csi: provo

I'm planning an exciting trip to Utah soon, and interestingly, many school memories have been coming back because of some things in the news lately. These two news items are simply 100% unbelieveable. Wow.

I.

In Utah County, there is a recreational destination called Nutty Putty Cave. It's a spelunking "resort." I went once with another guy the summer I was dating Shane (hehe!). He had gone a zillion times and loved it. I had lots of friends who went all the time. Exploring the Nutty Putties is a very popular activity in Provo with BYU students.

Imagine my shock to read about John Jones, who went exploring in an unmapped area of the caves and became STUCK. If you know spelunking, you wear a light on your head and you go up and down and in and out of little caverns. You get very dirty and make some tight squeezes. Some of the Nutty Putty pathways are indeed pretty tight. Personally, I was nervous about going, but the guy I went with was so confident and promised to help me the whole time. He was cute; we sorta dated :-) Anyway, you have to pull yourself through lots of narrow passageways and such.

So, this guy last week got stuck, upside down, and needed professional help to get him out. He became unstuck, but the rigging system or whatever the rescue workers were using to help him slipped, and he became restuck. And they couldn't get him out. He died.

It gets worse.

His body will remain in the cave since it isn't safe for workers to get him out. Shane was incredulous! This guy went exploring in a part of the cave that is so dangerous they can't even retrieve his body for his wife and child to hold a proper burial for him. Wow.

And, to top it all off, of course, the Nutty Putty caves will be closed permanently. I know a lot of people who will be very upset about this. I can't believe it! The articles were saying closing the cave was out of respect to the family (who will never receive their loved one's body) and since the caves were, obviously, a tad dangerous.

II.

I am on an email list that usually includes articles relating to BYU stuff. I clicked on an article about the slaying of a BYU professor, since those articles are usually interesting. I started reading it, and instead realized that the name sounded familiar...

When Shane and I dated, of course we were inseparable and I sometimes went to his classes with him. He had one professor who was a real nutcase. The guy liked to go off on tangents, and when you've been teaching for so long (as he had), you can really do whatever you want. He was a mechanical engineering professor, and in the particular class I attended, he was explaining the process to figure out what kind of reinforcement a picnic table had to have to keep from tipping over when a large person sat on one side. Seriously! He even drew pictures. He had a reputation for being a good but humorous professor.

His name and his photo popped up on the screen. I asked Shane if he remembered Professor Mortensen, and Shane looked at the screen without reading the headline and said, "yeah, that's him. What happened?"

"Shane, he was murdered."

Someone broke into his home, tied up him, his son, and daughter-in-law, and slit his throat, but left the other two people alive. It's all so unbelievable, like I'm in an alternate universe. The police haven't made an arrests, although they have some suspects. They don't really know motive, either. A neighbor has said that it was well known that Professor Mortensen had a large collection of guns and special weapons, as well as a bunker out back for his family in case of a catastrophe, so maybe the intruders were interested in his weapons stash.

Shane and I are just speechless. I guess these things happen all the time, but rarely does it happen so close to home. He was a good professor who will be remembered fondly.

The deaths of John Jones and Kay Mortensen have certainly touched my life. I just can't believe it! It really makes you think about how you never know when the end will be. So take care and love your families. Wow.