WEBVTT - S02 Episode 4: When the Snow Melts pt.2 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:13.320 Knee deep in snow by the banks of the Lozva River, 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.400 Boris slops off, pulled the hood up over his head, 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.480 and tied the flaps of his hat down tightly below 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:23.000 his chin. It was all he could do to stop 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:25.680 the incessant pelting of his face by the flecks of 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:30.800 snow being whipped up relentlessly by the wind. In the distance, 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.080 he can hear the repetitive, dull chop of helicopter blades. 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.560 The sound gets closer and closer, until eventually the olive 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:43.720 green m I four finally comes into view. Squinting now 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.800 into the sun, he watches as it makes a slow, 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:50.960 lumbering turn across the sky, before settling over the Lozva 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:56.440 and forging a path straight towards him. And then, just 0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:59.120 as it's about to fly above his head, it makes 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:02.800 a sharp bank to the right. Boris is close enough 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:06.280 to see the copilot wave before throwing something out of 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:12.280 the cockpit. Boris watches as the object drops from the sky, 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:16.880 its red ribbon flapping manically as it falls, before nestling 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:21.200 in the snow meters away from Boris's feet. He hurries 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:25.040 over and pulls the canister free unscrewing the cap to 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:29.880 find a message for his team lodged inside. It tells 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.600 them to head towards the Auspia River, roughly three kilometers 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:38.200 to the south. It is Wednesday, February the twenty fifth, 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.679 exactly four weeks since Yuri Yuden was forced to abandon 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:45.640 Eager Diatlov and the eight other friends he had been 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:50.000 accompanying as part of an expedition towards O'tauton Mountain in 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:54.480 the Russian Urals. It had been a painful decision for Yuri, 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.160 but one perhaps not quite as painful as the crippling 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:01.520 effects of rheumatism that had plagued him throughout the journey 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:04.280 and in the end left him with little choice but 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:09.080 to turn back. Urie had last been with the group 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:13.320 in the north to settlement an old, abandoned geological site 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.520 from which they were due to strike out towards O'torton 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.679 Mountain a short time after they had said their goodbyes. 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:23.760 The team had been expected to arrive back in their 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:29.120 hometown of spurred Lovsk on February the thirteenth, almost two 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:35.760 weeks ago, but the team had never returned. Twenty two 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:38.920 year old Boris Slobsov is a friend of Eagers and 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.200 a member of the same hiking club. He too had 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:46.280 planned to one day make the hike to O'tauton Mountain, 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:49.720 but never could he have imagined it would be under 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:54.520 circumstances such as these. Boris had been one of the 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:58.360 first to volunteer to help find the team, after concerns 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:02.320 had been voiced about their whereabouts. The alarm had been 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:06.120 raised by anxious parents on the thirteenth, but it would 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:09.480 be almost another week before hiking club officials deem it 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:13.680 a serious concern worthy of a formal search and rescue operation. 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.400 It was, after all, not uncommon for such lengthy hikes 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.160 to suffer the odd one or two days delay, But 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:25.160 when a whole week later there is still no word 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.399 from the team, it is clear that something has gone 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:40.720 drastically wrong. The Ural Polytechnic's first response is to dispatch 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:45.480 hiking club director Lev Gordo and young Yurie Blinov, who 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.480 had traveled part way with the Diatlov team prior to 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:52.480 their disappearance, to undertake a quick air surveillance of the 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:58.200 team's probable route. Meanwhile, in Evedale, the town closest to 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.600 where the team was last seen, A criminal investigation is 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:08.080 opened up, led by local prosecutor Vasili Tempolov. A three 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:13.240 pronged attack is established when experienced hiker Yevgeny Maslennikov is 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:17.839 also enlisted to help run things on the ground. Yevgeny, 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.320 who was well aware of Eager and his compatriots, having 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.880 initially helped them to plan their route, wastes little time 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:30.120 in joining the search. On the twenty fourth, Tempolov agrees 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:32.880 to open up the search to include all possible routes 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:36.800 taken by Tiatlov's team, and by now, with news of 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:41.240 the team's disappearance spreading throughout the region, many volunteers have 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:44.960 come forward to offer their help, including members of the family, 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:52.400 fellow students, and workers from the local camps. The search 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.760 is given an early boost when Gordo and Blinov pick 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:58.360 up a trail that leads them to a Manzi village 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:03.919 called bartier Rova. The Manse are an indigenous people of 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:08.880 western Siberia, an area running roughly fifteen hundred kilometers from 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:13.120 the Ural Mountains to the Great Jense River in the east. 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.560 This vast stretch of land is sometimes referred to as 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.599 Ugra Land, but is now commonly known as the Kanti 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:27.720 Mansisk Autonomous District. It is believed that Manse have populated 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.960 the region since the Mesolithic Age, sharing ancestors with both 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:37.120 the people of Hungary and Finland. They are historically known 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:42.000 for their proficiency in hunting, fishing, and reindeer breeding, but 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.880 they are also a superstitious people, steeped in a rich 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:50.760 culture and folklore unique to themselves but also to this region, 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:55.279 although some have claimed an ancient lineage that goes back 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:58.600 to the Sumerians, whom many consider to be the first 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:04.240 great civilization. To look upon the Ural Mountains through the 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.880 eyes of the Mansie is to see another world hidden 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:12.039 from the view of most. It is a sacred place, 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:24.120 home to spirits and gods, and many an unsolved ancient mystery. 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.960 Although for Gordo and Glinov the trail goes cold in 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:34.120 Bartia Rova, their efforts have caught the attention of several 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:38.440 Mansie tribesmen, who, like everybody else, are deeply moved by 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:42.200 the plight of the missing students. The offer to lend 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.680 their unparalleled local knowledge and tracking skills to the search 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:51.360 is gratefully accepted. The Mansie team is led by Stepan Kurikov, 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.440 a warm hearted and hulking presence, as well as being 0:06:55.480 --> 0:07:00.200 one of the most respected of the tribal elders. A 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.480 few days later, the helicopter search team picks up ski 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:06.800 tracks heading north from the Auspire River at the bottom 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:11.360 of a mountain known as Kolat Siakl, but searches on 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.680 the ground are unable to establish any clear route before 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:18.400 bad weather brings the day's search to an end. It 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.680 is the following day when Boris Slapsov and his team 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:27.600 receive their message to search the corresponding area. Later that afternoon, 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.600 a breakthrough discovery is made when Boris locates one of 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.520 the Diatlov team's campsites on the banks of the river, 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:38.080 just to the edge of a forest. It is clear 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:40.880 that Diatlov's team would most likely have stuck out from 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:44.560 here and headed straight towards a tautumn mountain over the 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:50.200 exposed banks of Colat Siakol, But with night fast approaching 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:54.640 and the weather becoming increasingly volatile, Slobsov's team are unable 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.320 to follow suit and a force to retreat into the 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:02.920 tree line and make camp for the night. That evening, 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:06.000 as the dark closed in around them. With yet another 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:09.600 day gone, Slopsov can't help but think upon the fate 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.960 of his friends and to just what exactly might be 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:18.160 lying in wait, buried under the snow. It hasn't escaped 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:23.240 his attention either, that the name Collet Siakl translates as 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:29.200 dead Mountain. The next day, Fabruary the twenty sixth, Slopsov 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.120 suggests that the team break into pairs to widen the 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:36.560 search area. Boris joins up with fellow hiking team member 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:40.480 Mikhail's Sharavin, and together they head off in the direction 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:46.959 of O'tauton across the eastern slope of Kolet Siakl. That afternoon, 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:50.720 as the two hikers battle raging winds and minus twenty 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:54.400 degree temperatures, the hikers are three hundred meters from the 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:58.280 top of the mountain when Mikhail spots something up ahead 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.640 sticking out of the snow. It looks like a tent. 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:08.000 Getting nearer, the thing starts to reveal itself. They can 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:11.640 now clearly see the poles sticking out from underneath and 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:15.839 the south facing entrance that remains intact while the entire 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:20.439 back half has collapsed under the weight of snowfall. Boris 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:24.080 calls out hopefully for his friends, but hears nothing in 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:29.520 reply save for the fierce whistling of the wind. He 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.560 steps toward the entrance, takes a deep breath, and pulls 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:44.360 back the flap. It is with an odd mix of 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.760 relief and disappointment that Boris finds the tent completely deserted, 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.880 the relief being tempered by the fact that almost everything 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.520 that the hikers had been traveling with appeared to have 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:58.720 been left behind inside, as if the team had just 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:04.000 vanished into the But for Boris, their absence provides a 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.680 glimmer of hope that his friends might actually still be alive. 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:13.160 Pushing back on the heavy canvas, Boris and Mikhail managed 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.280 to write the tent enough to take a proper look inside. 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.720 On the floor, they find the nine backpacks belonging to 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.600 each team member, as well as each of their skis. 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:29.040 Perhaps most curiously, they find a jacket left on the 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:33.600 ground outside the tent. Boris pulls it from the snow 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:37.800 and scours the surrounding area, hoping to spot footprints or 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:41.680 any other sign of his friends, but sees only the 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:46.160 vast white emptiness, and with dark clouds beginning to roll in, 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.920 Boris and Mikhail only have a few minutes to gather 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:53.720 what they can before reluctantly being forced back to their camp. 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.440 On their return, Boris is able to send word back 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:02.160 to Evedale suggesting all search efforts be concentrated on the 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:06.360 surrounding area. A reply comes back to dig out a 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:10.320 helicopter landing site in preparation for over fifty people who 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:14.760 will be arriving the next day. It is another anxious 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:18.079 night for Boris and his team, and their attention is 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.560 constantly drawn to the items brought back from the abandoned tent. 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:26.720 The presence of the items in Boris's tent seems only 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.280 to bring the absence of their owners closer, as if 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.680 they had merely stepped outside for a moment before returning 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:38.400 to collect their things. Boris picks up the jacket and 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.840 examines the pockets, hoping for any clue as to the 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:47.440 team's whereabouts. Inside, he discovers a notebook, suggesting the jacket 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:52.160 was eager to Yatlovs. Flicking through the pages, Boris discovers 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:58.760 a photograph. It is a portrait of Zena. The following day, Friday, 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.960 the twenty seventh, the search teams converge on the newly 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:08.080 discovered campsite, including police equipped with search dogs. The ensuing 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:11.520 chaos threatens to undermine any hope of finding tracks under 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:15.319 the snow, but remarkably, one of the team find some 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:19.160 twenty meters or so from the tent, under a patch 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:24.040 of freshly fallen snow. They see them clearly now veering 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:26.920 off down the side of the hill towards the Lzva 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:32.320 River valley. But there is something very odd. Some of 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:36.520 the prints seemed bizarrely small, almost as if whoever had 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:41.000 made them had not been wearing any shoes. And there 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:44.960 is another vital discovery, a team diary kept by all 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:48.920 the members of the group to document their expedition. The 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:52.680 entries had been meticulously kept since the first day, but 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:57.440 had ended abruptly on January the thirty first, suggesting whatever 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:02.480 happened likely occurred around Ray the first, meaning the group 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:10.360 has now been missing for four weeks. Are you always 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:13.040 taking care of your family? Do you often take care 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:16.040 of others and not yourself? Now it's time to take 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.679 care of yourself, to make time for you you deserve it. 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.520 TELEDOC gives you access to a licensed therapist to help 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:26.120 you get back to feeling your best to feeling like 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:30.200 yourself again. 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That's teladoc dot com, slash Unexplained podcast Slopsov's team, 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.920 who are that morning searching the banks of the Lozva River, 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.640 are informed of the tracks found leading towards their location. 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:32.040 Boris plays out the scenario in his head until he 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.880 has transported back to the night the team left the tent. 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:40.240 He sees them now, their movements echoing through time as 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.840 they descend down the mountain and head for the shelter 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:46.840 of the same trees that he is walking among A 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.080 short time later, and Mikhail finds something strange at the 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:54.160 base of a cedar tree. Poking through the snow, he 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.320 finds the charred remains of a makeshift fire that had 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:01.320 clearly been hastily put together. He notices also that a 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:04.560 number of the tree's branches have been recently snapped off. 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.880 And then, just north of the tree, there is something 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:14.200 else sticking out of the snow, something once soft but 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:18.960 now as rigid and hard as the cedar. It is 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:24.080 a human leg. For Boris and his team, it is 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:28.160 a devastating discovery, and one that will extinguish any remaining 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:32.840 hope of finding his friends alive. But for us it 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:36.720 merely marks another beginning to this strange and bizarre tale, 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:44.400 for it is about to get very weird. Indeed, after 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:49.040 Mikhail's grew some discovery, Boris alerts mass Lennikov's team, and 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:52.320 together they carefully begin to excavate the body from the snow. 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:56.560 But as they dig further, they discover not one body, 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:01.200 but two, lying side by side together, with one face 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:05.320 down and the other face up. As the last of 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.080 the snow is pushed from one of the faces, Boris 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:12.640 recoils in horror, the mouth, nose, and eyes appear to 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:19.480 have been completely removed. Despite the apparent mutilation, Boris recognizes 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:26.240 the face instantly as Giorgi Kryvonnishenko. The other body is 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:31.800 soon revealed to be that of Yuri Dorishenko, but it's 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.600 not until the full horror of the discovery has sunk 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:38.800 in that they notice something peculiar about the clothes on 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:44.800 the bodies, or rather the lack of them. Georgy appears 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.960 not to be wearing a jacket or trousers, just one 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:53.000 checkered shirt and some swimming trunks under long underwear. Even 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:56.200 more bizarrely, the left leg of the underwear has been 0:16:56.320 --> 0:17:02.000 ripped off and his feet are completely bare. Doroshenko appears 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:06.480 somewhat better dressed, with an undershirt, check top, long underwear 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:11.960 and socks, but no shoes. His clothes also appear to 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:17.520 have been bizarrely shredded. After the discovery of the bodies, 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:20.639 the focus of the search switches quickly to the valley 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:26.080 Mancy elder Stepan Kurikov leads the search along with his 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:32.600 German shepherd sniffer dog. Another experienced hiker, Vladislav Kurelen, has 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:37.439 also joined the search. Vladislav was a medical engineer who 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.080 had cross passed with Datlov's team. As they made their 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:44.880 way towards o' taunton. Having located the first two bodies, 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:48.320 it isn't long before the German shepherd picks up another 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.960 ominous scent. Pulling hard on the leash, he drags his 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:57.320 owner across to a spot where Stepan recognizes something unnatural 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.240 about the way the birch tree shoots a sticky out 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:04.840 from the snow. The dog sniffs heavily at the spot, 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:09.720 and soon they have made another gruesome discovery, as just 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:13.200 below the surface they find an arm that appears still 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:18.200 to be pulling in desperation at the shoots. This body 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:21.080 is better dressed than the other two, complete with a sweater, 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:26.639 fur vest and ski trousers, but again extraordinarily, there are 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:33.640 no gloves and no shoes. Vladislav Korellin recognizes the face 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:41.840 of Eager Diatlov. Moments later, Evedale policeman Lieutenant Nikolay Moisiev 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:44.960 and his dog Alma are heading back from the trees 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:49.280 towards the team's tent, when Alma gets suddenly anxious and 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:54.600 begins to dig. Manikoi it is yet another body, lying 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:57.359 face down with their knees bent, as if making a 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.520 final desperate bid to crawl back to the same of 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:06.200 the tent. Moisiev turns the body over and is surprised 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:11.639 to find dried blood smeared across the faith. The body 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:27.160 will later be identified as that of Zena Kolmogorova. Yevgeny Maslennikov, 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:29.920 who by now has been made head of the entire 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:33.800 ground search operation, orders the bodies to be wrapped in 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:37.280 tarpaulin and taken to Boot Rock on the bank of 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:44.959 Kolatsiakl while they await evacuation and formal autopsy. Watching as 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:47.000 the bodies are laid out at the base of the rock, 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:51.080 Maslennikov can't help but begin to formulate his own theories 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:57.000 about just what might have taken place. For Maslennikov, it 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:59.840 appears a simple case of being caught out by the weather. 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:03.360 Perhaps one of the team stepped out of the tent 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:07.080 only to be swept away by the wind, prompting his 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:10.800 friends to make a fatal rescue attempt. Or perhaps it 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:13.440 was an avalanche that scared them from the safety of 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:19.159 their tent and left them catastrophically disorientated. Only if the 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:22.000 wind or avalanche had been so strong as to push 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.440 the hikers down the valley, why was the tent still 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:28.560 clinging so firmly to the side of the mountain, its 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:31.640 poles still standing as they would have been the day 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:36.320 they were pitched. The day after the four bodies are discovered, 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:41.040 Prosecutor Vasily Tempelof finally arrives on the scene to make 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.760 his own assessment of the evidence. He makes a note 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:48.280 of the various items found at the campsite, but also 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.480 he is the first person to notice something odd about 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:55.680 the tent itself. It may have still been standing, but 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:58.680 what no one had seemed to notice before was that 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:03.120 one side of it had been completely and unnaturally slashed 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:08.160 to pieces. But before Tempolov can get his teeth into 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.680 the investigation, he is told to step down from the operation. 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:16.920 On the morning of Sunday, March first, yet another helicopter 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:21.000 arrives at the search headquarters at the foot of Kolat Siakle. 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:26.159 The door is opened and outsteps the determined figure of 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:32.120 lev Ivanov, junior Counsel of Justice and now lead investigator 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:36.280 on the case. He adjusts his glasses and pulls his 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:39.920 jacket tighter before being led away from the chopper and 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:44.960 straight into the fray. Moments later, he is casting his 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:47.440 eyes over the makeshift fire at the base of the 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:53.600 cedar tree. Suddenly, with Ivanov on the scene, the investigation 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:57.480 seems to have taken on another guise, like something from 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:00.520 a classic detective novel. There is more than the touch 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:05.120 of the brooding, enigmatic hero about Ivanov, his thick, black 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:09.440 rimmed glasses lending a cerebral air to this intense veteran 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:14.720 of the Great Patriotic War. Immediately, he makes note of 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:17.560 a number of branches snapped from up high in the tree. 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:20.719 Perhaps one of the team climbed the tree in an 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:24.040 attempt to call the others, or maybe he had been 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:29.440 trying to escape from something. He also notices another pair 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:33.160 of footprints in the snow, suggesting that Georgi and Yuri 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:37.960 weren't alone when they died. He begins to ponder as 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:40.600 to just why they let the fire burn out if 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:46.400 there was plenty of firewood around to be used. Meanwhile, 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:50.600 Maslennikov is overseeing a team of thirty men lined up 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:54.000 shoulder to shoulder as they probe the ground with steel 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:59.480 avalanche poles. That day, they cover a region of roughly 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:06.400 thirty thousand square yards, but the search yields nothing more. Later, 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:11.680 Ivanov and Maslennikov will together analyze the abandoned tent, leaving 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:16.200 Ivanov convinced more than ever that whatever killed Diatlov's team members, 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:22.600 it wasn't the wind and it wasn't heavy snowfall. On March, 0:23:22.680 --> 0:23:25.480 the second one of the search teams comes across a 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:29.040 story shelter perched high up in the trees, laden with 0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:33.280 various supplies. It is a common practice for hiking teams 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:36.719 to unburden themselves before venturing out on the most grueling 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:39.359 part of a journey. This appears to have been the 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:44.200 case with Diatlov's team. The search party are moved to 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:48.520 find Georgy's mandolin amongst the items of food. It is 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:53.960 a stark and sudden reminder of a time before. Later 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:56.480 that day, after the news of the store camp is 0:23:56.520 --> 0:24:00.240 passed up the chain, something a little more peculiar comes 0:24:00.280 --> 0:24:04.200 to light when Maslennikov is approached by one of the searches. 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:09.400 It is Vladislav Karelin, the mountaineer who found Eager's body 0:24:09.680 --> 0:24:12.240 the previous week, and he has had something on his 0:24:12.400 --> 0:24:21.600 mind ever since. On the night of February the seventeenth, 0:24:22.440 --> 0:24:25.159 Karelin was hiking with his own team close to the 0:24:25.240 --> 0:24:28.560 trail that Dyatlov and his team had been taking when 0:24:28.640 --> 0:24:32.960 they witnessed something strange in the sky. A member of 0:24:33.040 --> 0:24:36.520 his group, Georgi at Menaki, had woken early to make 0:24:36.600 --> 0:24:40.080 breakfast when he noticed a large, bright white spot in 0:24:40.200 --> 0:24:43.600 the distance above them. He points it out to his 0:24:43.720 --> 0:24:48.880 friend Vladimir Chavkunov, believing it to be an especially bright moon, 0:24:49.960 --> 0:24:53.920 but Chavkunov was concerned there was no moon that morning, 0:24:54.600 --> 0:24:57.480 and in any case, if there had been, it would 0:24:57.480 --> 0:25:01.440 have been on the other side of the sky. Then suddenly, 0:25:01.920 --> 0:25:04.600 a spark lit in the center of the spot that 0:25:04.720 --> 0:25:08.160 seemed to burn brighter, getting bigger in sides, before flying 0:25:08.200 --> 0:25:12.400 off quickly to the west. The light would eventually get 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:15.200 so big that they believed it was going to collide 0:25:15.280 --> 0:25:19.560 with the earth and kill them all, and they weren't 0:25:19.560 --> 0:25:22.760 the only ones to see it, as many local villages 0:25:23.160 --> 0:25:28.680 would later come forward attesting to the bizarre sighting. Maslennikov 0:25:28.720 --> 0:25:31.840 agrees it is certainly something to think about, but as 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:36.200 he reminds Karelin Diatlov's team most likely died around the 0:25:36.280 --> 0:25:39.280 turn of the month, a good two weeks prior to 0:25:39.359 --> 0:25:43.920 the appearance of the strange light, but when the news 0:25:43.960 --> 0:25:47.480 reaches Ivanov, he finds it a little harder to shake. 0:25:49.000 --> 0:25:52.879 Later that afternoon, as he watches the bodies of Eager Yuri, 0:25:53.359 --> 0:25:57.840 Yorgi and Sina being loaded into the helicopter, talk of 0:25:57.880 --> 0:26:01.520 the strange lights and fire in the sky weighs heavily 0:26:01.680 --> 0:26:05.520 on his mind. It certainly wouldn't be the first time 0:26:05.680 --> 0:26:09.760 that something unknown had occurred in this nation, something perhaps 0:26:10.160 --> 0:26:15.040 carried out in secret and kept hidden from view. As 0:26:15.080 --> 0:26:18.560 he climbs in after the bodies, Maslennikov is there to 0:26:18.600 --> 0:26:20.800 see him off as the chopper lifts up into the 0:26:20.880 --> 0:26:24.040 air and flies away on its journey back to Evedale. 0:26:25.600 --> 0:26:29.120 The following day, with the search now starting to deliver results, 0:26:29.840 --> 0:26:32.440 Yuri Blinov, one of the last people to see his 0:26:32.520 --> 0:26:35.879 friends alive and who had worked so tirelessly over the 0:26:35.960 --> 0:26:39.320 past seven days to help find them, decides it is 0:26:39.400 --> 0:26:48.560 time to return home. The bodies are taken to the 0:26:48.640 --> 0:26:52.440 hospital of Labor Camp H two forty in Evedale and 0:26:52.680 --> 0:26:55.640 left to thor out before the formal autopsy can begin. 0:26:57.240 --> 0:27:00.560 Or March the fourth, the Regional Bureau of Forensic pathologist 0:27:00.960 --> 0:27:06.080 Boris Alexeyevitch vosros Deny and the city medical examiner Ivan 0:27:06.200 --> 0:27:12.520 Ivanovitch Laptev begin the procedure. Both Yury and Gyrgy display 0:27:12.640 --> 0:27:15.840 signs of burns to the side of their heads, consistent 0:27:15.920 --> 0:27:18.320 perhaps with the fact that they had fallen so close 0:27:18.480 --> 0:27:23.639 to the makeshift fire. As for Gyorgy's missing features, they 0:27:23.720 --> 0:27:26.680 are deemed likely to have been eaten by ravenous animals. 0:27:26.920 --> 0:27:32.240 Post mortem, The litany of abrasions and spots of dried 0:27:32.280 --> 0:27:35.719 blood found on all of the bodies suggest final moments 0:27:35.760 --> 0:27:38.879 of wild panic, but are not thought to be particularly 0:27:38.960 --> 0:27:43.680 suspicious given the location of where the bodies were found 0:27:44.200 --> 0:27:47.520 and the time of year. It is perhaps unsurprising when 0:27:47.560 --> 0:27:50.840 a verdict of death by hypothermia is returned on all 0:27:50.960 --> 0:27:55.399 four of the victims, and yet looking closer at the 0:27:55.440 --> 0:28:02.040 autopsy report reveals a number of peculiar findings. Skin from 0:28:02.080 --> 0:28:04.920 one of Gilgi's right knuckles is found in his mouth, 0:28:05.600 --> 0:28:09.280 suggesting he must have bitten it off himself, perhaps to 0:28:09.400 --> 0:28:12.440 force his hands to move, or as some have suggested 0:28:13.119 --> 0:28:18.440 may be to stifle a cry. Eager's body shows signs 0:28:18.480 --> 0:28:22.680 of vomiting blood, with Ury's autopsy noting signs of fluid 0:28:22.760 --> 0:28:25.920 in the lungs as well as bruises sustained by some 0:28:26.119 --> 0:28:30.400 kind of blunt trauma, and something found on Zena's back 0:28:30.720 --> 0:28:35.119 also catches the eye, a long, bright red bruise, the 0:28:35.240 --> 0:28:38.920 sort you might sustain, perhaps after being clubbed by a 0:28:39.000 --> 0:28:45.320 heavy object. Meanwhile, in a room not far away, Ury 0:28:45.440 --> 0:28:51.120 Yudin has been summoned by lead investigator lev Ivanov. Incredibly, 0:28:51.640 --> 0:28:53.600 yuden had been one of the last to learn of 0:28:53.680 --> 0:28:57.680 the rescue operation to find Datlov's team, having decided to 0:28:57.720 --> 0:29:01.760 recuperate in his hometown of emily Chevka before returning to 0:29:01.840 --> 0:29:06.360 spurred Lovsk, and now he was being given the somber 0:29:06.440 --> 0:29:09.920