The Depths of Floyd's Tomb

Sometime around 2007, an anonymous user emailed us the link to an Angelfire website from March 2001 made by one Ted Hegemann (mid 20s). Hegemann was a recreational caver, and the website we were sent acted as a sort of public diary of Hegemann and his friend “B”’s discovery of a cave system they’ve referred to as “Floyd’s Tomb.” Reading through the first couple of entries, their experiences in the caves seemed innocent enough, just a couple of passionate cavers spelunking. But as we continued going through the blog, their exploration would take a dark turn as they discovered something in the depths.

The couple of signs that something was off about Floyd’s Tomb were relatively innocuous, with faint rumblings being heard as they used their tools to make the small crevice into a tunnel to climb through, and B’s usually bold and adventurous dog, Whip, becoming so uneasy around the crevice that she began to whimper, leading B to take her back home and not bring her along after that point. But around the 3rd and 4th of March, as the two friends were working away in the tunnel, they heard an ominous scream that reverberated beyond the darkness of the cave. This left the two of them shaken, with the revelation that something was down there with them, and they promptly left the cave. Despite this, they were still compelled to continue working on Floyd’s Tomb, and elaborated their return to the caves as followed, “In retrospect, I still have difficulty understanding our thought process at that time. We were just too eager to discover virgin cave passages. I now think it can be summed up with one word: testosterone!”

After this, the dread of their explorations in Floyd’s Tomb continued to spiral, with gusts of wind mysteriously coming from the opening of the cave system, layers of crystal formations that resembled clear melting candle wax dripping down, the discovery of hieroglyphs crudely etched on the stone walls, and all of it culminated in two moments. The first happens when a third friend, Joe, who was just as passionate about caving as Hegemann and B entered Floyd’s Tomb, disappeared for half an hour, and came back incoherently mumbling “no” to himself while covered in bloody scratches. The second happened two weeks later, when Hegemann entered Floyd’s Tomb himself, and recounts the events of hearing something following him in the cave. His headlight was smashed as something scraped a large stone across the ground onto him. Lost in a blind panic in the pitch black of Floyd’s Tomb as he lost his phone connection with B, Hegemann struggled to reorient himself as he was left alone to face whatever moved the stone around him. He threw a survival glowstick at the far end of the cave to get a sense of his surroundings, when it suddenly disappeared behind a rock into the darkness. Not knowing what was down there, Hegemann managed to escape Floyd’s Tomb by the skin of his teeth, just as something was tugging at the rope behind him.

Three weeks after their escape from Floyd’s Tomb, in May 2001, Hegemann gave an update on the aftermath of his encounter. He has become increasingly paranoid, having nightmares, hearing shuffling and creaks around his house, seeing things in the corner of his eyes, his mind still racing about whatever was in that cave system. He ended the entry by explaining that he plans to go back to Floyd’s Tomb with a newly bought gun to face whatever might be down there, promising to come back with answers. Ted Hegemann has never been heard from since then; the website has been left without an update for years.