A close call with a watery grave, a royal tale of coincidence and death,
and a daring escape from a murderer. Are these horrifying tales true, or did we conjure them
from the dark depths of our imagination? Join us as we find out what's fact.. or fiction.
The line that divides the factual from the unreal has long since blurred, the tales
we once thought fantastical now implanted as truth. To decipher verity from the imagined,
you must break from the ordinary and consider a universe where the outlandish prevails.
Can you expand your mind to see beyond our perceived reality?
Can you decide what's fact or fiction?
Being buried alive is most people’s worst nightmare,
but how about being buried alive 30 meters below the ocean’s surface?
For one Senegalese sailor, a routine job in the Atlantic Ocean
turned from mundane to miraculous when he survived a wreck that killed all of his crew-mates.
Story # 1: Trapped in the Atlantic
Peter Kiiza had everything to look forward to in life. He loved his job as a cook aboard a
tugboat service, and he was due to marry a beautiful woman in just a few days. As he
set out to board the boat on that fateful May morning he thought to himself how lucky he was.
The first day at sea was uneventful, and Peter spent his busy shift in the kitchen.
It was the next morning at 4:30 am that his life literally turned upside down.
Peter was in the restroom when suddenly and seemingly without reason,
the boat capsized. As the ship turned over he was swept through the corridors by icy Atlantic
seawater as he desperately tried to cling on to anything he could. He ended up trapped in
the toilet of an officer’s cabin and could do nothing as the ship sank and came to rest
on the ocean floor. Luckily for Peter, the water stopped rising in the tiny bathroom and although
he had hardly any food, water or light, he had a small pocket of air that he thought
would give him a couple of hours to await rescue. For the next 62 hours, Peter accepted his fate and
waited for his oxygen to run out while listening to sharks and barracudas fighting over the remains
of his dead crew-mates. But, his oxygen never did run out, and when he finally heard the recovery
team he hammered on the wall of the ship to let them know he had miraculously survived.
Peter later discovered that he had his watery prison to thank for his survival: the intense
atmospheric pressure 30 meters under the ocean’s surface made the air denser, so it
contained much more oxygen than it would have on land. After a stint in a decompression chamber,
Peter was well enough to marry the love of his life right on schedule.
It’s a known fact that diving at 30 meters can easily cause lasting damage
after just 20 minutes, so how did Peter survive at that depth for 62 hours?
Is it possible that a combination of his incredible will to live and the laws of
physics saved his life? We’ll let you know whether this is a true story in the reveal,
but tell us what you think in the onscreen poll and in the comment section below.
Next up is the unbelievable tale of a Spanish queen,
an uncanny doppelgänger and an assassination. Story # 2: A Royal Murder
Queen María Isabel Luisa de Borbón was not a well-loved monarch, and all of Spain counted
down the days until they could be freed of her violent moods and cruel punishments.
But her people could never have known how bizarre the evil queen’s final days would be.
It was 1904 and María Isabel had visited a restaurant for dinner. During her meal,
she noticed that the aging hostess looked familiar. After being summoned over, the hostess
revealed that her name was also María Isabel, that she was also married to a man named Ferdinand, and
that they had been born in the same neighborhood in Madrid. They also looked almost identical,
apart from the stark and obvious difference in wealth. The queen was amazed at the coincidence,
and her normally tough demeanor softened while in the company of the hostess.
The next day, Queen María Isabel was preparing for a public event when she was told that
the hostess had been gunned down on her way home from the restaurant the previous night.
The shooting was brutal – the innocent restaurant worker suffered three shots
in her back and she died alone in the street. The queen was inconsolable: the connection between
the two women had been inexplicably strong, and she spent the morning sobbing in her quarters.
Eventually, María Isabel gathered herself enough to make her way to the public event, and as she
made her way out of the palace and to her car, as fate would have it, a lone assassin shot her.
He hit her three times, and every bullet landed in her back. The queen's final words were “María
Isabel,” seemingly referring to the hostess. Was the hostess’ death a case of mistaken
identity? It seems unlikely, considering the obvious difference in status and wealth,
not to mention the fact that the queen would never be walking the streets of Madrid alone.
Is this tale too coincidental to be true? We’ll tell you everything soon,
so cast your vote in the onscreen poll. Finally, for our third and final tale,
we have a story from the Australian Outback that’ll make you want to avoid ever being alone
in the countryside again. Story # 3: Stalked in the Outback
The Australian Outback is known around the globe as one of the most desolate places on earth,
and those making the trip across the huge expanse are likely not to see another human being on their
entire journey. With temperatures reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit in summer, it’s not uncommon
to hear stories of unprepared travelers succumbing to heat stroke and dehydration
during long drives. 20 years ago, though, there was something much more dangerous and horrifying
lurking in the Outback, as an American couple, Travis Daniels and Sandra Fields, found out.
It was 1998 and the couple was traveling through Coober Pedy as part of a three-month tour around
Australia. The travel-loving pair had been saving for months and were on an extended vacation in
their dream destination. The first month had gone smoothly, and as they drove their rented
camper-van towards the sunset they chatted idly about their favorite moments from the trip so far.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the couple saw another vehicle flashing its lights behind them.
Sandra was driving and slowed down to let the vehicle come alongside them. He approached the
passenger window and told Travis that sparks were coming from their camper’s exhaust. Travis got out
and accompanied Steven to the back of the van, and immediately Sandra heard a gunshot. In shock, she
was still frozen in the driver’s seat when Steven came to her window with a gun pointed at her.
He tied her up and threw her in the back of his 4x4 before going to deal with Travis’ dead body.
Sandra saw her opportunity to escape and made a run for the bush,
where she waited for hours as Hardstark and his dog searched for her. Eventually, he gave up
and Sandra stayed hidden all night, terrified that he would come back and kill her, too.
The next morning at first light she flagged down a passing driver who took her to safety.
This sounds like the plot of a film, and indeed it is similar to several
Australian epics that you might have caught at your local movie theater.
But are we retelling a Hollywood blockbuster or a real story of murder and survival?
Each one of our tales is tough to believe, but are any of them
actually true? Let’s find out… in the reveal. Are you ready to find out if you can decipher
between fact or fiction? Let’s look back at tonight's three stories
and find out which were born from reality and which were fabrications of the imagination.
First, we’re going back to the icy depths of the Atlantic and to the miraculous survival
of Peter Kiiza. Did he really survive in an air bubble for almost three days?
Well, yes he did. Nigerian chef Harrison Okene really did live to tell the tale that killed all
of his crew-mates, thanks to a combination of luck, science, and the human will to survive.
Next, we visit 20th century Spain and the assassination of Queen María Isabel.
We can tell you that Queen Isabella II certainly did exist,
but that’s where the truth ends as the rest of this tale is entirely fictional. Our fictitious
tale is loosely based on the assassination of King Umberto I of Italy, and a strange
conversation he had with a restaurant owner the night before his assassination.
Finally, we’re back in Australia for Sandra Fields’ terrifying night of
survival. Is this a true story or a film script? In fact, it’s both.
British couple Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio were attacked by Bradley Murdoch on their way
to Darwin in 2001, and Joanne did indeed survive the ordeal that cost her boyfriend his life.
You might recognize some of the details from the 2005 horror film, Wolf Creek.
How well did you do in tonight's video? Did you look past the deception of our world and
define the oft-blurred line that struggles to separate lies from the truth? Let us all know
in the comment section below and should you find the urge to test your perceptions again,
be sure to subscribe and join us next time when we ask you to decide what's fact... or fiction.
A close call with a watery grave, a royal tale of coincidence and death,
and a daring escape from a murderer. Are these horrifying tales true, or did we conjure them
from the dark depths of our imagination? Join us as we find out what's fact.. or fiction.