When Kyle Marsh appeared at the entrance to the RERS’s office in August 2023, he was almost unrecognizable, barefoot, emaciated, with a beard down to his chest and wearing torn coyote skin instead of clothes.

The man who had disappeared 5 years ago with his best friend in one of the most inaccessible parts of the Grand Canyon, the man who was presumed dead.

But the most frightening thing was not how he looked.

The most frightening thing was what he said about those 5 years, about what happened to his friend and about who still lives in the depths of the canyon.

On April 12th, 2018, Kyle Marsh and Brandon Lowry left Las Vegas at in the morning.

Kyle, 27, worked as a photographer for a local newspaper.

Brandon, 29, was a commercial real estate photographer.

Both were passionate about landscape photography and planned to spend a week in Grand Canyon National Park, photographing sunrises and sunsets from littleknown spots on the eastern edge of the canyon.

They chose the Hance Creek Trail, one of the most difficult and isolated trails in the park.

This route requires a special permit and is considered suitable only for experienced hikers.

The trail is 12 mi one way and the descent to the Colorado River takes 6 to 8 hours.

Kyle and Brandon obtained a permit for a 7-day hike from April 11th to 18th.

They registered at the Ranger Station in Desert View on Thursday, April 11 at 300 p.m.

Ranger Maria Solano, who conducted the briefing, noted in the log that the hikers had the necessary equipment, including a GPS navigator, satellite phone, and 7 days worth of water.

Kyle listed his sister, Sarah Marsh of Reno, as his contact person, and Brandon listed his mother, Linda Lowry, of the same city.

The route plan involved descending to the river via the Hance Creek Trail with a stop at base camp at Hance Creek, then exploring the side canyons in search of interesting angles for filming.

The last confirmed contact with the outside world was on April 14th at a.m.

Kyle sent a text message to his sister via satellite phone.

Everything is fine.

Great views.

Brandon shot an amazing sunset yesterday.

Tomorrow we’re going to explore the side canyons east of camp.

We may be out of contact for a day or two.

Don’t worry.

That was their last message.

On April 18th, when the hikers did not show up at the appointed return time, Kyle’s sister contacted the park ranger service.

The initial search began that same day.

A team of rangers followed the main Hance Creek trail to the base camp at the creek where they found the remains of a campfire and several tin cans, but no signs of recent human activity.

The tent and most of the equipment were missing.

On April 19th, the search continued with the assistance of a helicopter and the Cookanino County Search and Rescue team.

No traces of the hikers were found in the area of the Hance Creek Trail and adjacent side canyons.

On April 21st, Kyle’s vehicle, a red 2014 Jeep Wrangler, was found parked on an old access road to the Red Canyon Overlook, approximately 4 miles from the official start of the Hance Creek Trail.

The vehicle was locked and the keys were missing.

Inside the car were the vehicle registration documents, a national park road map, and an empty plastic water bottle.

No notes or indications of the tourists plans were found.

The GPS tracker in the car showed that it had arrived at this location on April 11th at p.m.

and had not moved since.

A large-scale search continued until April 28th.

The operation involved National Park Rangers, volunteers from Arizona and Nevada search and rescue teams, two helicopters, and a team of dogs specially trained to search for people in rough terrain.

The search covered an area with a radius of 15 mi from the hiker’s presumed route, including the main Hance Creek Trail and dozens of side canyons and gorgees.

Searchers checked all known caves, rock overhangs, and places where hikers could have sought shelter from the weather.

No signs of Kyle Marsh and Brandon Lowry were found.

An official investigation determined that unstable weather conditions prevailed in the Grand Canyon area between April 11th and 14th.

Daytime temperatures ranged from 18 to 24° C at the rim of the canyon and from 28 to 35° at the bottom.

Nighttime temperatures dropped to 4° at the rim and 15° by the river.

On April 13th, the area experienced a brief rain shower with an intensity of up to 12 millimeters per hour, which could have created hazardous conditions on the slippery trails.

On April 14th and 15th, strong winds blew at speeds of up to 45 km hour.

Detective Robert Campbell of the Cookanino County Sheriff’s Office, who was investigating the disappearance, compiled a detailed report on the last known movements of the hikers.

According to gas station records, Kyle and Brandon refueled in the town of Tusen at noon on April 11th.

Gas station cashier Jennifer Rodriguez later identified them from photographs and confirmed that they had purchased extra batteries and energy bars.

At the Desert View Park grocery store, they purchased canned food and dried fruit at 2 p.m.

that same day.

Salesman Mike Torres remembered them because they took a long time to choose their food and discussed the weight of their backpacks.

The families of the missing hikers hired private investigator David Stone, a former FBI agent who specializes in finding missing people in national parks.

Stone conducted an independent investigation for 3 weeks in May 2018.

He interviewed all hikers and park employees who were in the Hance Creek Trail area between April 11th and 15th.

A family of tourists from California, James and Barbara Miller, reported seeing two young people with camera equipment on the trail on the morning of April 12th, but could not identify them with certainty.

Ranger Thomas Wilson, who patrolled the eastern part of the canyon, did not encounter anyone on the Hunts Creek Trail after April 11th.

Stone also investigated the possibility that the hikers may have deviated from their stated route.

Analysis of other hikers GPS tracks and cell tower data showed that there is virtually no cell phone reception in the eastern part of the canyon more than three miles from the rim.

Satellite communication only works with a clear view of the sky and can be interrupted in narrow canyons and under rock overhangs.

The last recorded connection of Kyle’s satellite phone to the network occurred on April 14th at a.m.

at a point with coordinates 36° 3 minutes north latitude and 111° 51 minutes west longitude which corresponds to an area 3 mi east of the main Hance Creek Trail.

By the end of May 2018, the official search had been called off.

Kyle Marsh and Brandon Lowry were declared presumed dead.

Investigators cited falling from a cliff while attempting to take photographs from dangerous locations as the most likely cause of the tragedy.

Detective Campbell’s report indicated that Grand Canyon National Park experiences 8 to 12 fatal accidents related to falls each year.

The bodies of the victims are not always found due to the complexity of the terrain and the possibility of them being washed away by water during rainfall.

State Farm Insurance Company denied the family’s compensation in June 2018, citing the lack of evidence of death and the bodies of the victims.

The family’s lawyer, Kevin Bruner, appealed to the Nevada District Court, presenting as evidence a private investigator’s report and expert testimony that it was impossible to survive in the canyon without water supplies for more than 7 days.

The case was heard until October 2019 when the court ruled to declare Kyle Marsh and Brandon Lowry deceased with a date of death of April 18th, 2018.

Kyle’s family received life insurance compensation of $250,000 in December 2019.

Brandon’s parents, Linda and Robert Lowry, received a similar amount in February 20120.

Sarah Marsh used part of the money to create a memorial fund to help families of hikers who have gone missing in national parks.

Brandon’s parents sold his house in Reno and moved in with relatives in Oregon.

Between 2018 and 2022, there were four more incidents involving tourists in the Hance Creek Trail area.

In September 2019, Marcus Johnson, a tourist from Texas, broke his leg when he fell from a rock while taking a photo.

He was evacuated by helicopter 6 hours after the distress signal was received.

In May 2020, a couple of tourists from Canada got lost on a side trail and spent two days without water until they were found by a search team.

In August 2021, a group of four students from the University of Arizona got caught in a thunderstorm and took shelter under a rock overhang for 18 hours until the weather improved.

The most serious incident occurred in October 2022 when experienced climber Daniel Clark from Colorado fell into a creasse about 40 ft deep.

His body was found only after 5 days of searching.

Clark had planned to follow the same route that Kyle and Brandon had taken 4 years earlier.

A print out of an article about their disappearance and a map marked with the presumed last location of the missing hikers were found in his backpack.

Statistics on search and rescue operations in the Grand Canyon show a steady increase in the number of incidents.

In 2018, there were 265 cases that required the intervention of rescue services.

In 2019, there were 283.

In 2020, there were 307 and in 2021, there were 331.

70% of all incidents occur between May and September when temperatures in the canyon reach 45° C in the shade.

The Hance Creek Trail is one of the five most dangerous routes in the park, along with the Boucher Trail, New Hance Trail, Tanner Trail, and Beamer Trail.

Ranger Maria Solano, who briefed Kyle and Brandon in April 2018, transferred to Yellowstone National Park in March 2020.

In an interview with the local newspaper Flag Staff Daily Sun, she said she remembers these tourists because they seemed wellprepared and had highquality equipment.

According to her, they did not look like inexperienced amateurs who underestimated the dangers of the canyon.

Solano noted that both men asked knowledgeable questions about weather conditions, water sources, and alternative exit routes in case of an emergency.

Detective Robert Campbell retired in January 2021, but kept all the case files on the disappearance of Kyle Marsh and Brandon Lowry in his personal archive.

In a telephone interview in March 2022, he said that the case remained one of the most mysterious of his 28 years in law enforcement.

Campbell emphasized that the complete absence of any traces or clues in such a limited search area was unusual even for the Grand Canyon.

Private investigator David Stone continued his unofficial investigation until 2021, periodically returning to the canyon to explore new areas.

He surveyed more than 30 caves and rock shelters within a 10mi radius of the tourists presumed route.

In some caves, he found modern trash, including plastic bottles, tin cans, and scraps of clothing.

But none of these items belong to the missing men.

Stone also interviewed all the guides and helicopter tour pilots who worked in the canyon area in April 2018.

None of them reported seeing anyone in the eastern part of the canyon during that period.

The last official attempt to find traces of Kyle and Brandon was made in September 2021 by a group of volunteers from the Nevada Search and Rescue Organization.

The 12person team spent 4 days in the canyon using modern equipment, including drones with thermal imaging cameras and ground penetrating radar radar to search for buried objects.

The survey covered areas that had previously been inaccessible to search teams due to the complexity of the terrain.

Volunteers found several animal bones, fragments of old camping equipment, and coins dating back to the early 20th century, but no traces of the missing hikers were found.

By the summer of 2023, the case of the disappearance of Kyle Marsh and Brandon Lowry had been all but forgotten.

Articles about them occasionally appeared on internet forums dedicated to unsolved crimes and mysterious disappearances.

Some users put forward theories about alien abductions, underground tunnels, or secret government experiments.

Most experts agreed that the tourists had died in an accident and that their bodies had been carried away by floodwaters or eaten by wild animals.

The Hance Creek Trail remained open to visitors, but the number of tourists choosing this route decreased significantly after Kyle and Brandon’s disappearance.

The park administration tightened the requirements for obtaining permits for hiking on remote trails and introduced mandatory registration of GPS trackers for groups of less than three people.

The new rules took effect in January 2020 and remain in force to this day.

Kayla’s sister, Sarah Marsh, moved from Reno to Denver in August 2021 and got a job with a company that manufactures GPS navigators for extreme tourism.

She continued to maintain contact with the National Park Administration and received notifications of any new discoveries in the canyon area.

Brandon’s mother, Linda Lowry, died of cancer in November 2022, never knowing what had happened to her son.

On August 23rd, 2023, Ranger Thomas Adams began his shift at the Desert View Visitor Center at a.m.

The weather was clear, the air temperature was 22° C, and visibility exceeded 15 mi.

At a.m.

, a man approached the information desk whom Adams initially mistook for one of the extreme tourists who regularly visit remote areas of the canyon.

The man was barefoot and his clothing consisted of a piece of tanned leather resembling an animal skin draped over his shoulders.

His hair and beard were long and tangled, his skin covered with a layer of dirt and scratches.

Adams immediately realized that the man needed medical attention.

The man had difficulty standing.

His hands were shaking and his eyes did not focus on the person he was talking to.

When asked how he was feeling, he responded incoherently, repeating the words, “5 years and Brandon is dead,” several times.

Adams called emergency medical services and sat the man down on a bench in the shade of a building.

12 minutes later, a team of paramedics from Flagstaff Medical Center arrived.

Paramedic Jessica Rodriguez recorded the following vital signs.

Pulse 120 beats per minute.

Blood pressure 90 over 60.

Body temperature 35.7° C.

The patient showed signs of dehydration, exhaustion, and multiple skin injuries, including scars, burns, and fresh scratches.

A spiral tattoo was found on his chest, done in a primitive manner, presumably with charcoal or soot.

The man avoided direct eye contact, flinched at loud noises, and refused to get into the ambulance until the radio and flashing lights were turned off.

At the hospital, the patient was placed in the intensive care unit.

The attending physician, Dr.

Michael Stevens ordered a comprehensive examination, including blood tests, X-rays, an MRI of the brain, and a psychiatric consultation.

The test results showed severe dehydration, a deficiency of vitamins B and D, anemia, and traces of unknown plant alkyoids in the blood.

X-rays revealed healed fractures of two ribs and the left radius.

The brain MRI showed no pathological changes.

Psychiatrist Dr.

Sarah Thompson conducted an initial interview with the patient on August 24th.

The man was able to answer simple questions but had difficulty recalling coherent memories.

He gave his name as Kyle Marsh and his date of birth is January 15th, 1996.

When asked what year it was, he replied, “20 2018 or 19.” When he was told the correct date, he was silent for a long time and then began to cry.

Thompson noted signs of post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative disorder in his medical chart.

The hospital administration contacted the Cookunino County Sheriff’s Office on August 25th.

Detective Anna Vasquez, who specializes in missing person’s cases, arrived at the hospital at 2 p.m.

for a preliminary interview.

Vasquez compared photos of the patient with materials from the 5-year-old case and concluded that it could be Kyle Marsh.

DNA samples and fingerprints were taken for final identification.

The results of the examination confirmed the man’s identity.

On August 27th, the news that Kyle Marsh was alive shocked everyone involved in the investigation of his disappearance.

Kyle’s sister, Sarah, received notification from Detective Vasquez at 400 p.m.

on August 27th.

She immediately flew from Denver to Flagstaff and arrived at the hospital at 10 p.m.

that same day.

When Kyle saw his sister, he did not recognize her at first, but after a few minutes, his memory began to return.

He hugged Sarah and repeated several times.

“I thought I would never see you again.” Brandon’s father, Robert Lowry, flew in from Oregon on August 28th.

The meeting with him took place in the presence of a psychiatrist and detective Vasquez.

When Lowry asked about his son’s fate, Kyle replied, “They burned him.

They burned him alive, and I couldn’t do anything about it.” After that, he refused to answer any questions until the next day.

Lowry left the hospital without saying a word.

He later told reporters that he believed Kyle’s story, but did not understand who could have committed such a crime.

The first detailed interview with Kyle took place on August 29th in the presence of his lawyer Kevin Bruner, Detective Vasquez, and psychiatrist Thompson.

The conversation was recorded on video and lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Kyle said that on April 14th, 2018, he and Brandon left the main Hance Creek trail in search of interesting angles for photography.

They headed for a rock formation known as Elves Chasm, located about 2 mi east of their camp.

According to Kyle, Brandon went ahead to check out possible shooting locations while Kyle took his camera equipment out of his backpack.

A few minutes later, he heard a scream and the sounds of a struggle.

When Kyle ran to the source of the sounds, he saw Brandon being held by several men dressed in primitive animal skins.

The attackers faces were covered with tattoos or paint, and their hair was braided with bones and feathers woven in.

They carried spears with stone tips and obsidian knives.

Kyle tried to run away, but was surrounded by three more people who appeared from behind the rocks.

They grabbed him, tied his hands behind his back with a rope made of plant fibers, and covered his mouth with a piece of leather.

The attackers did not say a word, communicating with each other through gestures and quiet sounds resembling bird calls.

Kyle and Brandon were led away in the opposite direction from their camp through a narrow crevice between high rocks that was invisible from the air.

The journey took several hours along steep paths and rocky ledges.

The captives were forced to walk barefoot, their shoes and most of their clothes having been taken from them immediately after their capture.

At sunset, the group reached the entrance to a cave system located in the sheer wall of a side canyon.

The entrance was camouflaged by a canopy of rocks and branches, making it impossible to see from the bottom of the canyon or from the opposite side.

Inside the cave, torches burned, illuminating the corridors carved into the rock.

Kyle described the dwelling as a system of interconnected caves and tunnels extending to a considerable depth into the rock.

Some rooms had niches carved out for storing food and tools, while others had sleeping areas consisting of depressions in the floor lined with animal skins.

In the central cave was an altar made of flat stone covered with the bones of various animals, skulls, and strange symbols painted with ochre and charcoal.

According to Kyle, there were always between 12 and 15 males in the caves, ranging in age from teenagers to elderly men.

They all had distinctive tattoos on their faces and bodies, wore clothes made of tanned hides, and followed a strict hierarchy headed by an old man with white hair and numerous scars on his chest and arms.

The others called this man the blood and treated him with obvious respect and fear.

Kyle and Brandon were kept in a separate cave, the entrance to which was blocked by a heavy stone.

They were fed once a day with boiled meat of unknown origin, roots and water with a bitter taste.

Every morning they were brought to the altar where the blood performed a ritual that included reciting incomprehensible spells, burning herbs and cutting the prisoner’s hands.

The blood was collected in a stone bowl and poured onto the altar.

Attempts to communicate with the kidnappers were unsuccessful.

They responded only with gestures or monoselabic sounds, giving the impression that they either did not know English or had taken a vow of silence.

Kyle noticed that some of the younger members of the group would sometimes exchange glances and whisper among themselves, but they would stop when the older members appeared.

Discipline was strictly enforced.

The slightest infractions were followed by painful punishments in the form of burns with red-hot metal or cuts with stone knives.

Two weeks after his capture, Brandon attempted to escape.

According to Kyle, this happened during one of the rituals when the guards were distracted by an animal sacrifice ceremony.

Brandon managed to get out of the cave and began climbing the rock wall, but was spotted by one of the younger members of the group.

He was caught a few hours later half a mile from the caves.

The punishment was immediate and public.

A large fire was lit in the central cave and a deep pit was dug in the floor which was filled with smoldering coals and dry branches.

Kyle was forced to watch the execution of his friend.

Brandon was tied to a wooden stake and slowly lowered into the burning pit.

He screamed for several minutes.

Then his voice stopped.

The blood chanted spells in an incomprehensible language, periodically throwing various objects into the fire.

Bones, dried herbs, pieces of metal.

The ceremony lasted until dawn.

Brandon’s remains were removed from the pit and placed in a stone niche in one of the far caves.

After Brandon’s death, the attitude towards Kyle changed.

He was no longer kept in isolation, but was allowed to move around the caves under the supervision of guards.

Kyle was forced to participate in daily rituals, which included arranging animal bones in a specific order, preparing decoctions from unknown plants, and wearing masks made from dried coyote and deer heads.

Refusal to participate in the ceremonies was punished with burns from red hot metal or deep cuts from stone knives.

Kyle said that the members of the group called themselves descendants of the weeping snake and considered themselves the last guardians of the ancient rights that their ancestors had performed in the canyon hundreds of years ago.

According to their beliefs, the modern world had desecrated the sacred lands and only constant sacrifices could prevent disaster.

Kyle became a living symbol of this desecration which had to be cleansed through suffering and rituals before being sacrificed.

Time passed slowly and monotonously in the caves.

Kyle lost track of days and months, orienting himself only by the changing seasons based on the temperature of the air coming through the ventilation holes in the rock.

His hair and beard grew long and were periodically shaved off with stone blades.

New scars and burns from ritual procedures appeared on his body.

The most painful ordeal was the tattooing of his chest, which was burned with hot coals for several hours.

Kyle’s mental state gradually deteriorated.

He began to forget the details of his former life, the names of relatives and friends, and the dates of important events.

Reality became mixed with hallucinations caused by the constant use of narcotic potions.

He tried to kill himself several times, but the group members watched him around the clock and prevented him from seriously harming himself.

The only hope for salvation was the possibility of a collapse of part of the cave system.

Kyle noticed that in some tunnels there was a constant sound of dripping water and new cracks were appearing on the walls.

The destruction was especially active during rainy periods when water seeped through cracks in the rock and eroded the limestone.

Kyle secretly loosened the stones in one of the weak spots, hoping to create an escape route.

The opportunity arose in July 2023 when heavy rains fell in the canyon area for 4 days in a row.

Part of the ceiling collapsed in one of the caves, blocking the passage to the central part of the dwelling.

Most of the group members were busy clearing the debris, and Kyle’s guard was down.

Taking advantage of the commotion, he made his way through the section of wall he had loosened into the adjacent tunnel and began his ascent to the surface.

The journey to the exit took several hours.

Kyle climbed through narrow crevices and slippery ledges, losing consciousness several times from exhaustion.

When he finally reached the surface, it was mourning.

He was at the bottom of a narrow side canyon surrounded by sheer walls over a 100 ft high.

The only way out was a dry creek bed leading toward the main canyon.

Kyle walked along the creek bed for 3 days, feeding on plant roots and rainwater collected in rock depressions.

On the fourth day, he emerged at the Leipan Point Lookout where he was discovered by James Carter, a tourist from California.

Carter immediately called emergency services and accompanied Kyle until the Rangers arrived.

According to Carter, Kyle was in a state of extreme exhaustion.

His speech was incoherent and his behavior resembled that of a person who had suffered severe psychological trauma.

The investigation into Kyle’s statements began on August 30th, 2023.

A special team including detectives from Cookunino County, FBI agents, and anthropologists from Northern Arizona University went to the area Kyle had indicated as the location of his confinement.

The search was complicated by the inaccuracy of the descriptions and changes in the terrain caused by recent rains and landslides.

After a week of searching, the team found the entrance to a cave system that matched Kyle’s description.

Inside they found evidence of long-term human habitation.

Fire pits, stone tools, fragments of animal skin clothing, and human bones.

Examination showed that some of the bones belonged to a Caucasian male between the ages of 25 and 30, which matched Brandon Lowry’s characteristics.

In the central cave, an altar described by Kyle was discovered with the remains of ritual objects.

On the walls were drawings made with ochre and charcoal depicting scenes of hunting, sacrifices, and astronomical observations.

Radioarbon analysis showed that some of the drawings were created more than a century ago, but some of them dated back to the last 5 years.

The members of the weeping snake descendants group themselves could not be found.

No traces of their recent presence were found in the caves except for cold fire pits and scattered animal bones.

The investigation team concluded that the cult had left the area shortly after Kyle’s escape, possibly moving to another part of the canyon or disbanding completely.

The case was officially closed on March 22nd, 2024.

The final report stated that Kyle Marsh and Brandon Lowry had indeed been abducted by an unidentified group of individuals living in isolation within the national park.

Brandon Lowry was killed while attempting to escape and Kyle Marsh was held in custody until his release in August 2023.

The perpetrators were not identified and brought to justice due to a lack of sufficient evidence and the inability to locate them.

Kyle Marsh underwent rehabilitation at a specialized clinic in Phoenix until December 2023.

During this time, he partially regained his memory of the events prior to his abduction, but many details of his 5-year imprisonment remained blurred.

Psychiatrists diagnosed him with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, and dissociative identity disorder.

Treatment included medication, hypnosis sessions, and group therapy with other kidnapping victims.

In January 2024, Kyle moved in with his sister in Denver, where he continued outpatient treatment.

He avoids publicity and refuses to give interviews to journalists.

According to Sarah Marsh, her brother is slowly adapting to normal life, but still has difficulty using modern technology and avoids crowded places.

He cannot be in enclosed spaces without natural light and wakes up every night from nightmares.

Grand Canyon National Park has increased security measures in remote areas following the incident.

The number of ranger patrols has been increased.

Additional surveillance cameras have been installed on the main trails and mandatory satellite communication has been introduced for all tourists going on multi-day hikes.

The Hance Creek Trail remains closed to visitors until additional research on the cave systems in the area is completed.

The story of Kyle Marsh and Brandon Lowry has become one of the most mysterious and controversial cases in the history of American national parks.

Some experts question Kyle’s testimony, pointing to inconsistencies in his story and the lack of independent evidence of the existence of the descendants of the Weeping Snake cult.

Other experts emphasize that the artifacts and human remains found in the caves confirm the main elements of his story.

It remains unclear whether the descendants of the weeping snake were a real group of people or a figment of Kyle’s traumatized mind.

Wherever the truth lies, this story has forever changed our understanding of the secrets that may be hidden in the most remote corners of the American West.

Kyle Marsh survived, but the price of his rescue was too high.