The M Cave Incident
From the Crocodile Hunter to Bear Grylls, it seems humans are always in market for a dangerous adventure show. But why should that topic be focused on the medium of TV, though? What if someone was brave enough to do it on their own? Enter Youtuber Kenny Veach. On his Youtube channel, snakebitmgee, he explored the Nevada desert with abandon to the glee of his fans. But that all changed when he found the M cave.
During his video, at the time 47-year old Kenny, mentioned a cave he was trying to re-discover. When he had walked by this cave he claimed it made him feel nervous and seemed to make his "whole body vibrate." He named it the “M cave.”
Kenny was no amateur when it came to desert explorations. His biggest hobby was solo hiking in remote and, in some cases, dangerous areas. You need only to look at his Youtube presence to see that the M cave was far from his first excursion. He was a well-researched,prepared, deliberate, and respected (or at least respectful) solo adventurer.
But then he went missing. Right before he went back to look for the M cave, he left a strange comment on another Youtuber's video discussing secret underground military bases in Nevada. His comment read: “One time during one of my hikes out by Nellis Air Force Base, I found a hidden cave. The entrance to the cave was shaped like a perfect capital M. I always enter every cave I find, but as I began to enter this particular cave, my whole body began to vibrate. The closer I got, the worse the vibrating became. Suddenly, I became very scared and high-tailed it out of there.”
Unsurprisingly, this comment sparked a ton of engagement, and questions. Some people agreed with Kenny, others called him a liar or a hoaxer. Either way, people wanted more of the M cave. And Kenny was ready to play ball.
In 2014, he uploaded a video entitled "M Cave Hike" in which he returned back to the area where he first felt that strangeness, and what sparked the comment. While the video was interesting, featuring abandoned mines and local lore, he couldn't find the cave again. His videos were getting even more attention.
One of his last interactions was a comment, and a promise, "I am going back, this time with a gun. I'll be better prepared. If I don't return, I died doing what I love."
On November 10th, 2014 he packed for his final hike. But, he did make sure people knew where he was going. He told his girlfriend he was going on a trek to once again find the M cave. He packed a backpack, a GoPro, and a 9mm handgun. Surprisingly, he didn't take his GPS and didn't pack any back-up or emergency supplies.Kenny would not return from this trip.
After three days of no contact, which was irregular, Kenny's girlfriend notified authorities and shared the general area he should be in. A fairly full-force investigation was launched and involved helicopters, ground search teams, and even search and rescue dogs. Hope bubbled up as the team quickly found the first sign of Kenny: his cellphone. It was placed near the opening of an abandoned mine shaft, resting on a rock. It looked deliberately placed. There was no blood, or signs of a struggle.
The early hope the search party felt at finding this clue began to molder. The search continued for days, then weeks without another clue, track, or body. It seemed Kenny had just vanished into the desert.
Of course, it wasn't only the on-site search party who was thinking about Kenny. His own followers, and those who had interacted with his comments and posts, were quickly trying to work out what they could for themselves. Of course the first theories were somewhat common - he had gotten lost and suffered from dehydration, he had fallen into an obscured mine shaft, or he was bitten by a rattlesnake. But, even with these explainable deaths you'd think there would be some sign of him - a foot print, crawl marks, items that had fallen out of his backpack as he searched for something, anything that could help. Then, there was the darker and harder to prove theory: that Kenny had seen something he shouldn't have, and died for it.
The M Cave remains at the center of this mystery. Was it near secret government territory? The Nellis Air Force Base and the infamous Area 51 were nearby, alongside weapon testing grounds. Could Kenny have succumbed to weapons testing or alien technology?
Even after the large-scale search had ended, other teams continued to search the trails, crevices, and mine shafts he was known to hike. Still, no sign of his body or the objects he took with him, like his GoPro, have ever been discovered.
One other eerie fact remains: he seemed to have deliberately left his cellphone somewhere. Was this a test to himself to truly go “off grid” (and if so is that why he left his GPS at home?). But then, why not drop the GoPro? Was he forced to peacefully give up his phone? And how did it remain so completely undisturbed when not a signal scrap of fabric, item, or Kenny has ever been found?
In addition to looking for Kenny, many people have also ventured into the desert searching for the M Cave. Some believe it isn’t a cave at all, but a doorway to underground testing, others believe it is somehow extraterrestrial, or even a portal to somewhere else. Despite detailed explorations, both on-the-ground and with digital tech and Kenny’s videos, nothing matching his description of the M Cave has ever been discovered.
Sadly, Kenny’s girlfriend believed he took his own life. She details his struggles with depression, that he quit his job and was unemployed for about a year trying to get a business (and likely his Youtube channel) off the ground, she also claims to have had a conversation with him about it where he said if he did do it, no one would ever find him. She commented this on one of his videos about a year after his disappearance.
But, other family members of Kenny have a different story. His sister-in-law, Susan, claims he orchestrated his own disappearance to get out of debt, exercise a life insurance policy, or live under his dad’s benefits as his death may have not been properly reported.
Susan claims that four years after his disappearance, he came back to rob her store in 2018. He took an iPad and then left the store without taking anything else of value. He was also seen limping and clutching his knee, which was the same knee Kenny had an issue with (and actually had to have emergency services come pick him up from a solo hike from years earlier). Susan also claims that only employees and close family would have known where the iPad was kept when the store was closed. Kenny’s daughter would also agree with her aunt that the man on the security camera was his, before retracting her statement.
To this day, Kenny remains a missing person and despite countless searches over the last decade, no further evidence has been found.
Thanks to highdesertsol for the blogstonishing suggestion!
The blog header image depicts cumulus and mediocris clouds above Calico Basin in Red Rock National Conservation Area near Las Vegas Nevada. This image and location are not directly related to the story. Taken by Fred Morledge. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
