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Hiking can be a relaxing way to connect with nature and get some exercise, but for one woman, it was an activity that would put her life at risk. She thought nothing would go wrong on a normal walk through the wilderness, but when she was out there things took a quick turn for the worst. After a few bad decisions and unlucky occurrences, this brave woman found herself in a life or death situation...
Amanda's Journey
On May 8th, 2019 Amanda Eller's life was forever changed. The 35-year-old physical therapist and yoga instructor was a resident of Hawaii. She loved living a life by the ocean, and the location definitely had its perks. One of her favorite pastimes was walking along the many intricate trails that go through the dense forestry of the islands. She decided one day to wander through the Makawao Forest...
Makawao Forest Reserve
The hike wasn't exactly meant for beginners. The long and arduous hike was certainly one that would take a little more skill than Amanda was used to. The forest covers about 2,000 acres. On this land, visitors will find dangerous ravines, lava rocks, interwoven ferns, dense vegetation, and other natural elements that might require a machete to chop through...
No Wrong Turns
Amanda was determined to complete the trail as normal. Even though her friends warned her that if she made any wrong turns she might not get out alive, but Amanda felt pretty confident that she could follow the marked path. Plus, it was only 2.7 miles away from any civilization, so in the worst-case scenario, she could just walk back to there...right?
Heading Out
Despite the cautionary tales and worried friends, Amanda went on the journey all by herself. In order to fully check out and give her attention to nature, she left her cell phone locked in her parked car at the forest's edge. She figured she wouldn't manage to get far in just one day, so she didn't think too much about the choice. She would later come to regret this decision...
New Direction
She had planned on hiking for only three miles, but those three miles started adding up. She decided to go off the path just a little bit to sit near a waterfall. How nice! She recharged looking at the natural beauty, but once she was well-rested and ready to start again, she noticed something strange. She had no clue which direction she had come from. She headed one way but didn't recognize any of her surroundings. She was beginning to panic...
Desperate Search
Amanda wasn't an avid outdoorswoman, rather, she was a physical therapist and a yoga instructor. She was definitely lost, but she wouldn't be able to survive in this wilderness! She was trapped in a dense forest without her phone, any sense of where she was, or any way to get back to safety. She knew she had to take action immediately, so she started to search for a way back...
Day One
Amanda was trying desperately to get back to safety. She hiked all day long, from 10:30 AM to a little while past midnight. She had to stop when the forest around her started to scare her. She heard rustling bushes and footsteps, and while she knew it was probably just a deer or some other woodland creature, she was still afraid of these not-so-great outdoors...
Desperate Search
Amanda knew that she was on a ticking clock. She could survive without her phone and car forever, but she needed water immediately. She needed to stay hydrated, or risk death. She had no idea if anyone was searching for her. Did they even know she was missing, or in any danger at all? She couldn't wait around for help, she had to help herself by surviving...
Happy Hydration
Drinking water could be the difference between life and death for Amanda. She knew that water was vitally important. Most people can only survive somewhere between a few days and a week without hydrating. Since Amanda was already pretty active, she could probably last longer than most, but she didn't want to risk her health any more than she already was...
Bad to Worse
Just when she thought things couldn't get any worse, they did. Amanda was on the search for water when she heard the bubble of a stream nearby. Desperate for any sustenance, she sprinted towards the sound, but she went too quickly. In her effort to get to the river, she fell off a 20-foot cliff hiding in the center of the forest. She tumbled all the way to the ground...
Broken Foot
Her wild experience went from bad to worse. She had broken her foot in the fall, as well as earned a collection of cuts, scrapes, and bruises. She also tore the meniscus in her knee. Her situation was worsening. How was she supposed to find food in this condition? How was she even supposed to stay safe, to hide from predators, and get back to safety? Things were looking grim...
Staying Alive
In the fetal position near the base of the river, Amanda was able to keep herself alive, but barely. She sustained herself by eating wild strawberries, guavas, unidentified plants, other mysterious greens, and moths. She was weak but still breathing, and that was enough for now. She knew she had to keep moving, so she began crawling away from her safety site...
What a Boar
During the night time hours, the woman kept herself alive by covering her sleeping body in ferns, leaves, and dirt. This way, she could retain body heat during the cold seaside nights. She slept in the heart of the darkness, which was mostly fine, until the night that she encountered a wild boar in her camp. She had fallen asleep in its den, and she was about to pay the price...
Search Party
While Amanda was busy figuring out how to defeat the boar, she had no idea that a search and rescue party had been sent out for her. A collection of volunteer rescuers were searching for her after discovering her car packed with her phone and wallet. They knew this could only mean trouble had been brewing, so unbeknownst to her, if she was able to hold on a little longer, she might be saved...
Dedicated to the Cause
The team wasn't just looking outside though, they were also cutting open animals in search of Amanda Eller. If she was eaten by a boar, she would still be visible in the intestines. Remains were not found in any of the beasts, which indicated she was still alive. They kept up with the search, they were determined to find the missing woman...dead or alive...
Super Searching
The clock was ticking and Amanda still hadn't been found. Police were worried she wasn't just missing, maybe she had been taken. The Eller family wanted to find Amanda so much that they offered a $50,000 reward for any information about where she went. Weeks passed and no one came forward with anything that seemed helpful. It seemed like there was no hope left...
Finally Found
An hour after the Eller family announced they would be offering the massive reward, Amanda was scavenging in the forest for food when she saw a helicopter. She had been in the forest for seventeen days with no sign of civilization, so this was a comforting sight. She finally had a positive development. Maybe her situation wasn't so helpless after all...
Spotting Amanda
Though many helicopters had scoured the forest, only one spotted Amanda, and it was the same one that she spotted! Amanda realized that she would finally be pulled out of her living nightmare, and started crying tears of joy and relief. She would no longer have to crawl for water, eat moths, or sleep under leaves. Her leg might be able to get fixed too...
Rescue Mission
When she was discovered, Amanda was almost 20 pounds lighter. She was deeply malnourished, covered in dirt and grime, had severe leg injuries and several sunburns. Thankfully though, she was alive and didn't seem to suffer severe mental distress. She even called her experience a "spiritual journey" before she was airlifted to a hospital in the local area...
Barely Alive
Rescuers were in shock seeing her condition. They reported that she had been found in a treacherous area, several miles away from where the team had been initially searching. Javier Canetellops was the one in charge of the mission, and he was very determined to finally find the missing woman. He had a little bit of extra motivation though...
Familiar Faces
Javier Cantellops wasn't just a special operations officer, he was also a dear friend to Amanda. The officer had been in the army, completing tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a result of his war injuries, he returned home to many physical issues and went to Amanda for physical therapy. She had helped him out several times before, and now, he wanted to help her too...
Close Friends
Javier couldn't emphasize enough how much she meant to him. "She has been my home. That is why when this happened, I got super emotional because she’s been my house and I said ‘I have to find her.'" And with the help of many other friends and family members, Amanda was finally able to be found and saved. If they had waited any longer, she might not have made it out alive...
Road to Recovery
"I am forever indebted and overwhelmed by the number of people that came out to help me," said Amanda during a recovery interview "It was pretty miraculous." Still, it would be a long time until she was fully healed from the events. Luckily, she had a great support system that stayed with her while she was in the hospital. She'd be better in no time at all...
Safe for Now
Thankfully, Amanda Eller has since made a full recovery. She's back to her job in physical therapy and is also back to teaching yoga on the beach. She says that it was hope that kept her alive during those fateful days. Without that, she would have never been able to keep going. While Amanda's tale is pretty incredible, it's nothing in comparison to another crazy survival story...
Secret Underground
The Parisian catacombs are famous for their deep tunnels that have taken countless lives. In fact, they're so intricate and dangerous, that no one has ever come out alive. In the 1990s, though, one man was determined to be the first to go past this "point of no return." The network of hundreds of miles of caves was daunting, but he was confident in his abilities...
Illegal Activity
Exploring the depths of the catacombs is extremely illegal since no one has ever survived them. However, the man was a self-described "cataphile," which meant that he had a passion for discovering the truth of the catacombs. There are 2 kilometers available for tourists to look through, but anything more was too big a risk since the catacombs were also not structurally sound. The man ignored all this though...
Diving Deep
On his journey, the man brought along a video camera to document his adventures. He managed not to show his face or expose his identity, due in part to the legal repercussions for going so deeply into the caves. He was hoping to discover a hidden secret. No one knew about his mission, and no one reported him missing. His identity, to this day, is still unknown...
Gone But Not Forgotten
For years, no one knew, and the man disappeared like many others before he had done. Years after his disappearance, others came into the caverns, past the point of no return. They didn't go as deep inside and discovered his camera on their journey. It was covered and dirt and dust. They almost didn't recognize it as a video camera at first. When they saw the footage, they were aghast...
Francis Freedland
The explorers handed the footage over to a documentary filmmaker with more experience. His name was Francis Freedland. He started researching soon after getting the tapes. Freedland's first mission was to discover the man's identity. Since his camera was found in a 3-mile long hallway, the only explanation was that he had gone deeper to the end or had vanished...
Creating the Crew
The camera crew agreed to help Freedland find the body. They accepted the risk associated, both legal fines and their lives on the line, and went after the mystery man. They began at a well-known access point on the outskirts of Paris (the catacombs have several entrances). They hopped a cement wall into the guarded area and began their descent...
First Landmark
The team spotted their first landmark after 3 hours of walking. They discovered a pile of bones, stacked to look like arrows that were laid on the ground. This was probably done so the video man could find his way back. Weirdly though, this was the only landmark that he made for himself, at least as far as filmmakers could tell. But they still had a ways to go, and the catacombs were getting smaller and smaller...
Giving Up
After about 6 hours of walking, the team was getting tired and bored. They figured they'd never find him, but then they saw another clue from the video--a human outline was etched onto a stone. What could this mean, and who drew it? This was the final frame of the video footage, so clearly whatever was next in the corridor could make or break them...
Strange Markings
Around this area of the catacombs, the team came across several strange wall pictures. They also discovered deep water, which made sense due to how far underground they went. They decided this was a good stopping point and turned around to go back. They had walked over 17 miles and all they had found were some wall markings and water...which might have given them everything they needed...
Making History
Freedland and his crew had theoretically covered more ground in the catacombs than ever before. However, they didn't even scratch the surface of the many miles of catacombs. With regularly flooded hallways, poor structure supports, and falling ceilings, it's amazing any of them escaped with their lives. But what about the mystery video man?
No Real Answers
Although they searched for days and hours, the crew never came out with a firm explanation of what happened to the man. There is some belief that he could have drowned in the deep waters they discovered, or died by a falling ceiling piece, but that didn't explain how the footage reached back to the starting point. For now, this mystery man remains just that...a mystery...