When he died in 2009, John Edward Jones was only 26 years old and in the prime of his life.

The daring father-of-one grew up going on caving trips in Utah as a youngster, and just a few days before Thanksgiving that year, he and his family chose to visit Nutty Putty Cave, which is located southwest of Utah Lake and about 55 miles from Salt Lake City.

Josh, John’s brother, and a number of other friends and family members joined him at the cave because they thought the trip would be a good way to catch up before the holiday.

As the trip began, John, who was six feet tall and 200 pounds, chose to seek out a feature in the cave known as the ‘Birth Canal, a route that explorers are forced to crawl through.

John set about worming his way into the passage, thinking he’d discovered it. He crept ahead into the passage, but within minutes he recognized something was amiss.

The path wasn’t what he expected, and with the cave walls pushing in on him, John realized he was trapped.

The aperture, around 400 feet from the cave’s mouth, was about 10 inches by 18 inches, which meant he couldn’t turn around and couldn’t wriggle out backward.

John tried to expel all of the air from his chest in order to fit through a small opening, but when he breathed again, he was trapped for good.

Josh, his brother, was the first to locate him and try to pull him out, but he was unable. Josh proceeded to get assistance, but it took some time to bring the appropriate equipment down into the cave.

Over the following 24 hours, more than 100 rescue professionals arrived to try to liberate John, whose body was under extreme stress as his heart was forced to battle against his upside-down position to keep blood flowing around his body.

Rescuers used a set of pulleys to bring John a few feet out of the passage, but when one of the pulleys failed, John fell back into the gap and was imprisoned for good.

John was pronounced deceased just before midnight on November 25, 2009, owing to cardiac arrest.

A week after John’s death, officials sealed up the cave with his body still inside, fearing that additional people would perish in the narrow corridors.

The cave is now a memorial to John’s terrible demise.