My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 356 - Tugboat of Life

Episode Date: December 8, 2022

This week, Karen tells Georgia the rescue and survival story of Harrison Okene.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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To my favorite murder. That's Georgia Heartster. Thanks. That's Karen Gilgareff. Welcome. Here we are again. Again, once again. We're recording twice in one week just to make sure we're just as busy as possible.

We're kind of doing like the Howard Stern style where we're just trying to, is that a daily show? Probably. We're kind of doing more of like a Jimmy Fallon style. Yeah. Well, we're just trying to get it in every day. That's how much we love you and how much we love the show. And the sounds of our own voices. That's the number one on the list.

Speaking of which, did you watch for how we're recording this? This just came out. Nick Terry's newest animation is the Death Seal. The one where a seal comes to you in your dreams as a teenager and tells you that you're going to die at the T.T. I did watch it and it's fucking hilarious. Nick Terry, go to the exactly right media YouTube page to watch that and all of Nick Terry's animation, MFM animated episodes, but this one's gold. What a delight.

Also, he got the right, I indicated it was the Marin side of the Golden Gate Bridge, but I didn't say what side, east or west of the bridge and he got the correct side. So basically, you get to watch an animated version of almost exactly the dream that I had except it was my point of view, which I don't expect Nick Terry to be interpreting in that way. Sure. It's fun to watch it as a two shot. Oh my God. I love that man.

Truly. I do too. Everything he does, it's magical. What a compliment that he shares his talent with us that way. I know. Oh shit. I was just going to put oil. I went to squirt some oil to put on my hands and just squirted it just right across my couch instead.

Well, I hope it's leather. Yeah, no, I squirted it on this pillow, which is a vintage pillow from my childhood. Oh. And now it's got oil on it. So that's cool. Well, look, you're making memories. Yeah. I bet you could go on TikTok and figure out how to get oil out of like delicate fabrics.

Yeah. I bet you're right. TikTok but no. They know. Is there like a search? Can I search for things on TikTok? That's how bad I am at it. I don't even know anymore.

Like what I've seen because, because of course my, this is my sister's full jam. So it's like, there are people who show you them going into like horrible, filthy houses and cleaning them like time-lapse. Oh, I love it. And there's some people who are so amazing at it. And so I think you would do hashtag like cleaning talk or cleaning TikTok is sometimes like what they call it. Got it. Cleaning or like, yeah. Clean, a clean influencer.

Clean influencer that then you'd have to do a sub search into oils. Maybe I'll just throw in the washing machine and hope for the best. Keep your fingers crossed. And then you throw it in the washing machine. It falls apart. Oh, that's so sad. It's stuffed with $100 bills. Oh my God.

I didn't know for my childhood we had this, this farty pillow stuff with $100 bills. Your grandmother made that for you as a secret dowry. Oh, that would be amazing. Thanks, grandma. Right. That's like those stories of people shoving cash into couches that then get donated to the Goodwill. Oh, I love those stories, treasure stories. Full on day-to-day treasure.

What's going on with you? Are you watching anything? You know what I watched that I really wanted to tell you about? Tell me. When I went to search it, I think it just came out. I thought it would be like number one on Netflix because it's so good. It's Jonah Hill's new documentary movie about his therapist. It's called Stuts.

It's essentially this really cool therapist whose last name is Stuts. Now I can't remember his first name. I apologize. Dr. Stuts. He's made up almost like this process of getting yourself out of a rut. Jonah Hill was talking about coming to him in times of extreme anxiety and extreme negative time in his life. And what this doctor taught him how to kind of like actually reframe how you look at stuff like that and how you react to it. And like a system to apply when you're in that place.

And I think every person in the world needs to watch it. I'm so excited. I need this. I watched the trailer at Vincent and I both agree it looks good. And then we moved on, you know. Like I didn't realize I really love Jonah Hill. I love him as a performer. Like I thought that the 21 Jump Street movies were beyond hilarious.

And then he's also just a very good dramatic guy. Like everything he does, he played the part of a 12 step sponsor leader. It was a movie that Joaquin Phoenix played the main part. It's a bio pic about a cartoonist. It's called He Can't Get Far On Foot. And it's about a cartoonist that got into a car accident and was paralyzed in a wheelchair. Wow. And Jonah Hill plays this 12 step sponsor.

You don't recognize him. Wow. It's one of the coolest things I've ever seen him do. I just think he's so good. And this thing is so intense and brave. And it's on Netflix. Okay, I'm in. I'm totally, I can't wait to.

I need something like that. I have been in a little bit of a rut lately. It's like, I feel like I'm haunting my own house because I can't like figure out what to do. I'm just going from room to room being like a ghost, like a fucking specter. In your white robes? Yeah, in my, with my chains, my old vintage chains and. Okay, step one, take those chains off your arms. They're too heavy.

Oh, put them down. Step two, stop making that noise. It's a haunting noise. Oh, yeah, I think you'll like this because it's almost like treating it like a system or an approach like almost like here's how to learn algebra, but instead it's kind of like here's how to get out of your own way. All right. It feels like that sounds easier than algebra to be totally honest with you.

I'm for real immediately. Then also, are you watching a second season of white lotus? I watched one episode so far. I haven't caught up. Do you love Michael and Perry only more than anything in the entire world? I'm so in love with him. I love every person that walks on screen. It's just like they did this amazing job.

Everyone is so good. And then halfway through here comes one of my very favorite British actors, Tom Hollander, who has been in a million things is so good. But he was the, if you saw Pride and Prejudice, the Cura Knightley most recent version. He's the creepy cousin that's the vicar. Yeah. That comes to basically proposed to the girls. Yeah.

And he's a super nerd. And he's like the funniest. He's so good. And then he shows up in white lotus. I was like, yes. Okay. I'll catch up because I did like the first episode and of course like the first season. But, and of course the fact that what's her face is in it again makes me so happy.

I could cry. Jennifer Coolidge. Oh God. What a like, what a aspirational human being. She's amazing. She is. Yeah. She really is a treasure.

Just a natural, naturally treasure. So engaging. And she has a couple lines in this thing. Cause sometimes I watch it with the closed captioning on just so I hear what the writing is. I want to make sure I hear the words of the writing and she's just so funny. I just want to know how much she's improvising. Yeah. I bet a lot.

Cause it's so her. At one point she's not there at this, of course, you know, no spoiler. It's a fancy hotel and she's there and she's in line for the buffet or she's in the buffet, but it's like beyond fancy. And she knocks this like lid off a cake pan and everyone like turns around and then she's like, at least it wasn't glass. That's a great impression of her. Was that a good one?

Yeah. And then Aubrey Plaza is also there and she's like, they'll, I'm sure they'll clean it up or whatever. And when the guy comes over Jennifer Coolidge licks it in and goes, do you have any Oreo cake? It's like so fucking random at like an Italian villa five star hotel. And she's, she's asking. I had no idea.

You do a really good impression of her. That's like a bit ridiculous. You could do it. Thank you. Yeah. I was like three episodes last night, so her voice is in my head, but I just adore her. Yeah. Me too.

All right. She's so good. Should we do some exactly right corner and catch up to everyone what's going on with our network? Yes, please. Oh, and we also have a big donation corner. So check this out, everyone. Check out this shit.

Over on, I saw what you did. You need to tune in because they are doing a perplexing double feature this week of Minda Cowboy from 1969 and Beetlejuice from 1988. We don't know what Milly and Danielle are thinking, but it is your job to try to guess the theme. So give it a whirl. And then this week on I said no gifts. Bridgers joined by comedian Matt Rogers from the movie Fire Island and the host of the

podcast, La Culturista's, which is such a freaking great podcast. So make sure to check that episode out. December 8th is the last day to order from the My Favorite Murder Store to get gifts to arrive in time for December 25th. If that is your game day. Yeah. So make sure you get over there. My favorite murder.com.

To kick off the holiday season, guys, we did this last year and we want to do it again. We're going to be donating to charities that are doing important work, especially this time of year. So first we are giving $10,000 to the awesome charity Toys for Tots, whose mission is to provide toys, books, and other gifts to less fortunate children. And then we're going to be donating $10,000 to the World Central Kitchen, which is founded by Chef Jose Andres. And you may have heard of them.

They use the power of food to nourish communities and strengthen economies in times of crisis and beyond. So if you are able, donations made on behalf of loved ones is a great gift idea for the holiday season. And that is an amazing charity. It's got a really, really high rating. And I just saw a TikTok of a Washington Post reporter walking around like a city that had just been ravaged by the war in Ukraine.

And this Washington Post reporter runs in to Jose Andres, and he's there to feed the people who are still in this city. And it is a really amazing video. And that guy is in war zones trying to help people who really need it. It's incredible. It is. And lastly, so our MFM black and white logo pin that we have in the store, all the proceeds from that go to different charities.

So the most recent charity for that was the ACLU. And so we have officially collected $13,000 from sales from the MFM logo pin to give to the ACLU. You guys should be so proud of yourselves. We are so grateful. And it's just a really incredible thing that we can all do together. So thank you guys so much for that. Yeah.

Thank you very much. You get a pin, but then you also get to make your money do something good. That's kind of exciting. So Toys for Tots, World Central Kitchen and the ACLU, if you guys want to give this season, try them. It's fun. It's fun to give. Looking for a better cooking routine?

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Karen January is going to be my month for Hello Fresh. I am so sick of takeout. I miss cooking so much. I haven't lifted a knife or a pan since like early fall. So I can't wait to get back in the kitchen and Hello Fresh makes it so easy and also makes it so that my food tastes good, which is hard to do on my own. It gives you everything, everything you need. So get up to 20 free meals with purchase plus free shipping on your first box at hellofresh.ca

slash murder20 with code murder20. That's up to 20 free meals plus free shipping on your first box when you go to hellofresh.ca slash murder20 and use code murder20. Goodbye. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill or are they made to kill? I'm Candace DeLong and on my new podcast Killer Psyche Daily, I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds, psychopaths and cold-blooded killers you hear about in the news.

I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent and criminal profiler. On Killer Psyche Daily, I'll give you insight into cases like Ryan Grantham and the newly arrested Stockton Serial Killer. I'll also bring on expert guests to dive deeper into the details, share what it's like to work with a behavioral assessment unit at Quantico, answer some killer trivia and even host virtual Q&As where I'll answer your burning questions. Hey Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music Exclusive Podcast Killer Psyche Daily in the Amazon Music app.

Download the app today. All right, so you're going this week? I'm going this week. Okay, me and my oil pillow, we're going to get comfy. You know, you need to do is you squeeze that oil pillow till every drop of oil comes out of it. As I tell you, this pretty awesome and kind of unbelievable survival story. This is the amazing rescue and survival story of Harrison Okena.

You may have heard of this. It's so unbelievable. It happened in 2013. Okay. So the main sources used today are 2013 Reuters article by Joe Brock, a 2022 Nine News Australia article by Raffaella Chickarelli and several articles and videos from the Associated Press. And you can find the rest of the sources in our show notes. Okay, so this starts May 28, 2013.

We're about 20 miles off the coast of Nigeria, 100 yards below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. Three divers are approaching a sunken Jaskin tugboat. This boat, which had been towing a tanker in the oil-rich waters off of Nigeria, capsized during a storm two and a half days earlier. So these divers have gone down to the wreck. They have to make a report and investigate for the boat's parent company. It's down on the ocean floor upside down.

And they also need to recover the bodies of the 12 crew members who died in that boat accident. So the divers descend 100 feet into the water, which is, just to get a sense of how deep that is, it's the height of a 10-story building down. Wow. 100 feet doesn't sound that intense. And then if you think about it that way, you're just like, yeah, they're way down there. They're way too tall.

So these divers carry tools to get inside the boat. So they kind of have to break into an upside-down boat. Plus, they carry jackknives to protect against sharks or barracuda while they're down there. Because if they're recovering bodies, that means there's bodies in the water, which means there's predators in the water. So it's, this job, I don't, the people who do this job are heroes in every sense because it's scary, it would be scary enough to go like deep sea diving just to look around. Yeah.

Totally. And then do a search and rescue. That would be just so intense. So they have to carry those tools plus a big underwater flashlight because it is pitch black down there. They also have microphones and cameras so that the boat up top that they dove from, the technicians up there can hear and see what they are seeing and communicate with them as they're investigating this wreck.

So their every move in real time is being recorded and watched by a team. So when the divers reach the tugboat, they have to break inside, as I said. So this job requires a lot of skill, but also obviously a lot of emotional strength. They have to swim across the wreck. They have to swim through the tugboat's cabins and corridors. And then they have to handle nearly a dozen corpses. Very difficult work. It doesn't take long for them to find the first body and then the second, then two more.

And as they keep searching, they're shining their flashlights into this murky saltwater as they're talking to the technicians above who are watching everything. But then suddenly something happens the cameras don't see. One of the divers, a South African man named Nico Van Heerden, feels something whoosh across his back in the darkness. So you're holding a flashlight, the beam of light is going out in front of you. You can't see what's behind you, even if you turn to look. The descriptive word whoosh across your back is so chilling and so creepy.

That's our researcher, Marin McClashen. Good job, Marin. She's a great writer, a good researcher and a great writer. It whooshes across his back. Not great. I hate it. So also Nico is the last diver in the row of divers, so no one is behind him to know that he's okay or not.

He's last. So he's in the dark. It's so creepy. So he immediately spins around. He shines his light toward the feeling and what he sees is something straight out of a horror movie because now the crew above can see it too since he's turned around and it's on camera, a human hand reaching forward through the cloudy water beckoning at him. That's not what I, I was like, it's gonna be like a parrot fish or something like that.

Not a human fucking. Those assholes. Oh my God. So it's all on camera. Nightmare. You can watch this footage. No, I don't want to. I don't either.

I didn't do it even though I should have for this story, but I was like, I believe it and I get it. I don't need to see it happen. No. But you can if you're like that. I did. Because she's a good researcher. Yeah.

She's like, it's clear from the footage that Nico freaks out. I mean, for a second because Jesus Christ. But as a deep sea diver would need to be like he immediately regained his composure. Right. Someone who's miked in the control room confirms that another corpse has been found. So Nico reaches out towards it. He gets a grip on the wrist and then it grabs him back. No.

No, no, no. Now there's a wave of shock through the whole team. Then you hear a technician repeatedly say into the microphone, he's alive. He's alive. He's alive. Holy shit. This is Harrison Okenna and he survived this unbelievable shipwreck. He is down at the bottom of the ocean and he is alive inside.

Oh my God. After three days. Yes. Yes. Good point. As we go back, it's actually 60 hours to the morning of the accident. It's 4.50 AM, May 26th. People are just starting to wake up on this tugboat and 29 year old Harrison Okenna throws

on a pair of boxer shorts and makes his way from his cabin toward the bathroom. So Harrison's a Nigerian. He's the cook on the boat. He's one of the 12 crew members and there are 10 more Nigerian nationals on board, four of which are cadets with the country's maritime academy, as well as the boat's Ukrainian captain. So this morning, the weather is unforgiving. The waters are really rough. So Harrison's likely stumbling, steadying himself as he puts his hands on the walls,

trying to get down the hallway to the bathroom. So bad weather. This is my nightmare. I think we've talked about this boat thing before, but like stormy seas, it's, it, how frightening. Yeah. Just so out of control. Not my thing.

Not at all. And these guys are like, they're all really experienced sailors. So this is kind of standard fare for them. They're used to it. Harrison probably isn't that worried. This is something that they go through a lot. It's part of the job. But when he arrives at one of the boat's tiny bathrooms, it's the size basically of an airplane

bathroom. He closes the door, sits on the toilet and a massive wave hits the tugboat side. Now he is worried because the boat is not recovering from the hit, which would be so frightening. It's like, it gets hit and then it just keeps going. Yeah. You're just like waiting for it to straighten out and it's not, that sounds terrifying. It's not straightening out and you're on the toilet.

Everything that comes next seems to unfold in a few short blurry seconds. Harrison's thrown around the tiny bathroom and when he finally lands, he looks up to see the toilet is above him and the ceiling is beneath him. Nope. This boat has capsized. So before he can even think, his body's reacting and he throws himself toward the bathroom's metal door, he somehow manages to get it open and escape into the hallway. But now once he's out there, he sees water is rushing into the hallway and he somehow

manages to get himself a life vest and puts it on as he dashes toward an exit hatch. But on this boat, all the exit hatches have been kept locked as a security measure to protect against pirates. So the first hatch he makes it to is locked and then he moves on, finds the next one, that one's locked. Fuck. Meanwhile, the water is rising and filling all the hallways and cabins. Finally when he does make it to an unlocked exit hatch, he says that, quote, three guys

were in front of me and suddenly water rushed in full force. I saw the first one, the second one, the third one just washed away. I knew these guys were dead. Oh my God. So from inside the boat, he's witnessing this boat go down under the sea. That's so scary. Yeah. Okay, everybody take a deep breath, Karen.

Then a burst of water throws him down the hallway and sends him into another tiny bathroom. And just as this happens, the boat hits the ocean floor with a thud and water is now almost entirely filled the boat. It is total pitch darkness, but Harrison's still alive and he's got an idea. The bathroom sink is now on the ceiling, so he swims up toward it. He's underwater. Yeah. And he swims up toward the sink and then sticks his head inside and finds that it functions

perfectly as a makeshift diving bell. So there's a little air pocket in the sink. And he basically finds it and is able to breathe, which is kind of brilliant, especially in a such a scary situation. So Harrison waits there with his body totally submerged in the freezing Atlantic water and his head in the air bubble. And he says, quote, my colleagues were shouting, God help me, God help me, God help me. And then after a while, I never heard from them again.

So he's witnessed this wreck. He stays in this tiny bathroom with his head in the sink for an entire day. He doesn't know how to count the hours that pass. He loses all sense of time in the darkness. He does know that he can't stay in this small tugboat bathroom forever. And eventually he decides he needs to venture out and look for an exit, which is, of course, extraordinarily risky because if Harrison has any sort of misstep or he finds himself in a situation where he needs air, there's no guarantee that he's going to be able to go

back and find that sink again because, again, pitch black underwater. Oh, yeah. I forgot that. It's pitch black. It's pitch black and it's freezing cold. I don't know why in my mind it's like you can see stuff, you know? No. Right.

We're pitching like Deep Blue Sea or some underwater movie where it's like they're on a submarine. It's like, no, he's in the sea basically, technically. But Harrison thinks of his mother. He thinks of his wife and he thinks of everyone he loves back on land. And he says a prayer. He says, quote, I told God, if you rescue me, I will never go back to the sea again. Never.

Amen. He's asking for some help, some mercy. And then he pushes himself out of the sink, swims downward and somehow manages to open the heavy bathroom door. Harrison swims out of the bathroom and through the doorway, which leads into the adjoining captain's bedroom. And then perhaps out of instinct, he swims upward and he can't believe what he finds there.

At the top of this upside down bedroom, there's an air pocket with about four feet of head room. So he's gone from his upside down sink after a full day to almost like a room of air. Wow. Yeah. How does that happen? It's so crazy. You'd think that if ship immersed in water, that's it.

But I guess air pockets happen. It's almost like, yeah, if you took a, I mean, listen to this lie, I'm just going to start making some shit up. If you took like a cup, plastic cup and submerged it, no, that doesn't really work. It's kind of like, if it stops in some way or there's doorways. Air pockets. How do they work? Air pockets.

How do they work? Air pocket scientists. Let us know. I mean, I think it's like miraculous basically because this thing is all but sunken. But somehow, yeah, I don't know. That didn't explain it either. Stephen, keep all that in. Okay, so in this spot, Harrison can lift most of his body out of the freezing water, which

that alone feels like a miracle because he knows he's at risk for hypothermia. And so he focuses on figuring out how to lift his legs out of the water, not just his upper body. So he finds a rope in this room and he ties it to something sturdy in the air pocket. And then using it as his guide back, he scavenges the rest of the boat for supplies and a possible exit. Holy shit. He's like basically making the best of the most nightmarish situation possible.

Yeah. He's just like, well, now I got some tasks to do. He's like MacGyvering, but underwater in the pitch black freezing cold. Yes. It's crazy. With no way to see. I hate it. As we said, he's doing it all in total darkness.

He's relying on his memory and groping around for objects in the dark. And he's also constantly rushing back to the air bubble to get a big new breath of air. And eventually he's able to gather strips of wood paneling and a lightweight mattress. So he basically puts the mattress on top of the wood paneling and then he lays down on a rack that's bobbed upwards into the air pocket. So when the cold gets to be too much, this allows him to pull his entire body out of the water and then he finds a bottle of Coke while he's scavenging. But he still hasn't found an exit and he's unsure of what to do next.

So he hunkers down and he waits for something to help him escape. So another day passes. He's now been underwater for over 48 hours. Fuck. That. So Harrison's confident that he's the only person left alive on this tugboat. And he later says that, quote, I could perceive the dead bodies of my crew were nearby. I could smell them.

Oh dear. But he can't shake the feeling he's not alone. He hears one particularly terrible sound, which is coming from somewhere in the dark waters of the boat. And it's a sound he hasn't heard before. And he's thinking it's fish and it could be sharks fighting over the bodies of his dead crewmates. Harrison says that, quote, it was horror.

I was scared. I had to stay and keep watch to see if something would come in my direction. So as the hours pass, it's hard for Harrison to hold on to hope he's increasingly hungry and dehydrated. And the constant exposure of saltwater is rubbing his skin, mouth and eyes raw. He's also, of course, afraid of what will happen if he can't find anything to eat and drink. And he's also extremely worried that the boat might shift on the sea floor and this pocket

of air could close in an instant, causing him to drown. He says, quote, I was crying and calling on Jesus to rescue me. I prayed so hard, I was so hungry and thirsty and cold, and I was praying to see some kind of light. And it goes on and on. And then after about 60 hours underwater, he hears a new noise. It's the rhythmic sound of metal on metal, like someone throwing a hammer against the side of the boat.

Finally, he knows he is not alone. So Harrison knows that the window for survival is definitely closing for him. And this is his best shot at a rescue. So he knows he has to get the attention of whoever it is is making the sound on the outside of the boat. So he lowers himself into the freezing water and he swims downward looking for anything blunt that he could use as his own hammer. And in the darkness, he gets his hand on a water dispenser and he manages to pull away

the filter. Then with all his might, he swims up to his air pocket, catches his breath and bangs on the nearest wall. But he's not sure if anyone can hear him, and he can't see anything, and eventually the distant hammer sound fades away. Oh no. Okay, but then Harrison sees a narrow stream of light cutting through the darkness beneath him.

It's a flashlight. Oh my God. Right? So from his air pocket, he looks below and sees a diver swim into the room. And he wastes no time lowering himself into the water and swimming downward. But Harrison says the diver was, quote, too fast. I saw the light, but before I could get to him, he was already out. I tried to follow him in the pitch darkness, but I couldn't trace him, so I went back.

God, can you imagine at that moment, he was just like, this is my one chance of survival. There is an actual person right there, and I can't catch up with him. They're going to miss me completely, and I'm going to be stuck down here. And this is the first light he's seen in 48 hours. And everything about it is so panicky and crazy. How could you not just immediately start freaking out and go crazy? He handles himself so well in such a high pressure, like literally high pressure situation. Life or death situation.

Within minutes, the beam of light has returned, and this time Harrison is ready. So once again, he dives into the cold water and he swims in the darkness. He incenses himself getting closer and closer to the light. And then he sees the backside of the diver swimming directly in front of him, coming into view. Harrison is flooded with hope, but he knows he must be cautious. He knows the divers aren't looking for survivors, but he knows he's going to freak the shit out of this fucking diver.

So he doesn't want to scare him or catch him off guard. And that's a good thing, because of course the divers have their jackknives that they're holding to protect themselves. So if Harrison isn't careful, his attempt at being rescued could also result in a terrible accident. Totally. He swims up to the man's backside and he lightly taps his shoulders. Jesus Christ.

It's horrible. Oh, it's all I can do not to scream right now. I know. This is Nico van Heraden's shoulder that we're talking about, the guy from the beginning. So Nico spins around and he sees Harrison's hand floating in the water. And that's of course the moment when they realize the entire diving team realizes there is a survivor on this capsized bottom of the sea tugboat. Oh my God.

So now at this point, Harrison needs air again. So he leads Nico up to the air pocket. And once he's there, Nico gives him water and through his microphone, Nico begins coordinating a rescue with the technicians, but he's also still in shock. Harrison would later say, quote, I knew when Nico gave me water, he was observing me to see if I'm really human because he was afraid. Yeah. I bet he was like seeing a ghost.

Yeah. And also like, how could you keep your like nervous system in check when you're just like, okay, here's a, we weren't ready for this, but this is happening. Like, it would be hard to be calm and yeah, in full air, you'd be a little panicky. Right. Well, he was in the dark too. So he's freaking the fuck out. Yes.

And then you would hear the people freaking out on the boat above, like everything about business. No, thank you. Okay. So Harrison, understandably, is now flooded with emotion. He says, quote, I was just crying. I had been ready to go, but God heard my prayers. I mean, that would be pretty overwhelming if you were like praying for 40 hours straight.

It actually worked. 60. Well, 60 total. Yes. I was thinking maybe those first 20, 20 hours, he was just exploring and you know, he wasn't praying yet. No, so the ordeal is not over yet. Harrison can't just swim to the surface and be done with it.

He's cold. He's weak. He's dehydrated. And worse, he's showing signs of carbon dioxide poisoning. It takes a lot of extremely careful action and decision making to prepare Harrison's body to leave the sunken boat on the ocean floor. A life support technician named Alex Gibbs was in the control room during this rescue. And he says, quote, contrary to popular belief, when you people are trapped in confined spaces,

it is not the oxygen running out that will kill you. It's your own exhaled breath causing a buildup of carbon dioxide. That's why you should roll down your windows every once in a while on a long car trip. Really? Yep. If you're all sealed up like that and you don't have like a vent or anything circulating, you got to roll down those windows. And then it's fun because you can scream or turn the music up really loud anyway.

So the technicians watching the diverse footage suspect that Harrison's carbon dioxide levels were dangerously high when he was found because he's panting. His eyes appear to be glazed over. So Gibbs says that the team, quote, immediately put down an air hose and literally blew fresh air over him. Wow. So that was like step one. Yeah.

But they're also worried about oversaturating him with air. So they funneled down a mixture of oxygen and helium because helium is easier for weakened lungs to handle. And when you watch the video, Marin says you can hear the helium affecting Harrison's voice when he talks. Oh, there's video of all of this too, of him like coming to life. The whole thing is on video. Holy shit.

I forgot about that part. But asphyxiation is not the team's only concern. The pressure on the human body caused by being this far underwater without any productive equipment can also be deadly. And it's something that has to be dealt with before Harrison can be brought up out of the water. An expert named Christine Cridge, who works for the Diving Diseases Research Center, was consulted on Harrison's rescue.

And she says, quote, if he descended directly from 100 feet to the sea surface, it's likely he'd have had cardiac arrest or at best serious neurological issues. So after the diver's pump Harrison with air and help him get into diving equipment, including an oxygen mask, they lead him out of the air pocket. And then they make their way through the tugboat into the ocean. And then once they get outside of the boat in the ocean, they put him into a heavy duty diving bell. And this ensures that his body will stay at the same underwater pressure as he goes up

through the water and surfaces. Right. It gets the bends. It's called, right? Exactly. And this diving bell, I saw a picture of it. And it essentially looks like something from, did you ever see the Abyss, the movie with Ed Harris?

Uh-uh. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the best movie. It looks super sci-fi looking. Kind of. Yeah. And they're underwater. It's kind of a similar thing.

They're trapped underwater because they're working on like an oil rig or something. But they have things, this diving bell looks like a much smaller thing than the things that they use in that, which are like, it's just like a bald up man sized thing you could get into. Yeah. It's just so claustrophobic in every fucking possible way. It's terrifying. It's like, it's like being on another planet and being claustrophobic.

Yeah. Might as well be. It's like space, but in the water. It's space problems. It's Sandra Bullock in the film Gravity, but water. So finally Harrison's brought above water and he has moved from the diving bell into a decompression chamber. So then he has to go into another thing and his body pressure is completely out of whack

from being underwater for so long, so much so that he has to stay in the decompression chamber for two more days. No. Uh-huh. Oh, what a bummer. I know. I mean, you want to fucking celebrate and eat a turkey dinner? You just want to walk up and down the dock, eat a turkey dinner and have a smoke.

Yeah. Yeah. He has to readjust and his body has to catch up. And this is where the reality of the situation finally hits Harrison. He assumed that at least some of the other crew members had escaped. And this is where he learns the tragic news that he's the sole survivor of this boat accident. So the rescue team watches over Harrison for these two crucial days in the decompression chamber and they bring him food and they give him medicine and they marvel at how he pulled

off such an unlikely survival. No one on the team has ever seen anything like this. And when it comes to diving, these guys pretty much have seen it all. So just for some perspective, a training consultant from the Professional Association of Diving Instructors told reporters that, quote, to survive that long at that depth is phenomenal. He would just dive recreationally for no more than 20 minutes at those depths. Harrison Okenna survived underwater for almost three days. Wild.

And his survival is truly amazing, not only because he found two air pockets in the pitch black of a sunken tugboat, but he didn't freeze to death. He didn't die of thirst. He didn't asphyxiate or die from increased air pressure. Or get attacked by a fucking shark. Or get attacked by a shark or a barracuda or just a creepy eel. Just having a panic attack is an eel slides by your calf and you're like, I can't take this anymore.

I'm going to start scratching the ceiling. That's what I would do. So the fact that he survived has truly baffled experts and it led to a whole bunch of theories, like the fact that this air pocket may have been connected to a larger one under the hull of the boat that would have actually been cycling in more air than it seemed that space could have given. Or that the cold water helped diffuse some of the carbon dioxide in this air pocket. Harrison's survival is similar to Charles Jockins, the baker from the Titanic that I

talked about who tread water in the freezing North Atlantic for hours after the ship went down. And like that case, it's another one that many experts can't easily explain. And maybe there is no good scientific rationale. It could be as simple as the power of human persistence or courage, emotional and physical strength and good luck mixed in. An expert in diving medicine named Eric Hextal, who knows this type of medical science more than most people, leaned into the mystery.

After Harrison's rescue, he told National Geographic, quote, I don't know what it was. It was divine providence. Wow. So like it's kind of scientifically unexplainable how he survived for that long underwater. That's so cool. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. But it is interesting to think of like, you know, in those survival, like the tips they

always give is just like, you immediately need to start setting up a plan for yourself of like tasks you have to get done, things to do, like, right? We hear that all the time. And be calm, be calm and think of what's next and that sort of thing. Just focus on the next step, next step, next step, which is also very helpful if you're trapped in an overturned tugboat of life. And oh, that's beautiful. Right?

Yeah. What if I pre-wrote that four days ago? That was my big try. So after those two days in the decompression chamber, Harrison's body pressure finally returns to normal. He's allowed to leave and he can reunite with his beloved wife and his family, who he credits along with God for keeping him alive. But now Harrison's emotional recovery is just beginning.

He of course suffers from survivor's guilt and he says that quote, they told me all the others had died and I cried. Why was I the only one who had been trapped in the boat? Why only me? Why did my colleagues have to die? End quote. And Harrison suffers from nightmares. He says, quote, when I'm at home, sometimes it feels like the bed I'm sleeping in is sinking.

I think I'm still in the sea. I jump up and I scream. Yeah, at that. So here's where Harrison seems very different than Charles Jochen. Charles almost immediately returned to working on ships after the Titanic sank. He went on to be in some more shipwrecks himself. But for Harrison, the thought of going back onto a boat was very difficult to stomach. Hell no.

Are you kidding me? Never again. You promised God. But listen to this. This is a fun twist. He also made a vowel wall trapped on the tugboat. He'd never go into the ocean, as Georgia just pointed out. And initially he keeps his word and he starts cooking in restaurants on land.

I love that she wrote on land. In restaurants on land. No floating restaurants. He said land only. But over the years, something changes in him and he leaves behind the cooking career and he becomes a commercial diver. No. In fact, he gets a job with the same company that sent the divers into the sunken tugboat.

Oh, because they saved his life. That's right. Yes. In the very same waters he was rescued from, Harrison regularly does underwater inspections and installations. And he could someday be sent on a rescue mission himself. I mean, better him than anyone else, like who the fuck else knows, knows the horrors of what could be like down there.

And who else wouldn't freak out if some finger tapped him on the shoulder? He'd be like, oh, I've, yeah, I've been there. He didn't even need a resume for that company, I bet. He was just like, hey, remember me? I want to work here. They'd be like, you mean the miracle man that can literally live a hundred stories underwater get over here? And then Marin made this note, note to Karen, I thought this was cool.

He's now certified to dive nearly 160 feet underwater, which is an even greater depth than he was trapped on the tugboat. So he's now qualified to go down even further. And then in June of 2022, on the ninth anniversary of his rescue, Harrison posted an update on his YouTube channel and in the video, he says, quote, that came for the rescue in Nigeria. Today I'm with them working and today makes it nine years since my incident. I don't know what to say. They were all happy seeing me on board, strong and healthy, diving and working.

I thank God for this strength, for keeping me alive, for giving me a second chance in life to be a better person, to be a hardworking person, to have a reason why God kept me alive. And for me to know someday I might be a rescuer for someone else. And that is the incredible story of Harrison O'Kena, the man who survived three days at the bottom of the ocean. Oh, my fucking God, how scary. And you can look in the show notes for the link to his rescue video if you dare. I don't think I can watch that.

Hell no. I don't think I can. I think it takes a certain person to be able to see that. I'm happy to watch the biopic when they make it. Definitely. But not the real version. I don't want to have to go through what Nico went through as a duck. Yeah, the biopic or what's it called when they do reenactments, the reenactment.

Yeah, I think they're called reenactment. I'll watch that thing called a reenactment, but not the real thing. It's too real. It's one of those things that's like too real. It's almost like they caught like a real ghost sighting on film, but it's a person. Oh, the hand. The hand. Maybe it's just because I was watching Wednesday and I'm thinking of the fucking hand just

coming out. Out of pitch black water. So basically you can only perceive the hand as it gets very close to your eye. Get away from me. Anything that grabs you back is bad news. No, you got to. Well, great job. Oh, thank you.

Great job. Another survival great from Karen Kilgaris. I do love a survival story and man, did Harrison Okena survive or what? Yeah, he really did. He thrived. He beat the odds. He thrived underwater upside down. God bless him.

Well, I think that's it. I mean, I think we did it. I think we did it and we did it good and we appreciate you guys listening and being here with us and surviving and thriving. Yeah, let's all, let's all just put one foot in front of the other. Let's all tie your rope to something solid and swim down, stay calm, stay calm and get our bottles of coke and just make it. Let's just make it.

Yeah, let's do it guys on the tugboat of life. On the upside down bottom of the sea tugboat of life. You are Harrison Okena. That's right. And stay sexy. Oh, and don't get murdered. Goodbye. Goodbye.

Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an exactly right production. Our senior producer is Hannah Kyle Crichton. Our producer is Alejandra Keck. This episode was engineered and mixed by Stephen Ray Morris. Our researchers are Marin McClashen and Gemma Harris. Email your hometowns and fucking hurrays to myfavoritmurder at gmail.com. Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at myfavoritmurder and Twitter at myfavemurder.

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