I think we can all agree that as terrible
as it is to lose people in accidents and freak occurrences,
there is still some closure there, knowing that there's nothing that could have
been done to prevent their loss. And I think we can also all agree that
the losses that are by far the most frustrating, are the ones that are caused by
someone else's negligence. I have to warn you: these will be some of the most
frustrating stories you've ever heard. And although the descriptions of the events in this video
are fleeting and non-descriptive, they are still highly disturbing.
Viewer discretion is advised. [music] In early June of 2011, workers arrived at the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Pool, north of Boston, and found that the pool was in pretty rough shape
after having been closed for the season. The bottom was covered in leaves and sludge
and garbage, and the water was a murky, greenish-brown color. To make matters worse, there was no
functioning vacuum onsite to clean the bottom of the pool of all of the debris. But rather than delay the opening
of the pool to clean it or wait until they could get a vacuum
to remove all of the debris, they went ahead and started going through
the normal opening process. First, they added an additional 240,000 gallons
of water to dilute the sludge. The hope was that this would dilute enough that the pool's filters would then
take care of the rest. Unsurprisingly, this failed, and so workers were
ordered not to add the chemicals to the pool, which was the last step to making the water
clean enough to be safe to swim. But then for reasons that are unclear, just a few days
before the normal scheduled opening, those chemicals were added anyway. Then, just like it had the years before, it opened on the 25th of June,
with the water still incredibly cloudy. It was apparently so bad that the visibility
was limited to just a few feet, despite the fact that state regulations
required that lifeguard sink a puck into the water, all the way to the bottom and
the deepest part of the pool, and still see it. This wasn't done either, and so people
flocked the pool on the Saturday that it opened
in the late June heat. The following day, on Sunday, June 26th,
a woman from the area named Mary and some of her neighbors and her neighbors' kids,
all decided to go to the pool to swim. In their group, there were four kids
and several adults, and they all spent time by the poolside,
talking and swimming, and taking turns playing with the kids in the water. At one point, Mary was playing with the nine-year-old
son of one of the neighbors, and the two of them walked over to a big slide
at the deepest section of the pool. The boy climbed up the ladder first
with Mary right behind him, and then she gave him a push, and he flew down
the slide and into the water. He popped up out of the water and was laughing,
and then Mary slid down and did the same. But when she did, she gained a
little bit more momentum, and so as she came off the slide, she sort of
grazed the boy as she hit the water. She surfaced right away and began to apologize, but before she can get the words out, she slipped
back under the water's surface. The boy then tried to grab ahold of her
to keep her afloat, but she was too far for him to reach. She then surfaced one more time,
waving her arms wildly, but right away, slipped back under the water,
and then to the bottom of the 12-foot depth. In a panic, the boy swam to the ladder
at the side of the pool, got out and went right to the nearest lifeguard. He told her what happened, but she replied back
that she was on break. So the boy then went to tell a second lifeguard who then told him that they'd do
a pool check in a few minutes. Tragically, even if they had done a pool check - which they didn't - it was already
too late for Mary. Obviously, this was an incredibly difficult situation
for a nine-year-old to fully grasp. So after telling the lifeguards, he went back over
to his family and started playing again, not really sure what to do. Then, since the group had sort of split up
and were talking with different people, no one noticed that Mary was gone. Everyone just assumed that she had said goodbye
to one person or another, and didn't get the chance to come around to them. And because the water in the pool was so cloudy, no one knew that she was still down at the bottom. Eventually, it came time for the pool to close,
so everyone left for the day. The gates were closed, and Mary remained. The following day, so now on Monday, the pool
opened once again and operated as normal. People swam, kids played,
and the water remained cloudy. Mary's boyfriend tried to contact her, but after his calls went unanswered, he thought
that she just wanted to be alone. The way the dynamic of the relationship was,
this wasn't anything too out of the ordinary. And although Mary had five kids of her own, none of them lived with her at the time,
so no one reported her missing. Eventually, it came time to close the pool again, and despite state regulations requiring bottom checks to be done on a daily basis,
none were ever performed. It's the following day on Tuesday -
the pool opened once again. Kids played, people swam, and obviously, some of them were probably only feet
from Mary at the bottom. Once again, the entire day went by, and then
the pool closed again in the evening. On that second night, a group of kids
jumped the fence after hours to do some late-night swimming,
and noticed something floating in the water. They walked over to check it out and realized that
it was the body of a woman. Since it had been in the water for over two days, the normal decomposition process started taking place
and caused it to float to the surface. Very quickly, the police were called, and
an investigation was launched. In the end, it was found that in addition to missing
a ton of normal safety procedures, the pool's permit hadn't even been renewed that year. This led to a temporary shutdown of a total of
24 pools in the area, and a complete demolition of the
Veteran's Memorial Pool. A new one was constructed in its place
that is only five feet deep. On August 15th, 1936, Riley and Minnie Drain
said goodbye to their daughters, Dorothy and Barbara, and then headed off
to work for the day. When they returned home, they walked in,
and right away, knew something was wrong. While they were gone that day,
an intruder had broken into their home and attacked both of their daughters. They ran to their room to find that, tragically, Dorothy had been assaulted and had already
died due to blunt force injuries. Barbara would survive,
but her injuries were severe as it was later determined that a hatchet
had been used in the attack. Due to the brutal nature of the crime, this obviously scared residents of their hometown
of Pueblo, Colorado. Not only was it a horrific scene, but the culprit
was still on the loose, and apparently, two other women
had been attacked on the same day, leading the residents to believe that
the attacks were connected, and more could occur at any moment. This put pressure on the police in the town itself
and the surrounding areas to arrest and interrogate anyone
who might be involved. A little over a week later on the 26th of August,
a man named Joe Arridy was arrested for vagrancy or homelessness after he is found wandering the rail yards
of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Despite it being hundreds of miles south of Pueblo, the sheriff who made the arrest
was aware of the crime that had occurred just a few weeks earlier, and that the search
was still ongoing. So during Joe's rest, the sheriff went through
his normal questioning, and then started to ask about where he'd come from. And as it turned out, Joe had just taken
a train in from Colorado. Upon finding this out, the sheriff started to press
a little harder on the questioning, and as he became more suspicious, he began
to ask very directly if Joe was involved. To his surprise, Joe fully confessed to the attack. With a full confession, Joe was taken
and then placed in a jail cell while the sheriff then contacted
the Pueblo police station to let them know he had found the culprit. But then when he spoke to the Pueblo police chief, he learned that another man had already been arrested in connection with the attack, named Frank Aguilar. This man was a laborer from across the border,
and he'd worked with the Drain family in the weeks prior to the attack before being fired. Then, in addition to him knowing the family,
an axe head was found at his home that matched the injuries
found on the girls. But despite finding all of this out, the sheriff
insisted that Joe was connected because he claimed that he was with a man
named Frank at the crime scene. This was unfortunately either an outright lie, or Joe was coerced into making this confession. Joe Arridy was born in 1915 in Pueblo, Colorado, to parents that had recently immigrated
to the US from Syria. His parents were also first cousins, and it's been
suggested that this close blood relationship is what caused Joe and his siblings
to be born with intellectual disabilities. Joe, for example, wasn't able to speak
until the age of five years old, and then after he did learn to speak,
his parents enrolled him in a school, but he was kicked out by the end of the year. The principal then told his parents that
he was completely unable to learn anything and that he'd be best off somewhere else. His parents kept him home for the next few years
before he was eventually enrolled in a state home for the mentally disabled
at around the age of 10. Unfortunately, he lived there on and off
for the next decade, but the conditions at the home weren't great either. Joe was mistreated by the other students
and frequently got into physical altercations. So, eventually, when he was old enough, he left
the school, hopped on a rail car, and ended up in Wyoming shortly before
being arrested. Following his arrest in false confession, Joe was taken back to Pueblo
to be charged and put in jail. Unfortunately, despite a number of
other inconsistencies, the charges remained, and Joe was eventually
brought to stand trial. From the start of the trial,
Joe's lawyer tried to plead for Joe to be declared insane, in hopes of keeping him
from receiving the death penalty. Incredibly, after several examinations, Joe was simultaneously declared sane,
but severely mentally-disabled. It was determined that his IQ was just 46, which put him at roughly equivalent
to a six-year-old mentally. Even more, it was noted that he was
completely incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong, which means that he was incapable of performing
any action with criminal intent. So even in the case that he had been involved, the charges should not have been as severe
as they would for a normal person. During the trial as well, it was discovered that there was no physical evidence
connecting Joe to the crime. On top of that, the other prime suspect,
Frank Aguilar, also testified that he'd never seen Joe in his life. Then, in addition to that, the surviving sister,
Barbara, testified that Joe had not been present during the attack. But despite all of this, Joe was convicted
of first-degree murder, primarily on the basis of his
false confession to the sheriff. This is a conviction that, at the time,
carried the penalty of death. Following this sentencing, the Colorado Attorney General
got involved in Joe's defense, and tried desperately to get the conviction overturned. Unfortunately, all he was ever able to do
was delay the punishment. Joe would go on to have his sentence
delayed nine times before it could be delayed no longer. While held in prison, awaiting punishment, Joe was coined "the happiest person on death row"
by the prison warden. Apparently, he could often be seen in a cell playing with a toy train
given to him by the warden. And the reason he was so happy was that
he didn't understand why he was there or what was waiting for him. During his final weeks, he was treated well
by both the guards and inmates, but eventually, that fateful day finally came. Joe was asked what he'd like for his last meal, and despite not realizing why he was
being asked, he asked for ice cream. During the meal, the warden asked
about the upcoming process, and clearly, Joe had no understanding
of what was waiting for him. Upon being told it was time to go, Joe even asked
to have the ice cream refrigerated so that he could finish it later
when he came back. The prison warden could be seen crying
in the viewing room, pleading with the Colorado governor
to prevent it from happening. But ultimately, Joe passed away on January 6th,
1939 at the age of 23. Obviously, today, we know that people
with mental disabilities are much more susceptible to coercion
and false confession. In 2011, Joe Arridy was given a full and
unconditional pardon. By all accounts, 16-year-old Kyle was a happy
and well-adjusted teenager with a bright future when he woke up in the morning
of Tuesday, April 10th, 2018. After driving to the prestigious Seven Hills School
in Cincinnati, Ohio where he was a sophomore, Kyle spent the day
attending class and thinking about his tennis game
scheduled for that afternoon. At the end of the day, the bell rang,
and Kyle made his way back to the parking lot to get all of the stuff from his car,
which was a Honda Odyssey. It wasn't what most teenagers would
call a dream car, but it was safe and reliable. And with three rows
of seats, it was definitely practical. It also had an open area in the back and a rear
bench seat that can be folded up, flipped over, and stowed flush
in a recessed compartment in the floor if you need more space. Because this rear seat needs to be folded
and tilted down before being stowed away, it's not bolted to the floor like
other seats in the minivan. It has two hinged areas: one where the backrest
connects to the seat, and another where it connects to the floor. That day, the backrest had already
been folded down, or Kyle may have lowered it
when he went to the minivan. Either way, he was facing the back of the vehicle,
so looking in the trunk, when he knelt down on the flattened seat
and reached for his tennis equipment on the floor. It's something that Kyle had probably done
dozens of times before, but in this instance, his weight and the angle
of his body caused the seat to roll backward, just like it would've been if he was attempting
to lower it into the compartment in the floor. This unexpected movement forced Kyle's
head down toward the floor and pinned his torso between the seat and the
minivan's rear door with his legs over his head. After the initial shock of being pinned in the trunk, Kyle struggled desperately to try to free himself, but the angle of how he was stuck
meant that it was his own weight, plus the weight of the seat itself, that was
pinning him in place. On top of that, because he was stuck
with his arms at an awkward angle, he couldn't get any leverage to flip the seat back up. So after struggling for a bit, Kyle realized that
he was really stuck in this position, and he would need someone else to come help him. But to make things worse, with his arms
pinned underneath him and with the seat blocking him from being
able to reach his pants, he couldn't reach his cell phone that were
in his pants pocket above his head. He'd also closed the van door before
going into the trunk, so if he tried to yell for help, it was unlikely
that anyone would hear him. But worst of all, soon, he started to realize that
with the full weight of the seat pinning his chest against the door, he was having
a harder and harder time breathing. Between the seat and the weight of his legs,
his chest was being crushed with each breath. Thankfully, soon enough, Kyle realized that
he could still make a call from 911 using voice activation. And as soon as he realized he could do this,
he made the call to 911. When the first call was picked up by a 911
operator at 3:14 PM, Kyle was frantic and yelling and banging for help.
And over the course of the call, Kyle managed to tell the operator that
he was trapped in his van and that he was in desperate need of help. Now, bear in mind that he was yelling
from below the seat, and the phone was in his pants pocket, but either way,
by the desperation in his voice, it had to have been clear that something
was seriously wrong. Kyle also managed to communicate the exact
parking lot that he was stuck in, which was the Seven Hills parking lot. And the final thing that he managed to get out
before the call was disconnected, was that he thought that he was gonna die soon. The call then disconnected three minutes
from the time it was picked up at 3:17 PM. The operator tried to call back,
but only got Kyle's voicemail. And then following the call, the operator
incorrectly labeled the priority of the call, making it seem less serious than it actually was. So it was assigned a Code 2, which means urgent. But for any situation where someone's
life is in danger, like how Kyle described the situation
and that the operator heard, it should have been given a Code 3,
indicating an emergency. The operator also made a note that Kyle
might have been stuck in the parking lot across the street, despite having the exact
address of where Kyle was stuck. In any case, police were dispatched to the scene
and arrived at the parking lot at 3:26 PM, so just nine minutes later. They then proceeded to drive through the parking lot, looking for any signs of someone stuck,
but at no point did they get out of their car. They searched the south side of the parking lot
before leaving the lot entirely, and heading across the street to check
some of the other parking lots. And of course, Kyle's van was parked
in the north side of the parking lot, which they never searched. During this time, they called his phone,
but it went straight to voicemail. Eight minutes later at 3:34 PM, while police
were still on the scene, Kyle managed to make a second 911 call. This call was taken by a different operator who answered by saying, "Cincinnati 911 -
what's your emergency?" The operator then asked if anyone was there,
and Kyle went on to say, "I probably don't have much time left to tell
my mom that I love her if I die." He then went on to say, "This is not a joke.
This is not a joke. I'm trapped inside my gold Honda Odyssey van
in the sophomore parking lot of Seven Hills. Send officers immediately.
I'm almost gone." This was all recorded by the operator system. For some reason, the operator then
hung up the phone call and called back only to get Kyle's voicemail. Incredibly, then after the phone call, the operator
looked up the number and saw that a call had been made
just 10 minutes earlier, but never went on to tell a supervisor or
let police know about the second call. This was the last call made from Kyle's phone. Police officers left the scene just
three minutes later at 3:37 PM. That evening, after Kyle never returned home,
his parents activated an app that they had to find his phone, which took them
to the school parking lot. And just before 9:00 PM, Kyle's dad
found him trapped in the van. He quickly pulled Kyle out with the help
of someone from the school, and then tried to perform CPR,
but it was already too late. Kyle's family eventually filed a wrongful death suit
against the city for the role played by both the operators
and the police officers. In 2021, a $6 million settlement
was awarded to the family. Hello everyone. My name is Sean,
and welcome to Scary Interesting. Thank you all so much for watching,
and hopefully, I will see you in the next one.
