Author and investigative researcher Keith McCloskey joined George Knapp for a discussion about what happened to the nine well-trained skiers & hikers who lost their lives in the mysterious "Dyatlov Pass Incident," which took place in Russia's northern Ural mountains in 1959 (view related photos). The autopsy reports claimed the victims' violent injuries were due to "an unknown compelling force." Something or someone caused the group to flee from their tent in panic, as they used knives to slash their way out, and headed out into subzero temperatures insufficiently clothed, most of them without shoes. Their bodies were eventually found on a mountain slope known as Kholat Syakhl which translates as "Mountain of the Dead," McCloskey recounted.
Some of the victims had massive internal injuries but no external marks were found on them, "as if they'd been in a car crash but nothing had hit them," he said. McCloskey pondered various theories that have been presented over the years to explain the group's fate. He eliminated some explanations from serious consideration such as an avalanche (location was not at the right angle for that), wild animals (no signs of tracks or bite marks), and robbery gone bad by the local Manzi tribe or escaped Gulag prisoners (valuable items were left in the tent).
He couldn't rule out the possibility of some kind UFO-related cause, as anomalous light orbs were seen in the area on the night of the incident, and there were strange burn marks on trees where the victims were found as though some type of energy beam had focused on them. Perhaps the beams were initially directed at their tent, he suggested. Further, McCloskey uncovered a possibly related episode in 2002, in which a night foreman at a mine, about 100 miles from the Dyatlov Pass, encountered an intensely powerful beam coming toward him in the forest. However, McCloskey thinks the most likely explanation is some type of Soviet military accident shrouded in secrecy-- he noted that the criminal case involving the skiers' deaths was opened a week before their missing bodies were officially found.