The strange disappearance of YouTuber Kenny Veach

YouTube has become somewhat of a haven for adventurers to share their stories and the strange things they might find. Most of the time, these sorts of channels and content creators are harmless entertainment. But other times, these adventures can turn deadly.

Kenny Veach, 47, was better known by his fans by his YouTube handle, ‘snakebitmgee’. Kenny’s Veach’s YouTube channel was all about desert exploration and the supernatural edge that areas like the Mojave always seem to hold.

During one video, Kenny searches for a cave that he had found earlier–a cave that made him nervous and seemed to make his whole body vibrate.

Not long after this exploration started, Kenny Veach disappeared. Was the YouTuber’s disappearance just another case of a hike getting lost in the punishing desert, or was there something more paranormal going on?

Kenny Veach and M Cave

The first mention of Kenny’s mysterious cave wasn’t on his own YouTube channel, but instead, as a comment on someone else’s video. The video was titled “The Son of an Area 5 Technician” by YouTube channel Sirius Disclosure.

“That aint nothing. I am a long distance hiker. One time 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 closer I got to the cave entrance, the worse the vibrating became. Suddenly I became very scared and high-tailed it out of there. That was one of the strangest things that ever happened to me.”- Kenny Veach “snakebitmgee’

Even though it was simply a comment, Kenny’s words sparked curiosity and caused his fans to ask him to search for the hidden cave. The cave that was dubbed M Cave by Veach and his followers, hadn’t been featured yet in any of Kenny’s own videos, but that would soon change.

Armed with a 9mm pistol and a video camera, Kenny set out to search for M Cave once more. Even though it had terrified him greatly the first time around, the insistence of his fans and his sense of adventure overcame the fear.

During this exploration, Kenny didn’t find M Cave, but he posted the recordings of his hike anyway for his fans to see. More than that, the video didn’t seem to give any hope that the cave would be found anytime soon, and Kenny’s fans weren’t thrilled.

Other fans, though, tried to discourage Kenny from trying again. His story about the dread the cave inspired and the vibration that it put off gave people a bad feeling, and no one wanted Kenny to get hurt.

One user, Lemi Killmister, pleaded, “No! Don’t go back there. If you find that cave entrance, don’t go in, if you do, you won’t get out.”

Kenny didn’t heed this advice, and looking back, it’s upsetting to see how many people tried to warn Kenny of the danger. Still, he wanted to find M Cave just as badly as everyone else, and this exploration wouldn’t be his last search.

But it would be Kenny Veach’s last video.

The Disappearance of Kenny Veach

On November 10th, 2014, Kenny told his family he was going on an overnight trip, and walked out into the Mojave Desert.

Searching for ancient caves and abandoned mine shafts would be dangerous anywhere, but in the Mojave Desert, such explorations could quickly become death sentences. The Mojave Desert is the hottest, driest place in North America. In the part of the Mojave known as Death Valley, temperatures have been recorded as high as 134 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius). Death from exposure and dehydration can occur in a matter of just a few hours.

Kenny Veach was experienced with hiking in these sorts of conditions, so when he left to overnight in the area near Nellis Air Force Base, no one was too concerned. What they didn’t know is that Kenny left his video camera behind–whatever he was doing out in the Mojave that day wasn’t going to be for his YouTube channel.

When Kenny didn’t return from this hike, his girlfriend filed a missing persons report, and then the waiting began.

In Kenny’s last video, he began his search for M Cave in front of an abandoned mineshaft on Sheep Mountain. So that’s where Red Rock Search & Rescue began their search for Kenny Veach.

It was a good start–they found Kenny’s cell phone and his vehicle nearby. It was a promising start, but ultimately, nothing else was found. To searchers and YouTube fans, it seemed that Kenny had disappeared into thin air.

What Happened to Kenny Veach?

Kenny Veach and his disappearance while searching for M Cave is a situation tailor-made to spawn conspiracy theories. The unsettling origin story Kenny gave of the cave meant that his disappearance would be linked to it, even if the hypothetical M Cave played no part in Kenny’s vanishing.

Ideas such as the cave itself being responsible for Kenny going missing, or that he found government secrets in the cave and was subsequently killed, persisted even when Kenny’s phone was found outside of the Sheep Mountain mineshaft. His car would also be found–it was about a four-hour hike away from where the phone was found.

The truth is that it’s highly unlikely M Cave killed Kenny Veach. Instead, the explanation is probably much more mundane…and sad.

One possibility is that Kenny Veach was killed during an accident while he was hiking. As we discussed before, the Mojave Desert is deadly, and exploring things like abandoned mineshafts makes it even more so. Even someone experienced like Kenny could have an accident, and maybe even perish from it. But there is one more theory.

Sheryon Pilgrim, the girlfriend that had reported Kenny missing, posted a comment on his initial M Cave Hike video, providing a heartbreaking explanation for why Kenny is still missing. She wrote,

“I believe he committed suicide. He battled depression for many years and would not take medication or see a doctor. He quit his job a little more than a year before he disappeared… one helicopter flyover was done and there was no trace of Kenny or any of his camping things. They found his car in the area I told them it would be. They did find his cell phone by the mine shaft in the video. The mine shaft was only about a four-hour hike from his car. It is my feeling he left it behind so that he could not be tracked from the GPS in it. He also did not take his video camera with him on this solo hike. It was left in his home. So, he had no intention of filming anything”.

Sheryon’s comment is the best lead we have in Kenny’s disappearance, even if her story is an ending that no one wants to hear. As tempting as it is to believe that Kenny’s disappearance occurred because he discovered the creepy M Cave, it’s more than likely not the case.

Years later, his body has still not been recovered. So even if M Cave isn’t real, Kenny has left one last mystery behind. Hopefully, he can soon be found, and his family can find some closure.