# 245: David Coughlin

An episode of [Morbidology](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1463979546), 26 Feb 2024, 47 min.

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A Park Ranger at Carlsbad Caverns National Park was working on the afternoon of the 8th of May, 1999. As he made his way past Rattlesnake Canyon, he observed a car parked on the trailhead. Just a couple of days earlier, two men had obtained a camping permit, but they had failed to sign out… SPONSORS - Aura: Aura scans the internet for your email addresses, passwords, social security numbers, and other sensitive information, and they can request it to be removed. Get a 14 day free trial plus a check of your data: https://aura.com/morbidology SHOW NOTES - https://morbidology.com/morbidology-the-podcast-245-david-coughlin PATREON - https://www.patreon.com/morbidology Audio Credit: Epidemic Sound Evening of Chaos - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Empty Reflections - ErikMMusic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgq4SPKHlyI A Mothers Sacrifice - OurMusicBox - https://ourmusicbox.com/ Dark Tranquility - Anno Domini Beats - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6mBav72Ak Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/morbidology--3527306/support.

## Transcript

[0:34] He reached up and he grabbed me right there, and he squeezed me hard,
[0:40] real hard, and he said, stop looking around. In the year
[0:50] of nineteen ninety nine, as many as over two hundred and eighty seven million
[0:54] individuals visited national parks all across the United States, them with Carlsbad Caverns National
[1:02] Park in southeastern New Mexico. This National park is most known for its meandering
[1:07] underground cave that is home to thousands of Mexican free tailed bats. Nestled within
[1:15] the expanse of this national park lies the remote and rugged Rattlesnake Canyon, which
[1:19] can be accessed via various trails. This canyon is only for the most experienced
[1:26] hikers, and its isolation offers them a chance to immerse themselves in its untamed
[1:32] wilderness. Despite its name, which is inspired by the slithering inhabitants that traverse
[1:38] its rocky terrain, Rattlesnake Canyon boasts a diverse ecosystem teeming with life adapted to
[1:44] the harsh desert environment. However, amidst the allure of its natural beauty,
[1:51] the canyon harbors its own set of hazards for unwary or unexperienced adventures. The
[1:57] desert climate of south eastern New Mexico can be merciless, especially during the scorching
[2:04] summer months when temperature sore above one hundred degrees fahrenheit. Heat related illnesses such
[2:12] as heat stroke and dehydration pose significant risk to hikers, exacerbated by the limited
[2:17] access to water sources within the canyon. Furthermore, the remoteness of Rattlesnake Canyon
[2:23] presents additional challenges. Its secluded location means that cellular service is virtually nonexistent,
[2:32] leaving visitors without a means to call for help in case of emergencies. In
[2:39] nineteen ninety nine, two men from Massachusetts discovered firsthand just how unforgiving the terrain
[2:46] of Rattlesnake Canyon can be. While the two men had set off on their
[2:51] camping expedition together, only one of them would return home. David Coughlan was
[3:12] born on the twelfth of February nineteen seventy three to parents Robert and Joyce in
[3:16] Connecticut, in the United States of America. During David's childhood, the Cockland
[3:22] family relocated to Wellesley Hills in Massachusetts. David navigated his way through high school
[3:29] with ease, culminating in his graduation from U mass Amherst in the mid nineteen
[3:35] nineties. Known for his wisdom beyond his years and his eagerness to assist others,
[3:42] David was hailed as an intelligent and mature individual. By summer of nineteen
[3:46] ninety nine, he bid farewell to his position at Wellesley town Hall to pursue
[3:52] higher education at the University of California in Santa Barbara. Over his four year
[3:59] employment there, he had left his mark in various roles, including the Assessor's
[4:03] office, the planning board, and the Selectman's office. His most recent post
[4:10] as a traffic policy analyst, was tailored to his calmdemeanor, which proved invaluable
[4:15] in navigating stressful situations. Colleagues such as Accountant and Collins fondly reminisced about David's
[4:24] impact steering. Everybody loved him. He was the nicest guy in the world.
[4:30] Some people just passed through your life and don't make a mark, but
[4:33] he was wonderful. Despite not having children of his own, David took a
[4:38] mand's pride in being an uncle, adorning his desk at work with photographs of
[4:43] his nieces and nephews, now embarking on a new chapter. David had secured
[4:48] admission to pursue a graduate degree in environmental policy at you See Santa Barbara.
[4:57] He tendered his resignation on the fifteenth of July now ninety nine, preparing for
[5:01] a cross country journey slated for departure on the twenty fourth or twenty fifth,
[5:06] covering a distance of three thousand miles over the Santa Barbara. The plan was
[5:13] for David to drive there alone, but when he ran his plan over with
[5:17] his best friend Rafi Kudikian, everything changed. Raffi was originally from Doylestown in
[5:25] Pennsylvania, but he had since moved to Boston. He had graduated with honors
[5:30] from Northeastern University in ninety ninety seven with a bachelor's degree in journalism, but
[5:35] he was currently working for a financial services company in downtown Boston. I've worked
[5:41] in the correspondence department, and my job was to correspond with customers, explain
[5:46] legal requirements to them as far as their accounts went. Raffi was an avid
[5:49] adventurer, once publishing a two part series on his ten week, thirteen thousand
[5:55] mile journey across twenty five states in the Boston Globe. During his adventure,
[6:00] he had visited the deserts of New Mexico, where he had to sleep by
[6:04] a stream in Truth or Consequences, and locked himself out of his jeep during
[6:10] a sand storm at White Sands. Raffi described his travels in the Peace Riding.
[6:17] I had traveled through deserts, grasslands, mountains, prairies, swamps,
[6:23] rain, and a sand storm. My trip has been caked on my tires,
[6:28] dripped on my boots, and seered into my memory as one of the
[6:30] greatest experiences I could have imagined, and God willing I'll get the chance to
[6:35] do it again. When David broached the subject of his cross country adventure,
[6:42] Raffi saw an opportunity to reconnect with the wilderness again, this time with his
[6:47] best friend. David and Raffi had met back in university, and they hid
[6:54] it off immediately. They had bonded over their love for nature, and while
[6:59] Raffi finds in the written word, David captured the world's beauty through the lens
[7:03] of his camera. Their friendship blossomed over countless conversations, addings to bars,
[7:11] movie nights and adrenaline fueled adventures on skispikes and snowboards. When David proposed his
[7:18] plan, Raffi eagerly suggested that he join him on the road trip to California,
[7:25] and suggested that they could stop at various sites along the way. He
[7:30] was talking about the trip and getting excited about it, and he kind of
[7:32] got my juices going about it, and so I decided I was going to
[7:35] see what I could do about getting off from work. Raffi took a leave
[7:39] from work, and on the twenty ninth of July nineteen ninety nine, he
[7:43] and David set off together. The journey's endpoint would be David's family home,
[7:48] where their paths would diverge, David beginning his studies in California and Raffi returning
[7:56] to Boston. In anticipation of their trip, David's girlfriend, sonnet Frost,
[8:03] gifted him with a notebook to chronicle their adventures. David and Raffi embarked on
[8:15] their cross country trip towards the end of July nineteen ninety nine. They stopped
[8:20] off in Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, and Austin, staying at campsites
[8:26] along the way. After roughly six days on the road, they found themselves
[8:31] at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, a destination that neither had experienced before but were
[8:37] eager to explore. Arriving on the fourth of August, David and Raffi stocked
[8:43] up on three liters of water and secured a two day camping permit from the
[8:48] visitors center. I remember them with telling us about no campfires in the park.
[8:54] Pack out what you pack in. He told us. The recommendation about
[8:58] the amount of water which would take it was a gallon per day. Their
[9:01] plan was to spend a night camping in the park before exploring the caves the
[9:05] next morning. Since they weren't going to be there long, they decided to
[9:11] bring less water than what was recommended by the park rangers. We were just
[9:15] spending the night there, We weren't planning and spending entire day. We weren't
[9:18] planning on touring the canyon, and we took less water than we needed.
[9:22] They specifically eimed a camp at the Rattlesnake Canyon area, and with their permit
[9:26] in hand, they set off towards the trailhead nearest their chosen spot. They
[9:33] parked their car close to the trailhead shouldered their gear and then ventured into the
[9:37] rugged terrain of the canyon. As they tracked towards their camping spot, they
[9:43] steadily drank half of their water supply. They arrived just before dusk descended and
[9:50] set up camp at the canyon's base. They kindled the fire and used another
[9:56] quarter of their water to boil some hot dogs and corn for dinner. By
[10:03] the next morning, their water supply was almost completely gone. While they had
[10:09] both camp before, they found themselves ill prepared for the intense heat of New
[10:13] Mexico's desert. They needed to replenish their water supply, so decided unpacking up
[10:20] and returning to the visitor's center before embarking on their tour. Of the caves
[10:26] where they had chosen to camp lacked signs, but had small rock cairns that
[10:31] guided people on their way, But as two young men from Boston, David
[10:35] and Raffi weren't familiar with how they worked, they set off on foot and
[10:41] were armed with the topographic map that they hoped would lead them back to their
[10:46] car. However, they went the wrong way. As they realized their error,
[10:52] David and Raffi found themselves lost under the scorching sun, their water supply
[10:58] dwindling rapidly in the relentless heat, with temperature soaring over one hundred degrees,
[11:05] they trudged through the desert landscape, their desperation growing with each passing moment.
[11:13] By midday, they had exhausted their water reserves and any semblance of direction over
[11:20] the ensuing oars, they descended further into Rattlesnake Canyon, with the unforgiving terrain
[11:26] closing in around them with no relief inside. Their bodies were weakened by dehydration
[11:31] and fatigue, and they were unable to ascend the steep canyon walls to gain
[11:35] advantage point. With no alternative, they pitched their tent on the canyon floor,
[11:43] restless and delirious throughout the night. Coome morning, their judgment was clouded
[11:48] by exhaustion, and they made the ill fated decision to push forward rather than
[11:54] retrace their steps. Raffi's fleeting glimpse of distant lights the night before fueled their
[12:01] hope, but it was only driving them deeper into the harsh wilderness. Their
[12:07] optimism waned as the reality of their situation became undeniable. There were no roads
[12:15] ahead, no visitors center, in sight, only the vast expanse of barn
[12:20] to reign, stretching endlessly before them. Aware of the grim reality of their
[12:26] situation, David and Raffi confronted the harsh truth. The longer they remained stranded
[12:33] in the desert, the slimmer of their chances of survival became. In a
[12:39] somber acknowledgment of their mortality, David turned to his notebook. He was determined
[12:46] to leave behind a record of their ordeal. Uncertain if it would ever be
[12:50] discovered, he penned their dire circumstances, writing, nobody has come. We
[12:58] were planning to die. We mustered up all of our strength. We had
[13:03] no food or water. Nobody has come. We went back to camp in
[13:07] hopes Saint Nicholas would have fucking shown up. Nobody has come. No water
[13:11] was left. We thought we had found the way out and set off Saturday.
[13:16] It wasn't it. We were expecting to die in that canyon, and
[13:20] we weren't following ourselves. We didn't have the luxury of hope. We felt
[13:24] that if anyone ever read this, that we would be dead. That night,
[13:28] as David and Raffi lay vulnerable beneath the vast desert sky, the presence
[13:33] of circling vultures cast a shadow over their already bleak situation. In a defined
[13:39] act of resilience, David wrote in his notebook, we will not let the
[13:45] buzzards get us alive. God forgive us. Friday was when we first noticed
[13:50] the birds, and they were probably about thirty feet above us. They would
[13:54] just stick around and watch us. We would wave our arms to let them
[13:58] know that we were still alive, and they disappear, and then they come
[14:01] back about an hour later, with the dawn of a new day, David
[14:03] proposed a desperate plan to retrace their steps back to their initial campsite. Despite
[14:11] their weakened state, they were fueled by sheer determination, and they embarked on
[14:16] the journey forward. Their bodies were ravaged by days without water, suffering from
[14:22] sunburn, heat stroke, and dehydration, but they pressed on. In a
[14:28] desperate bid to alleviate their thirst, they resorted to consuming cactus fruit, but
[14:33] the meager amount of liquid offered little relief. Aware of the urgent need for
[14:39] hydration to survive and navigate their way back to safety, they then resorted to
[14:45] drastic measures. Their desperation drove them to drink their own urine, unaware of
[14:52] the harm that it could cause. Urine is composed of waste products and toxins
[14:58] that the body is trying to eliminate, so drinking it can introduce those harmful
[15:01] stubstance stays back into the body. Urine is also high in sodium, which
[15:07] can further dehydrate the body and worsen the dehydration over time. It can also
[15:13] lead to gastrointestronal discomfort and potential infections. As night fell, the grim reality
[15:20] of their situation sank in and David was confronted with the dark consequences of his
[15:26] actions. He had bouts of uncontrollable vomiting, and he endured a sleepless night
[15:31] in agony from severe cramps and aching muscles. The toll of the exhaustion weighed
[15:37] heavily on his body and mind. Over the course of the night, David
[15:43] had come to terms with his own fate. He had accepted that he was
[15:48] going to die in the desert, and his best friend was most likely going
[15:52] to die with him. The two men began discussing suicide, but first they
[15:58] made a last ditch attempt to get help by burning a number of their possessions.
[16:04] David was in so much pain that he began screaming into the vast openness,
[16:10] hoping that somebody somewhere could hear him. Eventually, he started yelling for
[16:15] a doctor. I didn't have the art to tell him that nobody was listening,
[16:21] so I started yelling with them. And then he stopped yelling, and
[16:27] he looked at me and he said, I just realized, and I said
[16:30] what, and he said, this is it. At this point, David
[16:34] and Raffi devised a plan to end their lives together, but they found themselves
[16:40] lacking in resolve. Raffi was the stronger of the two, so they decided
[16:45] that he would slit his wrists and then help David to slit his why over.
[16:52] The knife was apparently too blunt and only left superficial injuries, so they
[16:56] abandoned that IDEA next morning, David wrote a final letter to his girlfriend's Sonnet,
[17:03] which read, Sonnet Baby, I write this with a shaking hand.
[17:08] I do not know what to do right now, but I am in utter
[17:11] agony, and I know you would understand. I love you so much.
[17:15] I've barely eaten and drank since Wednesday, evening, nobody is coming to help.
[17:22] I love you. We had forever, but all we have is eternity,
[17:26] eternally yours, David Andrew. Meanwhile, Raffi documented his sentiments in the
[17:33] Shared Notebook the same day, writing Dave has asked that his remains be cremated
[17:38] and thrown over the edge of the Grand Canyon. I leave the handling of
[17:42] my remains to my family. After David and Raffi failed to show up at
[17:52] the park visitors center after two days to sign out, park rangers weren't immediately
[17:59] concerned. Extended stays by campers were not uncommon at the canyon. However,
[18:06] as two more days passed without any sign of the pair, the rangers became
[18:10] increasingly worried. On the eighth of August, the same day that David penned
[18:17] his farewell to his girlfriend, park ranger Lance Madison made a crucial discovery at
[18:23] the Rattlesnake Canyon trailhead. He stumbled upon Dayvid's nineteen ninety four Master Protegee,
[18:30] parked in a remote section of the park, seldom visited by tourists due to
[18:36] his isolated nature. Unlike the bustling trails marked with clear signage. This area
[18:44] remained largely untouched. The side of the abandoned vehicle heightened Lance's concerns. Knowing
[18:52] that David and Raffi had yet to return from their camping trip, he quickly
[18:56] organized a search. Maneuvering through the narrow trails and rugged terrain, the park
[19:02] ranger diligently combed the area. He scanned the canyon walls and crevices for any
[19:07] signs of the missing men. The treacherous landscape posed numerous hazards, deep crevices,
[19:15] and steep cliffs where the two could have potentially fallen or become trapped.
[19:22] Fearing the worst, Lance braced himself with the possibility of severe injury or worse,
[19:27] realizing that time was of the essence in his search efforts. About thirty
[19:33] minutes into the search, Lance reached a vantage point on the trail and spotted
[19:37] a camp nestled at the bottom of a rocky, dried stream bed. Descending
[19:45] to the canyon floor, he found Rafi lying beneath the torp underneath the scorching
[19:51] summer sun. Raffi led approximately two hundred and seventy five feet from a trail
[19:56] and about a mile and a half from David's abandoned car. Approaching Raffi,
[20:03] Lance noted signs of severe sunburn and dehydration. Clad only in his shorts,
[20:11] Raffi bore scrapes and bruises from navigating the rugged back country terrain. Upon seeing
[20:18] Lance, Raffi desperately said, please tell me you brought water, handing over
[20:26] his canteen. Lance watch as Raffi eagerly gulped down the liquid, only to
[20:30] promptly vomited backup. Lance then inquired about the whereabouts of Raffi's friend David.
[20:40] Raffi pointed over towards a small pile of rocks on the desert ground and said
[20:45] I killed him. Lance immediately reached out to park rangers at Corsbad National Park
[21:03] to cooperate a rescue operation led by Mark Marcia. Beside the rocks that Raffi
[21:10] had pointed at, a distress signal spelled out SOS. With more stones in
[21:17] close proximity, Lance found a blue sleeping pad, a blood smeared T shirt,
[21:22] and a sock. Lance swiftly attended to raffe who showed signs of severe
[21:29] dehydration. His pulse raised at one hundred and twenty five beats per minute and
[21:34] his skin bore the telltale signs of dehydration. He exhibited extreme weakness and disorientation,
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[23:11] site for details. While providing first aid, Lance proved Rafi for details.
[23:22] Initially suspecting an accidental tragedy, Lance considered the possibility the day of it had
[23:27] succumbed to the elements or even had a fatal fall. He thought that when
[23:33] Rafi said that he killed him, he meant that he felt responsible because he
[23:37] had suggested the camping trip. However, Raffi's shocking revelation contradicted these assumptions.
[23:47] Raffi recounted their desperate struggle for survival. He detailed how they became lost without
[23:53] water and lacked the strength to hike out of the canyon by the third day.
[24:00] Explained the excruciating pain they endured from dehydraation, describing symptoms such as muscle
[24:06] crumps, headaches, and joint pains, all exacerbated by decreased blood flow.
[24:11] As their water supplied dwindled and their strength waned, they faced the grim reality
[24:18] of impending death. The gravity of their situation forced them to confront the inevitability
[24:23] of their fate as they realized that they were too weakened to find their way
[24:27] back to safety. David in particular, was experiencing unbearable, excruciating pain,
[24:36] and his mental state was becoming severely affected by the dehydriation. Raffi said that
[24:41] he and David had made a suicide pact just ours before he was discovered.
[24:48] After David had written one final goodbye to Sonnet, he turned to Raffi and
[24:52] begged him to put him out of his misery. He turned me and he
[24:55] said, you've got endness date. I wasn't really sure what he meant,
[25:03] and and he said get the knife and I said no. He said,
[25:15] you know they're not coming. And I said, yeah, I know they're
[25:21] not coming. He said, then get the fucking knife. So I did,
[25:34] and he said, put it through my chest. I was baling,
[25:41] and I got next to him and I pushed it through his chest. But
[25:47] I fucked up and I hit his lung because when I pulled the knife out,
[25:52] air came out. I told him I had to do it again,
[25:57] and he said okay, and this time I thought I hit his heart.
[26:07] Blood came out, and he said pull it out, and I did,
[26:17] and I asked him if he was still in pain, and he said no.
[26:22] He said he felt a lot better, and he smiled. He held
[26:26] his hand the all the time he was He started getting weak and I covered
[26:30] his face with a T shirt and had he died. Raffy said that he
[26:37] felt like he had no other choice than to kill the evid. I could
[26:41] have crawl out from under the tent and gotten away from him and just listened
[26:45] to his pain from a distance. Ye, I could have done that.
[26:48] He told LUNs that. He then buried him in a mixshift grave and passed
[26:52] out from the exhaustion. Just a mere three hours later, Raffi was discovered
[26:57] by LUNs. Lance then asked Raffi for the knife and asked whether he had
[27:03] any other weapons, but he said that he didn't. Lance then proceeded to
[27:08] investigate the scene, discovering David's makeshift grave. As he moved some of the
[27:15] rocks, he spotted a cloth that had a bump resembling a human news Deciding
[27:22] not to investigate any further, Lance returned to Rafi. I didn't make any
[27:26] reference to his friend's body or anything. We didn't want to jeopardize any element
[27:30] of the investigation. Shortly thereafter, Mark Mersea arrived at the canyon. He
[27:36] arranged for Rafi to be airlifted by a military helicopter to a nearby hospital.
[27:41] His arrangements were made for David's body to be transported to the Medical Examiner's office.
[27:48] Since David's body was discovered in a national park, the case was investigated
[27:52] by the FBI and the National Park Service, in addition to the Eddy County
[27:56] Sheriff's office. Upon arrival at the hospital, Raffi received a diagnosis of hybernatremia,
[28:06] indicating severe dehydraation. Medical professionals administered intravenous fluids and ordered comprehensive blood tests
[28:15] to assess his condition. Results revealed a dangerously elevated sodium level of one hundred
[28:22] and seventy four, far beyond the normal range. Additionally, Raffi's blood urea
[28:29] nitrogen to cret nine ratio stood at twenty three to one, indicative of dehydration,
[28:36] as a ratio higher than ten to one suggests. Further analysis indicated that
[28:41] Raffi's hydration was at the level of a mere thirteen percent. According to experts,
[28:48] anybody with a hydration level below fifteen percent would experience agonizing symptoms, hindering
[28:53] their ability to walk or stand. In the legal realm Affi faced a charge
[29:00] of open count of murder in connection with David's death, with bail said at
[29:06] fifty thousand dollars in cash. This designation signified the detectives had yet to determine
[29:11] the precise degree of the charge against Raffi. Griff Chunky Click of Eddie County
[29:18] said to the public, until the investigation is more complete, we can't specify
[29:23] whether its first degree, second degree, third degree, or fourth degree.
[29:30] Despite the charge, Raffi was released on bond under the condition that he remained
[29:33] within Eddy County boundaries pending further developments in the case. As he was released,
[29:40] David's autopsy was performed. The pathologist, doctor Dennis Klein, found that
[29:47] he had been stabbed twice in the left side of his chest. He had
[29:51] died from internal bleeding that had caused too much pressure on his heart. The
[29:56] pathologist found signs of dehydration and his hydration level was at twelve percent. He
[30:03] concluded that David was moderately to severely dehydrated when he was killed, and ruled
[30:08] that his manner of death was homicide. At this juncture, detectives harbored doubts
[30:19] regarding Rafi's narratives surrounding David's death. Despite darry andries that have been written by
[30:26] both of them detailing their ordeal, detectives didn't believe that David would have been
[30:32] in so much pain and discomfort that he would have preferred to be stabbed to
[30:36] death. Further raising suspicions was Raffi's assertion that the knife lacked the sharpness necessary
[30:41] for suicide, despite its efficiency in ending David's life. Sheriff Click characterized the
[30:49] case as very bizarre, expressing doubted the notion of someone killing their best friend
[30:55] even in adverse circumstances. To detectives come through the campsite that David and Raffi
[31:02] had occupied, they stumbled upon untouched provisions, a large can of baked beans
[31:07] and bread. This struck detectives are suspicious given the potential hydration and nutrition these
[31:15] items could have provided. However, the debilitating effects of dehydration on bodily functions,
[31:22] including reduced saliva production and impaired digestion, could explain the lack of appetite
[31:30] and difficulty in consuming food in their scrutiny of Raffi's motives, Detectives uncovered his
[31:36] profession as a writer, prompting consideration of the possibility that he had orchestrated the
[31:41] incident as a sensational narrative to exploit for profit. They didn't think it was
[31:48] plausible that Raffi and David were truly lost in the desert. Their campsite was
[31:53] just two hundred and fifty feet from the trail and over a mile away from
[31:57] their parked car. Had they scaled the canyon's heights, the park's visitor center
[32:05] would have loomed into view. Yet Raffi contended that they were too exhausted to
[32:09] even begin considering climbing to the top of the canyon. Detectives couldn't help but
[32:15] find it perplexing. How if Raffi was indeed as feeble as he claimed,
[32:22] he managed to bury David beneath some rocks, Detectives persisted in their inquiries,
[32:29] initiating interviews with David and Raffi's friends and family. Their aim was to figure
[32:35] out if there was any bad blood between the two men. However, accounts
[32:39] from their social circle painted a picture of unwavering friendship. According to their friend
[32:46] Sandy Hobson. They were best friends for ages. They were very, very
[32:52] close. While the detectives were suspicious of Raffi's account, the media was much
[32:59] more forgiving. They reported on the case, referring to it as a mercy
[33:05] killing, although there is no law in New Mexico that excuses murder under the
[33:08] theory of a mercy killing. Raffi Hardgary Mitchell is his defense attorney, and
[33:15] he made some comments in the media. He said the day of his autopsy,
[33:21] which showed he was moderately too severely dehydrated, confirmed Raffi's story. He
[33:28] stated, it just verified that it was a horrible situation for two young men
[33:32] in the high desert of New Mexico. We forgot that mother nature can be
[33:37] pretty brutal. It's a real tragedy. He also said both boys couldn't stand
[33:45] what was about to happen to them. That is a slow death, and
[33:50] one friend did what his other friend suggested and ended it. There wasn't any
[33:54] malice or evil, just your best body doing what your other best body because
[34:00] they thought it was the end. While David's bladder was found to be full
[34:05] of the autopsy, the pathologist still said that he was in such a state
[34:09] of dehydration that he likely suffered some degree of delirium and pain. Nevertheless,
[34:16] Sheriff Click dismissed the significance of these findings. He focused on David's cause of
[34:22] death to stab wounds to the chest, starring. If the report says he
[34:28] died of dehydration, that would be different, but it says two stab wounds
[34:32] to the chest. In addition to the autopsy report documented, the coins from
[34:37] both David and Rafi corroborated their harrowing ordeal in Radlesnake Kanyon. The final entry,
[34:46] which was described by Rafi, painted a grim picture of his organizing decision.
[34:52] I killed and buried my best friend today. David been in pain all
[34:58] night. At arend five ors six, he turned to me and begged that
[35:01] I put my knife through his chest. I did, and the second time,
[35:07] when he wouldn't die, he still breathed and spoke. So I told
[35:10] him that I was going to cover his face. He said okay. He
[35:15] struggled but died. I buried him with love God and his family and mine.
[35:22] Please forgive me. Some desert survival experts weighed in on the case,
[35:27] and they came to Raffi's defense as well, They all warned the public against
[35:31] trying to rationalize what might happen in such a situation. David all Away,
[35:37] who teaches a desert survival workshop at Texas Big Ranch State Park, stated,
[35:44] when you start going into dehydration, you start making very irrational decisions. I've
[35:49] seen where people have done some silly things. On the fourteenth of August,
[35:53] Rafi was allowed to return home under certain agreements. He needed to abstain from
[35:59] all caholl And drugs, contact his attorney at least once a week, and
[36:02] avoid all contact with potential witnesses, including David's family. Despite what had happened,
[36:08] David's family stood by Raffi and offered him their support. His brother Michael
[36:15] asked around four hundred people to pray for Raffi during David's funeral. They had
[36:21] all packed into Saint James Catholic Church. As Michael said to them, I
[36:25] know how much he loved David, and I know how much my brother loved
[36:29] him. However, not everybody in David's circle was so forgiving. One of
[36:35] his long term friends, Kristen Fisher, shared with the media there is no
[36:39] way in the world he would have ever asked anyone to do that. He
[36:44] was one of the most non confrontational person I had ever known. I don't
[36:47] even remember him ever getting into a fist fight with anyone. During the funeral
[36:52] surveys, David was remembered as a sensible, hard working, steady young man
[36:58] with an infectious sense of humor, and zessed for life. His sister Kathleen
[37:02] Powell, read a poem by wolf waldo Emerson that she said reminded her of
[37:08] her brother. Through tears, Kathleen said, to know even one life has
[37:15] breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. Raffi returned
[37:20] to his parents' home in Pennsylvania, where he received support from the community.
[37:25] One of the family's neighbors, George Rummel, commented, I've known Raffi since
[37:30] he was a toddler. I've never heard an unkind word come out of his
[37:35] mouth. Some people even place the blame on the park rangers, saying that
[37:40] they should have searched for David and Raffi much sooner. Raffi's murder trial was
[37:47] scheduled for May of two thousand and The prosecution shared that they were seeking a
[37:52] first degree murder conviction that would come with a mandatory life sentence. Raffi's defense
[38:00] attorney, Gary Mitchell, announced that he should be able to argue to a
[38:02] jury that dehydration caused Rafi to suffer the equivalent of involuntary intoxication. However,
[38:10] District Judge j Forbes wrote that he couldn't use this defense and noted that the
[38:15] jury instruction of diminished responsibility was more appropriate to the case. He said that
[38:22] the definition of involuntary intoxication required introducing a substance into the body. He also
[38:30] noted that New Mexico courts don't allow consideration of diminished to capacity in second degree
[38:36] murder cases, only first degree. By now, Rafi had been charged with
[38:42] second degree murder, and his defense attorney then shared that he was planning on
[38:46] pleading no contest. This meant that he would neither admit nor deny guilt or
[38:52] liability, but instead that he would not protest the charge or present the defense.
[38:59] It has a similar legal consequence to pleading guilty, and the court hearing
[39:04] was scheduled for the eighth of May. That morning, Raffi arrived in court,
[39:08] where he pleaded no contest. To second degree murder. His defense attorney,
[39:15] Gary Mitchell, announced that he was planning on calling survival witnesses, telling
[39:20] the judge, you start understanding people in dehydrated states do some crazy things.
[39:28] He described David and Raffi as the best of friends who never meant any harm
[39:31] to nobody, including themselves, before telling the judge they get lost, have
[39:38] no water for three days, or severely dehydrated, both in extreme agony and
[39:45] both attempt suicide. David pleads with Rafi to end his life, and Rafi,
[39:51] in what most people call a mercy killing, does as his friend wishes.
[39:57] The court room was shown a video of the campsite, including David's body
[40:00] in his shallow grave. Raffi dropped his head and covered his eyes. At
[40:05] the side of his friend's body, two stab wounds pierced his blue plate shirt.
[40:12] According to experts who testified during the hearing, both men were dehydrated enough
[40:16] to be in pain. However, they said that David would have survived if
[40:21] he had not been stabbed, but there was no way that Raffi and David
[40:25] knew that help was coming for them that day, and both had presumed that
[40:30] they were going to eventually die in the desert. Doctor Kleine detailed his findings
[40:36] at autopsy, but said he couldn't determine exactly whether David would have lived if
[40:40] he had not have been stabbed. In the hushed courtroom, all eyes turned
[40:46] towards Raffi as he took to the witness stand with a solemn demeanor. He
[40:52] recounted their harrowing journey through the unforgiving desert. In hindsight, our first big
[40:58] mistake as far as getting lost when was when we got to the bottom of
[41:00] the entrance trail. We didn't turn around and look back at what we had
[41:04] just come down out of. We were looking ahead. We stopped for him
[41:07] a couple of minutes and had some water, but we didn't really look around
[41:10] to check out our surroundings. He described their ill fated decision to retrace their
[41:15] steps, only to find themselves on the wrong trail, leading them further into
[41:21] the wilderness. Raffie's composure wavered as he recounted their suicide attempts. He spoke
[41:29] of David's suffering the night before he died, telling the court room that he
[41:34] had been in so much pain that he couldn't even lie down. The next
[41:37] morning, he stopped David twice in the chest after his best friend bagged him
[41:43] too. He recalled how David said that it hurt and then he died.
[41:49] He told the court room it was the last thing that I could do for
[41:52] him. I covered him as best I could. It was not something I
[41:57] wanted to do, it was something I had to do. Raffi described burying
[42:01] David and said that he was so exhausted afterwards that he passed out. He
[42:07] eventually came to just as Lance had found him. Prosecutor Les Williams asked him
[42:13] if he had thought about what he was doing, to which Raffi replied,
[42:17] what I thought I was doing was keeping my friend from going through twelve to
[42:23] twenty four hours of hell before he died. Prosecutor Williams then questioned, it
[42:30] wasn't mental illness that made you kill him, it was mercy. Raffi responded,
[42:37] that's the way I say it. Yeah. Raffi described David as the
[42:42] closest thing he had to a brother. After Raffi stepped on from the witness
[42:46] stand, Prosecutor Williams presented his closing arguments. He questioned just how resolved Raffi
[42:53] was to kill himself. He raised the knife that Raffi had used to kill
[42:59] David and said, this knife is sharp enough to cut your wrist, and
[43:04] it is sharp enough to go through your chest. The only reason he did
[43:07] not commit suicide is where there is life, there is hope. The defendant
[43:13] is not an evil man. He's not a bad person. He did do
[43:16] a bad thing, and he did it knowingly and purposefully. State District Judge
[43:23] j Forbes then sentenced Raffi to fifteen years in prison, but suspended all but
[43:29] a two year prison term, which was to be followed by five years of
[43:32] probation. It was a victory in Raffi's eyes because he could have been sentenced
[43:38] for up to twenty years in prison. Judge Forbes said that he didn't question
[43:44] whether Raffi's remorse was genuine, but said that he still deserved to be punished.
[43:50] Raffi provided a comment afterwards, stating, I feel that anybody in my
[43:54] position who would turn their back on their friend wouldn't have been deserving of coming
[44:00] out of that kanyon. He said that he still loved David and that he
[44:06] always would, before adding I frequently feel that if one of us should have
[44:09] come out of that kanyon. Both of us should have It's not fair that
[44:15] only one of us made it out of there. Outside of court, Rafi's
[44:19] defense attorney said that the sentence was extremely fair and said that both families just
[44:23] wanted to put the ordeal behind them. David's family wasn't in court for the
[44:29] sentencing, but they had prepared a statement. David and Raffi were friends.
[44:35] We can think of no reason why Raffi would have wished David any harm or
[44:38] pain. To be sure, we have questions, However, we find it
[44:44] difficult to believe there was any malicious intent. While Sheriff Klik had been suspicious
[44:49] of Raffi's accind early on in the investigation, he shared that he truly believed
[44:53] his story now. On the fourth of March two thousand and two, Raffi
[45:00] was released from prison after serving nineteen months. He moved back to Pennsylvania before
[45:07] settling down in San Francisco, California, where he has since forged out a
[45:13] successful career in insurance. The American Southwest deserts renowned for their breathtaking beauty service
[45:22] sanctuaries for those yearning for solitude and spiritual rejuvenation. Yet these landscapes can also
[45:29] be harsh and unforgiving, as David Coughlan tragically discovered firsthand. Despite the judge's
[45:37] acknowledgments of Raffi Guri Gain's story, public opinion remained sharply divided on whether true
[45:45] justice was served. Well, Bestie's that is it for this episode of Morbidology.
[46:06] As always, thank you so much for listening, and I'd like to
[46:08] say a massive thank you to my new supporter up on Patreon, Nicole.
[46:14] You can join us on Patreon for as little as one dollar a month.
[46:17] I upload advery and early release episodes, bonus episodes behind the scenes, and
[46:22] I also send out a thank you card along with some merch. Today's episode
[46:29] was a little bit different than anything else I've ever covered on the show,
[46:32] and I'm really, really, really curious to hear your thoughts on it.
[46:37] I have a private Facebook group for the podcast and I'd love for some of
[46:42] you to share your thoughts on this episode up on there. What do you
[46:46] think happened out in the desert and do you think the true justice was served
[46:52] or should Raffi have served more time? Just search for Morbidology up on Facebook
[46:57] and the group should pop up. Remember to check eisode at morebidology dot com
[47:01] for more information about this episode and to read some truth from articles. Until
[47:07] next time, take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week.

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