Buried Bones - a historical true crime podcast with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes · Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Out Cold PT 1

·1 hr 7 min·3 clips

The tent is slashed from the inside, and the hikers' boots are still inside.

1. Buried Bones centers on a 1959 case in the Ural Mountains of Siberia, near height 1079, where a nine-person hiking expedition vanished in heavy snow. 2. Kate Winkler Dawson hosts as a journalist with 25 years of true-crime writing, and Paul Holes hosts as a retired cold case investigator who brings forensic analysis to the case. 3. The episode asks what happened to seven men and two women after they reached their mountain campsite on January 31 and planned to ski toward a pass on February 1. 4. Searchers find a slashed tent on a gentle 30-degree slope, with skis, ski poles, a flashlight, axes, boots, food, journals, and clothing still inside. 5. The tent is described as a six-by-thirteen-foot shelter made from two canvases, with a triangular entrance and fabric cut from the inside. 6. Paul Holes says the slashes do not look like weather damage, animal damage, or random vandalism, and he thinks the fabric may have been cut for a functional reason. 7. Kate says the contents include seven pairs of felt boots, six pairs of ski boots, three compasses, a pocket watch, pork loin, biscuits, vodka, and a first aid kit. 8. The diary evidence stops after January 31, when the group wrote that they had reached the area and dug a snow pit. 9. The search team follows eight or nine sets of footprints from the tent toward the tree line, and one person appears to have worn a single ski boot. 10. Those footprints disappear about a quarter-mile later, which becomes one of the episode’s key physical puzzles. 11. Paul emphasizes that people in zero-degree weather and five feet of snow would not normally leave shelter without boots and proper clothing. 12. The next search finds a fire at the base of a tall cedar about a mile from the tent, and investigators estimate it burned for about 90 minutes. 13. The branches of fir and birch trees within a 65-foot perimeter are cut, and dry cedar branches 12 to 17 feet up are broken off. 14. Among the items near the fire are a half-burned brown sock, a green checkered shirt with eight rubles in the pocket, and a woman’s handkerchief. 15. The first two bodies identified are 21-year-old Yuri Doroshchenko and 23-year-old Georgie Yuri Krivonishchenko, whom Kate also calls Kriva. 16. Yuri is found face down with dirty, tangled hair, moss and fur needles in it, and burns near his right temple and occipital region. 17. Paul and Kate describe the scene as a frozen moment in time because the food, clothing, cameras, journals, and even a jug of cocoa appear left in place. 18. The tone is forensic and conversational, with Kate setting the scene through photos and Paul translating the mountain evidence into crime-scene questions. 19. Listeners interested in historical true crime, cold cases, and forensic reconstruction will follow this closely. 20. Listeners looking for a quick, tidy explanation of the Dyatlov Pass mystery may skip it.

As heard by us

A snowbound tent and a missing day become the spine of a careful historical mystery.

A snow-buried tent, the diaries inside it, and the narrow stretch between January 31 and February 1 give this discussion its clearest frame. The hosts keep circling the same question: if the journals end just as the team plans to ski toward the mountain pass, what does that…

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Why you'd press play

You want a snow-dusted mystery where a tent, diaries, and a missing day all point back to a public murder.

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