Divers entered an underwater cave to recover 'body' of a man missing for 15 days — then they heard a faint cry come from complete darkness
When Harry Gust initiated a solo dive through the murky waters and unmapped cavern, he expected the worst.
When veteran cave divers Harry Gust (@caveexplorations) and Rosalion "Rosso" Rivera were called in to probe an unmapped underwater cavern in central Mexico, they were told they were retrieving a corpse. After all, 15 days had passed since 31-year-old spearfisher Erasto Crisanto Valdez disappeared in the flooded cave system near San Francisco La Paz in the Uxpanapa region. So, as they headed inside the cave, they expected the worst. But it was then that they heard a faint voice, which ultimately led them to Valdez. Gust later shared the entire story on Instagram on 12 August 2026 through a clip, which has been viewed over 886,000 times.
A disorienting hunt underwater
The ordeal began on 23 July, when Valdez ventured beneath the surface, armed with a spear and a compact auxiliary air cylinder. He went in there to hunt robalo, or common snook. After darting into an unmapped underwater cavern in pursuit of his target, Valdez found himself lost in an unfamiliar maze. This left him completely disoriented and cut off from the entrance. "I remained in shock because I couldn't find the exit," he later revealed. It was a terrifying experience for Valdez, who felt as if the clock had stopped inside the cavern.
The search for Valdez begins
When Valdez failed to return, his father immediately informed the authorities at around 7:10 PM. A missing-person complaint was filed on 26 July, prompting a combined mobilization of relatives, nearby residents, civil protection teams, and specialized Mexican Navy divers. However, despite such desperate efforts, nothing was found. In fact, the terrain was so difficult to navigate that it forced the Navy divers to conclude their initial dives by 30 July without finding any sign of him.
Specialized divers arrive at the scene
Recognizing that only elite technical divers could navigate the passages, local municipal authorities enlisted Gust and diver partner Rivera to lead the rescue. At this point, the hopes of finding Valdez alive were slim. So, when Gust initiated a solo dive through the murky water, he expected the worst. "The cave had less than one meter of visibility, little to no line placement possibility, and all the formations inside were razor sharp, which produced a large risk of cutting the line behind you," he wrote in the caption.
Nonetheless, even though the conditions were against him, after a grueling 75-minute sweep, he located the first glimpse of hope. Gust located an abandoned miniature tank roughly 100 meters inside, giving the rest of the search party a somewhat tangible path to work with. The next day, Gust returned to push further and broke through an isolated subterranean void fed by an active underground stream. "Within 30 minutes, I found a large dry cave with a small river about 2m wide with very strong flow leaving the dry cave," he revealed.
The faint cry for help
Once he entered the cave, Gust called out to Valdez in the pitch-black void. He didn't expect an answer, but to his surprise, Valdez answered back. Without wasting even a single breath, Gust assured him that he would come back to help with more people. He then headed out, broke the news, and desperately told everyone to prepare for extraction. Stuck in the dark, Valdez had lost all frame of reference, believing that he had been stuck for just 3 days; in reality, he'd be there for almost two weeks.
The daring rescue
Valdez later said his faith helped him endure the ordeal, acknowledging, "I never lost faith." The 31-year-old further revealed he spent all those days sleeping and praying until he suddenly spotted lights and rising air bubbles. Finally, on 7 August, Gust and Rivera executed a high-stakes plan to rescue Valdez. The plan was to help Valdez move even just a little bit so that the divers could pull him out. Sure enough, they were able to do so after Rivera removed his gear and helped Valdez to the edge. From then on, the pair guided Valdez through the tunnels with him breathing through Rivera's cylinder. He was then successfully rescued and taken to the medical crews waiting outside to tend to him.
Deadly in seconds
The dangers of cave diving were highlighted in an 18 March, 2025 accident analysis by the National Speleological Society's Cave Diving Section Accident Analysis Committee, which examined the death of a diver in Florida's Twin Cave. The report found that the diver encountered a silt-out, switched from a functioning rebreather to open-circuit breathing, and exhausted his available gas in about 10 minutes. The committee emphasized the importance of practicing bailout scenarios and being prepared for unexpectedly high gas consumption during emergencies. It also noted that poor visibility and disorientation can make an already dangerous situation even more difficult to manage.
Phenomenal mental strength
Nonetheless, people were not only impressed by Gust and Rivera's efforts but also by Valdez's mental strength. @kcaid wrote, "16 days in total darkness. Phenomenal mental strength." Meanwhile, @eugeniobuceo noted, "Back to the light, this can be compared in so many ways to being born again. Can't imagine how he feels, how you feel."
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