He was never heard from again.
Yet, if you search his name on YouTube, you'll find hundreds, that may run into the thousands, of videos about his disappearance. The reasons are simple: the refuge is close to Nellis Air Force Base, the Nevada Test Site built by the U.S. government to test materials against nuclear explosions and fallout, and...Area 51. Most YouTubers are simply looking for his remains, but it is inevitable that they also mention the possibility that Kenny was abducted by government officials because he stumbled upon an entrance to a top-secret area or by aliens because, I don't know, the desert Southwest reminds them of home? (I feel pretty certain they would prefer my temperate neck of the woods with plenty of water, shelter, shade, and food, but what do I know.)
The truth is much more horrific and sadder than the fiction.
Kenny went by the YouTube handle of @snakebitmgee. Almost as if by Boy Scout oath, he left only traces there: five videos and comments on other channels' videos that are hard to mine.
The most important video he uploaded, in my opinion, was his first and had nothing to do with hiking, the mysterious M Cave, or anything related to the wilderness areas outside of Las Vegas. Instead, it is a tour of his lovingly decorated home which he was selling...along with himself as a lagniappe to sweeten the deal. According to Internet sources, Kenny quit his job of 17 years to pursue his passion of decorating home interiors. His Las Vegas home became his showroom. As he meanders about the house, it is obvious he has a good eye, a firm understanding of design principles, and a fancy for items that were probably not legal for him to possess. Side note: what I've learned in my travels out west is that even items produced as late as the 1970s should not be removed, even if those of us from the eastern half of the U.S. think of them as trash (rusted tin cans, for example). Nevertheless, he offers to cook, clean, arrange maintenance and travel, and, most importantly, provide his procurement services to complete the unfinished décor. He will be the decorator, chef, housekeeper, physical plant, and concierge for a home that is not a hotel. It's an uncomfortable video to watch because it is real desperation captured on film. Three of the other videos demonstrate an invention he hoped to present on Shark Tank. Only the one video is devoted to his voyage into the Mohave Desert to find the cave that started the depth of interest in his story.
It started with a comment on another YouTube video titled "Son of an Area 51 Technician," a video that, like Kenny, has vanished. Thus, I haven't been able to find Kenny's actual comment on the video, just screenshots posted by other users. They confirm that the original video and Kenny's comments have since been deleted. So I don't know what the son of an area 51 technician had to say. I'm assuming it was a video about strange goings-on around Area 51, but the distance from the base of Joe May Canyon where Kenny's truck was found to the infamous base is about 82 miles as the crow flies, never mind the actual distance by car, which might be twice that. Screen shots of Kenny's comment state:
This ain't nothing. I am a long distance hiker. One time during one of my long distance hikes out near 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 closer I got to the cave entrance, the worse the vibrating became. Suddenly I became very scared and hightailed it out of there. That was one of the strangest things that ever happened to me.
When he was challenged about the truth of his experience, he replied:
I solo hike across mountain tops that most people wouldn't dare go. I have been in more caves than I can count. I play with rattlesnakes for fun. But this one particular cave was beyond anything I had ever encountered. Someday I will go back and I will bring a weapon with me. All I had at that time was a knife and a wrist-rocket.
The goal of Kenny's final video is to disprove his detractors and find what is now referred to as "The M Cave." He has parked his truck at the base of Joe May Canyon in the Sheep Range of the DNWR. As he films his traverse, he discusses the agave cooking pits he passes, how to eat pine nuts from piñon trees, wildlife in the area, and, eventually the presence of a small mine that looks like it dates from the 1960s to the 1970s. He doesn't find the cave. But he does show the firearm he has brought with him to demonstrate his fear of what lies "out there."
I don't want to watch the video again, but from memory, I would guess he was carrying something similar to a .357 magnum revolver. He was also wearing a white t-shirt, lightweight pants, snake gaiters, and decent hiking boots. According to other Internet sources, he bragged that he did not believe in GPS units or personal beacons. His last trip to find the M Cave is undocumented. We only know that his truck was parked close to the same place as before and that he followed the same trail up to another mine, depending on the source, a bit northeast of the one we last saw him in his posted video. That is where he left his cell phone for search and rescue to find six days after his disappearance.
So what happened?
First, way too many YouTubers have established that one doesn't really need GPS to navigate the area. There are simply too many established landmarks to get lost in a treeless desert landscape, including mine shafts, agave cooking pits, rock formations, trails established by area bird watchers, historic trash heaps, the path of the sun, and the lights of Vegas.
Serious YouTubers covering the story of Kenny Veach have also managed to camp two to three nights after covering 15+ miles in a day. Granted, they aren't making these treks when the summer temperatures reach 115 degrees F. They're doing it in November, the month Kenny disappeared, when day temps reach around 70 degrees F and spring water is not only more reliable but also often marked by various conservation agencies to denote the water is to be reserved for the big horn sheep the refuge is meant to protect except in case of human emergencies.
Because of geology, the only caves in that particular area are pocket caves. That is, they're basically glorified overhangs with a bit more shelter. The longest cave in Nevada is 2.5 miles long and far away from Las Vegas. Even the mineshaft Kenny features is only about 30 feet deep. I don't know about you, but I'm not expecting anything untoward in those conditions except bat guano. Added to that, pocket caves with an M-shape opening are a common feature of the area. In other words, Kenny's trepidation was not caused by a deep, dark, and mysterious cave. They don't exist where he was hiking.
Despite his apparently reckless ways and unwarranted braggadocio, it's unlikely Kenny got lost. He just didn't want to be found.
The horror is not that Kenny was abducted by aliens or the CIA but that he went out into the desert and took his own life in a place he knew his remains would not be found for a long time, if ever. The "vibration" he felt was probably coming from inside, a manifestation of the terror that comes with perceived failure, not belonging, not being able to move forward, feeling other than human, other than oneself. I think people reach a tether when they don't know who they are anymore, and I think Kenny was barely hanging on.
Which is a good segue into the film No One Will Save You available for streaming on Hulu. I'll keep this part short because I dread accidentally revealing spoilers. Brynne—played by Kaitlyn Dever—lives in her childhood home in New England (because these aliens are smarter) on the outskirts of town where she nurses her emotions over the death of her mother Sarah and best friend Maude. The latter seems to have died under mysterious circumstances.
About 10 minutes into the film, marked by its lack of dialog, the first alien invades Brynne's home. It's one of the most frightening horror film moments I've experienced in a while—I was, for real, twisting in my seat and ultimately screaming at Brynne for her lack of good choices, a luxury only the viewer has.
Brynne goes into town to seek help, but it quickly becomes apparent she is an outcast for reasons we will understand later. Like Kenny, she returns to her home to seek refuge and relish the memories she has created there.
Her solace is short-lived as ever new manifestations of the aliens invade what was once her peace. I think there is a metaphor in that they seem to take different shapes and sizes, but I'll leave that thought as a possible spoiler. Given that there is little dialog, Dever has to communicate an emotion beyond fear and confusion I have no word for: "Why me? Why is this happening to me? What do they want? Why was I chosen?" Dever manages to convey those questions subtly but effectively. As in "damn, girl, how'd you do that?"
As the plot deftly progresses, it becomes obvious that Brynne feels outside herself, her home, her community. If the aliens are real, should she just succumb to the idyll they seem to provide or fight them off? Or, like Kenny, should she take a walk out into the desert never to be seen again?
4/5
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