On November 10, 2014, a hiker named Kenny Veach vanished. His mysterious disappearance led to a host of conspiracy theories. From a tragic fall down a mineshaft to alien abduction, people really went all out to try and crack this uncanny case.
For weeks before his disappearance, Kenny bragged about being the boldest, bravest hiker out there, saying that he never took anyone with him on his dangerous journeys.
He told his followers, “I have been doing this sort of thing for over 20 years… I hike over mountain top after mountain top and sleep on peaks under the stars. Sometimes I have to scale giant cliffs to get myself out of a jam, but I always make it back.” This time, however, he didn’t.
Who Was Kenny Veach?
Kenny Veach, aged 47, was a seasoned solo hiker who spent much of his free time exploring the deserts in Nevada and California. On most of his ventures, he went alone, camping out for days at a time with little equipment.
Kenny would usually explore new territories without a compass, GPS, or even maps. On some occasions, Kenny’s girlfriend, Sheryon, would stride along with him. Many fellow hikers believed his trips were reckless. But that was just the kind of criticism Kenny thrived on.
How It All Began
Kenny’s bizarre story begins 134 kilometers away from the hubbub of Las Vegas, in a highly classified area known as Area 51, which is stationed in the southern portion of Nevada. Area 51 is a U.S. Air Force base that is at the center of a preposterous number of conspiracy theories relating to extraterrestrial beings.
Countless people have taken to the internet to share their thoughts on controversial topics, and some have even shared their experiences. One such man was Paul H. Utz, the son of a former engineer who worked his entire life in Area 51. Paul was interviewed by “Sirius Disclosure,” a YouTube channel focused on cracking the mystery of that highly classified area.
The things he said shared in his video were baffling.
“It Was Almost Like It Had a Consciousness”
Paul recalled something his dad told him one tipsy evening: “They had tested a device that was supposed to be a new type of energy source direction.” Paul’s father told him that the device had organic components and that “it was almost like it had a consciousness.”
Somewhat unimpressed, Kenny left a comment on the video saying, “That ain’t nothing. I am a long-distance hiker. 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 M Cave
Under his YouTube username, snakebitmgee, Kenny wrote that the closer he got to the cave’s entrance, the worse the vibrations became. For the first time in his hiking career, he was so afraid that he made a sharp U-turn and “high-tailed out of there.”
“That was one of the strangest things that ever happened to me,” he asserted. People gave Kenny’s reported cave the moniker “the M cave” and started pushing him to go back and find it. This time, they urged him not to run away.
People Wanted Him to Go Back and Find It
Kenny’s comment sparked an impressive amount of interest in the enigmatic cave, and many people demanded proof of the whole ordeal. Kenny responded with a bit of hesitancy, writing: “The M cave is the only cave I ever feared… I dare any of the people that like to run their mouths on here to join me.”
Encountering that odd, ominous gash seemed to be a serious deal for him, a frightening, life-altering experience. Kenny knew that heading back to find it would be difficult. Not so much in terms of its physical difficulty, but more of a mental challenge.
The M Cave Is the Only One He Ever Feared
Kenny would eventually head out and try to find the M cave again. He documented his venture and uploaded three videos to his YouTube channel. In one of them, he explained, “I’m looking for a cave that I found, and I didn’t have a… [he points to a gun in his hip holster]. I didn’t have a sidearm when I was here before.”
“I hope I can find it again,” Kenny continued, “If I do, I’m going in there. I’m gonna put on my light, take my gun out, and walk-in there, see if I find anything. We’ll see.” Kenny reminded his viewers that he had been to many caves before at some point in the video, but “the M cave is the only cave [he] ever feared.”
No M Cave in Sight
Kenny was unable to locate the mysterious cave on his first trip, but he remained undeterred. Like protagonists in cheesy horror films, Kenny set out to find the cave again for the second time. He told his viewers: “I will have my 9 mm with me this time, just in case. It’s a ten-hour hike. No trails. Very dangerous terrain.”
Some of Keven’s followers weren’t too happy about his endeavor. The apprehension surrounding his journey had “an air of dread,” wrote Brent Swancer, a writer for a site called Mysterious Universe. Many people felt the cave was “nothing but trouble” and that if it did exist, “it was perhaps a place that Kenny wasn’t meant to return from.”
His Short Trip Turned Out to Be an Infinitely Longer One
Kevin’s eager curiosity and stubborn pride led him on another attempt to find the M cave. The date was November 10, 2014, and unfortunately, this chilly autumn day would be his last attempt. Kenny told his friends and family he was going for a “short, overnight trip.” But he never came back.
His disappearance was soon broadcast on a Las Vegas news station. The search was on, and the hopes weren’t too high. Even with his impressive hiking track record, Kenny was at a disadvantage when he set out to find that elusive cave in the Mojave Desert – one of the driest regions on Earth.
His Phone Was the Only Item Found
In Kenny’s last “M Cave Hike” video, the one he posted before his disappearance, he stood by an abandoned mine shaft and shared some information about the uncanny cave. In that spot, search and rescue workers found Kenny’s cell phone, indicating that he had gone out to search for the cave again.
Commander Dave Cummings of the rescue team told reporters from News 3 Las Vegas: “We found his cell phone close to a very vertical old mine shaft, and we can’t find another trail.” To this day, they have never found another trail. Could that mean that he fell down the mineshaft?
“The Hole Goes Way, Way Down There”
Dave Cumming’s comment reminded Kenny’s followers of what Kenny said in the last video he uploaded. The “M Cave Hike” video shows Kenny looking down an old shaft, saying: “This is kinda iffy. Um, I’m gonna step on this thing. It’s very old, but I’ll just show ya down inside that hole. It goes way, way, way down in there…”
In eerie irony, he added, “If you fell, that would be it. You’d be a goner. It’s a long way.” Kenny was a self-proclaimed daredevil. He was an adventurist who hiked alone and acted as if he had no supplies with him. And while it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to assume that he really fell down that mineshaft, the disappearance of his body from the face of the Earth is what spooks people out.
Other Valid Possibilities
Another likely scenario would be that Kenny met his fate with one of the countless hazards looming in the terrain he decided to explore. The treacherous footing, the dizzying remoteness, the wild animals, and the impending dangers of dehydration and heatstroke are all fair scenarios in Kenny’s mystery case.
The adventurous hiker was known to strike out on dangerous hikes in barren landscapes. “My hikes are brutal on the body. After one of my long hikes, some of my toenails turn black and fall off… It takes me about three days to recover from the abuse I put myself through,” Kenny commented on one of his videos.
His Girlfriend Believed It Wasn’t Accidental
Even though Kenny could have died in a handful of ways, his girlfriend, Sheryon Pilgrim, believes that his death wasn’t accidental. She was the first to break the news of his disappearance on YouTube. She commented on his channel, telling his followers: “I want to share what I know and feel about what happened so that you might bring some closure and understanding in your own lives.”
Sheryon explained that hiking was Kenny’s favorite thing in the world. She then dropped an absolute bomb when she said that, in her opinion, he committed suicide. After failing to open his own business, Kenny “no longer wanted to work in a job for someone else, and as his money decreased, he became more and more depressed,” she shared.
There Were Red Flags
As Kenny’s depression deepened, so did Sheryon’s worries. A little before his disappearance, she asked him, “You aren’t going to pull a Robin Williams on me, are you?” Kenny’s dad committed suicide when he was in his early 20s. And knowing that, Sheryon felt that such an idea wasn’t too unlikely.
Kenny’s response to Sheryon’s question was even more disconcerting. He told her, “If I decide to do it, you will be OK because you are good at the Law of Allowing.” He then added that if he were to do it, no one would ever find him.
She Became Worried After the Third Day
Kenny was entertaining the idea of suicide a few weeks before he disappeared. Sheryon didn’t believe she had any reason to worry when he set out on that fateful November hike despite the red flags. But when he didn’t call her after three days in the desert, she began to worry.
Sheryon called the authorities, and the search took off a few days after her call. “Over 30 search and rescue team members searched three different times on foot,” she commented. “There was no trace of Kenny or any of his camping things.”
He Left the Phone Behind on Purpose
As for Kenny’s telephone, Sheryon concluded: “It is my feeling he left it behind so that he could not be tracked from the GPS in it.” The mine shaft was only four hours away from his car, so it’s likely that he kept walking for quite a while before – potentially – taking his own life.
“The phone looked like it was left on the ground by the mine,” his girlfriend explained. “His pockets were deep (he would always wear military pants to hike in). They have very deep pockets. Yes, it is very odd that nothing else was found…. no sleeping bag …no backpack.”
He Didn’t Take His Camera
Another thing that seems to fall in line with Sheryon’s suicide theory is that Kevin didn’t take his video camera with him on his last hike. He left it at home, meaning that he had no intention of documenting anything.
If Kenny had really intended to find the M cave sometime during that hike, he surely would have carried his camera with him. But he didn’t. His girlfriend believes that’s enough reason to assume that his disappearance wasn’t accidental. Kenny wanted to leave this world.
Sheryon Warned Others Not to Follow in Kenny’s Footsteps
Sheryon Pilgrim opened up on YouTube for two reasons. First, so that Kenny’s followers would have a better understanding of the kind of person he was, and second, to warn anyone thinking of going into the desert in search of either Kenny or the M cave.
“Bring a GPS and make sure that you have let family or friends know that you are heading out for the hike and where and when you will be returning,” she warned, “Please, please be careful.”
Some of Kevin’s followers have indeed followed in his footsteps, including a YouTuber named Aquachigger, who uploaded a three-part segment of him hiking across the desert in search of the cave.
Nothing but a Hoax?
Although most people were genuinely worried about Kenny, others were a tad suspicious. “Quite honestly, this case confuses me,” one Reddit user posted; “I only found one local news article on the guy and a million conspiracy sites about him. It seems to me a cleverly created internet hoax, not an actual missing persons case.”
Could the whole thing, skeptics, questioned, from Kenny’s very first comment all the way to his freakish disappearance, have been a well-crafted internet hoax? It’s a definite possibility, considering that most of the data about this mystery arrived from alleged friends leaving unverifiable comments on social platforms across the internet.
What About Area 51?
Apart from suicide, a misadventure down the mineshaft, and things like dehydration and deadly wild animals, another popular theory had to do with Area 51. Did Kenny discover a dark secret in the cave? One that wasn’t ready to come out yet? Did someone silence him?
Many people believe that the M cave might be a hidden secret entry to Area 51. The strange vibrations Kenny felt on his body were caused by classified military technology. People went so far as to say that the military abducted Kenny for discovering something he shouldn’t have.
How Likely Is the Area 51 Conspiracy?
Before jumping to conclusions, let’s put things into perspective and get to know Area 51 a little bit better. The first thing to know about this air-force base is that it’s HUGE. It’s a large government-controlled piece of land that’s about the size of Connecticut.
There’s not much in the area other than the base, which is exactly what President Dwight Eisenhower asked for when he launched the program in 1954. He wanted a “secret location in which to start a high-altitude reconnaissance program.”
They Found the Perfect Spot
Following the President’s request, a few CIA staffers embarked on a quest to find the perfect spot. According to Annie Jacobsen, author of the book “Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base,” they discovered the perfect fulfillment of the presidential request.
“[They found] a secret base centered around a dry lakebed in the middle of Nevada that happened to be located in an already classified facility where the government was exploding nuclear weapons,” she wrote. “There was no way that anyone was going to try to get into this facility, especially because nuclear bombs were being exploded there.”
Area 51 Is a Testing Ground for Advanced Aircraft
Area 51 gradually turned into the “birthplace of overhead espionage for the CIA,” Annie Jacobsen noted. It became a testing ground for high-flying, never-before-seen aircraft such as the U-2 spy plane or the SR-71, which was meant to spy on the Soviet Union’s growing nuclear threat.
Now, this is when the CIA started encouraging the myth that UFOs were circling the area. They wanted to hide what was going on – the testing of aircraft with the ability to spy on countries from unprecedented heights.
Bob Lazar Blew the Whistle
Area 51 isn’t your average military training ground. It’s a base devoted to counterintelligence and super-advanced air maneuvers. And right beside it is a nuclear testing site. Things like drones and different weapons and odd-looking, classified air stuff are likely to be flying around there all the time.
No wonder it’s attracted alien conspiracists and ufologists – people who study UFOs. Now, this isn’t to say that Area 51 is fully innocent of extraterrestrial-related activity. In a 1989 interview with L.A. news station KLAS, the infamous “whistleblower” Bob Lazar reported a potential link between the area and aliens. He said the foreign aircraft belonged to aliens and that the area was designed to capture them.
Thing Got Real Weird, Real Fast
One Area 51 conspiracist, a pilot named John Lear, added to the bizarre stories surrounding the area when he talked about aliens being held hostage and fed abducted kids and dead cattle. In 1987, he described Area 51 as “one of this nation’s most secret test centers.”
Even weirder is that John Lear said the facility was built with the help of the aliens themselves, creatures he described as “tall and grey specimens.” Lear and Lazar are both responsible for the widespread belief that the area is dealing with extra-terrestrial specimens.
Former President Barack Obama Mentioned the Area
Barack Obama was the first President to reference the area in public. He mentioned the place while cracking a joke in front of a crowd of people and cameras at the annual Kennedy Center Honor ceremony back in 2013.
Even though it was uttered half-heartedly and had an air of humor to it, Barack Obama’s reference to the mysterious area still managed to startle skeptics who, up to this point, didn’t believe the area existed.
Did We Even Land on the Moon?
Area 51 is no ordinary place. And like all extraordinary places, it’s shrouded in conspiracy theories that range from abducted aliens to serving as the setting for NASA’s alleged moon landing. Suddenly, it seemed too bizarre that we landed on the moon. Surely it was faked, no?
Some conspiracists believe that the moon landing was fake and filmed in Area 51. And do you want to know who they believed filmed it? American filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, whom they assume worked with NASA to fabricate the whole shebang.
Two Million People Signed Up to Storm the Area
The “Storm Area 51” event began as somewhat of a hoax. It was a Facebook event filled with enthusiasts from all corners of the world. The one thing they had in common was this – they wanted to see aliens. “They can’t stop all of us” was their motto.
The founder of the event, Matty Roberts, opened the group in the summer of 2019. Word of the raid spread like wildfire, and more than two million people ended up responding to the invite. Unfortunately, only 150 showed up at the event. In short, it was a failure. A few people got arrested for public urination and other weird stuff, while others received a mere warning.
Where Is Kenny L. Veach?
Back to our dear Kenny.
Kenny’s YouTube channel, snakebitmgee, is no longer active, but a Facebook account centered on finding him is. The group is named Where Is Kenny L. Veach, and it has been posting updates about Kenny (not that there are many things to update people about…).
There’s another group called Missing Kenny Veach and the M cave discussion group, which has 76 members. Seventy-six people are intrigued by the case and genuinely believe that the M cave exists and that Kenny was likely abducted to silence him.
What Do You Think?
Let us know your take on this eerie disappearance case in the comments below. I believe Sheryon’s theory is the most accurate. Why would he abandon his phone in the middle of the desert? It seems likely that he wanted to throw off the search team.
However, the thing that’s most unsettling with these kinds of stories is that it feels like we’ll never find the answer. Kenny vanished in 2014. And with every year that goes by, the chances of finding him become slimmer and slimmer. We can only hope he has found peace, wherever he is.