Rescue of Orphan at Sea Leads to Terrible Secret Reveal

the relentless tropical sun beats down on terry joe's parched salt and crusted skin there's no relief most of the time she keeps her eyes closed it's too bright the glinting waves make her dizzy and the salt water stings it's been four days since the bluebell the sailboat that she'd been aboard with her family sank terry joe drifts in and out of consciousness listlessly reclining on a flimsy three-foot oblong cork raft as it bobs on the pitching waves the tiny raft wasn't designed for prolonged usage some of the rope webbing has given away and it's beginning to disintegrate terry joe hallucinates a great big rumbling whale is looming over her suddenly the whale turns into a solid black wall and amazed faces stare down the crew of a greek freighter the captain theo are shocked to spot a young girl adrift in a raft one of the sailors takes an iconic photograph of terry joe perched on her tiny raft in the huge ocean the crew quickly gets her aboard terry joe tells him that she'd been aboard the blue bell her name and that she's the sole survivor before losing consciousness just in the nick of time terry jo has been rescued from death soon she would reveal the devastating truth of what happened aboard the blue bell arthur dupril a prominent optometrist from green bay wisconsin fondly remembered serving in the navy he dreamed of visiting the tropics and living on a sailboat for a year with his family in the fall of 1961 he set out to make his dream a reality the duprel family made up of arthur his wife jean and their three children fourteen-year-old brian eleven-year-old terry joe and seven-year-old renee caravaned from the midwest down to florida the duperoles rented the blue bell a 60-foot catch or a two-masted sailboat and hired skipper julian harvey harvey a retired air force vet brought along his wife of a few months mary a retired flight attendant and aspiring writer she would act as the cook on the trip on november 6 1961 the bluebell shoved off from fort lauderdale the plan was to spend the next week sailing 200 miles to the bahamas and back the trip was a trial run to see if the family enjoyed living at sea the duperoles along with the harveys had a lovely time sailing to the bahamas the family learned to spear fish and snorkel in fact when leaving the town of sandy point on the bahama island of great debaco dr duperole told the village commissioner how much he had enjoyed visiting the area and that he was going to build a winter home there less than 24 hours later dr duperole was dead on thursday november 16th lieutenant murdoch of the coast guard convenes a routine investigation into the loss of the bluebell the lone survivor captain harvey is placed under oath and recounts the tragic tale of the bluebell while murdoch takes notes harvey's demeanor is very anxious but murdoch chalks that up to harvey losing his wife in the deaths of the other passengers harvey tells murdock that the blue bell was on a return trip to fort lauderdale when a sudden squall violently blew down the main mast the mast crashed hard and put a large hole in the hull even worse the weight of the falling mast pulled down the mizzen mast which fell on the cockpit which was over the engine room the severe damage caused the gas lines in the engine room to rupture and the boat burst into flames as it sank most of the passengers had been in the cockpit when the accident happened and were severely injured and caught in the tangled rigging harvey alone had managed to launch the dinghy and raft before diving overboard to escape one or two passengers had jumped overboard and he had searched for them to no avail eventually harvey found the body of renee floating face down in the water he tried to resuscitate her but he couldn't he towed her body in the raft two days after the sinking he was picked up by an oil tanker the gulf lion something about harvey's story seems off but murdoch can't quite put his finger on it it would be unusual for a falling mass to do the extensive damage that harvey described however murdock had no reason to think harvey was lying then again upon harvey's rescue the coast guard had launched an extensive air and sea search and they'd spent a few days searching over 5 000 square miles for survivors and the remains of the blue bell but strangely they found nothing not even a trace of debris from the boat things get weird when murdoch asks harvey a few follow-up questions including why didn't he fire any of the flares that were in the emergency kit in the dinghy harvey said that the flares were in the bottom of the kit and he didn't think to use them huh an experienced skipper of many years didn't think to look for and use flares during an emergency some of harvey's other answers to murdoch's questions are also illogical or puzzling harvey's just finished his testimony when captain barber another officer working on the blue bell investigation rushes into the room with amazing news there's another survivor of the blue bell tragedy terry joe duperon has been rescued by a freighter and is on route to a miami hospital via coast guard helicopter harvey comments on the good news but seems a little dazed he leaves the inquiry declining to stay and hear testimony from the owner of the blue bell who had rented it to the duperoles the coast guard officers go with their gut feelings and call the miami police to station a guard outside terry gio's hospital room when she arrives at mercy hospital terry joe is examined and found to be in a coma her body has been pushed to its limit doctors prescribe a course of rest and rehydration for her if she pulls through it'll be a few days before she's in a state to be questioned on november 17th the day after terry joe's rescue a maid at the sandman motel in miami discovers harvey's body when she goes in to tidy his room the night before he'd checked in under a fake name and violently committed suicide by slashing several veins terry joe responds to the treatment and quickly bounces back the doctors and authorities keep her sequestered she doesn't know that harvey also survived the sinking nor she told of his gruesome death on november 20th the fourth day after her rescue she's well enough to tell the tale to lieutenant murdoch and captain barber the first night of the return trip a tired terry joe retreats to the room she shared with her sister however it's a clear and calm night her parents and siblings stay upstairs on the deck in the cockpit around 11 p.m terry joe was jolted awake by loud screams her brother brian screaming for their dad to help him she also hears running and stomping footsteps then there's silence terri joe lies wide awake frozen with fear after about 10 minutes she gets out of bed and creeps out of her cabin she goes into the main cabin she sees her mother and brother sprawled out on the floor dead in a pool of blood nearby fearfully terry jo inches up the stairs and peeks out of the hatch on the deck she sees more blood and something that might have been a knife terry joe stands upright to get a better look harvey comes rushing at her terry joe starts to ask what happened but harvey hits her and shoves her down the stairs yelling at her to get back down there terrified terry joe tries not to look at the corpses of her mother and brother as she goes down the stairs out of the main cabin and returns to her room she huddles in a ball on her bed shivering she doesn't know what to do she hears water sloshing and wonders if harvey's washing the blood off the deck after a little while oily bilge water begins to flood into her room suddenly harvey appears in the doorway it's dim and terry joe can't see the expression on his face but he's staring at her he has something in his hand it might be her brother's rifle terry joe freezes scarcely daring to breathe after a long agonizing moment harvey walks away and goes upstairs terry joe stays where she's paralyzed with fear until the water grows high enough that it crests her bed the blue bell is sinking terry jo wades through the waist deep water trying to avoid seeing the corpses as she goes into the main cabin and up the stairs she climbs back on the deck to see the wooden dinghy and life raft have been launched and are floating beside the blue bell confused terry joe asks harvey if the ship was sinking harvey yells at her and tells her that it is he thrusts a line into her hand and tells her to hold it before walking off to another part of the deck terry joe still numb with shock over all that's happened can't hold on the line slips through her fingers harvey comes back and sees that she's dropped the line it was for the dinghy which has now drifted away from the ship he dives overboard and swims for the boat terry joe can't see whether he reaches it or not and she has bigger problems on her hands waves are beginning to wash over the deck terry joe suddenly remembers the small life float kept lashed on the deck she scrambles over to it and manages to untie the four half hitches securing it waiting she shoves the life raft over the downed rigging across the deck and then over a rail into open water just in time the blue bell plunges down a line from the float snags on the sinking catch and for a heartbeat terry joe and the float are yanked underwater thankfully somehow the line gets free terry joe and the float pop back up to the surface terry joe spends hours crouching in the float terrified that harvey's going to come back after her she's still known with shock and quickly grows cold in her thin white blouse and pink petal pushers the float is oval with a canvas covered cork rim and rope webbing in the center sitting in the webbing means terry joe's lower half stays submerged in the water however that feels good since the water is warmer than the air gradually as the stars come out making for an incredible night sky terry joe's fears ease she wonders what happened to her father and her sister she prays to god and asks for protection for her father sister and herself the next morning dawn's bright terry jo can finally see although not far since she's so low in the water there's nothing but ocean surrounding her at first the warmth of the sun feels good but as the day wears on the sunlight becomes brutal sitting in the webbing she submerges as much of herself as she can in the cool water some of the ropes snap the float wasn't designed for sitting in but rather holding onto parrotfish swim to the raft pecking at her terry joe swats at them but doesn't want to make a huge stir and attract larger more dangerous sea creatures by mid-afternoon terry joe's skin has tightened due to the salt and sun her tongue is beginning to swell she needs water after some trial and error terry joe figures out the best way to balance herself on the float to minimize it falling apart and falling off of it for the next three days terry jio battles the sun thirst and nipping parrotfish she sees a plane fly low over the ocean and waves at it tragically it circles doesn't see her and goes on she begins to hallucinate and sees islands she paddles madly toward them only to have them disappear by the time the captain theo rescues her terry joe is severely dehydrated badly sunburned and not far from death the coast guard had already started checking into harvey's background but terry joe's story spurs their investigation as it turns out harvey had been in a few questionable boating accidents before on more than one occasion he'd walked away with insurance money also unbeknownst to her poor mary was harvey's sixth wife his third wife had died in a mysterious car crash where harvey had collected a life insurance policy after her death furthermore it was discovered that harvey had taken out a 20 000 life insurance policy with himself as the beneficiary on mary shortly before the voyage of the blue bell the policy had an accidental death double indemnity clause that meant a forty thousand dollar payout or upwards of three hundred forty thousand dollars in today's money authorities suspected that harvey planned to kill mary probably stab her way down her body and toss her overboard the next morning she'd be discovered missing and harvey could claim that mary somehow accidentally fell over but when harvey attacked mary fought back hearing a commotion dr duprell rushed in to help harvey kills both dr duperon and mary harvey realizes that he has to kill all the witnesses sink the boat and get away he quickly murders gene and brian though an autopsy confirms that renee drowned it's not certain at exactly what point did harvey drown her or did she drown when the ship went down and harvey just picked up her body to lend credence to his story however terry joe didn't see her sister or father at all on that horrible night chances are they were already dead there's a lot of speculation as to why harvey didn't kill terry jo some theorized that he secretly wanted to be caught others think that he assumed that she'd drown when the boat sank terry jo returned to wisconsin and moved in with her aunt uncle and cousins as much as possible they tried to give her a normal upbringing shielding her from the press who was fascinated by her tragic story her extended family doesn't encourage her to talk about what happened aboard the blue bell at that time it was thought the best way to cope was to bury trauma and not speak of it so for nearly 30 years she doesn't finally in 1999 taray as she's now called worked through her memories with a psychiatrist she even did an interview while being treated with sodium amital better known as truth serum to make sure she wasn't misremembering anything and gain new insight ultimately terry joe ended up co-authoring a book with her psychiatrist about her experience and now that you've reached the end of our video why not keep the watch party going ever wondered what it would be like to be lost at sea with sharks circling go ahead and click on this video to find out don't wait click now or maybe you've had enough of the ocean and are interested in a truly creepy mystery that occurred on land then you might be interested in the dyatlov pass incident

Channel: The Infographics Show

Views: 955,443

Rating: 4.9119902 out of 5

Keywords: survival, survival story, orphan, sea, ocean, rescue, rescue mission, secret, secrets, the infographics show, reveal, animation

Id: e9c4_ICJhoo

Length: 12min 35sec (755 seconds)

Published: Sun May 03 2020