Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Dubinina, Krivonischenko, Thibeaux-Brignolles, and Slobodin having a good time.
Nine ski-hikers died mysteriously in the Ural Mountains that are now known as the Dyatlov Pass incident. On the night of the incident, February 1, 1959, the hikers enjoyed dinner and prepared to sleep after setting up their camp. However, the group mysteriously never returned.
25 days later, after there was still no communication from the hikers like they said would hap[en when they arrived, searchers found the group's tent. They found that the tent had been ripped open from the inside. There were footprints surrounding the area. The searchers could tell from the footprints that some left with shoes on, and some left with only socks, or just went completely barefoot. These footprints led all the way to the edge of the nearby woods, and this was the location where the first 2 bodies, Yuri Krivonischenko, 23, and Yuri Doroshenko, 21. were found. They were shoeless and wearing only underwear.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A view ofthe tent as the rescuers found it on February 26, 1959
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The bodies of Yuri Krivonischenko and Yuri Doroshenko.
At first, the body bore the marks of hypothermia. But after examining the two bodies found, and the seven others later found, the examiners were able to determine that hypothermia wasn't the cause of death, if not already seen by finding the bodies at the scene. The evidence found didn't make any sense. One body had evidence of a blunt force trauma consistent with a brutal assault; another had third-degree burns; one had been vomiting blood; one was missing a tongue, and some of their clothing was found to be radioactive. Some were even missing their eyes.
Nikolai Thibeaux-Brignolles, 23, suffered significant skull damage in the moments before his death while Lyudmila Dubinina, 20, and Semyon Zolotaryov, 38, had major chest fractures that could only have been caused by an immense force comparable to that of a car crash. Dubinina was missing her tongue, eyes, part of her lips, as well as facial tissue and a fragment of her skull bone.
The most mysterious part of this is that the clothes of both Kolevatov and Dubinina showed evidence of being radioactive. However, the Russian government closed the case quickly, saying that natural disaster was the culprit. Soviets also suspected that the hikers' deaths were the result of an ambush by the local Mansi tribesmen. However, this was quickly ruled out due to the fact that the Mansi Tribesmen were very peaceful. The trauma caused to the bodies of the group exceeded the amount of strength that a human could cause.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The bodies of Kolevatov and Zolotaryov.
There was a theory that the group was killed by an avalanche, however, there was no record of one, and there was no evidence in the surrounding area suggesting that there was one. Another theory was that there was an argument among the group that got out of hand, possibly related to a romantic encounter. There was a history of dating between the members. however, everyone knew them to be very harmonious. None of these theories made sense to people because the force involved in some of the deaths was, again, greater than that which any human could inflict. Some began to claim that the hikers were killed by a menk, a kind of Russian yeti, to account for the immense force and power necessary to cause the injuries to three of the hikers.
Others who looked at the reports of there being small amounts of radiation detected on some of the bodies began to think wild theories that the hikers had been killed by some sort of secret radioactive weapon after stumbling into secret government testing. Those who liked this idea followed it because of the way the bodies looked at the funeral, the corpses had a slightly orange, withered cast.
In the end, the hikers' deaths were officially attributed to "a compelling natural force," and the case was closed.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
