Beware of the Water Babies

On July twenty three, twenty eleven, a group of divers was exploring an area of a lake about two hundred and sixty five feet below the surface, and that's when they spotted a body when of a diver with a wet suit buckled into a weight belt and air tank and everything. Confused at first, thinking that it might be a member of their own group, they decided to get some help. Eventually they find out what actually happened. It was nineteen ninety four summertime on July tenth, when a diver, Donald Christopher Windecker, was out having a dive in Lake Tahoe along with a friend, which, by the way, this lake can go very deep up to sixteen hundred feet or a little bit more than that, making it the second deepest lake in the United States, so divers are not an unusual site around there. So anyway, these two people were exploring for a bit, keeping an eye on their equipment and pressure, before finally deciding to ascent. But as they were ready to head back up to the surface, there was a problem. Donald's friend noticed that Donald was sinking quickly with this respirator out of his mouth. His friend tried to help but he soon started running out of air, so he was forced to surface. They attempted to rescue him, but he was never found well until this group of divers that I mentioned at first had the encounter About four days later. Many submarine with the claw was able to retrieve his remains on July twenty seventh on the west side of the lake by Rubicon Point. What was most surprising was that the diver was found nearly intact, although completely motionless, in the lake, and to this day they say that about four other divers are unaccounted for. This brought up a lot of speculation about the place and its many myths and stories that surround Lake Tahoe, although one of them really stood out to me stories of people that had been found there but didn't disappear at Lake Tahoe, but at another location one hundred miles away, Pyramid Lake. And if that's the case, how does it happen and why is there so much haunting history surrounding it, including the tales of spirits that seem to lure others to their deaths at Pyramid Lake. In this episode, will be exploring a bit of both of them, the myths and haunting stories of Pyramid Lake and some of the legends from Lake Tahoe places. They say that I've witnessed murders, curses, and a reoccurring cast of mysterious entities. My name is Edwin and here's a horror story. Can you please research Pyramid Lake and Reno, Nevada. I lived here for over twenty years and I've heard about the water babies since i moved up here. That's from an email from Lisa, the listener of the podcast. Here's another one from Gina. So I am a tribal enrolled member of a tribe located just outside Reno, Nevada. There's a story of beings that occupy the lake. The lake is called Pyramid Lake, and armed with these emails, I started investigating, starting off in TikTok and Instagram to find out more about these strange creatures, especially the name water babies. And then when I started researching, I found a string of terrifying stories of hauntings, missing people, and mysterious drownings. So let's stay in this lake, Lake Tahoe at first before we go to Pyramid Lake, because there's an interesting legend that may quite literally connect both of them. Here's what they say. Back in the sixties or seventies, a famous underwater explorer, Jacques Cousto, got on a submersible craft and made his way down to the depths of Lake Tahoe. When he came out to the surface, he was pale and scared, and they asked him why he was so scared. What had he seen down there? He said, the world isn't ready for the horrors I have seen. Supposedly he was referring to the many floating bodies dressed in period clothing floating along the depths of the lake, a legend that with a quick search will return many stories of people dressed up simply floating right there at the bottom of Lake Tahoe. Some, they say, are Chinese laborers who, instead of being paid, were thrown into the lake in the eighteen sixties, while others are mafia victims that were thrown in there to never be found. The legends said that those who drown remain in perfect physical state for decades. And you know, this makes a lot of sense when you look back at the stories of the was Sho Indigenous Native Americans who say that Lake Tahoe's water would cause instantaneous death because it was so cold. It served as a type of cautionary tale to be careful of the lake I told you about. Donald Christopher Windecker from Lake Tahoe was said to remain in an amazing physical state despite being gone for seventeen years, and this only brought the stories back to the surface. Although an explanation to this that the lakes thirty five degree water and the pressure at that death conditions that can keep a body looking intact, even avoiding the crayfish because of the wet suits that provide a barrier, seemed to make some sense. But how do these stories still survive? What about the famous underwater explorer and what he had said that there are many humans in regular clothing completely motionless at the bottom of Lake Tahoe. Researchers have chimed in and consider them myths, although from what we saw with Donald Christopher's wind Decker and his remains, they can in fact remain intact after many years underwater. But now, let's look at Pyramid Lake in Nevada, United States that way, because there's a formation that looks like a pyramid on it, but still over one hundred miles away from where this diver was found. Pyramid Lake is in the Paiute Reservation in Nevada. At its deepest point is about three hundred and fifty feet and about one hundred and twelve thousand acres large. It has underwater caves and natural structures that you can see only from underwater, and it's known for a rare species of trout, a large one known as cutthroat trout, that people travel across the world to be able to find. As I was researching the material for this episode, I did not expect to find first person encounters with one of the scariest stories of Pyramid Lake, but one of the renal subreddits. There were a few, and these are freaky, so get ready. A man and his friends went out to camp at Pyramid Lake, taking with them two tents in a trailer. They were having fun, drinking and enjoying themselves when one night, after one of them had too much to drink, told the others that he had he had just heard a kid crying out in the lake. Of course, he wanted to go out there, literally swim out there and save the child from drowning. The friends who were at the campsite were yelling for him to come back. From the shore, but he kept hearing the child screaming for help, so he kept swimming out there. They could all hear the splashing and barely be able to see him, until suddenly there was silence darkness out toward the lake. Nothing could be seen beyond the blanket of darkness over the water. The man never came back to shore, and one of the theories is that they could sense as of The man who went out into the water kept thinking that he was getting closer to the child, but really the boys kept luring him out deeper and deeper into the lake, eventually making him run out of energy and drown in the dark waters. The man who lost one of his friends at the lake eventually revisits in twenty fifteen with his son to go fishing. They had talked about going for years, but understandably the men didn't want to go. They were there early in the morning, between five and seven. They were waiting in silence for about an hour until they began to hear strange sounds like moaning from the lake. They looked around and couldn't find the source of it, and they looked at each other. The man nods his head. They simply keep fishing. This was shared by Reddit user code mister underscore p on Reddit and the son of the man who lost his friend at Pyramid Lake. Another user with a now deleted account contributed with the following story. He was out there at around three or four in the morning to take his dogs out to do their business, when out of nowhere he hears screaming and crying like babies crying in the direction of the beach. He had grown up there, so he knew what it was. They got in the truck and left right away. If you notice, both of these accounts have something in common, the mention of crying, perhaps a child out in the water. The explanation might just be exactly one of the eeriest legends of Pyramid Lake, the water babies. Western Native American tribes have folklore that can creep a lot of people out, but this one mentioned spirits known as water babies, entities that roam around bodies of water, appearing as babies, and when they cry it means disastrous coming. But was it water babies that these previous stories mentioned. Let me tell you some of the folklore as viewed from different tribes in the Great Basin area and others, the Paiute, those that have the reservation where Pyramid Lake is on, say that water babies are dangerous and mysterious spirits. They cry like babies to lure victims into the body of water, where they eventually drown. They say that some part of the legend happens because malformed or premature babies were thrown into the lake in order to keep the tribe strong, where they now roam crying in agony, and a legend from this tribe from the Owens Valley mentions water babies as spirits that live in Owen's Lake, and in an article from Boom, California, written by William J. Bower Junior, for he mentions oral traditions and stories, also mentions a scary story told by Susie Baker in nineteen thirty five, saying that a giant approached the Alabama Hills and as he reached them, he screamed. Everyone got scared and ran, but some weren't fast enough, being picked up by the giant and then killed. He wanted to take the victims to eat at home with his wife. He then reached another peak, Tinnemaha, one that overlooks the Owens valley and screamed again. People ran and some didn't make it. But when a water baby got tired of the giant screaming, he waited at Owen's Lake, and when the giant got near and started screaming again, he saw the water baby waiting for him, lying on a rock. The giant then approached the water baby and they started fighting, and with incredible strength, the water baby grabbed the giant and threw him into the water. Then the water baby jumped in and dragged him to the bottom. They say that the giant's bones are still there to this day. I'll leave these links to the sources who can check out the article and see the significance of this story, But to continue with the eeriness of it all, the article also mentions that the water is possessed. They say that water babies are either seen as spirit helpers for healers or has troublesome spirits. There's a story about a group of children that were playing at Pasasaa known as Casa Diablo Hot Springs today when a boy starts throwing rocks into the water, and that's when a water baby pops up, takes the boy and drags him under it. These stories, aside from scaring us today, also warned their children about the danger of playing too close to a large body of water. For the was show those near Lake Tahoe, these spirits were able to harm or kill people. They say that near the southern part of the Lake Tahoe area, water babies live in Cave Rock. Not just anyone could visit the site, though, only healers those who could talk with the water babies in hope of strengthening their powers. But out of these tribes that I have found with tales of the water babies, this one in particular has some disturbing visuals. It comes from the Ute. The water babies around Utah Lake and the Provo River are small creatures with long black hair. They cry like babies and force others into the water. The beings were feared for this ability that they had, so once they dragged you into the water, you would become a part of them, and it would be your job to lure others into the water. In a book by Anne M. Smith called Youth Tails, she describes these creatures as being the size of a man's hand or as large as a three or four year old child. Also, in some cases the size of a full grown woman. There was one story from the tribe shared the daily Herald where a young man goes to the river to let his horses drink, but he was so tired that he fell asleep at the bank of the stream. When he woke up, someone was right next to him, a seductive woman in a green dress. She tricked him into going to the water with her, but not just on the surface. She wanted him to meet her people, and he followed, but he never made it out of the water. Maybe you're like me, and when you hear about these stories, you try to keep an open mind. But then you hear about giants and a fight with a water baby, you think that it can't possibly be true. And you might be right or like to question why these stories survive? Why are they told and re told if they don't make any sense? I mean, they're legends after all. But that's where the element of truth comes in, although it takes a bit of work when you're coming in from the outside to actually figure it out, like, let me just tell you a little more about what I mean. Another famous legend is about a mermaid that haunts Pyramid Lake. The story goes that she was broken hearted, and due to a chance encounter, a man from the Piu tribe meets the mermaid and they get married. The tribe was not in favor of this. In fact, they ended up banishing her from the area, so she lurks in the waters, sad and broken hearted. She also promised to seek revenge from any of the tribe members that get close to the shore of Pyramid Lake. She will cry and lure you into the waters, and then you'll join the long list of disappearances at the lake. So here's where the truth comes in. Although many people go swimming and scuba diving at Pyramid Lake, there are always an unfortunate few that never make it out. Headlines of boating accidents, drownings, and disappearances at the lake come up with a simple Google search, but since it can be so deep in certain areas, some of the bodies are never found. This in some ways brings up the stories again and again. The curse of the mermaids, the water babies, the tails just keep being passed on. The peculiar mystery with this is that they say that some of those who have disappeared at Pyramid Lake are later found in lake Tahoe, and yes, the two are connected by a river, the Trucky River, but it's Lake Tahoe that flows into Pyramid Lake and not the other way around. A body would literally have to travel upstream. And I couldn't find any actual records of this happening, but in a way, it's supports a different idea. They say that ancient underwater tunnels connect the two lakes, which if they exist, would be terrifying because there are some stories of a water monster that lives in Lake Tahoe, which could in turn make it easier down to Pyramid Lake. I'm talking about Tahoe TESSI and that was first spotted in eighteen sixty five when a social lighte from San Francisco named Ic Coggan saw a giant serpent like creature about fourteen feet wide and over six hundred feet in length. The story's resurfaced in the nineteen eighties when multiple reports of a creature in Lake Tahoe came from multiple witnesses, including law enforcement talks of a large, dark figure moving beneath a water's surface. This account comes from Mickey Daniels, who was a Placer County law enforcement officer and knows the area since he's been fishing at Lake Tahoe since nineteen fifty nine, and he believes that something is swimming in those dark waters. It was around nineteen eighty five when he was out on a boat when he was half a mile off shore when he pointed toward the Nevada Casinos on the south side of the lake. He couldn't believe it. Both a passenger and him watched the waves split into a huge v and then nothing. Since then he went out into the lake searching for what he had witnessed once, but he still believes that it may have been Tessi. Writer George M. Eberhardt wrote a huge dictionary called Mysterious Creatures, a Guide to Cryptozoology. This guide listed major sightings of the monsters back in the nineteen eighties, including a man who owned a local TV station who claimed he saw Tessi. They were shooting a commercial at Zephyr Crove on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe. Two actors were walking along the lake. Six kids were out on a boat dock when suddenly and eighteen foot skiff boats started rocking, and that's when they saw it. A large, brown humped beast, The kids screamed, and then they cut the footage there. When asked about the footage later on, he said that they destroyed it. Nobody really knows who they are. Perhaps these monsters and dangers meant just to warn people to proceed with caution, just like with the early map makers that would note beyond here lie monsters when they didn't have information about a certain area. The birth of these ideas also spread because of a real fear that the indigenous tribes believed, not just those who made those maps and discoveries, like, for example, the oung, a prehistoric bird that nested at the center of the lake, a creature that children must stay away from because it could swoop down and kidnap them. Even though these lakes are known to be made up of clear water, they seem to hide something, a type of darkness and low that surrounds it from the start, an enormous landmark that demands respect, that disappears people in its depths, that even those who are safely camping by its shores will sometimes hear cries from the water, being lured by those who ask for help or by beauty, never be seen again. This episode was written and produced by me Edwin ko Arubaz. The huge thank you to a couple of emails at two listeners of this podcast, Gina and Lisa, sent in about the topic for the story. I have links to the resources available if anybody's interested in reading up more about the tribes and history that I found while researching the topics. You can support me and this show by trying out Scarry Plus, which is a subscription where you get these episodes and her whole collection of podcasts ad free. It's free for fourteen days and then four and any nine a month. You can cancel any time. If you're following this show, I will tell you another story next week. Thank you very much for listening. Keep it scary, every one. See us soon.