Today’s podcast will feature 2 camping horror stories. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#2 -- "Kevin O’Keefe" -- A man goes camping in a totally remote park in Alaska (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODIGopvDSXA)#1 -- "The Broken Tent" -- Four teenage friends decide to go camping in a forest in Finland, but something the first night would pay them an unwanted visit (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi_GF9XOelw)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What camping horror stories will be featured in this episode?
Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature two camping horror stories. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.
The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Kevin O'Keefe, and it's about a man who goes camping in a totally remote park in Alaska.
And the second and final story you'll hear is called The Broken Tent, and it's about four teenagers who go camping in a forest in Finland, but on the first night, someone or something pays them an unwanted visit.
But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.
So if that's of interest to you, please offer to change the oil in the Amazon Music Follow Buttons car, but after draining it all out, go ahead and replace it with horse manure. Okay, let's get into our first story called Kevin O'Keefe.
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Chapter 2: Who was Kevin O'Keefe and what happened during his Alaska camping trip?
In 1985, Kevin O'Keefe was a 36 year old outdoor enthusiast that lived in Sacramento, California. He loved being out in nature, going hiking and camping. And in fact, he had always wanted to go camping in Alaska. By the summer of 1985, Kevin was actually doing research on areas in Alaska that he could potentially go camping.
And he settled on this area called Glacier Bay National Park, which even by Alaskan standards, is particularly wild and totally remote. Kevin planned to go camping on his own. So he decided he would need to take a class on how to survive the Alaskan wilderness because he's going to be out there by himself and he's chosen this place that's incredibly rugged.
So he actually enrolled and participated in a class teaching you how to go camping in Alaska. Then on September 20th of 1985, He flew from Sacramento to Juneau, Alaska, where he commuted his way up to Glacier Bay National Park. When he arrived at the park's headquarters, he went up and introduced himself to the park rangers that were working there.
He told them he'd be over near the Wolf Point area, which was an area right against the water. And he said he was going to be here for about three weeks. He planned on leaving on October 10th. So everybody who works there is aware that there's this guy, Kevin O'Keefe, who's going to be by himself for almost three weeks camping near the water.
No one in Kevin's family or any of the park rangers heard from Kevin for the next couple of weeks. But the whole point of this trip was basically to escape reality and go live in nature for a few weeks. So no one's raising any red flags.
A few weeks later, on October 8th, which is two days before Kevin said he was planning to leave the park, which he told park rangers and they knew he was there, a couple of park rangers were in a boat patrolling some waterways around Wolf Point, which is the area where Kevin was camping.
The rangers decided to take a bit of a detour to get inside of Wolf Point and actually check in on Kevin and just see how he was doing because they knew he was out here by himself. They're making their way down, and as they turn this last corner where they could finally see Kevin's site, immediately they knew something was wrong.
The first thing they noticed was Kevin's tent was not in the area that it was supposed to be in. There was kind of a designated spot on the soil where you'd place your tent. but his tent was actually down a few meters on this beach that butted up against his campsite, and some of his gear was outside of his tent. Not strewn everywhere, but outside of his tent, like he had placed it outside.
As they're looking at his tent, they realize that the top strut that kind of held the top of the tent together was folded down. It looked like it had broken right in the middle. They called out for Kevin. He was nowhere around. And they kind of rationalized what they saw. They thought, you know, he's leaving in a couple of days. My guess is he's probably preparing his campsite for an exit.
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Chapter 3: What mysterious clues were found at Kevin O'Keefe’s campsite?
And they said, no, he was really happy, well-adjusted, excited about this trip. He had taken a class to prepare himself for this trip. He told us that he planned on taking a couple day hikes, but no overnights. And he had no plans to meet other people while he was there. He was just looking to be on his own in nature.
But after just a few days, they had to call the search off because there was no sign of this guy. He was just gone. Knowing that all of Kevin's gear was still located at his campsite means he did not leave to go on one of those day hikes that he had told his family that he might be going on. Because going into the wilds of Alaska without your gear is a death sentence.
So Kevin must have been at his campsite when something horrible happened to him. But we know it wasn't an animal attack because there was no sign of that and no animals were coming near this campsite.
So if it wasn't an animal attack, then what was it that caused his tent to shift down to the beach and have his gear strewn about on the sand and have his boots and glove liner and hat be located a half mile away in some gully? And where's Kevin? Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership.
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In this free weekly show, we explore bizarre unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between. Each story is totally true and totally terrifying. Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a Prime member, you can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
The next and final story of today's episode is called The Broken Tent. On the afternoon of June 4th, 1960, a 15-year-old girl named Mayla Bjorklund climbed off the back of her boyfriend's motorcycle.
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Chapter 4: Why did the search for Kevin O'Keefe end without answers?
Her boyfriend was an 18-year-old named Nils Gustafsson, and this couple had just driven 18 miles from the city in southern Finland where they lived to get to this beautiful forest and lake where they, along with another couple, were going to go camping. The other couple, who was still a few minutes behind them, was Nils' best friend, Seppo, and his girlfriend, whose name was Anja.
As Nils parked his motorcycle, Mela looked out over the lake, and she saw it was totally beautiful, the forest completely wrapped around the lake, and there were all these people out on the lake boating and swimming and having a great time. But despite all these people here, to Mela, it still kind of felt very quiet and peaceful.
This didn't feel like a big touristy destination, it really felt like they were out in the wild. And for Mela, who loved the outdoors, you know, this felt like a great spot to celebrate her 16th birthday. Because that's actually why the couples were out camping. Mela was turning 16 in a couple of days, and so this was going to be her party.
Just then, Mela heard another motorcycle approaching and she turned around and she saw it was the other couple. It was Seppo who was driving and Anja was right behind him. In Seppo, he looked up and saw Mela looking at him and he grinned and braked hard with his motorcycle and kind of swung the back wheel out like he was in an action movie.
And Mela thought it was totally funny and she started laughing. And that's when Nils turned around and he saw his girlfriend laughing heartily at Seppo. A moment later, all four friends were giving each other hugs and saying hello. And then after catching up, the friends walked over to the small shack that was right by the water. It was the snack kiosk.
Their plan was to load up on supplies and then quickly make their way into the forest where they'd actually be camping and just relax, enjoy the night and go to bed. But as the friends walked towards the snack kiosk, Seppo made a joke about how his motorcycle was way better than Nils' motorcycle. And Mela, who is Nils' boyfriend, she laughed at this joke and thought it was really funny.
But as she was laughing, she happened to look over at Nils, her own boyfriend, and she could tell, you know, he just looked upset, like he was scowling at her and also at Seppo. And immediately, Mela felt really bad. because she was thinking, you know, maybe Nils thinks I'm flirting with Seppo by laughing at all of his jokes.
Now, keep in mind, Mela really liked Nils, and they had really just started dating, but for really the first time in Mela's life, she was dating someone who clearly liked her back. She had been in other kind of small relationships where it felt very one way, but this was different.
And so Mela really did not want Nils to think anything was going on with her and Seppo, because there was nothing going on. But when Mela looked over at Nils again to kind of confirm that he really did look mad, he didn't look mad. He was smiling and laughing again. And so Mela told herself, you know, she must have just imagined that, that Nils was never upset. It was all in her head.
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Chapter 5: What is the background of the second story, 'The Broken Tent'?
And as this is happening, Seppo and Anja, who were right behind Mela, they were just giggling the whole time. Because this woman's behavior was so bizarre and so unexpected, they just couldn't help themselves. So as the teenagers are giggling, this woman is bending down and getting the sodas and beer and she's huffing really angrily like this is such a huge inconvenience.
And then she just slammed him up on the counter. As the woman was punching in the total into the cash register, Mela found herself looking over at the house behind the shack where this woman presumably lived, and Mela noticed there were all these empty beer bottles that lined the front railing of the house. And so Mela figured, you know, maybe this was a clue as to why this woman was so hostile.
Any household that produced that many empty beer cans likely was not a very happy place to live. And so finally, the woman in the kiosk gave the teenagers their total, at which point Nils stepped forward and he actually paid for the stuff instead of Mela.
And then as Nils and Mela grabbed the things they bought and were about to turn and leave, the woman in the kiosk kind of cleared her voice and she asked them, you know, hey, are you camping out by the lake? And to Mela, it seemed like this woman was suddenly being really nice, maybe as a way to kind of make up for how rude she was when they first walked over.
And so Mela put on a smile and told this woman that, yeah, you know, we're staying out by the lake. We're really excited about it. You know, thanks for asking. But the woman did not seem happy to hear this. Instead, the woman kind of scowled and then told them that they better set their tent as far away from here as possible. None of the teenagers had any idea how to respond to this.
So they just kind of stood there and there was this really intense, awkward silence for a moment. And then the kiosk lady just began literally shooing the teenagers away, telling them to go, get out of here. And so finally the teenagers did turn around and started walking. But after walking pretty far away from the kiosk, they heard the kiosk woman yell out at them one more time.
She basically yelled at them that her and her family had already had lots of trouble with wild teenagers in the past camping out around this lake. And so now she and her husband were totally sick of it.
And so after the kiosk lady yelled out this final comment, Seppo and Nils and Anja, they just started laughing because it just seemed so absurd how disrespectful and awful this woman was being to the point where it was comical. But Mela, she didn't think it was funny. She seemed mean and very angry, and it totally freaked Mela out.
But just a couple of minutes later, the teens were back at their motorcycles, and Nils and Mela hopped on one, and Seppo and Anja hopped on the other, and then they began driving down this wooded path that would take them to their campsite. The ride to their campsite was a very short one. And where they were positioned was on this piece of land that sort of jutted out onto the lake.
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Chapter 6: What strange encounter did the teenagers have at the snack kiosk?
And it didn't take long before Mayla had totally forgotten about the kiosk woman and how awful she had been. After all, Mayla had really been looking forward to this trip, and now she was here at the campsite relaxing with her friends. I mean, this was great. Also, Mayla was really excited about her relationship with Nils.
It was a relatively new one, and it was obvious that, you know, for once, her boyfriend was somebody who liked her as much as she liked him. And also Nils was very handsome and he was popular and he had this dark brown hair that he combed straight up and he always wore this leather jacket everywhere. And so Mela just really liked being around him.
He was super cool and made her feel really grown up. After sitting around for about 30 minutes to an hour, just having a couple of drinks and swapping stories and kind of easing into their night, the friends eventually made their way down to the water and they went swimming for a while and they continued to drink down by the dock.
And then when they were tired of swimming, the teens just laid on the dock and enjoyed looking out at the sunset. Even though actually in Finland at this time of the year, it's not really a sunset because the sun does not actually fully set. And so when this happens, these are known as white nights, which are very beautiful.
I mean, it's kind of like this hazy glow in the sky from the sun not quite setting. And so on this night, the teens are out there on the dock. They had this beautiful, you know, white night to look up at. And for Mayla, she felt like this was the perfect birthday celebration.
In fact, she would jot down in her diary later that night just how amazing everything was going and how much fun she was having with Nils and their friends. Finally, the teens were done down by the dock, so they grabbed their things, they went back up to the campsite, they dried off, they changed, and then all four of them piled into their one little tent to go to sleep.
And eventually, all four of them would drift off to sleep, but then at some point in the middle of the night, Mela woke up. and she heard rustling sounds outside the tent. And so she wondered if, you know, maybe one of the friends had gotten up. And so she sat up and looked out the tent and she couldn't see anything. She just saw the kind of hazy night sky from the white night.
And she couldn't really tell if everybody was inside the tent or not. But then suddenly a dark shadowy figure moved in front of the tent flap, the open tent flap. And so this shadowy figure totally blocked all the light that was coming into the tent from the white night. And then this shadowy figure looked into the tent, and they had these bright, glowing red eyes.
And before Mela or anybody else in the tent could do anything, there was a snapping sound, and the tent fell down on top of them. The next morning at 6 a.m., two boys who were not in any way connected to these four teenagers were at this lake.
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Chapter 7: How did the teenagers set up their campsite and what was the mood?
these were not particularly valuable i mean they might have been emotionally valuable to nils but they certainly were not valuable enough to warrant a robber you know killing people to get their hands on them so eventually the police actually called in the military to come into the forest and help with the search and when the military arrived and began fanning out all around this huge forest they would make a really big discovery they would find nils's shoes
And these shoes were speckled with blood. And it was clear from the bloody tracks nearby that the killer must have at some point put these shoes on at the campsite and then walked away while still wearing them and then ultimately ditched them 500 meters away underneath that pile of leaves.
In the days after the murders, the police chased down dozens of leads all over Finland, but none of them amounted to anything.
nils would actually survive the attack but his face was so badly damaged with so many broken bones in his head that it took a really long time before he could even speak but when he finally could and the police were able to interview him it became immediately clear that nils did not have a good memory of the attack and in fact the day of the attack basically the whole day he didn't really remember it however nils would remember one thing
He said during the chaos of the actual attack, he distinctly remembered seeing a dark shadowy figure with these bright red glowing eyes. But the police couldn't just go out and look for a dark figure with red eyes. And so instead they just made a note of this and continued their investigation.
The only real lead the police got were from those two boys who were fishing out on the lake a day after the murders happened, where they saw that guy with blonde hair running away from where the teens had camped.
Now, these two boys didn't know the significance of what they were seeing, but obviously when the news broke about the murders, they were called seeing that guy right in the area where they now knew, you know, that's where the murders had happened. And so the police created a composite sketch of, you know, what the boys thought they saw, this blonde guy running.
And they would send this sketch all over Finland. And they would ask people, you know, to come forward if you've seen this guy. And loads and loads of people immediately came forward and said, yep, I've seen that guy. But it would turn out the police were getting loads of false reports because the sketch looked like lots of men in Finland. So this was not a unique enough sketch, basically.
However, there was one tip that came into police that did really stand out. The day after the murders happened, a man named Hans Ossmann checked into a hospital located about 13 miles away from where the lake was where the murders happened. And this guy Hans, when he checks into the hospital, he starts complaining of having these really intense stomach pains.
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