Strange Deranged Beyond Insane
Everything paranormal and unexplained. History of buildings old hospitals any haunted locations along with personal experiences. Famous murders in Michigan. Ufo and extraterrestrial. Urban legends of Michigan. Folklores witches and tribal tales. Horror movies and unexplained curses and deaths on set.
Strange Deranged Beyond Insane
From the Abyss to the Apex: Stories of Survival
What drives someone to survive against all odds? Join me, Melissa, as we unravel unbelievable tales that test the boundaries of human endurance and resilience. From Vesna Vulović's astounding 33,000-foot plunge from a plane explosion to the rugby team's heart-wrenching ordeal in the Andes, these stories defy logic and ignite awe. We traverse the icy treacheries faced by Ernest Shackleton and his crew in Antarctica, revealing the essence of human spirit when confronted with nature's relentless fury. The episode doesn't just recount survival; it celebrates the unbreakable spirit of those who faced the unimaginable and lived to tell the tale.
Journey with us as we explore narratives that push the limits of what it means to endure. Experience Louis Zamperini's unimaginable struggles as a World War II prisoner of war and Ada Blackjack's solitary fight for survival on the desolate Wrangel Island. We'll also share chilling personal accounts, like surviving a fall into a frozen lake or the desperation of being adrift on a Lake Michigan ice sheet. Each story is a testament, not only to survival but to the triumph of the human heart and soul. Prepare to be moved, inspired, and left in awe at the incredible capacity of people to overcome the most harrowing of circumstances.
Hey everyone, it's your host, melissa, back here at Strange Deranged Beyond Insane. So tonight's episode I want to talk about crazy accident survival stories. Okay, and ironically, before I start, one of my clients. He brought his son into me for the first time. This was yesterday, so Friday, and this kid is six years old and he is so intelligent and he's like filled with all these fun facts and two of the stories that I'm going to talk about tonight on the podcast he was actually telling me about. He was like hey, did you know this happened? Did you know this person? And I had to tell him that. You know, I'm like that's what's going to be on the podcast tomorrow night and so he wants to listen to this. So I will have to let them know when this airs, all right.
Speaker 1:So first I want to start with a very crazy, crazy story, all right. So this is titled the Woman who Fell 33,000 Feet and Lived. Now, of course, I'm not going to say the names, right? So bear with me. So, vesna Volvic she's Siberian, I'm sorry, serbian, and it's pronounced. Yeah, I said it right. Vesna Voluvtic, actually, see, there's always a silent letter in there. That's not even shown.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, this happened January 3rd 1950. Okay, so this was a Serbian flight attendant who survived the highest fall without a parachute, so 33,338 feet. She was the sole survivor of jet flight 367 after an explosion tore through the baggage compartment on the 26th of January 1972, causing it to crash near oh god, I don't even, I don't even want to attempt this um Spreska Kamianc, czechoslovakia, now part of Czech Republic. Now part of Czech Republic. So air safety investigators basically investigated this explosion and it was due to a briefcase that had a bomb in it. So the authorities suspected that imagery. Croatian nationalists were to blame, but no one was ever arrested.
Speaker 1:Following the bombing, volvik spent days in coma and was hospitalized for several months. She suffered a fractured skull, three broken vertebraes, broken legs, broken ribs and a fractured pelvis. These injuries resulted in her being temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. She made an almost complete recovery but continued to walk with a limp. She had little to no memory of the incident and had no like basically no, fears about flying in the aftermath of the crash. So she continued to fly, I guess Despite her willingness to resume work as a flight attendant, jad Airways gave her a desk job negotiating freight contracts. Feeling her presence on flights would attract too much publicity. Volvik became a celebrity in Yugoslavia and was deemed a national hero. Volvik was fired from Jad in the early 1990s after taking part in anti-government protests during the breakup of Yugoslavia, but avoided arrest as the government was concerned about the negative publicity that her imprisonment would bring. She continued her work as a pro-democracy activist until the Socialist Party of Serbia was outed from power during the bulldozer revolution of October 2000.
Speaker 1:All right, so that is insane. I could not imagine falling that many feet like just free falling Literally crazy. All right, so another pretty crazy story I would say is about an Andes plane crash. So a rugby team's plane basically crashed in the Andes Mountains and it left the survivors with like a few supplies and it forced them to be desperate and actually have to eat the dead bodies of the people who did not survive.
Speaker 1:Um, if you guys are interested, there is a movie on Netflix about this. I forget what it's called. I did start watching it. I really couldn't get into it. Um, a movie or a show has to kind of like catch me in the beginning, you know. But I probably will go back and watch it. But that's very interesting. And they say you know, when you're desperate, you're going to do anything. So they yeah, gross. All right, so moving forward.
Speaker 1:This is about Ernest Shackleton and his it's called the Shackleton's Voyage. When Ernest Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, was trapped and crushed by ice in Antarctica, he and his crew miraculously managed to survive by using lifeboats and reaching a nearby island Crazy, so, just out in the middle of the ocean in Antarctica. I mean, can you imagine how cold that is? All right, so this is called Unbroken and this is about Louis Zapparini. This story details the brutal treatment Louis Zapparini, an Olympic runner, faced as a prisoner of war in the Pacific during World War II, including physical and psychological torture. All right, so he was taken to a total of four different prisoner of war camps in Japan where he was tortured and beaten by Japanese military, specifically including Patishrio Watanabe. Because of Zamparini's status as a famous Olympic runner, he was later taken to a new prison camp at a coal factory and, after much hardship, he was finally released. Following the war, he initially struggled to overcome his ordeal, afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism. Wow, um, that's crazy. I could not imagine, um being a prisoner in another country. I can only imagine, um, what they would do to you. All right.
Speaker 1:So other notable crazy survival stories Ada Blackjack I love that name an Alaskan native woman who was left alone on Wrangell Island with minimal supplies and had to survive on her own for a significant period. Damn, I could not imagine being by myself on an island. I just think of what's the movie? Oh my god, with Tom Hanks, the Castaway, the Volleyball. I'm trying to think of that movie here. I gotta look it up. I'm having a brain fart, you guys. Sorry, tom Hanks, oh yeah, it was well. I'm sorry, the volleyball's name was Wilson, it was Castaway. I remember watching that movie when I was younger and it was just like so fucking depressing, like I could not imagine somebody like me that loves to talk and is extremely hyper. I could not be left alone on an island.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this was this story is Beck Weathers on Mount Everest, a climber who was left for dead on Mount Everest after being caught in a blizzard, losing fingers and parts of his face to frostbite, but managed to make it back to base camp to frostbite, but managed to make it back to base camp. I seen pictures of this guy's face and it was utterly disgusting. Um, it actually didn't even look real. So look it up. So Beck Weathers on Mount Everest and you will see the pictures. And, uh, yeah, very, very grisly. And yeah, very, very grisly. All right, this story is called Adrift and this is about Stephen Callahan, a sailor who spent 76 days adrift at sea after his boat was damaged, surviving through resources and ingenuity. Wow, yeah, I could never be in the middle of the ocean either by myself. That would be petrifying, okay, so this story is one of them that Ben was talking about. Um, um, all right.
Speaker 1:So in 2003, ralston was hiking alone in Blue John Canyon in Canyonlands National Park in southeast Utah. While he was descending into the remote and exceedingly narrow canyons, a boulder fell and trapped his right arm. For five days he survived off packed water and snacks, hoping someone would find him. Trouble was, not only was the spot remote, but he also hadn't told anyone where he was going. Well, that's the first mistake, right? I've watched so many of these shows and I'm like you should always tell someone where you're going, Always have your location on, especially if you're a hiker, an adventurist, whatever, excuse me, okay.
Speaker 1:So, realizing that he may never be found, and running out of supplies, he was forced to amputate his arm by cutting through the bone using his multi-tool that included a knife. I want you guys to really listen to that. A multi tool Okay, my husband has several of those. In fact, he has them laying around everywhere and they come in handy for me. But we all know that those knives are not that big and they're not that sharp. That is fucking insane to have to amputate your arm with a multi-tool.
Speaker 1:Oh God, after freeing himself, he began the seven mile walk back to his truck. During his journey, a family discovered him and alerted the authorities. He lost 40 pounds during his ordeal and somehow miraculously avoided bleeding to death. That is truly remarkable. He now continues to moan here and works as a motivational speaker. That's like so insane to me. That's amazing that he lived through that. I would say he's definitely meant to be here, all right.
Speaker 1:So now, on January 23rd 2006, ricky McGee was driving through the Australian outback on his way to a new job when he picked up a group of hitchhikers. The next thing that he remembers is waking up in a shallow grave in the outback wilderness with dingoes, which I think are like dogs, right Scratching at the plastic wrapped over him. I gotta look this up again. I think dingoes yeah, okay, they are like a dog. The Australian, the dingo, is Australian wild dog. Oh my God, that would be petrifying. So these dogs are scratching at him and he's wrapped in plastic.
Speaker 1:Unable to locate his car and clueless about his exact whereabouts, mcgee was forced to survive for 71 days out in a rugged terrain. He constructed a humpy, a basic form of shelter, using branches and leaves, and says he mainly lived off eating frogs, leeches, snakes and drinking his own urine. At night he barricaded his shelter with rocks to prevent these dogs from trying to eat him as he slept. Eventually, workers on a remote cattle ranch stumbled upon McGee, who had become skeletally thin, having lost more than 100 pounds. He was taken to a local hospital and treated for severe dehydration and malnutrition. What exactly happened to him remains a mystery.
Speaker 1:Authorities originally expressed skepticism about his story. He claimed the hitchhikers likely drugged him and his vehicle was never found. Like that's fucking crazy. The only other thing that I can think of is maybe he took a bunch of drugs and got lost and couldn't remember where his car was. I remember when I was like a preteen um, I can't remember if it was on like 60 minutes, one of those shows at night, and um, it showed, like you know, like teenagers, even older people, taking like meth, smoking meth in like rugged conditions, like in the winter or in the really hot summer, and getting lost and like having this like them being found or you know, um, you know they like walked into like the middle of a road and like flagged down a car and I'm having no like thought process what happened, and they would make up these like crazy stories that they were kidnapped or whatever, um, but I'm sure by the time that this guy was found there was probably no traces of drugs, if he and I'm not saying he did by himself, um, but it's pretty crazy how there's like no follow-up on the story and that his car was never found. Very mysterious. But those are a few crazy survival stories. I really enjoyed those and I wanted to share them.
Speaker 1:Okay, so a more recent survival story which I thought was very compelling actually happened here in Michigan. So this is about an eight-year-old boy who went missing for two days in Michigan State Park and he ate snow until being found safe. An eight-year-old Wisconsin boy who went missing for two days while camping in Michigan with his family was found on Monday afternoon under a log by search party volunteers approximately two miles from his campsite, mass, I'm sorry, mass rescue teams from Michigan and Wisconsin scored the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park and that was a 60,000 acre forested park and they covered that whole entire park. So that's amazing, nate, I think it's. Naomi, a student in the Hurley School District in Wisconsin, was last seen around 1 pm Saturday when he went to gather firewood and join the family campsite. Around 1.50,.
Speaker 1:Search and rescue personnel searched for the child within 40 square miles of the campsite in a very remote hilly terrain. He mentioned that, like he, at one point he seen a helicopter go over him and he was like trying to wave them down, but they didn't see him. He even seen the guy with his helmet on, like like the helicopter, and he could see him perfectly, but the guy could not see him. So when they found him, um, they gave him food. He said that he ate a cliff bar and a prime sandwich or something, um, but I thought that was amazing and the fact that he ate snow to stay hydrated was so smart. And, um, he was said to or, I'm sorry, he said that he had prayed. Right here it says, um, he prayed for rescue and he eventually was found by authorities. I thought that was like very, very, very sweet, okay.
Speaker 1:So this story um strikes my heart a little bit differently. So Tom, who has been on the podcast many times, he actually told me about this story I want to say, at least three years ago about the Bath school bombing here in Michigan, and we've actually been out to that site a few times and we've had a lot of evidence out there and so one of the oldest Michigan residents, um, the survivor of the Bass school bombing, actually died at 114 years old. But it's crazy that she survived that and that was a horrible, horrible thing that happened. Um, it's just, if you guys can look that up I mean we do have some episodes on that Um, but that was the Bass school bombing, which killed 38 students, six adults, while wounding 58 others. So she survived all that and she lived until she was 114. I thought that was just amazing to share.
Speaker 1:So another crazy survival story that actually happened here in northern Michigan. This woman her name is Kristen Anderson, and this is a suicide survival story. Kristen Anderson is visiting several Traverse City area churches to share her story. Following a suicide attempt, kristen survived an incident involving a train as a teenager. It led to the loss of her legs and a battle with depression. Kristen also wrote a book and it's called Life in Spite of Me.
Speaker 1:So that's crazy that she survived that. So she that's crazy that she survived that. Most people do not, I guess, lay on a train track, on a train track at all, with a train coming, and survive that. So the fact that she had just lost her legs, I think is beautiful and she's, you know, sharing her survival and giving you know like motivational speeches. I love that. Sharing her survival and giving you know like motivational speeches, I love that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this Michigan survival story absolutely fucking haunts me because I did go through this some years back with a friend. Um, I have talked about it here on the podcast. Oh boy, just to refresh Um, we were out ice fishing. It was too warm to go onto the ice, so we were fishing from dock and my friend had fell into the frozen lake and went through and she was in that water for a long time. Myself and two other fishermen were holding her up. We could not get her out. It was one of the most fucking scariest things that I've ever been through. So this just puts literal shivers up my spine. All right. So this is called Frozen Terror, one of the greatest survival stories of all time.
Speaker 1:In 1929, a lone ice fisherman found himself trapped on a sheet of ice drifting along the shore of Lake Michigan. Wow, okay, so, okay. So the date was Tuesday, January 22, 1929. There was nothing to hint that the day would be any different from many others. And you know he loved to spend his time fishing through the ice for lake trout. And um he so. This guy walked out to his light-proof shanty, kindle a fire of dry cedar in the tiny stove, sit and dangle a wooden decoy in the clear green water beneath the ice, hoping to lure a prowling trout within reach of his heavy, seven-tinned spear. If he was lucky he'd take four or five good fish by mid-afternoon. Then he'd go back to shore and drive the 30 miles back home to the village of Allenson, michigan, in time for supper. He claimed that it would just be another day of winter fishing, pleasant and uneventful.
Speaker 1:The Crane Island Fishing Grounds lay west of Wagushance Point I think Wagushance, I've never heard of that and at the extreme northwest tip of Michigan's mitten-shaped lower peninsula. The point is a long, narrow tongue of sand, sparsely wooded, roadless and wild running out into the lake at the western end of the Straits of Mackinac, with Crane Island marking land's end. Both the island and the point are unpeopled. On the open ice of Lake Michigan. A mile offshore, sweet and the other fishermen had their dark houses.
Speaker 1:Fishing was slow that morning. It was close to noon before a trout slid into sight under the ice hole where Sweet kept vigil. He maneuvered the wood minnow away and eased his spear through the water, stalking his decoy. The trout moved ahead a foot or two, deliberate and cautious, when it came to rest directly beneath him. Eyeing the slow-moving lure with a mixture of hunger and weariness, he drove the spear down with a hard, sure thrust. Okay. So when Sweet felt the barbed tines jab into the fish, he let go of the handle and the heavy spear carried the twisting trout swiftly down to the reef 30 feet below.
Speaker 1:After the fish ceased struggling, sweet hauled it up on the line. When he opened the shanty door and backed out to grab the trout, he noticed that the wind was rising and the air was full of snow. The day was turning very blustery. Have to watch the ice on a day like that. It might break loose along shore and go adrift. But the wind still blew from the west on shore. So long as it stayed in the quarter there was no danger.
Speaker 1:About an hour after he took the first trout, the two men fishing near him quit their shanties and walked across the ice. To his they said we're going in Lou, one of them hailed the wind is hauling around northeast. It doesn't look good. Better come along. Sweet struck his head out the door of his shanty. Sweet struck his head out the door of his shanty and he said I guess the ice will hold us unless it blows harder than this. I want more fish. He shut the door and went on, leaving him there alone.
Speaker 1:30 minutes later Sweet heard the sudden crunch and rumble of breaking ice off to the east. The grinding, groaning noise ran across the field like rolling thunder and the dark house shook as if a distant train had passed. Oh, I'm already shaking. It's like giving me anxiety reading this. Sweet had done enough winter fishing there to know the terrible sounds of that. Like he knew what was going to happen. So he basically flung open the shanty door. He grabbed his axe and the trout and he had, I'm sorry and the trout that he had spared and he raced across the ice for the snow clouded timber of Crane Island.
Speaker 1:Halfway to the beach he saw what he dreaded an ominous, narrow vein of black zigzagging across the white field of ice. When he reached the band of open water, it was only 10 feet across, but it widened very quickly. While he watched it, he wondered whether he dared risk plunging in, and even as he wondered, he knew the chance was not very great. He was a good swimmer, but the water would be numbingly cold. And he had to reckon too, with the sucking understow set up by a hundred thousand tons of ice driving lakeward with the wind. And even if he crossed a few yards of water successfully, he would have little hope of crawling up on a smooth shelf of ice. He watched the black channel grow to 20 feet and then to 90. At least I'm sorry at last, when he could barely see across, he could see the swirling snowstorm. He turned and walked grimly back to his dark house. All right, so oh my God, I hate reading this. All right, so, basically he was lost.
Speaker 1:And then the two men that he had fished with that morning were still on Crane Island when the ice broke away. They had stayed on, concerned and uneasy watching the weather, waiting for Sweet to return. Through the snowstorm they had seen black water open offshore. They knew Sweet was still out there somewhere on the ice and they lost no more time. New Sweet was still out there somewhere on the ice and they lost no more time. They piled into their car and raced for the hamlet of Cross Village on the high bluffs of Sturgeon Bay, 10 miles to the south. There was little the Cross Villagers or anybody else could do at the moment to help, but the word of Sweet's dramatic. I don't know, this is like a very old story. Basically it was very dramatic and he was lost and they were basically spreading the word and this is one of the most intense searches for a lost man in Michigan's history.
Speaker 1:So just to kind of quick quicken this up a little bit, so little by little, hour by hour um hope. You know that searchers kept hope. No man could survive so long on the open ice. The time spun out a day, and then two days, and then three, and still the planes and foot parties found no trace of sweet. By Friday night Hope was dead. Life could not endure through so many hours of cold storm without shelter, fire or food. On Saturday, the last day of the search, those who remained in it looked only for a dark spot on the beach, a frozen body scored bare of snow by the wind. At dusk the search was reluctantly abandoned. Folks no longer wondered whether Louis Sweet would be rescued or how. Instead, they wondered whether his body would be found on some lonely beach when spring came, or whether the plane and manner of his dying would ever be known. But Sweet had not died Twice more.
Speaker 1:Before dark on Tuesday, he believed for a little time that he was about to escape the lake. Um, okay. So the first time he saw Hat Island looming up through the storm ahead, a timber dot on a gray sea that smoked with snow. No one ever lived on hat. He would have to find a cabin there, but there was plenty of dry wood for a fire and he had his big trout for food. He'd make out all right until the storm was over and he had no doubt some way would be found to rescue him when the weather cleared. But even while he tasted anticipation, the immense relief of trading his drifting ice for a solid ground, he realized that his course would take him clear of the island and he resigned himself once more to a night of drifting. The next time he drifted up it was Hog Island, much bigger but also without a house of any kind that seemed to lie in his path. But again the wind, late, played their tricks and was, and then he was carried even further out and along little more than a stone throw from the beach. That was the first time in my life I ever wished for wings. Sweet told one of the journalists. Alright, so then this reads on the storm plays a prank. That night was pretty bad.
Speaker 1:The storm mounted to a raging blizzard, with the winter darkness coming down. The section of ice where Sweet had built his snow shelter broke away from the main field. Suddenly and without warning. He heard the splintering noise, saw the crack starting to widen into the dusk. Only a few yards away, he gathered up his fish and his precious axe and ran for a place where the pressure of the wind still held the two masses of ice together, grinding against each other. Even as he reached it, the crevice opened ahead of him, but it was only a couple of feet wide and he jumped across to the temporary safety of the bigger flow. Again he set to work to build a shelter with blocks of snow. He basically spent another day and night away. He was out in the open lake now and the storm had a chance to vent its full force on the ice field. Before midnight the field broke in two near him again, compelling him to abandon his snow shelter again and start a new one.
Speaker 1:Towards daybreak, the cold grew even more intense and now the storm played a cruel prank. The wind hauled around to the southwest, reversing the drift of the ice field and sending it back, almost the way it had come, toward the distant north shore of the Lake Michigan. In the darkness. However, sweet was not immediately aware of the shift. The huge flow, still some two miles across, went aground an hour before daybreak without warning. There was sudden crunching and a thunder like of sound, and directly ahead of Sweet the edge of the ice rose out of the water, curled back upon itself oh my God and then came crashing down in an avalanche of two ton blocks. The entire field shuddered and shook and seemed about to splinter into fragments, and Sweet ran for his life away from the spot where it was thundering around. Oh, wow, all right.
Speaker 1:So at last Sweet was close to temporary safety, just 22 feet away up the vertical concrete face of the crib lay, shelter and fuel, food and survival. Only 22 feet, four times his own height, but it might as well have been 22 miles, for the entire crib above the waterline was encased in ice a foot thick, formed by freezing spray, and the steel ladder bedded in the concrete wall showed only a bulge on the smooth, sheer face of the ice. Sweet knew the ladder had to be there. He located it in the gray light of the stormy winter morning and went to work with his axe. He chopped away the ice as high as he could reach, standing on the flow, freeing the rungs at that time. Then he stepped up on the first one, hung on with one hand and went on chopping with the other, chipping and whirring at the flinty sheath that enclosed the rest of the ladder.
Speaker 1:Three hours from the time he cut his first chip of ice away, he was within three rungs of the top three steps, less than a yard, and he knew he wasn't going to make it. His feet were wooden stumps on which he could no longer trust his weight. His hands had long since lost all of his feeling. They were so badly frozen that he had to look to make sure his fingers were hooked around the rung and he could no longer keep a grip on the axe. Okay, the next time he dropped the axe he wouldn't be able to come back up the ladder. He took a few short strokes and the axe went clattering to the ice below. And the axe went clattering to the ice below. He climbed stiffly down the huddle, I'm sorry. He climbed stiffly down and huddled on a block of ice to rest. Three hours later he finished the job and dragged himself, more dead than alive, over the icy, treacherous lip of the crib. Alright, so let's just see how this plays out. Oh, it's just giving me anxiety.
Speaker 1:So Louis Sweet crept on over the ice all that day Again and again. He went ahead a few steps, sat down and rested, got up and drove himself on. At times he crawled on all fours. This is a very long story. I'm just trying to kind of do like the pinpoints. Okay, before morning he was violently ill, with cramps and nausea, perhaps from lack of food, from the frozen milk he had used with the coffee. At daybreak he tried to drive himself on toward Cross Village, but he was too sick to stand. He lay helpless in the shanty all day, monday through Monday night, eating nothing.
Speaker 1:Tuesday morning he summoned the little strength remaining to him and started south once more, hobbling and crawling over the rough ice of Sturgeon Bay. It was quite a walk, but he made it Near noon that day, almost a week to the hour from the time the wind had set him adrift on his ice flow. He stumbled up the steep bluff at Cross Village and called to a passing man for a hand. Wow, that is holy shit. That is an incredible story. I cannot believe that man survived that. Um, definitely old school man, because, no offense, but the men here in 2025, I don't think that they would survive that. But anyways, I thought these were very interesting stories and if you guys have anything to add or you have your own survival story, please let us know. You know that you can email us at ghost sisters 21, 24, at Gmail. You can find us on Facebook, tiktok, twitter, x, youtube. I think I covered all them. I say that every time, but, yeah, we definitely want to hear from our listeners and thank you guys for listening and tune in for some more.
