Is this the most UNHINGED Death Story in National Park History?!⚠️ 

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.

I'm a retired NC park ranger. I can't tell you the number of times people go into the wild without being prepared. No matter how bad it got I don't think I can kill a friend. I hope to God I will never find out.

"Lets go hiking in the desert in August" "How bout no"

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.

I’ve spent time trail running and hiking in the desert and I can confirm people definitely underestimate the amount of water they need. Not just that, they disregard warnings and think that the danger is exaggerated. Then guess what happens… they die. The desert is no joke. Take enough water, sip even if you’re not thirsty, turn around when you are 1/2 through your water (at the latest), don’t conserve water to prolong your hike. You’ll get dehydrated even if you don’t feel hot because it’s dry and that alone will dehydrate you. If you get dehydrated you’ll start panicking and getting confused and making bad decisions. Drink water continuously to prevent this. If you’re reading this thinking I’m exaggerating, you could definitely be the next victim of the desert. Stay safe.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The fact it took him little to no contemplation to just kill his friend because he asked in a moment of weakness is crazy

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

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?

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. As they say, 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

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.

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'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.

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.

Truly a disturbing and sad story. Preparation is the #1 rule. And locating devices are a must. 😢

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?

I wouldn’t want the other person to die because I’d be left alone. That to me would be most terrifying.

Another thought: it's possible with the vomiting that the friend was having a severe dehydration migraine and genuinely believed he was imminently dying.

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.

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.

Hate those AI videos, that ranger had an eye that kept flickering from blue to brown

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 👍🏻👍🏻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

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!

I hate hiking, I don't even hike, but I like Kyle Hates Hiking. Satire!

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.

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.

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.)

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.❤

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

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.

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? 🤷‍♀️

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.

I've always thought this guy was guilty of murder. That hasn't changed.

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.

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 😢

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.

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.

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.

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

The AI looks like crap. Stick with stock footage man.

Kyle, I swear even your commercials are getting better and better! Love your videos! Always well done and interesting!😊

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.

Eleven year old kids making a politically incorrect comment on a Facebook post in the UK get more prison time than that.

18:29 He had the strength to kill his friend, to move his body and then bury him..........

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.

He was physically fine but mentally he might have thought he was helping his friend.

I'm a female solo hiker, and I don't apologize for that, but I'm sick and tired of the bad rap we get every time that a tragedy like this happens. It is true, that some people believe that hiking is easy , and they just go unprepared, no physical condition to deal with the longest days, and some of them don't even let people know that they are going on a hiking trip. We, the hikers, prepare and go over several times to the preparations before we go to hike the trails. Besides, the safety devices, food and clothing, we always let our family and friends the routes, almost exactly time that we will in different points, where we will stay overnight, where we will get our drop outs, and coordinate the times that I will be calling whenever I will be able to do so. We also, be sure that our families have a copy of our route and the shelters on our way. We are passionate people who love the wilderness and adventures. So please, don't judge us for what some idiots do. Leave us alone!!!

Everyone hates hiking after watching these! 😁

Killed for the last water? Just a thought..

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

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.

Vid basically starts at 8:50 🤙🏼

One can't help but wonder if Coughlin wasn't unwelcome competition for dwindling resources.

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.

When you said, “I killed him!” I literally gasped!

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.

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.

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.

Finally! Lol ur back! 😂 was getting tired of the compilation videos bro, lol so I'm glad for the new content 👍

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 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.

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?

Here we go! The day just got better!

they are some weird best friends. but i can see it from a point. some best friends would kill each other to save. some best friends stop talking to each other or clean up their flats. not all best friends, are best friends we've learnt in medias.

These 2 men are either absolutely incompetent or 1 is pure evil. You decide. Looks like incompetence on steroids to me.

I’m gonna say it cause apparently nobody else is thinking it, I think he’s lying. I think he murdered his friend for another reason. if the family wants to believe he was being an altruistic, best friend then they can go ahead and do that if it makes them feel better. But I think he intentionally murdered his friend, not helped him by ending his suffering.

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.

In regards to the questionably short recovery time prior to being carted off to jail: Law enforcement REGULARLY takes people who are realistically not anywhere near well enough to leave a hospital, out of hospitals to lock them up. Loads of people get taken out and then wind up dying from complications in detention pretty regularly.

Why are the videos AI generated now

Get in here everyone!

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!!

I'm not surprised by this. Over dramatic modern men who can't take a little bit of suffering make overdramatic decisions.

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

i would not even call myself a hiker but i am a huge proponent of being prepared. Hubby always laughs at how much water i pack just for a short hike. i’m learning more from watching you and i feel i can be more prepared. so, thank you! i also bought apple ultra 2 watch that backtracks your steps…i tried it out and it was awesome.

Great breakdown of a heartbreaking story. Glad you are back.

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.

I remember when this happened and watched the trial on TV. It was so heartbreaking , they were so close to their car and it seemed they were just so unprepared. It seemed maybe the guy that lived had drank more of the water they did have on them because he was in better shape and not suffering as much as the the man who was killed. It's just so sad.

Kyle, I think you are onto something here... As for the delay by the Rangers, the question I often ask myself is, "How often are those overnight camping permits reviewed by authorities for overdue hikers?" I have long suspected that the permits that I can see in the secured boxes at trailheads have been there for awhile. Just sayin'.....

One question comes to mind, were the empty water bottles found at the campsite? Two guys, not enough water for even one. One gets stabbed, the other doesn't die from dehydration. If the bottles were at the camp, it could be that they still had some had water in them when they gave up hope, and it was murder over the last of the water.

the AI art is offputting otherwise love yr stuff

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.

I remember hearing about this but I know you’re going to tell an amazing story.

I think it’s easy to judge the actions of others when you’ve never experienced that type of desperation, and when you know the final outcome. But when they were in it, they didn’t know rescue was right around the corner, I’ve watched a couple of videos on this that really go into the details of Raffis experience, and it sounds horrific. They both thought they would die, painfully, slowly, horribly. I think there are a lot more people in this world who would beg for release from that if they thought that was the only option they had left.

Am I crazy, or is some of the background footage used AI generated? I first noticed it at 0:10 , but the most obvious AI art seems to be at 1:11... Doesn't look human at all

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.

Sounds like he killed his friend so he could have all the water to himself. JMO

You asked about why Raffi was more lucid, my opinion is that he hoarded the water for himself, freaked out and you know the rest. If David's parent choose to believe Raffi story, then, we have no say in the matter.

Who said he didn't have the strength to end his own life? They both , apparently, thought they were going to die. Dehydration plays tricks on ones mind. Gmafknbrk.

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.

I don't know man.. it really seems to me that when they realized they were lost and started trying to conserve water... one of them started thinking "every man for himself" and wrote some journal entries to try and cover up what he did about that thought. I agree about the boulders, how could you have the energy? Unless you were trying to cover up the horrible crime you just committed.. figuratively and literally.

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.

Well did he at least write in the journal that he wanted to be killed? Still, no way I’d do that!

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.

Had i been in this situation, i would have asked to die also. Hell no am I going camping in the desert. Maybe, like me, he was more scared of suffering than death. Its very strange though.

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.

Nothing to do with the story really...but anyone else insanely tired of CGI and now AI generated graphics? Ughhh

12:12 thank you so much for saying this. I taught outdoor survival skills for years and this was one of the hardest myths to kill among my students. NEVER DRINK YOUR OWN URINE IN A SURVIVAL SITUATION UNLESS YOU CAN DISTILL IT SOMEHOW. Your body wanted to get rid of those salts/whatever else was in your urine so badly, your body knew it was so important to get rid of that stuff to maintain homeostasis, that it used the vital reserves of water to flush it out of your system, even though you're already dehydrated. You really think the best thing is to put that at back in your body? No. Drink contaminated water (not salt water, but water with poop etc even a dead animal can still flush your system and keep you from dying by dehydration for longer , giving you a chance to hike out/get rescued) before you drink urine, because water borne pathogens generally take a while to take hold in your system and that may keep you alive long enough to get medical help. But your urine is just going to kill you faster... Again unless you have a means of distilling it and getting the salts out. Also, never conserve water. Don't pound it, but drink when you're thirsty. People have been found, DEAD OF DEHYDRATION, with water on their body. They were trying to save water and died because of it. Ever hour without water is an hour closer to your death, your brain is affected, you won't make as good decisions if you're dehydrated... So drink when you're thirsty, don't save it. Food is the opposite though, you should conserve that. Processing food takes a lot of water, so if you don't have water, don't eat. Eating will dehydrate you faster. And finally when you do get to unlimited water through rescue/a return to civilization, try to limit yourself to a capful every 5 minutes until your stomach feels settled, and consider a nibble of potato or something with a little potassium to help your body absorb the water, that can stop the dry heaving (I know this from personal experience). And yeah what the hell was this fool doing stacking rocks if he was that dehydrated. Doesn't add up.