Original subtitles

In 1985, 23,000 people died

after a volcano erupted in the jungles of Armero, Colombia.

Was this a horrific natural occurrence,

or was it something much more sinister?

Some say that 40 years before the tragedy,

a murdered priest's last words,

"No stone shall be left upon a stone in Armero."

Laid the groundwork for a vengeful curse

that caused this unprecedented disaster.

The town was never rebuilt, and today, thieves and devil worshippers

outnumber those who come to pay respects to the dead

even as they fear for their own souls.

Is the curse still gripping Armero?

I'm sending a film crew to one of the most terrifying places on Earth to find out.

Across every ocean...

[man 1] It is not so secure, safe to get there.

...lurking deep within the darkness,

evil forces are preying upon the living.

[indistinct]

I am sending a camera crew across the globe to document these events.

I am Zak Bagans and this is Destinations of the Damned.

My crew arrives in Bogotá

and prepares for the five-hour drive to the ghost town of Armero.

But before they leave on the treacherous drive

through the mountains of western Colombia,

my producers learn of a survivor

of the Armero tragedy, now living in Bogotá.

She experienced that horrific night when she was only 13 years old

and has agreed to recount her experiences of Armero.

Both the town she once knew and the nightmare it became.

What does witnessing such horrors do to a child so young?

And what can she tell my team to help them on their journey?

[speaking in other language]

[Zak, in English] A neighbor let Maria, her sister and her father into his truck,

rushing ahead of the streets flooding with mud.

[speaking in English]

[Zak, in English] The three of them survived the night,

abandoning the truck at one point

to climb up the side of the mountain,

where they could only watch in horror

as the city itself collapsed under the weight of rushing sludge and filth.

[Maria speaking in other language]

[Zak, in English] Before they depart,

Maria leaves my crew with a warning about Armero.

[speaking in other language]

[Zak, in English] I have to wonder what "thieves" she's talking about.

There's nothing left in Armero but ruins and the dead.

But as we soon find out, the thieves are those that feed the curse of Armero.

With Maria's words still echoing in their ears, my crew has no time to waste.

The local production team has warned them not to be

on the mountain roads after dark and the light is fading fast.

[speaking in English]

We need to get there, uh, before it gets dark.

[speaking in English]

It's not... I mean, it's not too secure, too safe to get there.

[Zak, in English] Armed groups have been known to set up roadblocks

in Colombia's rural areas.

And my crew faces the threat of kidnapping and violence if they're caught

on these mountain roads at night.

Their concerns are intensified when one of the vans

starts having mechanical issues.

[speaking in English]

Uh, they still need to check how is the car.

No, I think our engine is good.

So, I think we're fine.

We got a good van.

[Zak] Despite these reassurances from the local production team

the van breaks down an the sun continues to set in an unfamiliar country,

not even halfway to their intended destination.

A replacement vehicle's called in and they get back on the road, now very delayed.

But the drive is plagued by a second van breaking down.

Our local crew tells us that this has never happened to them before.

It's been two times. I don't really know if it's

the spirits of the place that are, you know,

like, breaking our vehicles or what's... what's happening.

We've worked with this provider many times and the car doesn't break.

But we're here and the cars are breaking up.

[Zak] It really is as if something here does not want us

to document Armero and its thousands of dead.

A local medium believes the now sacred grounds of Armero

may also be home to demonic entities

brought there by the curse that may be trapping the spirits of the dead.

And some people avoid the abandoned town for fear of sickness or death.

Night comes fast,

and soon the team is journeying through unfamiliar dirt roads

farther and farther from civilization,

deeper into a growing darkness,

as if something was trying to keep them away from what's buried in Armero.

Could this be the first hints of the curse?

The crew finally arrives.

Resting at a hotel for now, exhausted by the day's events

and looking ahead before taking their first steps into a city

where the dead are underfoot everywhere you walk.

The following evening, my crew arrives in the ruined city of Armero.

They are shocked by how the jungle has reclaimed its once bustling streets.

Outside Armero's cemetery, we meet Edilma and her son, Edward,

who are both survivors of the Armero tragedy.

They are here to pay respects to their family members

who have passed away and to visit the location of their former home.

They agree to show us the cemetery.

Armero was effectively buried

by the flood caused by the eruption and then abandoned,

leaving many of the thousands of victims still buried where they died.

The entire ghost town is like a mass grave.

It is hard to imagine what the two of them must feel

every time they return here to honor their dead

and preserve those memories.

There are also physical dangers entering Armero's abandoned cemetery,

which has been retaken by the jungle.

It's so dangerous that our security doesn't want my team

and the two survivors in there after dark.

[speaking in other language]

[Zak, in English] After night falls,

boa constrictors and panthers can also come down from the trees.

And my crew has to take care with their lights

because night wasps will swarm them and sting their eyes.

While they say that all of Armero has become one very large graveyard,

the team wants to experience the original cemetery as well,

where Edilma wishes to pay respects

at the graves of her mother and grandmother.

Edilma is also familiar with the curse.

And my crew is shocked that she's willing to take the risk

to return here regularly to tend to her relative's graves.

[Edilma speaking in other language]

[Natalia and Edilma speaking]

[Zak, in English] Nearly every single crypt at the cemetery in Armero has been desecrated.

Locals claim thieves sell body parts

from these actual graves for use in devil worship and witchcraft.

[Edward speaking in other language]

[Edilma speaking in other language]

[Zak, in English] Graves are desecrated and destroyed

for the sake of dark magic and rituals.

Even those who died before the day of the tragedy are disturbed from their rest

by the ongoing horror of that day.

[speaking in other language]

[Natalia and Edward speaking in other language]

[Zak, in English] Shattered caskets lie broken and rotting.

Everywhere you turn, human remains are scattered about like forgotten memories.

While some families had the money and means

to relocate the remains of their relatives away from the overrun cemetery,

most cannot,

and their dead had been left unattended,

desecrated by both time and the malicious intentions of trespassers.

This is where her mother's grave was. Um...

But it's... it's so wild that they are not able to get in.

I mean, we can get there, but, like,

her mother's grave is farther and it's like...

She wants to show us something here.

[Edilma speaking in other language]

[Natalia, in English] Okay. This is... This is poisonous.

You cannot touch these.

This snail is very poisonous.

[Zak] Just coming into contact with the slime of these giant snails

can lead to a deadly brain infection.

[speaking in other language]

[in English] Okay, so it's further, but it's... there's no way to get there.

-[speaking in other language] -[in English] Here is clear,

but if you... we would need a machete or like,

something else to cut the trees and the...

[speaking in other language]

[Zak, in English] The people of Armero lost more than the nearly

23,000 lives that ended on that day...

The connection to their own past.

Their ancestry was severed just as violently

and swallowed up by the jungle.

It's at this time I wonder if Edilma and Edward fear the curse of Armero.

Which is said to bring premature death to those who walk this soil.

She would love to take the rest of her mother to where her house was.

Her kids are buried there because they died there.

[Edilma speaking in other language]

[Zak, in English] Edilma and Edward find their families graves

and begin to quickly clean them for fear of the fast approaching darkness.

They clean as best they can to preserve the memories of innocence lost.

Trying not to think too long about the fact that only parts

of their dead loved ones are buried here.

Their bodies were defiled by scavenging animals in the days and weeks that followed,

with only traces left behind to be mourned.

[speaking in other language]

[Edward speaking in other language]

[Zak, in English] While Edilma and Edward are fortunate enough

to have located their family's graves,

most other families can only locate their former homes.

[speaking in other language]

[Natalia, in English] Since they cannot live there again,

it's like a way of, like, a memorial of what was their house.

Because, as you see, the... the flood didn't came through this street.

[speaking in other language]

[Zak, in English] Howard says that one time a very famous medium in Colombia came here

hoping to hear the disembodied voices and screams of the dead.

[Howard speaking in other language]

[Natalia, in English] Dead people were doing what they were doing

that day, before the tragedy happened.

She came to our grocery store,

and the doctor at the hospital even said like,

"Hello. How are you? Welcome to Armero."

Like the people were doing exactly the same thing they were doing on that day.

[speaking in other language]

[Edward speaking in other language]

[Natalia speaking in other language]

[speaking in other language]

[Zak, in English] Waking up alone in the hours after the eruption,

Edilma had to dig through what was left of her home.

There she uncovered tiny bodies,

violently twisted in the debris.

It was already too late for two of her sons and her only daughter.

[speaking in other language]

[Zak, in English] Like so many others who survived the horrific eruption,

Edilma's life was still in danger.

Trapped in filthy mud with the risk of gangrene

or death through starvation or exposure.

Her and her husband's legs were pinned down by debris.

He regained consciousness only long enough to say that

he would rather die than lose his legs

before passing away beside her.

Edilma had to take matters into her own hands

for the sake of her remaining child.

[speaking in other language]

[Zak, in English] This heroic act of self-preservation

saved Edilma's life.

Tragically, she and Edward were the only two survivors of the Loaiza family.

Not all believe this was simply a natural disaster.

Some believe it was a vengeful curse

born 40 years before the town was destroyed.

In 1948, Pedro María Ramírez

was a conservative Catholic priest serving Armero.

He divided the town over politics

and spoke out against liberals from the pulpit.

During the lead up to Colombia's 1949 presidential elections,

the leading liberal candidate was assassinated.

There were riots in the capital of Bogotá

and Ramírez he was warned that he may be targeted for retribution in Armero.

But according to journalist Howard Gutiérrez,

[speaking Spanish]

[indistinct shouting]

[Zak] Talk of Father Ramírez's curse spread across Colombia.

Forty years later, Armero was destroyed,

and the curse came back to haunt the recovering Edilma.

[speaking Spanish]

[Natalia speaking Spanish]

[church bell tolls]

[Zak] I wonder if the murdered priest's blood that spewed from his body

and saturated the ground of Armero

as he was dragged through the streets,

is what ignited the curse.

[reading]

He had said.

While the priest's mutilated body was intended as a warning,

-his words ring out as an even starker threat... -[maniacal laughter]

...or perhaps as a promise.

Words spoken decades before a mudslide

tore so many of the stones from the side of the mountain,

ripping through the center of the city,

tearing through bodies as they went.

Yet strangely here,

the center pulpit of the former church,

the very place where Ramírez once stood, remains whole.

Untouched by the violent forces...

-[bell tolling] -...that tore the cathedral

and the rest of the city apart.

This is what remains of the church

precisely where it once stood.

A piece of its tower still strangely intact.

Was this too a part of his promise and threat?

[maniacal laughter]

[Zak] Howard claims the government knew for months

that a catastrophic eruption would occur, but did nothing.

In fact, many surrounding communities

were evacuated in the hours before the mudslide.

But that order never reached the citizens of Armero,

who were urged to remain in their homes.

[in Spanish]

[in English] So people was, like, having this information,

"So it's not gonna happen or it's not dangerous at all,

so don't worry about it."

[Zak] Was this the priest's curse at work?

The government response was delayed in the aftermath as well,

leading to yet more death.

In the morning after the disaster, the search for survivors

led rescuers to 13-year-old Omayra Sánchez.

She was pinned down by both debris

and her dead aunt's lifeless arms,

which were wrapped around her legs under the water.

[Zak] Attempts were made to free Omayra,

but it was determined the only solution would be

to amputate both her legs.

Unfortunately, doctors lack the necessary equipment

to perform the operation.

[Omayra speaking Spanish]

[Zak] And as she clung to life,

she began hallucinating that she was going to be

late for an exam she had at school.

[warped, distorted voices]

[Zak] In her final hours, her eyes turned pitch black,

as if the curse was consuming her.

The mud that soaked up the murdered priest's blood

was now holding her down like a sacrifice.

After being trapped for three days, Omayra died.

She became the face of the Armero tragedy

and is given saint-like respect.

[Zak] So many innocents lost their lives

in such a horrific fashion.

Was this truly retribution and revenge

for sins committed before many of them were even born?

The nun who spoke to Edilma certainly thought so,

but this kind of evil is almost beyond

human comprehension.

[thunder rumbling]

[Zak] "No stone shall be left upon a stone in Armero."

But one of the rocks that tumbled through the town,

carrying the dead and dying with it,

does remain as a horrific sort of gravestone.

Size of a house, with witchcraft etched upon its surface.

This rock was rolling, rolling, rolling,

and as soon as it came to, like, flat land,

many people dead were there, you know?

So that's why after the tragedy,

many different groups of people come here to this rock

to do different rituals. Some, like, black magic,

different types of rituals.

The symbols that you can see at the rock

are, like, symbols that these people can identify.

[Howard speaking]

[Natalia in Spanish]

[Howard chuckles] No.

[Zak] Witch's rock has so much energy

that Howard refused to even touch it.

Is this rock a battery used to power the evil forces

that allegedly exists here now?

Is that why it's become a beacon of evil

for those who come here to practice black magic?

My crew is meeting with a medium who believes so.

She also believes the evil force in Armero

may have taken over the abandoned hospital on the edge of town,

and she is going to take us there.

As my crew approaches the hospital,

the police show up. They tell us we should leave.

This is no longer a place for the living.

But some fears are allayed after telling them

we have a psychic medium here to protect everyone.

The medium's name is Ayda,

and she's brought an investigator named Anderson with her.

They've explored the ruined hospital

at the edge of town before.

They want to take my crew there now.

[Ayda speaking Spanish]

[Zak] The patients who were trapped on the lower floors

are still buried there to this day.

[in English] Fourth.

[overlapping chatter]

[in English] Four. Four floor.

-[man] Oh, wow. -Fourth floor.

[Zak] My producer, Joseph, is astounded

they are standing on the ground,

level with the fourth floor,

with bodies of patients entombed on the floors below ground.

[in Spanish]

You can see a little bit of the third floor steel,

but first and second are under the earth.

[Zak] During past investigations,

Ayda claims she's made contact with the spirit of a doctor

that she hopes will speak with the team again tonight.

[Joseph] Before we go in, is there anything we should be concerned about?

To be respectful for this place and,

like, ask for permission because a lot of people died here.

There was a lot of suffering.

And, like, this agony energy is very strong

also because they use this place to do witchcraft

and, like, these kind of things.

She will tell us whatever she's feeling at every moment.

[Zak] Ayda and Anderson enter the bat-infested hospital ruins.

Ayda will only allow a small number of my crew to enter with them

in order to create the least amount of disturbance.

[Ayda speaking]

[Anderson speaking Spanish]

[bats screeching]

[Zak] Anderson claims there is something dark residing in this hospital,

something more than just the victims of the tragedy.

[Anderson speaking]

[Zak] Just by stepping foot in this place,

you are exposing yourself.

The first hint of this curse is feeling dizziness and ill.

[Ayda speaking]

[Natalia] So, she's feeling somebody next to her.

[Anderson] Si.

[Natalia] They can feel there's something very big,

like, a very strong energy at the end.

[Zak] My crew dodges bats and trudges through piles of guano

as they push deeper into the building.

[Anderson speaking]

[exhales heavily]

[Zak] Deeper and deeper into the crumbling remains of this hospital,

Anderson and Ayda both feel something calling out to them.

-[deep grumbling] -[Zak] A presence they describe as tall and dark,

somewhere in the distance.

[Natalia] Over here there were, like, surgery rooms,

and they can feel a very, very, very strong energy.

Anderson says, like, they are surrounding us.

[Ayda speaking]

[Anderson speaking]

[Zak] Anderson believes the hospital is not just

inhabited by the spirits of people who have died tragically...

[distorted voices]

...but also by beings who have walked the Earth for centuries.

He describes these as demons.

[Natalia] The doctor she was talking about,

she has met him a couple of times,

and now she has met him again.

[Natalia] Do you want us to help you?

[Ayda] No.

[Natalia] He said, "no."

[Natalia] Okay, so Ayda is feeling, "This person wants to take my energy."

So, that's why the bats, the animals are also...

It's, like, affecting the animals as well.

That's what's happening through this high energy.

[Ayda speaking]

[Natalia] "So, he went out and he's coming with me still."

[Natalia] "This energy is not energy from here.

It's like an entity."

[Natalia speaking]

[Zak] Suddenly, Anderson spots movement in the next room.

[Ayda speaks]

[Anderson speaking]

[pants] Ooph.

-[pants] -[Anderson speaks Spanish]

[Zak] Without warning, Ayda becomes affected

after chasing the shadow Anderson saw in this room.

[Anderson speaks]

[Ayda speaks]

[Natalia] She's feeling like she wants to throw up.

The energy is very, very strong.

[Zak] This doesn't sound like the presence

of a friendly doctor Ayda had interacted with before.

And if the two of them are right,

the entity trying to drain Ayda's energy

may be demonic and ancient,

predating Armero itself by centuries.

[Ayda speaks]

[Ayda speaks]

[Natalia] "Many people asking for help.

It's a lighter energy, but you can still feel their suffering."

[Zak] Anderson and Ayda keep moving

as though directed by an unseen force,

drawn further away from the rest of the group.

[Ayda grunting]

[Natalia in Spanish]

[in English] Come on.

[Natalia in Spanish]

[Zak] And now separating themselves completely

in a building filled with hazards.

[Anderson speaking]

[grunts]

[in Spanish]

[Anderson speaking]

[in Spanish]

[bats squeaking]

[Natalia in English] "He's very upset.

He doesn't want us to be here."

[Ayda speaking]

[Zak] The danger is growing.

[Anderson speaking]

[Zak] Our translator has no paranormal experience,

and the two more experienced investigators

believe there is an ever-increasing danger and aggression,

which would only put someone like her at risk.

[Anderson speaking]

[Zak] They feel there's no choice but to halt the investigation.

[Anderson speaks]

[Zak] Ayda has asked if the entity

they have encountered is the doctor or someone else.

[Zak] Anderson believes there is something here at the Armero hospital

that can only be categorized as demonic

that demands obedience and fear.

Was it summoned here by the death, the violence, or even the curse?

Or is it the central cause of all of it?

Eighty years ago, the body of a priest

was dragged through the streets of Armero.

Forty years later, those same streets were filled

with rushing water and the screams of so many dying.

Another 40 years, the darkness here reaches out

to try to connect with the investigators

to drain our team's equipment.

Maybe even to interfere with the ability to travel to Armero at all.

But to what end?

The truth is almost too terrible to comprehend.

[bats screeching]

[Zak] Is Father Ramírez's curse still present in Armero,

and was it demonstrating its power to my crew?

It's hard to believe this was merely a coincidence.

[bats screeching]