JCO PRESS
RELEASE - 040208:
WRT: REMOVAL
OF REMAINS OF CARLTON ROSE FROM HUTCHINSONS HOLE, BENSONTON, ST ANN, ON FEB
4/04
Due to the
recent publicity surrounding our removal of the body of Carlton Rose from
Hutchinson's Hole in St Ann, the
Jamaican
Caves Organization would like to issue a statement, found below, concerning our
involvement in this matter.
Requests for
clarification, or questions, can be addressed to R. S. Stewart, admin@jamaicancaves.org
This press
release can also be read online at www.jamaicancaves.org/press_release_040208.htm
A scanned
letter of acknowledgement from the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the JCF, can be found at www.jamaicancaves.org/news_jcf_letter.jpg.
(Please note
that although we will permit the publication of portions of the following
account, after permission has been received by us, we request that it not be used in
its entirety. This statement and account are copyright © R. S. Stewart, administrator of the
Jamaican Caves Organization.)
STATEMENT:
The JCO was
first contacted about the disappearance of Carlton Rose on January 5, 2004, by
a person who was familiar
with the
situation. A copy of the email follows:
Mon 1/5/2004
7:36 PM
"hi
cavers
we live in
St.Mary but my hubby has family & land in the Bensonton/Pedro district of
St..Ann
The sink
hole on the land is the one made famous by the mass muderer Lewis Hutchinson in
the 1700's..recently a local
man threw
himself down the sink hole, he has not been recovered....the hole is now the
size that could swallow a big
car...we
would really like to know how deep it is..maybe a camera could be lowered down
with light first...anyone who
goes down
comes back up with the willies!!!
so what do you
think..I'm happy to feild for help from farign'...BTW..I'm a moderator on
www.jamaicans.com maybe you
would like
some free exposure on there,
hope to hear
from you soon
libby
Thomspon"
Because
there was a possibility that a body might be found, we asked Libby to contact
the local police. An excerpt from
the email
follows:
Fri 1/9/2004
10:30 PM
"Do you
know if there is definitely a possibility that a man recently jumped down the
hole? If so, we should probably
contact the
police before we go down, and make arrangements to get him out. Because the
hole is 325 feet deep, we will
only want to
go down, and come back up, once... it's rather hard on the legs doing it twice.
If we find pieces of a body
down there,
we'll need a body-bag etc to take care of it, and we'll need to have a crew
ready up-top to haul it out.
I'm hoping
the guy actually took off to Kingston and just told people he was going to jump
in to explain his
disappearance.
Little more
Stefan"
Four days
later, we received this reply:
Tue 1/20/2004
7:20 AM
"Hi
stefan
finally got
hold of Inspector Plamer at St.Ann Bay station, Claremont idint think they
could handle it !!
anyway..Insp:
Palmer, laughed & laughed when I expalined everything to him...he also
thinks your crazy!
but no
rpoblem going down the hole, he says its up to Uncle anyway to give permission,
which he has, so you are good to
go...I'm not
having much luck with a body bag though, the police dont have any (not
surprized) he said I would have to
ask a
funeral home but they dont want to give me one unless they get the job for the
funeral...so we are trying to sort
out some
sort of bag for you..we think he maybe still in one peice as it must be cold
down there..is there anything else
I can do?
Libby"
Our reply, and
final email prior to the events described below, follows:
Tue
1/20/2004 8:54 AM
"Thanks
for your efforts, Libby. With all the dead bodies showing up in Ja so often,
it's surprising that it's so hard
to find a
bag to put one in. So it goes...
Let's hope
he's not in there, but if he is, he'll have fallen 325 feet. There is often
soft sand at the bottom of
sinkholes,
(it makes people think that they're bottomless because they don't hear a rock
hit at the bottom), so maybe
he'll still
be in one piece. If so, I guess we could manage something with nylon webbing,
but the temperature is usually
about 20 C /
70 F even in the deepest caves/sinks... he won't be in the greatest shape.
The schedule
is still solid. We will arrive at your Uncle's on the evening of Sat Jan 31.
Stefan"
Prior to our
arrival on the scene, we were unaware that any attempts to recover the body had
already been made, and even
that there
was a real likelihood that a man had truly gone in. As far as we knew, this was
just another story like many
we had heard
before that had proved to be false, and we discounted the possibility of us
actually finding anything.
Coincidentally,
we had already included a descent into the hole in our schedule due to its
depth and historical
notoriety,
and so we had made arrangements to visit Bensonton in the Pedro district on Feb
1, 2004.
On the
evening of Jan 31, 2004, after having made that day a first descent into the 70
metre, (235 ft), "Bertie
Sinkhole",
in the Aboukir District of St Ann, we arrived at the shop of "Ms
Mac", and "Leslie Morrison", the owner of
the land
where the hole is located, in Bensonton, where we had been offered free
accommodation. A discussion with Mr
Morrison and
a number of the local people over the course of several hours, and several Red
Stripes, supplied additional
information
that made us aware that the Fire Dept had lowered a man into the hole. At this
point, we did not yet accept
that a man
might have fallen/jumped in. The story we were hearing was doubtful in some
ways; we were told the Fire Dept
had lowered
a man in 520 ft although we knew the hole to be listed at 325 ft; we were told
that at that depth the member
of the Fire
Dept could still not see the bottom. This did not make sense. As a result, we
did not accept anything we
were hearing
as fact and did not alter our plans for the next day.
On the
morning of Sun, Feb 1, 2004, at 09:30 EST, we were at the hole and beginning to
rig the drop. There were four of
us: Ivor Conolley,
Mark Bellinger, Delroy Williams, and myself, Ronald Stefan Stewart. We intended
to put two cavers
into the
hole, Stewart and Conolley, and have Bellinger and Williams up-top for
communications and crowd-control. This
latter
factor, crowd-control, was our greatest concern; we had anticipated that we
might have a large audience, and
because any
rocks dislodged or thrown in by the crowd would fall upon the cavers at the
bottom, from a great height,
keeping the
spectators well back from the hole was critically important.
Before
describing our rigging method, I will give a brief account of the nature of the
hole. The entrance to
Hutchinsons
hole is at the bottom of a valley and immediately surrounded by inclined rock
walls rising some 10 metres
above the
entrance. These would prove to be convenient for the seating of the spectators
but offered more potential for
danger for
us. The entrance proper is about 3 metres by 5 metres, (10 x 16 ft), and
consists primarily of rock
outcroppings
with jagged edges. This would necessitate careful hanging of the rope to avoid
abrasion and cutting. The
hole
maintains the 3 x 5 m dimension for about 15 m, and then begins to widen to a
final 18 x 25 m at the bottom. The
floor of the
cave is highest at the NE, 90 m, and lowest at the SW, 98 m. The highest part
is directly under the
entrance and
this is where a rope will touch bottom.
To avoid
having the rope cut by rocks, we used a method whereby the main-line, a very
dense 100 m, 11mm static nylon
rope, would
be diverted away from the edge of the hole by a second line anchored to a tree
stump on the far side of the
hole. Onto
the bottom end of the 100 m line, we had tied a second 60 m line in case the
520 ft descent by the Fire Dept
turned out
to be true, rather than the listed 98 m. The main-line was anchored to a large
green stump by using several
wraps, and
then two carabiners on a figure-8 knot at the end of the line clipped onto the
main-line proper. This avoided
having a
knot under strong tension. Below the diversion carabiners, a long length of
webbing was clipped in that would
allow for
the main-line to be pulled close to the edge to allow the cavers to get on, and
off, the rope.
The rigging
of the drop was completed by 11:00 AM EST, and then the first caver, Stewart,
got on rappel and headed down.
By this time
the crowd had reached about 50 - 60 people.
A personal
recollection of that descent follows:
My entry
into the hole did not begin in the most elegant manner; the crew up-top did not
anticipate the tension that
would come
onto the webbing strap that would ease the main-line, with me attached to it
with a figure-8 descender, out
to the
centre of the hole. As a result, I immediately fell several feet down the rock
wall, banging my left knee into it
in the
process. After growling at the crew, and the crowd, I was gently swung out the
rest of the way. My rappel now
began.
At first, I
did nothing but concentrate on the mechanics of the descent, checking friction
and speed and the resulting
heat in the
descender. I was completely in bright daylight, with a watching crowd, for the
first 10 metres. Within
another 5
metres, I had left the faces and the sun behind. As I came into darkness, I
could now begin to see the depths
of the hole
beneath me lit by the beam of my headlamp. The hole slowly widened, the walls
drew back from the rope, but
the bottom
was not yet visible. By 25 metres, I was hanging freely away from the fluted
rock-wall and began a slow spin
induced by
the rappel device. Adjusting the beam of my headlamp to the tightest focus, I
could now make out the bottom
of the cave,
with rope piled safely on the floor. I now knew that I would reach the bottom.
As the walls
receded further, and I could see the sinkhole in its entirety, I began to have
the impression of incredible
height.
Although this hole was only another 30 m, (100 ft), deeper than the one we had
done the day before, it felt like
much, much,
more. I paid special attention to my control hand on the rope and slowed down
to a crawl. I had no wish to
gain too
much speed on this drop.
At long
last, the floor drew near, being now only 20 metres below me, and at this point
a horrible stench became
discernible.
I came to the grim realization that the story of the fallen man was true. I had
no real choice but to
continue my
descent. Even though I was rigged to change to ascent, we had committed
ourselves, (in actual fact, I had
committed
us), to the finding of the body. We had even offered to bring it back out. I
began to understand the enormity
of what I
had gotten us into.
With growing
queasiness, I completed the rest of the descent, touching bottom 20 minutes
after I began. As I kept my
face towards
the wall, trying to ignore the foul smell that enveloped me, I removed the
descender from the line, took
off the
ascenders that would hamper my movement on the floor, and then took out the
walkie-talkie to communicate to
those above
that I had reached bottom with over 200 ft of rope to spare. This done, I
slowly turned to scan the floor of
the sinkhole
around me. To the NW, 6 metres away, I saw a running shoe. I took several steps
in that direction and saw
the outline
of a body, strangely coloured, greyish-white, and flat. It was unsettling; it
did not look like a body yet
it
undeniably was one. It did not appear to be real, more like an image than
something with substance. I felt rather
apprehensive.
Another step closer, and a further look, convinced me that I was indeed viewing
the body of Carlton Rose,
over three
months after his fall. I retreated to a distance of about 15 m, taking refuge
in a small embayment in the
wall of the
chamber, and then radioed to the crew above, using a pre-arranged code, the
news of what I had found. The
information
that I was safely clear, and that Ivor Conolley could come ahead, was made in a
more open fashion.
During my
time alone, some 40 minutes, awaiting Ivor's arrival in the depths, I attempted
to do a cursory assessment of
the biology
and physical condition of the chamber, but because of the distraction of the
smell managed to do nothing but
find several
Cave Crickets, an Amblypygid, and determine that the low chambers at the
deepest part of the hole were
choked with
rocks. This is the apparent exit for waters that enter from above. As I
wandered around the part of the hole
furthest
from Mr Rose, I sang "Rivers of Babylon" several times, and
"Many Rivers to Cross", smoked cigarettes, and
successfully
prevented myself from vomiting. At last, I saw the form of Ivor Conolley approaching
from the heights
above, and
began to feel less utterly alone, or rather, alone but for the duppies that
must surely abide in that
darkness. I
had not been able to prevent myself from pondering on the number of people that
this hole had eaten over the
centuries,
first assisted by Lewis Hutchinson in the late 1700's, and continuing to
Carlton's fatal entry. I was
determined
that I would not be one that would stay, but that I would instead return to the
light and fresh air of the
outside
world.
I must thank
Mark and Delroy for giving me some company via the walkie-talkie during this 40
minute wait in the
darkness, by
telling me of the weather conditions above, and making idle chit-chat. Their
unspoken understanding of how
I felt, and
their simple but effective way of alleviating it, was greatly appreciated.
Ivor reached
bottom, and as he got off-rope, I radioed to those above that he was safely
down.
I showed the
location of the body to Ivor, and after he had made a brief observation, we
began to discuss what we should
do next. We
decided that we must provide a way of having an identification made by the
family once we had reached the
surface. I
would use the camera I had with me to take photographs of the corpse and we
would take the shoe. There was
nothing else
obvious to do; there were no recoverable clothes that we could see and the shoe
was the only choice. As I
took photos,
Ivor took a stick that had fallen in, and attempted to remove the shoe. The
entire foot separated from the
body. We
would have to take it also. All that we had to put it in, not wanting to use
our packs, was a black plastic bag
of the kind
used in shops. Ivor put the foot into the bag using the stick. We then talked
of how to get it up. It was
decided that
Ivor would hang it from his harness on a length of webbing. I confess that I
was unable to do it. This
decided, I
rigged for ascent, gave the word to the crew above that a climber was on-rope,
and I began a rapid ascent out
of the hole.
In my haste, I neglected to lock the one carabiner that attached my Jumar
ascenders to the line, something
I realized
only after I had gotten into fresh air some 25 metres up and stopped to
double-check my rigging. This
potentially
disastrous event was due either to my distraction or the hole trying to eat yet
another body; I don't know
which. It is
a mistake that I have never made before and will never make again.
The rest of
the ascent went well, and after 25 minutes on-rope, I arrived at the top of the
hole to make the strangest
exit from a
cave or sinkhole that I have ever experienced. As I completed the final few
metres, I found myself rising
into a what
seemed like the middle of a football stadium. Around me, row upon row, about
400 people sat on the rocks
that rise up
from the entrance. Some were dressed in their best clothes, some looked like
school-teachers or
secretaries,
there were rastas with dreadlocks smoking large spliffs, and as I was hauled to
the side of the pit, they
all clapped
and cheered. After getting off-rope, I managed a couple of brief bows and waves
in acknowledgement, and then
sat myself
down in the least visible spot. A beer was thrust into my left hand, and a
cigarette into my right. Looking
up, I saw a
TV news crew recording this bizarre event. I had suddenly emerged from the
loneliest, spookiest, place that
I have ever
visited, into what seemed like a sporting event with me as the star attraction.
I instructed
the crew to let Ivor know that he could come ahead. He acknowledged this and
reported that he was rigging
for ascent.
Ivor Conolley now began a trip that can only be described as horrendous.
Although his actual ascent of the
rope went
splendidly, and he encountered no problems, the foot hung, stinking, a metre
below him for the entire 300 ft.
I must
express my deepest respect for what he did. I could barely manage to get near
the body without vomiting, and he
managed to
bring that thing up, following him, for 30 minutes without losing his
concentration on the mechanics of the
ascent
itself.
During this time,
I refused to answer the many questions that were asked by the surrounding crowd
with anything other
than
statements about the physical nature of the hole itself. A report on what we
had discovered would have to be made
first to the
police and family.
We had asked
that the police be contacted as soon as I had reached the surface, and Ivor's
most immediate inquiries on
reaching the
top were regarding the time of their arrival. He sat himself on a rock,
unmoving, with the foot still
attached to
the harness, and maintained an expression of utter stoicism. Those in the crowd
nearest to us began to
realize, by
the smell emanating from the bag, what we had found below. The party atmosphere
that had existed until this
point began
to be replaced with relative silence and sombre faces.
After some
20 minutes of Ivor sitting with the foot, Inspector Jackson of the Claremont
police arrived. The foot was
finally
gotten rid of, taken by Inspector Jackson, and we were instructed to report to
the Claremont police station to
give
statements as soon as we had completed our derigging of the drop.
Before
Inspector Jackson had departed, foot in hand, (actually in a large cream
cracker box), he had strongly suggested
that because
we had re-opened this matter, we had a responsibility to complete things by
retrieving the body. This,
needless to
say, was not something that we wished to do. We felt that we had done our part
by locating it, and that govt
agencies
should take it from there. The matter was left unresolved when Mr Jackson left.
We proceeded
to Claremont, and had our statements recorded by Detective Brown of the St Ann
JCF. The question of our
removing of
the body was not discussed, other than our reiterating our reluctance to do it.
Statements done, we climbed
into our
cars, and then Mark and Ivor headed for Kingston, and Delroy and myself
returned to Windsor, Trelawny.
The next
day, Feb 2, 2004, JCO members, Stewart, McCall, and Taylor conducted an
assessment of the Peterkin/Rota system
in St James,
focussing on the work to be done and giving as little thought as possible to
the events of the preceding
day. On our
return to Coxheath/Windsor at 18:00 EST, we found that our involvement in the
matter was not yet finished.
We had
messages from the police and the family asking us to contact them as soon as
possible. I first spoke with Ivor by
phone, and
heard that he had already been contacted and they wanted us to bring the body
up. Ivor and myself discussed
it at length
and concluded that we must do it.
Supt Palmer,
of the St Ann's Bay police, when called by myself, made it clear that everyone
very much wanted this
situation to
be finalized by the removal of the body. The police wanted to close the file;
the family wanted to give the
late Mr Rose
a proper burial. Our understanding is that there was no one else capable of
doing the job; others had
tried, with
no success, and had no intention of trying again. Reluctantly, I agreed that we
would do it, on Wed, Feb 4,
2004. We
asked that disinfectant, gloves, masks, a body-bag, and a shovel be waiting for
us at the hole.
On Wed, Feb
4, 2004, a crew consisting of Stewart, Conolley, Taylor, Williams, and Lilly
Bolt, proceeded from Coxheath
to
Hutchinsons Hole. We arrive at 10:15 EST, slightly later than our intended
10:00 arrival. We wasted little time in
preparing to
rig the drop. A police barrier, consisting of tape, had been placed across the
track to the pit; we had
asked that a
chosen group of 10 men, who would assist in the hauling out of the body, be the
only ones allowed at the
site. We did
not want another large crowd on hand during the task. Unfortunately, many
people snuck in by various other
routes and
we eventually, once again, had an audience numbering in the hundreds.
The body-bag
was less sturdy than we had hoped for, and had no haul loops. A man from the
funeral home, who was on the
scene,
suggested that we put rocks in the corners and then tie around the
inner/smaller part of the bag at the corners
in order to
attach it to the rope. The relative fragility of the bag dictated that the
main-line be perfectly centred in
the hole for
the hauling stage of the job so that it would not be torn open on rocks during
its ascent. This would
require two
separate rigging set-ups, one that would have the rope closer to the wall for
our descent and ascent, and a
second
afterwards that would be suitable for the hauling out of the bag. The method
used was as follows: Two ropes were
used to
divert the main-line, set at approximate angles of 140 and 220 degrees from the
horizontal line made by the
diverted
main-line, and anchored to trees in a way that would allow their easy
adjustment. This would enable the precise
positioning
of the top of the vertical part of the main-line. We would first begin with the
main-line close to the wall,
allowing us
to both descend and do what was required. After tying the bag to the very end
of the rope at the bottom, we
would both
ascend, reposition the drop point, replace the carabiners with a pulley, and
then begin the hauling stage.
We first lowered
into the hole, on the main-line, a duffel bag with shovel, disinfectant etc, so
that we would have no
load to
carry ourselves. Because I had gone in first on Feb 1, Ivor went first on Feb
4. When word reached us from Ivor
that he was
down, I got on rappel and followed. I had been warned by Ivor, from below, that
the spinning induced by the
descenders
was much more severe than that encountered on Feb 1, the rope being already
twisted by the previous session
and now having
an even great twist imparted. I fully appreciated what Ivor had described as I
reached the part of the
descent
where one no longer is within leg-reach of the wall; I began to spin at a rate
of about 10 rpm. The spin
increased as
I went further down until I was forced to close my eyes because it was so
distracting. By 200 ft down I was
spinning at
about 20 rpm and could only open my eyes for brief seconds to observe the
distance remaining until I touched
down. I
steadily proceeded down the line by touch alone and the brief glimpses of the
floor spinning rapidly below me
were as much
as I could manage without becoming thoroughly disoriented. I allowed myself to
drop at a more rapid pace
than normal
just so that I could end this bizarre re-entry into Hutchinson's Hole. I was
soon safely down and found that
Ivor had
soaked the body in disinfectant minutes after reaching the bottom himself, thus
eliminating a great part of the
stench by
replacing it with a strong odour of chemicals. I felt encouraged that I would
be able to assist in the moving
of the
remains into the bag without vomiting.
I donned a
surgical mask and gloves, and joined Ivor close to the remains. We opened and
set the bag about 4 ft from the
body. It was
extremely gruesome but I still believed I could be of help. After saying a
prayer, Ivor attempted the first shoveling of the
remains into
the bag. The stench erupted, worse than ever and I staggered back retching.
Ivor poured more disinfectant
on and then
tried again. It was still horrible. As I repeatedly approached, then stumbled
back trying not to vomit into
the surgical
mask, Ivor managed to complete the job and zip the bag closed. I don't know how
he managed it. Whatever the reason, my weakness, or Ivor's strength, I was
mostly useless at the bottom of the hole that day. If it hadn't been for Ivor,
I don't know if it would have gotten done.
After we had
attached the bag to the bottom of the rope, using webbing around rocks in the
four corners and then
doubling it
over so that there were only two haul points and thus a smaller horizontal
profile, Ivor, bless his heart,
allowed me
to ascend first. I made sure to check my gear thoroughly this time, in fact to
the point where it was very
difficult to
unlock the biners once I had reached the top, I got on-rope and headed up. Some
25 minutes later, I once
again
reached the surface in the middle of a crowd of spectators who applauded and
cheered. The TV crew was back, and we
also had a
reporter present from the Jamaica Observer. I had word sent down to Ivor that I
was off-rope and that he
could get
the hell out of there. Within 30 minutes, he was up and receiving his own round
of applause.
We now
proceeded to adjust the rigging so that the carabiners were replaced with a
pulley and the main-line was centred
in the opening
to the pit. Our chosen haulers were assembled, and while they pulled in rope, I
kept a Jumar ascender in
place on the
line to act as a ratchet. Surprisingly quickly, the bag rose out of the hole to
hang in mid-air over the
centre of
the hole. The crowd who had waited so many hours to see this spectacle, upon
seeing the shapeless lump in the
bag, and
smelling the stench that emanated from the bag despite two gallons of
disinfectant and a double layer of
plastic,
recoiled in horror, holding hands and clothes over their noses. They fled from
their viewing gallery, on the
rocks, to
the pasture a hundred yards away. Some left the scene completely. We had made
it clear that our job ended as
soon as the
bag had reached the edge of the pit, so we called for the men from the funeral
home to take up position to
haul it in
from the edge. It took about 10 - 15 minutes for the medical doctor who would
conduct the on-scene autopsy,
the funeral
workers, and the police, to prepare themselves and during this time we left the
bag hanging out in the
middle of
the pit, looking like a set-piece from some theatre of the macabre. I took a
perverse pleasure in watching the
now
diminished crowd look in horror upon this spectacle. I couldn't help but think
that this was not now nearly as
entertaining
as they had hoped.
When the
doctor and others were ready, Delroy and Martel slowly released the diversion
ropes and the bag came to the
edge of the
pit. The funeral home workers hauled it out and then carried it to a large,
rectangular metal pan that had
been set 30
metres away. The bag was put in this, and then opened. The doctor, in gown and
mask, performed the autopsy
by stirring
the remains with a wooden stick he had picked up off the ground. A hard-core
group of about 20 audience
members
closed in and watched. When the autopsy was complete, and it had been observed
that every bone in the body was
broken and
one side of the skull smashed in, (the not surprising result of a 300 ft fall),
the bag was zipped closed and
the whole
works, pan and all, was carried away to receive a long-delayed, proper burial.
This ends
our account of the events surrounding the location, and removal, of the body of
Carlton Rose, Bensonton, St
Ann, at
Hutchinsons Hole, on Feb 1 and 4, 2004.
It must be
noted that the presence of the surface support crew, Bellinger, Williams,
Taylor, and Bolt, was crucial in the successful completion of this task. The
entire team was responsible for what was done at Hutchinson’s, not just the two
cavers who made the actual descents. Without the focused work of the entire
crew, things would not have gone as they did.
We would
like to extend our most heartfelt sympathies to the family of Mr. Rose. We
truly hope that you may now begin to find peace in your lives once again.
We would
like to thank the Jamaica Constabulary Force for their valuable assistance on
Feb 4, 2004.
We would
like to express our deepest respect to the members of the Fire Dept who
attempted the initial retrieval of the
body. The
fact that they would even attempt such a thing, without proper gear or
training, reflects well on their
dedication
to their job.
Ronald
Stefan Stewart
Chair - Jamaican Caves Organisation
admin@jamaicancaves.org
