed off, but it would always come back.)
Sometimes I'd have fever and chills, and would have to wash ALL bedding afterwards. I could barely get up to let my 2 dogs outside to potty a few times a day, but I'd do so when I'd stumble to the bathroom and get them back inside on my way back to bed.
I'd be in so much pain that I'd be begging God to just let me die..then change my mind and be begging Him to help me live. Over and over.
There was one migraine that lasted six days, but most were five, for years. My doctor couldn't find a cause. I did, by accident, on my own.
I'd had cataract surgery, and gotten 20/20 vision, distancewise, though I'd have to wear reading glasses to read. One day, I discovered one eye was totally blurry...I'd been using one eye all this time, and couldn't see clearly out of the other. Had to get a tiny hole lazered in the blurry eye, and the 5 day migraines stopped. (I do get one on occasion, but they only last 2 to 2.5 days. Still can't keep water down...)
I don't know how I survived those five day migraines. No water, no Gatorade, no liquids at all.
Something to remember about the water situation; it was the 90's. Everyone today carries around their own water bottle just to go to the grocery store, but back then it was way different. The entire culture and zeitgeist did not prioritize water at all.
There were plenty of personal water bottles around in the 1990's.Anyone who knew anything at all about hiking would know the importance of water as as well.
Good point.
@@jeannerogers7085These 2 guys didn't know much about hiking from what was stated.
@@DesignRhythm TBH I don't care what you say, if you don't know to bring water with you on a hike, you are extremely stupid, humans are aware of their bodies, that is NO defense
That's not accurate, even in the 1950's (speaking from personal experience), myself and everyone I knew living in Arizona ALWAYS carried water!
On the ranger question... There's nearly not as many rangers here in NM as one might think. Many areas are open access (or simple gated) with boxes that collect the paperwork. Even in cases of stations there may be a rotating staff of two or three in any given area. There's not a lot of funding out here for it. Before the Valle Caldera was purchased and made a National Preserve the entirety of our portion of the Santa Fe National Forest (Jemez District) had maybe two rangers. I'd be surprised if that number has changed. You may see one every few trips. Carlsbad has more because of the caverns but there's an absurd number of camping and hiking areas that are open access in comparison to the amount of rangers. (Caveat here, the "lakes" always have a crazy amount of rangers standing by in case day use fees aren't paid.)
1, Lack of knowledge of desert (after all from the east)
2. Not knowing the desert, lack of experience of trail scouting
3. Rangers often see people who decide to stay longer than planned
I worked on a cattle ranch back in 1964 for the Bond and Mims outfit I bar x in the summer at Crownpoint New Mexico, and it was so hot I couldn't get enough water, I carried 2 large canteens of water, on my horse, and we spent about 12 to 14 hrs on horseback each day and I told them I going to have to leave if this thirst done subside, and they said give it 3 weeks and it will go away, well it did, and when it rained it come in bucks, you couldn't see 15 feet in front of you, well I can see what hikers could experience for sure, what a sad ending, Thank you Kyle great vid.
What happened to the horses, they need water as well?!
the fact that they went out of their way to see carlsbad caverns, but what that meant to them was camping 1.5 miles down a trail in the desert but never, you know, going into the caverns, basically tells me that we're talking about two people who were just kind of massively clueless. anything else weird they do after that kind of fits, for me.
Oh my word, so true. Maybe they thought they could come back sometime, but imagine missing the caves, which is a nice, cool, 'hike' to try to hike in the heat of August. I have a lot of trouble with this story.
David's family are truly remarkable people, and I they knew their son and his friendship with Rafi better than we ever could. I can't imagine being in that situation.. it reminds me of the ending of the movie The Mist 😢
It reminded me of that, too.
28:14 According to CBS News August 19, 1999
“The State District Judge Jay Forbes sentenced Raffi Kodikian to 15 years, suspending all of that time except the two-year prison term. However, if Kodikian violates his probation, he will have to serve the full 15 years under New Mexico law.”
So Kodikian was sentenced to 2 years… with the possibility of more.
Yes, that's right. It's called a suspended sentence. If that young man has an encounter with the police, of any kind, other than maybe, and I mean maybe...a traffic stop. He will serve the remainder of the sentence, 13 years. He better NOT even think about spitting on the sidewalk.
Strange story. I dont belive the killer. There must be something we do not know about. Lifting all the large stones when you are on the brink of death, make no sense.
Yep, that was the one thing about the evidence in this case that made me go "no!". I have been dehydrated. Not even close to this level, thank goodness, but bad enough to feel the desperation. The weakness in my muscles is one of the most vivid memories I'm left with - 20 years later. I couldn't even carry my own weight without support. Not just because of the muscle weakness either, but also because when you're that dehydrated, your blood pressure is so low that standing up can be enough to make you faint. The many heavy stones he had to lift to cover his friend's body is the one thing that makes it impossible for me to believe his story. I would have given him more of the benefit of doubt if it hadn't been for that.
3 days seems like an awfully short time to be willing to end someone's life... We know people can go on for 40+ days (without food). This was a dire situation, but still not as dire as not to allow at least a couple more days before even considering such a thing.
The medical literature states that you can’t survive more than 3 days without water. To go 40 days without food you absolutely need sufficient water.
The symptoms get really bad after one day.
@@Mrgoofyoops The general rule is 3 days without water, but as a doctor I can tell you it's not true that "medical literature states you can't survive more than 3 days without water." You can and many, many people have. Definitely not 40+ days, though. The longest recorded is 18 days.
Now, these guys were in the desert, so even as young, healthy men, they probably would only last 6-7 days. But even if it was just the minimum of 3, they hadn't yet gone 3 days without water.
@@amityislandchumyup. I've gone up to 5 days without food and water and up to more than a week with extremely minimal food intake and only water. No bueno, but it does happen. This mercy killing seems premature, but I wasn't there, so I'm not about to judge. Sad story, for sure.
@@sovereignbrehonduring those 5 days were you vommiting? That greatly increases dehydration.
@kylebanks13 I've gone five days with no water, and vomiting every 15 minutes round the clock, for years due to migraines. They'd come every four to six weeks. Til I figured out what and what was going on, cause my doctors had no clue.
I hate hiking, I don't even hike, but I like Kyle Hates Hiking. Satire!
I hate hiking too 😂😂😂 but then I'm in the UK so it's not so exciting as in the USA 😂
I walked a straight paved trail along the patapsco with very very little elevation for 6 miles and said I hiked two counties. That's about it. Broad daylight and the end I got to go in my car and drive a mile to my house!
I'm with ya,,, dirt bikes will get ya there faster and easier,, walking is for nerds,,,😂
Sorry but, do you even hike bro? I mean after all you can’t live sitting on the toilet. 😅
@@deanhockenberry9268 yes you can, especially if you have social media and a phone. You just got to make sure you get up every now and then so you don't mess up your circulation.
Satire!
It is a very sad story I first heard this from Mr Ballen, but the bottom line is, if you go unprepared into the wilderness you are asking for trouble, especially not taking enough water.
One can't help but wonder if Coughlin wasn't unwelcome competition for dwindling resources.
Imagine being in the middle of America… surrounded on all sides by the most unimaginable comforts, conveniences and indulgences ever in the history of humankind…. But there you sit, surrounded by it all…. slowly, tortuously dying of exposure…. because you intentionally put yourself there. What a nightmare.
When Kodikian told the ranger he'd piled rocks over Coughlin's body, I thought
"crystal meth."
Now at 26:09, I'm guessing stimulants again.
I'm not a forensic psychologist. Just an old party lady.
But with so much energy despite dehydration,
and so much mind-baffling and uncharacteristic decision-making,
I wonder if two forms of exhaustion converged out there in the desert, and
sent those two men into confusion.
Bless both those boys.
Or peyote, or acid/shrooms/pcp....I've seen ppl go super human on acid....and not think straight. But they knew to eat flowering cactus. They were only gone 3 days!! Not weeks!! Ppl usually bond to survive in these scenarios, not give up in 3 days!! Not roll over and just quit.
I think the big guy got a great job out of their town lined up and if I remember right, got k*ller dudes gf after they broke up just the year earlier...motives of jealousy imo!!
No one just quits after 3 days, not when they're so close to their car, and unless talked down so badly, would think not to survive instead of be k*lled....ya know?
I'm thinking pcp or some kind of hallucinagin.....
My thoughts go in that direction too, I was thinking Mescaline--don't even have to bring any with you as it's frequently found right there.
Me too. Or even acid / psychedelics... take u down a bad trip & do something insane.
Thanks! I absolutely love listening to you. Great delivery … funny … and serious when you need to be. You’re very appreciated… thanks for all of your hard work.
If the family was willing to forgive him; I think I would have to as well? They knew him & knew the friendship the two had as well; if they don't think there was malicious intent, they why should I? 🤷♀️
I agree. It's a sad situation, but the friend might have also suffered a horrible death, but for the Ranger finding them. He also took the time to bury his friend. In the shape they probably were in, this must have been exhausting. I don't condone killing anyone, but the circumstances were dire in this case. This is such a sad story 😢
I watched this years ago in a 2020 episode or something. I remember the footage when they rescued him, there was a camera filming. He wasn’t moving around. He stayed still. I’m going to try and find the footage
@@tinaroberts5858 That's probably why the jury didn't believe him. he wasn't exhausted. he only needed an hour in the hospital and was good to go.
@@Abena_Goddess87 Not sure what happened but if you are dehydrated, IV fluids will do wonders for you. I've never been severely dehydrated, but I was deathly ill and ended up with low blood sodium. I felt like I was going to die. An hour of IV fluids and I was fine.
I was born with only a tiny piece of pancreas and I endure days of severe nausea, vomiting and dehydration even though I’m on medication and a special diet. The dehydration causes my arms and legs to spasm, my toes and fingers lock up, I’m unable to stand or walk and the only relief I get is when I lay in hot water with my pillow. You feel like you’re going to die and then pain is unbearable. I go to the ER as soon as the vomiting starts but they still have to use ultrasound to find a vein, sometimes there’s nothing. I’ve had a med line in my chest and they drilled through the bone in my knee to put an IV in while I was fully conscious. I have no doubt that the man was in horrific shape and he may have asked his friend to take his life BUT that doesn’t give you the right to actually do it. My daddy always said you can’t take something that you can’t give back. Rest in peace David
Hey dude. Can I just say that me being from Scotland where the most I would need to worry about is a stray sheep lol. I have the absolute upmost respect for you and all the people who choose to hike in AMERICA!!! Because you guys have everything to worry about. From bears to cougars to absolute extreme weirdos 🫣🫣and im not kidding here. Big respect to all of you who hike in America 🫣🫣 wow. You guys are super awesome 👍🏻👍🏻🏴
I grew up in the desert. Rattlesnakes and scorpions, gila monster( a fabulous beautiful deadly lizard) so many things to be aware of. But without a doubt, the beauty of the desert is also dangerous. Water. Water. Water. I was impressed these guys thought to try to get moisture from cacti.
@@rebeccacorrea7487
A "normal" person, whatever the circumstances, is simply unable to kill a friend. Even in a situation of self-defence, it must be extremely difficult.
Adrenaline could play a role in Kodikian covering the body with rocks/ boulders. I guess he must’ve been filled with adrenaline after killing his best friend, and from what I know about adrenaline rushes, it can make you stronger and faster. I’ve read about mothers who lifted cars away from their children, I’ve read about people fighting of killers due to adrenaline-rushes. Even if Raffi Kodikian was weak and dehydrated, he would most likly has had a huge adrenaline rush, and perhaps this made him strong enough to be able to cover the body of his friend with those rocks? This is only a theory- my personal theory.❤
Adrenaline doesn't last that long though.
@@hariman7727How long does it last?
@@muggy6283 interestingly, longer in a dehydrated body
the main effects are maybe a few minutes per normal metabolism... can be up to half an hour when in a state of low chemical exchange.
this is compensated though by dehydration making you weaker in ways independent of the effects of adrenaline... your muscles have just less effectiveness,
He could have rolled the rocks, he wouldn’t have needed to lift the 50-70 lb rocks to move them over the corpse.
He probably drank his blood.
Hi Kyle I’ve been subbed for some time now and I’m happy to see you getting different sponsors and trying out new edits!! I appreciate the way you tell these stories and honor the victims. Also huge respect for donating to the rescue services!!
It could be that Raffi was not in his right mind due to the horrific events that occurred and thus, he was overcome by David's suffering and not thinking clearly. He seems to have had no motive for harming David and just wanted to stop his pain. David's family were able to realize this and didn't hold any anger toward Raffi. What would I have done? I honestly don't know.....and hope I'm never in that situation!
Actually he might have had a motive to kill David. Not being in his right mind at the time, his motive could have simply been to drink David’s water since he inwardly knew they didn’t have enough water for the both of them.
Horrific events???
@@JohnDoe-qz1ql for example, running out of water and knowing that they may die because of it,
My assumption is that the motive would be that somehow this allowed him to hoard resources (like maybe it actually happened before they ran out of water). But without more evidence I wouldn't automatically believe this is what happened. This would just be, hypothetically, the possible motive.
@@melmack2003 That's a very dire circumstance, far from Horrific, in My view!!
The evolution of this channel has been fun to watch. The story telling, the production… top notch. You’ll hit 1 million subs, no doubt.
I had a major throat surgery and stayed in the hospital 2 days and was released home. I could not eat and could not drink and the pain was so severe. I should have gone back to the hospital but I tried to grind it out at home. After 3 days of not eating and drinking very very small sips of water to take medication. I then started vomiting when I would try to force myself to drink. I went to the hospital almost on my death bed. I remember begging the doctor to please help me and save me. They had me give a urine sample and it was as dark and brown as coffee. It literally looked like I peed a 1/2 cup of Starbucks. They did double hydration and had the bags dripping fast! Within the bags finishing I felt like it was a miracle! The way the life returned to my body was amazing. The IV basically resurrected me! So I can see how that guy could bounce back after hydration. 3 full days with no food and very little water post massive surgery and just the hydration from the IV made me feel like a new person!
I’ve taught hot yoga since 2005, and can attest from way too much personal experience: when overly dehydrated, chugging water like a frat boy-for me-starts a reaction of vomiting that can last for hours.
If I make that mistake, it gets worse, water won’t stay down, and the path back to proper hydration is made far more difficult, with Charlie Horse like cramps near the spine, the palms of my hands, and clenching abdominal muscles that make me fold in half.
Hmmm…that boulder-grave, and the ability to move them is very suspicious. Whenever I hear the “murder-suicide” without the suicide, my first thought is guilty.
I would drink my own urine before I would harm a friend.
Kyle, I swear even your commercials are getting better and better! Love your videos! Always well done and interesting!😊
When you said, “I killed him!” I literally gasped!
This is so fishy. I have no idea why the dude would want to whack is friend. That's the mystery to me that has me on the fence. But, the story has red flags flying for me. His quick recovery is certainly suspicious. How another person can be begging for death, and he recovers very quickly is odd, indeed. Only he and God knows, and that's for him to deal with. I forgot to add that I could not kill another human, let alone my good friend.
As morbid as it might sound I’d be like dude write down what you want me to do so if it comes to that when people find our bodies (I know I’m not gonna make it out alive) they know it was your idea
David had cheated with Raffi's at the time girlfriend, so 1 theory was he wanted revenge for that.
@@thelogicaldangerWait really?!
@ It's briefly mentioned on Wikipedia.
I’ve never hiked in my life but it sounds like a good workout and hobby which I need desperately. These videos and I watch allot of nature/hiking videos. Enough to know that nature needs to be respected. ALWAYS prepare for any and everything that could come up
This kind of reminds me of attending births as a birth doula - birth can be super hard work and difficult, and it can FEEL impossible...but it isn't. I've seen mothers who are SO CLOSE to pushing their baby out beg for a cesarean or say that they feel like they are dying..and usually the dad totally believes that's what's really necessary until I remind him that this is all normal and most women say things like that!And what moms and dads need is someone reminding them that even though they are exhausted and tired, etc, that they CAN DO IT.
the body is capable of way more than most people think! I've fasted for 6+ days and it's not as big of a deal as I thought it would be.
I can see how a couple of young guys who have never struggled in their lives could be totally overcome and not realize that they could handle a few days without food and water. What the friend who was murdered needed was for his friend to say...hey, I know this is really tough, but we can make it! Let's hold out as long as we can.
People love to conspiracy theory over this case but the desert is brutal. As someone who mainly hikes the midwest and northeast, it is amazing how hot it gets out there. Add two massively inexperienced hikers and I could see this thing happening exactly as reported. And the adrenaline of killing your friend may account for the rock grave he built for him. It's a sad case but I don't think there was malicious intention at all. Dehydration can cause some gnarly symptoms, especially as they were moving and most likely still sweating bullets out in that heat. Just a tragedy all around
well Kyle, i don't comment much. but this is what i see , having search and rescue look for myself and a friend for 3 days in a snow storm if my "BEST FRIEND" begged me to stop his pain, he is my best friend and that is what i would do as he would do for me. that's what best friends do no matter how bad it seems. if you can't get out of there and believe your going to die, no one and i mean no one should ever judge. you know it will hurt for the rest of your life but it's not about you at this point it's about helping your friend how ever much it hurts . Thank god we were found deep in the Rubicon Trail with 5ft of new snow leaving my Jeep behind to save our lives. 2 days later we were rescued.this is a true story and need be i can prove it. thank you for post. ring my bell any time i wait for it. LonnieRay
I think it depends on how solid the assumption that you're going to die anyway appears to be. I think if your friend is asking for that prematurely, it's actually your duty as their best friend to try to calm them down first. In the situation outlined in the video it's tough to say, because with hindsight we know the death was probably unnecessary though they couldn't have known that in the moment. But in hindsight, I think we can say without doubt that it would have been the better thing to do to try to calm his friend down instead. Does that matter for anything? Hard to say.
@@deschain1910
Very well said!
Killing your beat friend in less than 3 days is rather suspicious. Especially with a knife to the chest. This seems to me more like some acid trip gone wrong or lovers quarrel, something like that.
Not to be insensitive to your points, but survival under extreme conditions generally follows the ‘rule of threes’: 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. After 2-3 days without water, they were likely in a severely compromised state physically and mentally regardless of whether they seemed alright on the surface. As someone with friends in the medical field (EMTs etc), I know how quickly people can bounce back with the right fluids, but in that moment, they were probably beyond logical decision-making.
They were best friends, and the friend assisting might have been driven by adrenaline, desperation, and a deep sense of loyalty to honor the other’s wishes. In a situation where survival seemed impossible, it’s likely he thought he wasn’t going to make it out either based on his own words so by extension he doesn’t need to preserve his strength so then he put his remaining energy and strength into building the grave for his friend. It reminds me of that scene in Gattaca-some people just don’t save energy for the swim back. He may or may not have considered taking his own life afterward which is when his strength would’ve been extra depleted, but the act itself, no matter how heartbreaking, is not simple or clear-cut.
It’s also worth noting that in such extreme conditions, logic tends to break down. People have taken their own lives over things like LASIK complications instead of pursuing treatment or eye removal, so it’s not far-fetched to imagine how dehydration, pain, and hopelessness could push someone to that point. If we’re going to scrutinize the friend’s actions, we should also examine the broader system in place. Were the park officials adequately monitoring the area or providing clear safety measures? Mistakes happen, and it’s often the people most familiar with the terrain who are best equipped to handle emergencies.
In the end, this is a tragic situation where judgment is hard to pass. These are decisions made in moments of overwhelming stress, not calm reflection, and none of us can truly know what was going through their minds.
Coflin was a much larger man and it stands to reason his body needed more water. Plus he may have only had one bottle of water.
Plus, if he wasn't so dehydrated it seems impossible a smaller man could have overwhelmed him and killed him.
Sad story.
Well, it was said that the car wasn't far from the tent, so if he could gather all those heavy rocks, which obviously took time to do, couldn't he have made a stretcher out of the some of the tent fabric, and dragged his friend to the car. So he claims he didn't have the strength, I don't believe it. I thought you were going to say he was stuck there 30 days but it was 3 days. And he said his friend wrote a note confirming that he wanted to die. Well, did they check that it was from his handwriting? And then to kill him with a knife, which didn't succeed at first so he put his hand over his face. I could never do that I would find every possible means to save my friend and myself.
Hate those AI videos, that ranger had an eye that kept flickering from blue to brown
We thought it could be a cool way to enhance the story, but I've seen quite a few comments saying they don't like the AI broll. Noted! We will cut it out going forward.
@@KyleHatesHiking Thanks for always trying and keeping your channel fun and relevant! Also thanks for listening. I also understand stock photos arent the coolest either! You should maybe collaborate with some artist to create the scenes you tried creating with ai. The settings were cool, just ai video is wierd in itself. Im sure you must have some subscribers who could be hired and it would be a cool community outreach! See you on the trails!
@@KyleHatesHiking Love your channel, and viewing and music wise I actually feel less is more. Any original images, press cuttings etc on the case are by a million miles the best bits, plus of course your narrative.
We do not only HATE the ai, but it's also very harmful. It's damaging the environment and actively took away my job as a beginner graphic designer. It's also ugly and people can tell and makes everything unprofessional and low quality. It also feeds on art and pictures it does not have the copyright for and using it supports how they stole the job from now 11% of the industry. @@KyleHatesHiking
@@KyleHatesHikingthank you so much! I came here to see if anybody else commented about the AI and I appreciate you listening to the feedback. Love your videos and even though I don’t like the AI, I understand wanting to try new things.
Finally! Lol ur back! 😂 was getting tired of the compilation videos bro, lol so I'm glad for the new content 👍
Kyle, I remember reading about this story when it happened. Other people raised all the same questions.
Not being there, we have no idea what happened. However, it seems that Raffi or his lawyer thought that a jury might find him guilty, so he pled guilty.
I have a hard time believing that two grown men could be that unprepared. But, we all have different perspectives.
If they would have stayed put in their tent or in the shade, they could have both been alive to see the ranger. But, of course, they didn’t know that.
I would like to think that I’d never put myself or anyone else in a situation like that.
Thanks for the story. Take care.
You need to watch more lost hiker videos if you're having trouble believing two grown men could be so unprepared 😂 the level of unpreparedness in American National Parks is astounding - I live in the UK and even I know to be prepared in an NP 😂
28:34 That's enough for me. If there had been some reason that Raffi didn't want David to make it home, someone would have known that reason. It would have come up in the investigation. So damn sad, all around. If this story is the truth, he'll likely never really forgive himself. Especially since he knows now that David would have lived until the Ranger found them.
Here we go! The day just got better!
You forgot the boiling hot dogs part! I am not sure where I heard it so don't believe this blindly but I heard they actually used some of their water to boil hot dogs the first night. I get that there maybe isn't a lot of firewood and maybe all they had was a backpacking stove but man... never have I ever boiled a hot dog while camping much less with limited water in the desert. That's absolutely bonkers.
Campsite only a mile and a half from their car. In a desert where they can see a long way. Maybe just not the brightest sparks? Bizarre siuation.
All it would’ve taken is a look at the compass 😵💫
@@shawneeGoesThat they didn't have.
@@linda-louiseanthony1979 obviously lmao it’s crazy how people shit on bringing the 10 essentials for “easy” hikes and then we have people getting lost a mile from their vehicle
@@shawneeGoes 🤣
@@shawneeGoes Here's what is worse, they had a topo map with them - they didn't know how to read it. Honest.
I've always thought this guy was guilty of murder. That hasn't changed.
😮
Dude dehydrated and alone the scorching heat...no possibility of rescue they thought, horrible pain!
Think about it
18:29 He had the strength to kill his friend, to move his body and then bury him..........
Wow its so sad but it was a mercy killing ...if only they had faith
Maybe a lovers quarrel.
Had to be murder then! Things aren’t adding up!
You do a really great job on your videos. We love and look forward to seeing them drop. Thanks
I've heard the story before and thought this guy murdered his friend for malicious reasons, not for what he claims. They were 'lost' for 3 days. The human body can go 3 days without any water at all. They had a small amount of water which would extend those 3 days. They may have been unable to sweat, and had low blood pressure, a headache, and a bit dizzy, but they were not "suffering"... as shown by his medical visit. Plus it seems like he was just far enough off the trail not to be seen, and that if he hadn't been rescued, he could still rescue himself. Did the rangers look for their dusty footprints all over the place and up the cliff, while they were allegedly 'wandering'/looking for a way out?
I do find it curious they were out and about hiking for 3 days, couldn't find the trail back to their car yet they could get back to their tent each night.
While I agree that the circumstances do appear somewhat suspicious, people can only survive a few days without water in ordinary circumstances and absolutely not in extreme desert heat, which is why they were instructed to pack an entire gallon of water per person per day. Having occasionally worked in oppressively hot weather, I can personally attest you absolutely need plenty of water to actually function in such heat. If I were the speculate a more malicious reason for him to kill his friend, it would be over the last of the water. Desperation can drive a person to do the unthinkable, after all.
@@JoliNatural You know... that's the biggest thing that makes this suspicious, especially considering that walking in a different direction from the camp would likely have found the trail after a couple tries.
I‘d not rely on some statistics or medical assessment after he already received water. I think desperation plays a big big role. They were convinced they were lost, obviously unable to see anything beyond their desperate feelings. Someone mentioned that his friend was very tall, so obviously his body reacted differently, showing earlier signs of dehydration. It also got said they had two journals with them, those would have been analyzed by experts. I cannot imagine to vomit from lack of water, but I know that that state is extremely exhausting, especially if it’s lasting for hours. If they were convinced they were going to die anyway… they were probably beyond a state of hope and ready to go.
We all react to dehydration differently and heat plays a big role in how quickly it becomes dangerous. I once collapsed in a blackout from dehydration and it was from forgetting to drink for ONE day in a hot place (Vegas). And it wasn't even a full day, because it was still light out. If you're throwing up from lack of fluids, it's at an advanced stage and can kill you from electrolyte deficiency.
Great breakdown of a heartbreaking story. Glad you are back.
He was physically fine but mentally he might have thought he was helping his friend.
This only makes sense if they both had completely given up on life or on the possibility ever to be found at this point. Otherwise no normal person would obey a request to kill someone their friend just like that. Also, it's suspicious that the victim didn't leave a note in his own diary about his request to end his life to relief him from his excruciating pain.
A gallon of water is recommended for the average adult thirst on a typical day , so imagine how much more one needs in a desert hike.
My question also. If he was in such dire shape.. how would he have the energy to move his body and move/stack rocks on him?? Nah.
Kyle, I also found it odd that the park rangers weren't on to the situation sooner. Anytime I've camped or even just visited a park for a day there were numerous rangers checking passes and keeping an eye on things. Surely they would notice a car that was way past their check out date.
This is such a strange case and something does quite add up. Also, I was surprised the victim's family was so kind.
Rattlesnake Canyon is a remote trail, and rangers have to go where the majority of the people are, to be where the majority of the problems are.
The statement disturbs me about his friend struggling with him but he finished him off anyway. Seems like he would stop if his friend decided he didn’t want to die & struggled.
The comments on Kyle's videos are often as interesting and informative as the videos themselves! Though not a hiker myself, it seems to me that reflects well on hikers in general.
I remember hearing about this but I know you’re going to tell an amazing story.
Maybe since Coughlin drank his own urine and the other guy didn’t, Coughlin got hit with more dehydration than Kodikian. Also, about the cactus juice intake, may be one of the guys (namely Coughlin) drank more of the stuff, making him vomit into the next day, more than his friend. He would’ve become even more dehydrated if this were the case. I guess I’ll shut up . I’m sure the doctors most likely would have compared both hikers’ dehydration levels. As Kyle would say, “I’m no doctor”.😊
Each time I am sick, especially preceding vomiting, in migraines etc, I feel like dying would be an option to end the suffering. But I always have access to water. So if I was in their situation, I can 100% imagine asking for a mercy killing. I also know that I look absolutely terrible to other people in these situations, I become totally green etc. I think that some people cannot imagine this is not doing justice to the reality. Not everybody is equal, not everyone experiences dehydration / violent vomiting in the same way.
The AI looks like crap. Stick with stock footage man.
Ya it doesnt look great
Stop complaining! Great story.
@@LisaBush-px7wt yes great story and he's managed to make videos this long without using shit AI. People are allowed to complain, that's how creators receive feedback.
This is what's wrong with the world. Can you not just appreciate the great story telling. You getting just a bit heated.Pitch your fit. I love his stories.
@@LisaBush-px7wt yes I can appreciate the good story telling, that doesn't mean no one is allowed to complain. If I get a good burger from a restaurant but they burn the fries does that mean I can't complain just because the driver was good? This is a UA-cam video, not a podcast. The visual aspect is also important.
When hiking I always carry a PLB, a gps, and a map of the area and a compass. They are always pre-packed with extra batteries.
I can’t help but wonder and speculate that just perhaps this tragic incident _possibly_ was actually a case of having been a homicidal act of self-preservation on the part of the surviving man and his desperation to obtain any of the remaining water for himself. IMO
Everyone hates hiking after watching these! 😁
Probably some sort of hallucination took place? Sometimes dehydration comes with headache, and to some people sharp headache could result in hallucination or loosing one's mind. Another possible cause is plain blaming game. The two were lost and facing death, consumed by dehydration & headache, perhaps some argument happened and one simply took it out on the other.
Drugs? Mushrooms 🍄 🍄...losing their way back to the car. One night? Good grief
Killed for the last water?
Just a thought..
That was my thought too.
my thoughts exactly, survival instinct might make someone do terrible things.
Not likely, based on the statements and circumstances. Also there was no water left for at least 24 hours. So nothing to fight over.
Yes, that is what I was thinking.
Vid basically starts at 8:50 🤙🏼
🫡
I literally read this comment at the 8:50 mark, I kid you not.
Thank you!!!!!!!
Good to see you again hope everythings well
I’ve heard this one. This is a good one. The Guadalupe mountains/carlsbad caverns area are my stomping grounds for backpacking as a Texan. Extremely rugged rough and treacherous terrain. For a 2 night 3 day backpacking adventure you’ve got to pack in 9-10 liters of water. The wind is usually gusting off the charts. This style of backpacking in this type of terrain isn’t for everyone.
Kyle. This is unpleasant to share. But I have been in the situation with my best friend begging me to end her life. She was 70 yrs old, had terminal brain cancer, passed away 8 days after I said, "No I just can't do it." And we knew that short of a miracle from God, she didn't have long. It was horrible. This happened 11 years ago. But, i could not do it. So, no, I do not understand this. I may be a cowardly chicken, but I could not have lived with myself the last 11 years either.
I had heard this before. And I was accustomed to hiking deserts back when I was young. That one question has always glared at me. This one really bothers me.
I remember when this happened. I always thought it was possible that they got into a fight about who was to blame for their situation leading to his death, but that's only speculation. It's easy to judge what they did and didn't do, but they probably truly thought they were going to be up at first light and heading on their way, hence the small amount of water they took. For that matter, they may have just not had access to additional water upon their arrival there. Things we take for granted these days, like we access almost anywhere and bottled water, weren't always the norm.
Kyle, I really wish you wouldn't use those AI-generated establishing shots instead of real stock footage. They blatantly look artificial and they use up so much more electricity to generate them. A channel that's all about nature and appreciating our wilderness lands should do its best to be environmentally conscious
Really?
AI uses too much electricity.
Really?
@@BakedPotato7755
Oh of course it does 😂😂
The computer suddenly uses 5 times the power for AI then it does downloading a photo
Doesn’t everyone know that? 😂😂
@@BakedPotato7755 Yes it does. AI uses up a lot of processing power to do what it does and that means more strain on the electric grid. It's estimated that we're going to have to quintuple our electrical output within the next few years if AI is going to become financially viable
True but gas powered vehicles were required to get the photographers to the locations where that shot the stock footage so..
@@Smapti So it uses the computers processing power.
But that does not require more electricity buddy.
Come on dude.
Use your brain.
I’m addicted to your channel already!! This is my second video and can’t wait for another!! Thank You! 2:38