This statue will kill you

this video is brought to you by current today we're going to look at three places you can't go and people who went there anyways but before we get into today's stories if you're a fan of the strange dark and mysterious delivered in story format then you come to the right place because that's all we do and we upload once or twice every week so if that's of interest to you please offer to do the like buttons laundry but be sure to stop the dryer when their clothes are still slightly damp also please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads alright let's get into today's stories [Music] in the fall of 2002 19 year old gemma houghton moved into her dorm room at the very prestigious university of manchester in england to begin her freshman year her first couple of months at the school were relatively uneventful she spent all of her time focusing on her studies and so she really had not gone out and met any new people but in early 2003 so about halfway through her freshman year she was standing outside of her dorm when this boy she had never met before walked up to her and introduced himself he was this tall very handsome very charming guy he said his name was ian redmond he was a senior at the school and he in fact lived in the same building that she did and so he just wanted to introduce himself now gemma was not looking for a boyfriend but she was immediately attracted to ian and ian would later say the feeling was mutual this chance encounter would ultimately blossom into a full-fledged romantic relationship one that would ultimately lead to ian six years later proposing to gemma on christmas eve 2009. that same year they got engaged the couple who had diligently saved money for years and years and years were able to pool their money and buy a house together it was not a very nice house it was a fairly beat up cottage in this little town in england that would need a lot of work but ian and gemma were actually very excited to do the work they looked at this as an opportunity to make the house exactly the way they wanted it and it was a chance for them to spend some quality time together so for the next two years during all of their free time ian and gemma would work on their home and then finally in august of 2011 right before their actual wedding day they finished the renovation their home is done and so they get married and then literally right after their wedding instead of going right into a honeymoon they just moved right into their dream home that night and so for the next couple of days the newlyweds got to enjoy being husband and wife for the first time inside of their dream home and then it was time to go on the honeymoon in addition to having set aside money for the down payment on their home the couple had also set aside money for this honeymoon they wanted it to be an amazing vacation and so what they decided to do for their honeymoon was to go to seychelles which is this island nation in the indian ocean which many say has the most beautiful beaches in the world so on august 10th the couple hops on a plane and they fly to seychelles and when they land they check into the resort which is this unbelievable place that overlooks this perfect beach with white sand and crystal clear waters and then after getting checked in the couple goes down to a restaurant and they're having a bite to eat and as they're sitting there they're probably thinking to themselves this is going to be the best vacation ever during the first week of their trip the couple was very active spending lots of time exploring the island and going out on different excursions and going to lots of restaurants they were just all over the place and so come tuesday august 16th which was the start of their second week and final week of the sunny moon the couple was kind of tired from all the activity and so they decided they would just have a lazy day at the beach that day and so the couple grabbed their swimsuits and their towels and their chairs and they left the resort and headed down to the beach right outside and then after finding a decent spot on the sand they set up their chairs and towels put their stuff down and gemma she laid down on one of the chairs to begin sunbathing and ian he grabbed his fins and his snorkel and he kissed gemma on the cheek and said he was going to go down to the water and go for a swim gemma remembers watching ian as he walked across the beach and stopped in front of the water and put on his big fins and got a snorkel on and then he kind of awkwardly dunk walked his way into the water and gemma remembers just smiling and laughing to herself watching him awkwardly do this and then thinking to herself how lucky she was to be married such an amazing guy she really loved him so much after ian had finally gotten into the water and had begun his snorkeling journey gemma laid back and began to doze off to sleep a little while later though gemma suddenly woke up to the sound of what almost sounded like someone sneezing really really loudly and so instinctively she sat up and scanned the water line for her husband but all she saw were other tourists in the water swimming and snorkeling and doing all sorts of stuff she couldn't find ian and then she heard a male voice calling out for help it was coming off to the right towards the top of the beach pretty far away from her and she turned and she saw ian ian was about 60 feet off of the sand so he's well out into the water and he appeared to be kind of hunched forward with his arm kind of in the water and he's waving his other arm in the air it was like he was stuck on something and before gemma could get up and run to him or help him in any way ian just begins to scream at the top of his lungs when ian began screaming there was a surgeon who was also on vacation at this beach who was in a boat near where ian was he hears the scream and he boats over to ian and he and the guy who was in the boat with him managed to pull ian out of the water that get him on the boat and ian is alive and he's conscious but he is missing his entire left arm he's missing the majority of his left thigh and there was a huge chunk missing from his midsection it would turn out ian had been attacked by a bull shark one of the most aggressive sharks in the world that sneezing sound that gemma had heard that had startled her awake was the sound ian had made through his snorkel when the shark bit down on him the surgeon rushed ian to the shore and pulled him out and got him onto the sand and began trying to save his life at the same time gemma had come running up the beach and she managed to push through the quickly forming crowd and she drops down next to her husband and ian at this point is alive and he's conscious he's very badly hurt but he's looking up and he's clearly making eye contact with gemma and gemma she's looking down at her husband and she's making clear eye contact with him and they don't really say much it was like this horrible moment where all they could do was just be in the moment together and so during this kind of silent acknowledgement ian would ultimately pass away it would turn out over the past few weeks there had been a rash of shark attacks at this beach including one other fatal attack on another tourist because shark attacks in seychelles were so unheard of they believed this had to be the work of one rogue bull shark that was the one shark that was doing all of these attacks and so because this shark had not been captured or killed the country had actually instituted a temporary ban on swimming at this beach and a few other beaches but for whatever reason the ban had not been communicated effectively to the tourists nor had it been enforced on the tourists and so gemma and ian had no idea the water was a dangerous place to be they just looked out and saw other tourists swimming around and believed it was totally safe when in reality it obviously wasn't gemma would quickly return to england and she would host her husband's funeral in the same church she and he had been married in 10 days earlier before we get into our next story i want to talk about today's sponsor current have you ever felt like everyone around you has a weirdly deep understanding of their personal finances they're investing in the stock market they have 401ks and roth iras they're buying up crypto and nfts and ethereum they've got all this stuff going on and you're like uh i have a bank account if that's you then you're like me and if you're like me you really need to sign up for current imagine a company that could drastically simplify your personal finances they could help you save money they could earn you points on your purchases and on top of that they have a very slick mobile app well the company you're thinking of would be current they are not only designed for the not financial gurus like myself they are also designed for the future right 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inspired to actually go to australia to see it for herself because it looked so amazing in this movie so a couple of months later in march of 1987 ginger by herself hops on a plane and flies to perth which is a major city in western australia and her plan was she would land in australia and then work odd jobs to make a little bit of cash and then use that cash to fund her travels all over the country and then at some point after she was tired of doing that she would head back to the united states so she lands in perth and immediately she sees her first opportunity to make some money there had been this huge sailing competition in the city leading up to the weekend she arrived there and so she saw all these luxury yachts anchored at all these docks along the coastline and ginger's thinking to herself you know these huge ships they have crews that work on them basically full time maybe one of these boats could use an extra set of hands and so jinger who was very friendly and outgoing she went right down to one of these docks and she stopped in front of the very first yacht she saw which was this huge luxury 100 foot yacht and she introduced herself to the captain of this boat and she said hey you know can i hitch a ride with you guys to the next place you're going and in exchange i'll work for you and as it happened the captain was actually looking for another crew member to assist their chef and so he said okay well can you cook and ginger said yeah i'm a great cook and he said okay well you're hired you can be the chef's assistant and so ginger she climbs on board and she meets the rest of the five other crew members including the chef who she'd be working with and the chef's name was jane and those two would become very close and then shortly after ginger had come aboard the captain cast off their lines and they headed out to sea their next stop was going to be new guinea which was roughly 14 days of travel away after about a week at sea the captain realized they were dangerously low on fresh water and so he decided to take a detour and turn east and head inland along this river system that would bring them to this large freshwater pool which he also knew had this huge waterfall that dumped down into it and so he figured they could go right underneath this waterfall and fill up their jugs with all this fresh water and then head back out and they'd be good so on the morning of march 29th the captain anchored the yacht out at sea near the mouth of this river system and then he lowered the yacht's dinghy which is a smaller more agile boat and once that was in the water he ginger jane and the rest of the crew they hop in this dinghy along with all these large empty water jugs and they begin making their way towards this river and so they're traveling up this river for a little while and then finally they get to this huge freshwater pool and right in front of them is this amazing waterfall and everybody is just totally awestruck by this waterfall it's like a a gem in the middle of nowhere because they're in very rugged australia at this point and so the captain he brings the dinghy right near the base of the waterfall and one by one they hold up their water jugs and they fill them with fresh water and then they're about to turn and go back out to sea and get back on their yacht when the captain thinks to himself you know what we've been at sea for seven days straight it's been very monotonous maybe it would be a good thing to stick around here for a little bit longer and maybe even hike up to the top of this waterfall and enjoy the view and kind of enjoy the scenery before we head back out to sea and so he says to his crew hey do you guys want to go to the top of this waterfall and everyone agrees it's a great idea with the exception of jane she did not feel like hiking to the top of this waterfall she said she would stay down in the dinghy and wait for them now this pool is basically surrounded on all sides by just pure cliff face there really is no place to land this dinghy there's no flat surfaces you basically have cliffs that go directly into water and then also you have the river that feeds back out to the ocean so the captain brings the dinghy right up against the cliff face right next to this waterfall and he and ginger and the other crew members not named jane climb out of the dinghy onto this cliff face and they begin climbing literally climbing up this wall towards the top of the waterfall now everyone was able to do it except for ginger she kept slipping on the rocks it was very steep it seemed kind of dangerous and so at some point she abandons the idea and goes back down to the dinghy with jane and the captain and the rest of the crew they continue up towards the top and so as ginger and jane are sitting in the dinghy watching the other crew members making their way up they start feeling a little bit left out and they're like you know what let's try to find an alternate way up to the top of this waterfall and so they begin scanning out across this pool at the other cliffs kind of surrounding it and it looked like on the very other side of the pool there was a less severe cliff face that maybe they would have an easier time climbing up and so the two women they jump into the murky brown water and begin swimming directly across this pool towards this other cliff and when they make it about a third of the way jane suddenly stops and ginger notices and turns around and looks at jane and she's like what's going on and jane would tell her you know something just feels off the system feel right let's go back to the dinghy let's just forget about this but jinger is like come on we're so close let's just keep going it'll be awesome once we get to the top of this waterfall so jane she's totally hesitant but she says okay fine and they both continue to swim and then all of a sudden they hear their captain who is now on top of the waterfall screaming down to them to get out of the water right now and they notice he is pointing down at the pool in a direction slightly away from where they were and so they're looking up at him and they're following his finger down to the part of the pool he's pointing at and they see there is this tidal wave of water coming towards them it is a 12 foot long saltwater crocodile that has noticed them and it is charging straight at them now jane and jinger knew they were too far away from the dinghy to be able to swim to it before this crocodile was going to reach them and so their next best choice was just to turn and swim towards the nearest cliff face because again there is no place to get out of the water there's only cliffs and so they swim towards this cliff face which is right on the edge of the bottom of the waterfall and so water is landing on them and they reach the cliff face and they're trying to climb up and pull themselves out of the water but there's nowhere to grab onto it's all totally slick there's no good hand holds and so all they have is this little ledge that is in the water that they're standing on but they're still halfway into the water and so after they struggle for a minute trying to pull themselves out of the water and they realize they can't do it they both just turn around and they lock arms and they look out through the water that's falling down in front of them into the pool and they see this crocodile has followed them and it is now stopped right on the other side of the water that's falling down and it's just staring at them with its mouth wide open and the two women are looking at it they don't know what to do and the captain and the other crew members they see what's going on and they're trying to climb down as fast as they possibly can to try to rescue them but it's gonna take several minutes at least before they get down to the dinghy and so jane and ginger they're totally aware of this and they're just staring at this crocodile screaming at it trying to get it to go away and at some point the crocodile does just close its mouth and sink below the surface but now they don't know where it is and this causes ginger to completely panic and she lets go of jane's arm and she dives into the water off to the right and attempts to swim away from the crocodile back over to the boat but ginger only made it two strokes before the crocodile suddenly re-emerged underneath her and grabbed her by the waist and pulled her under the water jane is just standing there watching all of this happen in front of her she has no idea what to do the crew is still not down in the dinghy so she's totally stranded and she's just staring at the area where ginger has been pulled below the surface and just seconds after she's been pulled under the crocodile re-emerges with its head pointed towards jane and in its jaws is ginger and ginger's got her arms up over her head she's wide-eyed and she's looking right at jane and jane makes eye contact with her but there's nothing she can do and she just watched as ginger again was pulled back under and this time she did not come up again ultimately jane would be rescued from the ledge the crew would get down to the dinghy they'd swing over it they would pick her up and then about two days later they would find what was left of ginger's remains it would turn out the captain was well aware of the threat the crocodiles posed in this river and he had told his crew ginger and jane included about this threat and that at no point should anyone get in this water but of course his warning went unheeded [Music] if you google the words burning man and you click on images you'll see lots of scantily clad and somewhat wild looking people roaming around the nevada desert on strange looking bikes and in the background you'll see all these huge bizarre statues of aliens and robots and animals and these statues are often draped in more wild looking people or these statues are on fire and these wild looking people are dancing and rejoicing all around the flames based on these images you might think burning man is just some totally weird substance-fueled party out in the middle of the desert and while that is true to some degree it's not totally accurate burning man is not a party it's actually an experiment that 70 000 people from all over the world participate in every year the question this experiment is trying to answer is can a random segment of the population come together and build a community out of nothing in the middle of nowhere and can they do it while knowing at the end of burning man which is always nine days long everything they build the sculptures the shelters everything will be torn down and destroyed and erased from the planet as if it had never been there in the first place and amazingly year after year after year the answer to this question is yes yes they can as soon as these 70 000 people descend on this small section of the nevada desert they immediately get to work helping each other building their own sites i mean these people largely don't know each other or in many cases they don't even speak the same language but they're showing up with this shared desire to build this temporary community and so they begin seamlessly working together and while shelters are being stood up all over the place other attendees will pull out instruments and form impromptu bands and then the artists of the group will get together and begin building these kind of strange sculptures and so very quickly within only a few hours every year in burning man this plot of barren desert turns into this beautiful otherworldly utopia full of totally happy and fulfilled and excited strangers but in 2017 the utopia that was created at that burning man was shattered by one man and his name was aaron joel in 2017 aaron joel was a tall handsome 41 year old free spirit who from the time he was just a little kid had this sort of restless energy about him he always needed to be out doing stuff he could never sit still and so by the time he was old enough he left his family home in oklahoma and moved out to oregon and moved into this commune a commune is a group of people that live together and share their possessions and responsibilities but shortly after moving in to this commune aaron got restless again this wasn't enough for him and so he left the commune and began traveling all over the united states but after he had basically gone everywhere in the country he became restless again and so he left the united states and he went to nepal and began traveling all over nepal and while he was there he met this wonderful young woman from switzerland named ladina and the two fell madly in love and then when it was time for ladina to leave nepal and go back to her home country aaron followed her and just a couple of years later in 2014 the pair got married and they bought a house together and settled down in switzerland for a time aaron and ladina were very happy their life was very simple and straightforward they loved each other they loved switzerland but in 2017 aaron's wonderlust reared its head again and so he went up to ladina and he told her that you know honey i just i need to go out and explore again i need to go out and be free again even if it's just for a couple of days or a week or whatever time it is i need it i need it in order to be sane i don't think ladino was very pleased about this development however she knew her husband and she knew this was important to him and to his mental health and so she said okay honey you know you do what you have to do and so aaron thought about what he was going to do to satiate this desire to go out and be free again and he settled on attending that year's burning man something he had never done before so aaron leaves switzerland and he goes back to oregon in the united states and he meets up with a very close friend of his name justin justin was actually someone he had lived with in the commune when he was there and so the two they link up in oregon and from there they drive in justin's big van out to nevada and when they get to nevada they drive out to the burning man's site and as they're pulling up they see thousands and thousands of other vans and tents and all these people that are out setting up and building this community this utopia and so right away aaron and justin they find their spot they park their van they begin to build their own site and then after that they pulled their bikes out of the van and began biking around helping other people out build their sites and build the rest of the community and so by that afternoon aaron and justin had made lots of new friends and they were out partying and dancing and singing with total strangers just totally immersed in the burning man experience that night aaron would actually turn in early while justin would stay up and continue having a good time with the new people he had met aaron was just not a night owl he liked to get a full night's sleep and then get up early and make himself a smoothie and do yoga and so this was very normal behavior justin would later say that he really looked up to aaron and in fact many people that knew aaron looked up to him because aaron on the one hand was a total free spirit that would just kind of go where the wind would blow him but at the same time he was very regimented and disciplined he took great care of himself both physically and mentally and he just seemed wise beyond his years and he was incredibly charismatic and very funny and so people really flocked to him and really idolized him one of the traditions of burning man has to do with its namesake towards the end of every burning man they will build this 40-foot tall wooden man effigy and they will burn it to the ground hence the name burning man and so on the night of the so-called man burn aaron told justin that he was not going to turn in early that night that instead he was going to stay up and watch the spectacle of this effigy being burned to the ground justin was really excited about it and so was aaron and so that evening aaron and justin met up with their new friends they had met while they were at burning man and their group began making their way over to the wooden man effigy now this huge effigy was situated in this huge open clearing and then standing all around this wooden man are what they called rangers they're basically security guards for the event that also have some fire training and they would stand almost shoulder to shoulder or very close to shoulder to shoulder facing away from the effigy forming a perimeter around it and the ranger's job was to prevent the crowd of 70 000 people from getting too close to the effigy when it was on fire because it's obviously a huge hazard and so aaron justin and their friends when they got to this clearing and saw the effigy they would have seen thousands and thousands of event attendees converging on this effigy getting as close to the rangers as they possibly could on all sides and so aaron and justin and their friends they make their way up to one particular section of this crowd and they begin fighting their way through all these people trying to get as close to the rangers as they possibly could because they want a good view of this man burn and then once they were satisfied with their view they just stopped and waited for the effigy to be lit but before the effigy was lit aaron would turn to justin and say hey i have some friends from switzerland who are here right now they're on the other side of the effigy on the other side of the crowd and i'm going to go see them right now and so justin was totally bummed that aaron was going to be leaving right before this thing is lit because he wanted to experience this with aaron but he said okay no problem you know i'll see you hopefully you know before this thing gets lit or you know i'll see you after this burn is done and so aaron departed the group and justin watched as he kind of disappeared into the crowd and then justin turned his attention back towards the effigy and a little while later when the sun had gone down and it was totally dark out and the crowd was totally electric as they're waiting for this thing to light finally they did they lit the effigy and as soon as it went up in flames the crowd of thousands and thousands of people roared with excitement and this whole time justin is totally amazed by what he is watching but he's also scanning the crowd kind of hoping that aaron will eventually pop back up but at this point the crowd is so massive and everyone's so tight together that justin is really not expecting aaron to come back over to where he had been it just didn't seem possible and so this huge wooden man effigy goes up in glorious flames and everyone's so amazed by it and then eventually the flames begin to dwindle down as the structure continues to burn lower and lower to the ground and then finally when the fire is just about out the crowd of people begin to disperse and at this point justin again looks around hoping to maybe see aaron but you know aaron has not come back yet and so justin just says okay you know maybe it's time to leave and go check in with aaron back at the van and so he notifies his friends that he's going to turn around and head back and as justin turns and begins leaving the crowd someone who was at the event who apparently knew justin and knew aaron came running over to justin and frantically told him this totally shocking story about something that happened to aaron now at first justin just could not believe it he couldn't even process it it seemed so outlandish and unbelievable that it just could not have happened but he was thinking to himself you know i haven't seen aaron since he left to go see his friends from switzerland and i have no idea where he is and so justin starts looking around the crowd again he's not seeing aaron and he's starting to panic and so finally justin just turns and starts running back towards his van in hopes that aaron is going to be there but when he gets back to his van aaron is not there and there's no sign that aaron has been back after they had left for the man burn it would turn out that shocking story justin had been told about aaron was true this is that shocking story after aaron told justin that he was going to go to the other side of the crowd and spend some time with his friends from switzerland he disappeared from the group and he made his way over to that far side of the crowd but we don't know if he actually met up with friends from switzerland or if that was just some cover to get away from justin and the other people he was with but regardless at some point aaron made his way over to the other side of the effigy away from justin and away from his other friends and once he was over there he pushed his way towards the front of the crowd until he was right in front of the rangers with front row seats of the effigy and then after the effigy was set alight and was fully engulfed in flames aaron at some point bum-rushed one of the rangers right in front of him and was able to push past him and then before that ranger or any other nearby rangers could stop him aaron was able to sprint directly into the bottom of this massive effigy right into the fire and he disappeared inside of it because the crowd was massive and unruly and many people were under the influence of drugs or alcohol or both because of all that even though aaron is running into the fire right in front of them it was like nobody noticed everybody was in kind of their own worlds and it's dark out there's this fire i mean there's so many distractions that really nobody noticed this happening besides the rangers that were immediately affected by aaron running past them and some of the people that were right at the front of the crowd watching as aaron did this and so this is why justin and the rest of his friends had no idea this had happened despite the fact they were watching this fire as this was happening aaron would ultimately only be inside of the flames for 12 seconds before the rangers were able to go inside and pull him out but by that time it was already too late aaron would be rushed to the hospital but he would die that night it would later be determined that aaron was completely sober at the time he decided to run into the burning man which means he was of clear mind when he decided to do this and so it was determined that his death had to be a suicide however his family and his friends and anybody who knew him are just totally not buying the idea that he decided to commit suicide especially like this it just didn't make any sense this is not something aaron would have done he was acting totally normally his behavior was not erratic something else must have caused this to happen but unfortunately at this point no one has come close to figuring out what this other thing could be and so to date his death still remains largely a mystery here is a picture one of the bystanders took of aaron as he charges into the fire so that's gonna do it guys if you found the secret in today's episode let us know in the comments section what it is and where you found it so give us the time stamp and if you're the first to do that we'll pin you at the top of the comment section if you got something out of today's video and you haven't done this already please offer to do the like buttons laundry but be sure to stop the dryer while their clothes are still slightly damp also please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly one or two video uploads we are now selling merchandise like flannels and hats and sweatshirts and all sorts of stuff if you're interested go to shopmrballen.com if you want to learn about upcoming deals and promotions for our shop go to our shops instagram page the username is shopmrballin if you want to get in touch with me you can direct message me on instagram or on twitter my username for both platforms is the same it's just mr ballen i also have a ton of content over on tiktok where my username is also mr ballen we have a second youtube channel just called mr ball and shorts where we post random short videos and lost episodes we also have a facebook page just called mr ballin where we post condensed versions of the longer episodes you see on youtube if you have a story suggestion please submit it to our subreddit just called mr ballin it's linked in the description below so whether i see you on twitter instagram ticktalk reddit youtube facebook or some combination just know that i really appreciate your support and until next time that's gonna do it see ya

Channel: MrBallen

Views: 4,842,914

Keywords: strange, dark, mysterious, true, story, scary, scary story, horror story, disturbing, narration, narrator, storyteller, storytime, storytelling, unsolved mystery, solved mystery, true crime, burning man, nevada, desert, festival, fire, flames, statue, effigy, honeymoon, newlyweds, manchester, university of Manchester, England, shark, shark attack, crocodile, saltwater crocodile, waterfall, australia, alligator, alligators, crocodiles, animal attack, mystery, unsolved, yacht, luxury yacht, Darwin, Darwin Award, burn

Id: Tul0S0xFzh8

Length: 32min 28sec (1948 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 17 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/IntelligentVideo5793]

gud video