Finally darkness fell across the jungle of the Oriente. Before Betty climbed into bed, she radioed Marj one last time. Still no news, and Nate and Pete had not arrived at Arajuno for the night. At first light, Johnny Keenan would fly over Palm Beach to see what the problem might be.
Johnny Keenan was apprehensive as he guided his Piper Pacer off the airstrip at Shell Mera and banked in an easterly direction toward Palm Beach. As he picked up the Curaray River and followed its meandering course through the jungle, he tried to think positively, but it was hard not to imagine the worst. As Johnny flew over Palm Beach, he became aware that the worst had indeed happened.
From the air, Johnny could see the yellow Piper Cruiser at the end of the beach. The plane had been stripped bare, as though it were a carcass that had been descended upon by vultures. Strips of shredded yellow canvas lay like streamers on the wet sand.
Johnny looped around and flew over the beach again, but he could see no sign of the men. Again, he tried to think positively. Perhaps they had fled into the jungle and were making their way to Arajuno. But as he looked down at the broken remains of Nate’s plane, he had a sick feeling inside that something worse had happened to the five men. He turned the nose of his plane in the direction of Shell Mera. He had some difficult news to share with the anxious wives.
Back at Shell Mera, no one was ready to give up hope. Since Johnny Keenan hadn’t seen any sign of the men, it was possible they were still alive, either hiding in the jungle or being held against their will by the Aucas. Yet, in the back of everyone’s mind was the disturbing fact that the Aucas didn’t seem to take prisoners, choosing instead to kill.
By late Monday night, the secret Operation Auca was headline news around the world. Newspapers were emblazoned with headlines like “Missionaries Missing Among Jungle Savages,” “Five Missionaries Massacred?” “American Men Meet a Violent End Among a Stone Age Tribe?”
People began to converge on Shell Mera in an attempt to locate some sign of the missionaries. A United States military rescue team headed by Air Force Major Malcolm Nurnberg and consisting of three planes and a helicopter was ordered to Shell Mera from its base in Panama to help with the search. The president of the Missionary Aviation Fellowship arrived from California. Soon afterward, two officials from Christian Missions in Many Lands, the Plymouth Brethren mission agency with which Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, and Ed McCully served, also arrived. Sam Saint, Nate Saint’s brother, was an experienced pilot with American Airlines and came to help with the rescue effort. Two of the world’s top magazines, Life and Time, dispatched their veteran reporters and photographers to cover the unfolding story.
Abe Van Der Puy, from the missionary radio station HJCB in Quito, came down to help and support Marj Saint, who by now was running a full-scale airport control tower from Shell Mera. He took on the job of coordinating the press releases for which the world seemed to be clamoring.
Johnny Keenan flew out and picked up Betty and Valerie Elliot from Shandia and brought them to Shell Mera. He did the same for the other wives, until all five women and their children were gathered together.
Wednesday morning, three days after the attack, the first two bodies were spotted from an Air Force helicopter. Since they were floating facedown in the water, it was impossible to be sure who they were.
While the air search continued for the remaining bodies, a search party made its way by canoe down the Curaray River to Palm Beach. The party consisted of several missionaries who knew Nate Saint well and thirteen Ecuadorian soldiers who had been assigned to help with the recovery efforts. The search party was led by Frank Drown, a veteran missionary in the Oriente and Roger Youderian’s former coworker among the Jivaro Indians at Macuma.
On Thursday, January 12, 1956, four long days after the last radio contact with the men, Major Nurnberg walked slowly into Shell Mera. He asked Marj Saint if there was somewhere private the five wives could meet, preferably without the children. Marj led Barbara Youderian, Marilou McCully, Olive Fleming, and Betty Elliot into her bedroom.
Major Nurnberg cleared his throat and squared his shoulders as he entered the room. He officially confirmed the awful truth: The five men were dead. Four bodies had been spotted from the air. The major flipped open his notebook and checked his notes. He described articles of clothing rescuers had seen on the bodies. One body was wearing a woven red belt.
“That’s Pete,” said Olive Fleming, quietly.
Another had on a tee-shirt and pair of blue jeans. Barbara Youderian identified Roger’s jungle “uniform.”
One body, caught under an overhanging tree, had only a gray sock visible. The rest of the wives could not identify whether that was Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, or Nate Saint. They would have to wait until the search party arrived by canoe and properly identified the remaining bodies.
The next day, Friday, Frank Drown’s search party finally arrived at Palm Beach. Soon after, the Air Force helicopter was hovering overhead. As the Ecuadorian soldiers guarded the perimeter of Palm Beach, the helicopter guided the other members of the search party to the bodies. The Aucas had apparently dragged the bodies into the Curaray River. The dead missionaries had been swept downstream and were now floating facedown in the muddy water. The first body recovered was that of Roger Youderian, then Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, and finally Pete Fleming. The search party looked everywhere but could not locate Ed McCully’s body, which was never found and presumably had been washed farther downstream. There was ample evidence, though, that Ed had been killed with the others.
Fearing for their own safety, the men in the search party hurriedly dug a communal grave on the beach. Frank Drown pulled off the men’s watches and wedding rings and removed the contents of their pockets before respectfully lowering the bodies into the grave. He would take those personal belongings back to the grieving widows.
A large tropical storm was gathering, and the first crash of thunder boomed just as the brief funeral service got under way. The service took only a few minutes, but by the time it was over, the rain was pouring down. Once the grave was covered, it was time for everyone to leave. With their guns cocked and eyes alert for any movement in the undergrowth, the members of the search party pushed their canoes into the Curaray River and headed back upstream to safety.
On Saturday, the day after the funeral service, a Navy R-4D aircraft from the U.S. military rescue team flew the five wives over Palm Beach so that the women could see for the first time where their husbands had labored, had died, and were now buried. The sun shone brightly on the white, sandy beach. Strips of yellow canvas still littered the area. Betty could see the cooking shelter Jim and the others had built. The ashes of the fire the men had sat around while waiting for the Aucas to arrive—the moment those men had planned and prayed for so diligently—were still visible.
News of the death of the five young missionaries in the jungle of eastern Ecuador reverberated around the world. When people heard of the death of Jim Elliot, a strong, intelligent twenty-eight-year-old, they questioned why God would allow him and his four equally talented and dedicated companions to be killed. Surely God could have prevented it. Why didn’t He? Even today, no one can fully answer that question. It is probable, though, that in death, Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, and Nate Saint did more to challenge Christians around the world as to the need for missionaries than could have been accomplished in two lifetimes. Jim Elliot’s life was and is a vivid reminder to Christians of all walks of life to live every day with one great purpose in mind: share the gospel message with those who have not yet heard it.
Epilogue
The story of the Aucas didn’t stop with the deaths of the five men at Palm Beach. Johnny Keenan and Hobey Lowrance, the MAF pilot who came to Shell Mera to replace Nate Saint, continued dropping gifts over the Auca settlement. Rachel Saint continued her work with Dayuma to learn the Auca language. Betty Elliot and eleven-month-old Valerie returned to Shandia and the important work among the Quichua Indians. All of them, and many more Christians around the world, prayed that one day the opportunity to share the gospel message with the Aucas would come.
In November 1957, twenty-two months after the killings at Palm Beach, two Auca women walked out of the jungle and into a Quichua fishing village, a six-hour trek from Arajuno, where Betty Elliot was visiting. As soon as Betty heard this, she set out to meet them. Betty persuaded the two women to return to Shandia with her. Their names were Mintaka and Mankamu. Mintaka was the older Auca woman who had accompanied George and Delilah to visit the men at Palm Beach. Betty soon learned that the women had come searching for Dayuma, whose mother was getting old and wanted to see her again.
At the time the women were looking for her, Dayuma was traveling with Rachel Saint to the United States. During the trip, Dayuma became a Christian. When Rachel and Dayuma finally returned from their journey, they met with Mintaka and Mankamu. On September 3, 1958, Dayuma and the two Auca women set out to rejoin their tribe.
Three weeks later, Dayuma, Mintaka, Mankamu, and seven other Aucas again appeared at Arajuno. They came to invite Rachel Saint, Betty Elliot, and Valerie Elliot to come and live among them in their jungle village. The Aucas wanted to hear more about the God Dayuma had described to them. The opportunity to share the gospel face-to-face with the Aucas, for whom the men of Operation Auca had given their lives, had finally arrived. On October 6, 1958, Betty and Valerie Elliot, Rachel Saint, and their Auca entourage headed into the Amazon jungle.
Betty and Valerie Elliot remained among the Waorani for two years. (Waorani was the name the Aucas called themselves in their own language. Auca was a derogatory name given to them by the Quichua Indians.)
Rachel Saint spent the rest of her life among the Waorani. She died among them in 1994 and was buried not far from Palm Beach, thirty-eight years after the men of Operation Auca had been laid to rest there.
After her eventual return to the United States, Betty Elliot chronicled the story of Operation Auca and the events at Palm Beach in the best-selling book, Through Gates of Splendor. Decades later, the story of the death of five young missionaries at Palm Beach, in the jungle of the Oriente, continues to impact Christian readers the world over with a ringing challenge: take the gospel to those who live in darkness without the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
