In the world of mysterious disappearances there are often those that are especially pervaded with an air of the strange, the baffling, and even the paranormal. A person who has simply vanished into thin air is already curious enough as it is, but when it is laced with stories of unexplained phenomena and spooky locations the case takes on an even more bizarre tone that can propel it firmly and deeply into the world of the weird. Such is the case of an adventurous hiker by the name of Kenny Veach, who went out into the desert in search of a mysterious cave and never returned, leaving speculation and mystery in the void he left behind. What happened to Kenny Veach? Read on and decide for yourself.

In 2014, an avid and experienced hiker by the name of Kenny Veach started commenting on the popular video site YouTube that he had found a mysterious cave cloaked in oddity out in the Nevada desert in the Sheep Mountains, located within in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge north of Las Vegas, near Nellis Air Force Base. In the comment, the 47-year-old Veach claims that the cave entrance was rather oddly shaped, like the letter “M,” and that a variety of strange sensations had overcome him as he had approached. He claimed that as he had drawn closer to the enigmatic cave his body had been beset by powerful vibrations that pulsated and emanated out from an unknown source to shake him to the core. The vibrations engulfed his body and only got stronger and more unbearable the closer he got to the cave. Although he wished to continue and see what lie down in the darkness, at some point he began to fear for his life, and sensing that there were forces here beyond what he could understand, he had made a hasty retreat away from that ominous gash in the ground and all of its strangeness.

The comment generated an immense amount of interest in the enigmatic cave, as well as its fair share of debate, with many skeptics demanding proof of the whole ordeal. A lot of commenters began replying that a follow up expedition was in order to what was becoming known as the “M Cave,” and for his part Kenny said that this is exactly what he planned to do once he was properly prepared and equipped. He would eventually venture out once again into the rugged Nevada badlands with a camera to record his exploits and any evidence he came across, but on this second trip he was unable to relocate the cave. He uploaded the video of this expedition, which only further generated interest in the mysterious cave. Encountering that cave seemed to be quite a big deal for him, a frightening life-changing experience, and he posted before his excursion:

The region that I cover is vast. There are many caves. I have been in hundreds of them. 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.

The only thing of import he reported on during this second trip was the presence of a mysterious black ram which he said had intently watched him from atop a ridge. None of this deterred the determined Veach, who was by many of those who new him described as an avid, hopeless adrenaline junkie and intrepid, fearless adventurer who was an experienced hiker and outdoorsman. Veach described himself as a daredevil and “a cowboy,” and he often showed this side of himself with pictures of himself in intimidating, treacherous terrain or holding wild rattlesnakes he had come across. Despite the influx of concerns and warning, he immediately proposed that he meant to make a third foray into the wilderness, refusing to give up on finding the strange cave or be discouraged by the remote, forbidding landscape, and this time armed with a gun. He posted:

I will have my 9mm with me this time, just in case. It’s a ten-hour hike. No trails. Very dangerous terrain.

Some other commenters strongly warned against it, with some pleading that he not go back because he would likely never return and calling it folly. There seemed to be an air of dread that the cave was nothing but trouble, a hungry presence, and if it did indeed exist was perhaps a place that he was not meant to return from, perhaps even calling out to him for a final embrace. None of this stopped the intrepid Veach, who was dead set on once again finding the mysterious cave and perhaps gleaning some understanding of it. On November 10, 2014, Kenny Veach headed out into the harsh desert on his third journey out to the cave, on what was meant to be a two-day hike. He would never return.

After his scheduled return came and went and Veach’s family and friends became increasingly concerned, an intensive air and ground search was launched by authorities and volunteers to scour the area. During the search efforts the only sign of Kenny Veach that was turned up was his cellphone, which was found lying on the ground near an old, vertical mine shaft with no other trails leading out into the wilderness. It was assumed at the time that perhaps Veach had fallen into the mine, but when mine experts were brought in and took a look down in its depths no sign of the missing hiker could be found. Indeed, exhaustive combing of the area turned up not a single further clue of where Veach had gone or if he had even ever been there at all. It was as if he had just vanished into thin air. He has not been seen since.

Of course with such a mysterious disappearance and especially with all of the talk of the enigmatic M Cave that had been going on and him vowing to find it, which had led to his vanishing, there was immediately rampant speculation on what had become of Kenny Veach, ranging from the rational to the far-out. Perhaps the most likely is that he simply met with one of the many hazards inherit to the terrain he was in. Hazardous footing, the sheer remoteness, wild animals, and dehydration were all very real threats facing the hiker, and things were not helped by the fact that he had been rather well-known for being risky and careless to the point of being foolhardy. He was known to engage on difficult hikes into inhospitable landscapes with only the barest of supplies and would then push himself to the limit, as if in constant need to raise the challenge. One comment he posted on YouTube attests to this, in which he wrote:

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.

In other words, his hikes were hardcore. Maybe too hardcore for his own good. Perhaps his luck had finally run out on this hike and his body just never found. Another rather plausible possibility is that he went out into the desert wilds with no intention of ever coming back. According to Veach’s girlfriend, Sheryon Pilgrim, he had come from a family with a history of depression, which he had apparently not been unscathed by. She explained that Kenny had been plagued by depression for years, but had always refused to see a doctor or take any medication for it. One haunting comment made by Pilgrim was:

Seeing his depression increase, I said to him, ‘You aren’t going to pull a Robin Williams on me are you?’ This is when he opened up more about his depression and his thoughts much of his life about suicide. He asked me what I would think of him if he did it. He also said if he decided to do it, ‘No one will ever find me.’

It has also been speculated that Veach had come across some sort of foul play in one form or the other. Perhaps he had stumbled across something he was not meant to see and silenced for it, such as a drug deal out in the desert or someone disposing of a corpse. He could have also been kidnapped by someone for reasons not understood. Then there are the theories that he faked his own death to escape financial burdens or just to simply get away from his life.

Then there are the more bizarre, fringe theories. The area where the M Cave allegedly was found is near Nellis Air Force Base, which has long had a storied history of conspiracy theories ranging from a vast network of tunnels beneath it with inscrutable purposes, to secret research projects and shadowy military secrets, to the presence of aliens, leading to speculation that the base had something to do with it. There is also the fact that Veach was known to have a fascination with the occult, and that he may have known where the cave was and what it was all along, only to disappear within it when he got too close. Some have even suggested that the cave was a place that had the macabre power to lure in depressed individuals to their deaths or was even a portal to another dimension.

In the end, no one knows what became of Veach, but what of the cave he had become obsessed by? Was there ever an M Cave and what could it have been? In addition to all of the talk that it was an entrance to top-secret military networks of caverns, a portal to another dimension, or even the location of a crashed spaceship, there is also the rather intriguing idea that its mysterious effects could have come down to eerie acoustics. Depending on their depth and dimensions, caves can produce a wide range of harmonics, resonances, frequencies, and echo, some of which can combine to have a profound effect on humans and the psyche. In particular, the frequency of 110 Hz has been found to particularly influence human senses, to the point that researchers believe that human cultures who engage in cave chanting or seek spiritual enlightenment will congregate to caves that happen to have this frequency, even if they do not realize what this frequency is. Indeed, many cathedrals are acoustically designed in order to achieve this particular resonance. Is that the sort of effect that Veach had experienced when he made that first encounter with the cave? Who knows?

So what in the world happened to Kenny Veach? Was he killed by the wilderness he liked to tackle with reckless abandon? Did he go off to willingly step off the face of the earth or was he killed by nefarious parties? Was it secret military experiments or installations, inter dimensional portals, or aliens? Just what is the relationship between the mysterious M Cave and the vanishing, and did the cave ever even exist at all? These are all questions which swirl around this case and none of which have satisfactorily landed on an answer. Kenny Veach’s strange disappearance remains just as mysterious as it ever was, and continues to be animated by talk of all manner of weirdness, which only further fuels the enigma. It is a story of adventure, mystical locations, puzzling mysteries, and questions whose answers are only known by the vanished himself. For now, the M Cave, if it is real, still sits out there in the unforgiving desert, perhaps waiting for its next victim.