WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:03.434 December, nineteen ninety-six. Arizona. 00:00:04.234 --> 00:00:09.506 Three cavers are about an hour into a cave, when they come upon something lying in the passage. 00:00:10.306 --> 00:00:14.884 A book of matches. Every match in it has been burned. And so has the book itself. 00:00:15.684 --> 00:00:20.567 Eight feet further on, there is a lamp. An electric miner's lamp. It does not work. 00:00:21.367 --> 00:00:24.085 And in a side passage nearby, a set of keys. 00:00:25.585 --> 00:00:36.336 This is Caving Stories: true stories of cave rescue and survival. Today, Black Cave, Arizona, and the light one man had left. This story ends in a death. 00:00:37.836 --> 00:00:39.784 The story starts twenty months earlier. 00:00:40.584 --> 00:00:47.793 In April of nineteen ninety-five, a man named Thomas Edward Benning went into Black Cave, Arizona. He went alone. 00:00:48.593 --> 00:00:57.626 The accident report of the National Speleological Society calls it a solo exploration trip. It also says that he had been in the cave several times before. 00:00:58.426 --> 00:01:02.219 He had no helmet. For light, he carried an electric miner's lamp. 00:01:03.019 --> 00:01:06.471 He had told his wife that he was going caving. He had not told her where. 00:01:07.971 --> 00:01:16.853 A short distance into Black Cave, there is a large rock. Behind it, a passage leads out of the entrance room. The report calls that passage somewhat obscure. 00:01:17.653 --> 00:01:18.660 That is the way he went. 00:01:19.460 --> 00:01:27.367 About an hour into the cave, he left the normal travel route. He went through a crawl, and into an area of cave that had not been explored. 00:01:28.167 --> 00:01:35.407 What happened next, nobody saw. The report puts it carefully. It is believed that he had become lost, and was searching for the way out. 00:01:36.907 --> 00:01:38.452 At some point, his lamp failed. 00:01:39.252 --> 00:01:40.462 He left it in the passage. 00:01:41.262 --> 00:01:46.113 Then, the report says, he apparently tried to make his way out using matches for light. 00:01:46.913 --> 00:01:50.877 When the matches were gone, he apparently went on searching. In the dark. 00:01:51.677 --> 00:02:00.737 He left things behind him as he went. Various objects, in the passages. The report says: possibly to mark the route, as he searched for the exit. 00:02:01.537 --> 00:02:07.999 Eventually, he climbed down into a tight fissure. It was four feet deep. And there, he became stuck. 00:02:09.499 --> 00:02:14.264 When he had not come home by the next day, his wife called the police, and reported him missing. 00:02:15.064 --> 00:02:20.950 His vehicle was found at the parking spot for Black Cave. The same spot serves several other, smaller caves. 00:02:21.750 --> 00:02:28.151 The area was searched. And in the entrance room of Black Cave, the searchers found his shirt, and his sunglasses. 00:02:28.951 --> 00:02:37.317 Local search and rescue teams were sent into the cave several times. But they were not familiar with the cave. They did not find the opening behind the rock. 00:02:38.117 --> 00:02:44.839 There were people who did know it. Cavers had quietly been mapping Black Cave for some time. The report calls it a secret project. 00:02:45.639 --> 00:02:49.537 Those cavers were never notified. Nobody called them to help in the search. 00:02:51.037 --> 00:02:59.359 On the fourteenth of December, nineteen ninety-six, three cavers entered Black Cave. Bill Graff, Elizabeth Robb, and Dale Green. 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:06.732 About an hour into their trip, they found the book of matches. Then, eight feet further down the passage, the lamp. 00:03:07.532 --> 00:03:17.219 In the side passage nearby, they noticed the set of keys. The insole of a shoe. A torn trash bag. Some clothing, torn into strips. And a straw. 00:03:18.019 --> 00:03:26.042 They went on with their trip. About three hours later, on their way out, they came back to the same place, and decided to explore that side passage. 00:03:26.842 --> 00:03:29.886 It was about three feet wide, and eighteen inches high. 00:03:30.686 --> 00:03:35.686 Elizabeth Robb led the way. She found a shoe in the passage. Then, a sock. 00:03:36.486 --> 00:03:41.728 A short distance further, she came upon what looked, at first, like a clump of fur. 00:03:42.528 --> 00:03:43.392 It was not fur. 00:03:44.192 --> 00:03:48.767 They had found Thomas Edward Benning, wedged in a crevice in the floor of the passage. 00:03:50.267 --> 00:03:59.242 The three cavers photographed the place. They took the keys, to help identify him. And on their way out, they left reflective markers, to show the route back. 00:04:00.042 --> 00:04:02.621 Then they reported what they had found to the sheriff's office. 00:04:03.421 --> 00:04:06.039 The recovery took three more trips into the cave. 00:04:06.839 --> 00:04:11.138 During it, his wallet was found in the crevice. That is how he was identified. 00:04:12.638 --> 00:04:14.900 He was found about twenty months after he went in. 00:04:15.700 --> 00:04:22.449 The report files the case under four headings. Solo caving. Lost. Light failure. Fatality. 00:04:23.249 --> 00:04:36.643 This story also circulates online as a short video. That version adds deep scratches in the rock, and a search that lasted for weeks. Neither is in the report. The report says only that search teams went in several times. 00:04:37.443 --> 00:04:43.399 Everything in this episode comes from that one report. And the report ends with three sentences of its own. 00:04:44.899 --> 00:04:47.900 It is unknown how long Benning was trapped before he died. 00:04:48.700 --> 00:04:52.952 It is possible that he was still alive when searchers found his shirt in the entrance. 00:04:53.752 --> 00:05:03.011 And had cavers been called in at that point, with their map, their experience, and their knowledge of the cave, it is possible that he might have been found alive, and rescued. 00:05:06.011 --> 00:05:15.326 The source for this episode is in the show notes. This was Caving Stories. If this one stayed with you, follow the show in your podcast app, so the next case comes to you.