| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whitfield, James | 21 | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Day, Randy | 26 | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Tibbs, Bryan | 20 | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
On Sunday, May 20, at about 5 p.m. James Whitfield (21), Randy Day (26) and
Bryan Tibbs (20) plus a pet dog entered Snail Shell Cave in Rutherford County,
Tennessee. The group used a borrowed canoe and had a Coleman lantern, a
flashlight and a Bic lighter. Some distance into the cave, one of the men stood up,
capsizing the canoe. Tibbs held on to the canoe while the others treaded water.
Tibbs finally found an underwater rock on which he could balance himself, head out
of the water. One after the other, he heard the sounds of his companions drowning.
At 6 p.m. the owner of the canoe became alarmed; the men had promised to
return in 15 minutes. He called the Rutherford County Rescue Squad, which arrived
at 7:30 p.m. Tibbs was found by 10:30 p.m. The bodies of the other two were found
early the next morning in 20 feet of water, by dragging from a boat.
The survivor was found 250 yards inside the cave. He was hospitalized for
hypothermia and shock. The others apparently swam for some time and there was
conversation between them. The group formed just to "explore" the cave and
apparently had no knowledge of each other, caves, or canoes. NCRC help was
suggested, but never called for.
Two drowned and one survived with hypothermia after capsizing a canoe in Snail Shell Cave.