To the Los Angeles Times, she said it was impossible for her to believe Madruga would ever drive his car, which he prized, into an area where it might be damaged. On February 24, 1978, a group of friends from Yuba City in California;Gary Dale Mathias, Jack Madruga, Jackie Huett, Theodore (Ted) Weiher, and William Sterling; set out on a trip to watch a basketball game. Deputies think that one of them may have given in to the need to sleep that comes with the last stages of hypothermia, while the other stayed by his side and died the same way. The internet is divided on whether it was an outside force, Matthias himself, or some sort of accident that led the Yuba County 5 to their deaths & disappearance. Search and rescue teams then began combing the area around the trailer. Some were able to work side jobs, while others couldnt. Joseph Schons of Sacramento told police he inadvertently wound up spending the night of February 2425 near where the Montego was found. "They seen something at that game, at the parking lot," says Ted Weiher's sister-in-law. Four of the Yuba County Five tragically died in the forest. The suspect . While it had been difficult at firsthe was nearly arrested for assault twice and often experienced psychotic episodes that landed him in a local Veterans Administration hospitalby 1978, Mathias was being treated on an outpatient basis with Stelazine and Cogentin and was considered by his physicians to be "one of our sterling success cases". Detectives arrested two men Tuesday in connection with the cold case homicides of two young girls who were killed 43 years ago in Yuba County.Larry Don Patterson, 65, and William Lloyd Harbour, 65 . The boys stopped at a convenience store for junk food: Hostess pies, soda, candy bars. What had brought them to the middle of nowhere and why had Shones seen them with a woman and a baby? "Bizarre," says John Thompson, the special agent from the California Department of Justice who had joined the investigation. Gary Dale Mathias was an assistant in his stepfather's gardening business and an army veteran with psychiatric discharge after drug problems that developed in Germany five years before. In the early morning hours of February 25, Shones made it to the lodge and was able to get medical treatment. Besides, who knows. He was pretty sick. We also service a large portion of incorporated Yuba City under contract. Why was a common question for investigators and the relatives of the men, but no answers were forthcoming. Weiher was missing his shoes, and investigators found Mathias' own shoes in the nearby woods, suggesting Mathias also survived for some time beyond the last night they were seen alive. As of late, his condition had greatly improved though, and he was able to work in his stepfathers gardening business. What did they find Mystery True Crime und wahre Verbrechen aus Deutschland
Kalifornien, Februar 1978: Am ! Since Mathias had presumably not taken his medication, pictures of him were distributed to mental institutions all over California. In February of 1978, an unsolved incident occurred to five young men from Yuba County that is On the night of February 24, 1978, a group of five young men from Yuba City, California, all Today we take a look at a Civil War sniper who took the law into his own hands! More baffling, Weiher was emaciated. (KTXL) A vigil is planned Thursday for the 10-year-old boy who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Yuba County. The Yuba County Five were a group of young men from Yuba City, California, with mild intellectual disabilities or psychiatric conditions, who attended a college basketball game at California State University, Chico, on the night of February 24, 1978.Four of themBill Sterling, 29; Jack Huett, 24; Ted Weiher, 32; and Jack Madruga, 30were later found dead; the fifth, Gary Mathias, 25, has . Its players were in their 20s or early 30s and suffered from some form of . He Hello and welcome to your favorite podcast that goes bump in the night. The Yuba County 5 remains one of the most baffling puzzles within the true crime community. His tennis shoes were inside the forest service trailer, which suggested to investigators that he might have taken them off to put on Weiher's leather shoes - particularly since Weiher had bigger feet, and Mathias' feet might have swollen with frostbite. Is Hailey Bieber obsessed with Justin Biebers ex Selena Gomez? Four of them would, in the warmer months, be found dead. Thats because they never found it. The photos show his wife, Molly Martens. Weiher had asked his mother to wash his new white high-topped sneakers for the tournament saying "We got a big game Saturday. A forest service Snowcat ran up the road to the trailer on February 23rd, leaving a packed path in the snow that the men might have followed. They were competing to qualify for the paralympics and this next regional tournament would not only get them closer to that goal but closer to winning a week-long trip to Los Angeles. There are so many strange things about this true crime case which is sometimes called Americas Dyatlov Pass, that its hard to compact into one article. Mar. For roughly three days, police had no break in the case, until finally a park ranger noted that he had seen a car matching the description of Madruga's on the night of the 25 th.On February 28, police located the vehicle. His car had gotten stuck in the snow, and pushing it out by himself brought it on. Two days later, Huetts own father found his sons backbone under a manzanita bush while with a search party in the mountains. The next day, their car was Five men from Yuba City, California, disappeared in 1978 after a trip to a nearby town. Why? [2], Police in Butte and Yuba counties began searching along the route the men took to Chico. In 1978, five friends set out for home from a basketball game. But all five friends wound up missing or dead. We know good and well that somebody made them do it. tips for grilling chicken. The Mercury Montego was slightly stuck in the snow, but it wasnt anything five healthy young men couldnt have handled pushing out. Most of the reports were easily dismissed, but two of the sightings stood out. The next day, they found remains that were later identified as those of Madruga and Sterling on opposite sides of the road 11.4 miles (18.3km) from where the car had been. [2], After the Davis team won the game, the group got back into Madruga's car and drove a short distance from the Chico State campus to Behr's Market in downtown Chico. They lay on opposite sides of the road to the trailer, 11.4 miles from the car. Four of themBill Sterling,29; Jack Huett,24; Ted Weiher,32; and Jack Madruga,30were later found dead; the fifth, Gary Mathias, 25,[1] has never been found.[2]. He saw a group of men, a woman, and a baby walking together, but they ignored him calling for help. This about the unsolved case of the Yuba County Five, and how five men disappeared and died, leaving no trace: read to find out more. From Zero to Hero: Write Your Short in 30 days, Did the Island Boys break up? There was no reason to mention having seen the Mercury until newspapers began to blare out notices about the five men who had gone missing that Friday. He would later say he saw a group of men, one woman, and a baby. The family identified the 10-year-old as Frankie Rosiles. Is Netflix's 'The Imposter' its most terrifying true-crime story yet? The real mystery is that Mathias was never found. OR, could one of them have Sean brings us the story of five men from Yuba City, California who went missing under unusual February 24, 1978. Hoping he could flag down the passerby, he exited his vehicle and began screaming for help. The authorities and the boys parents alike wondered what on Earth they had been doing on this dirt mountain road. It appeared that Ted had lived 8-13 weeks after his disappearance based on the length of his beard and around 100-pound weight loss. Gary had been on medication ever since to manage his condition, which his father said would make him go haywire if he was off of the medication. [2], Searchers returned to Plumas, following the road between the trailer and the site of the Montego. In 1978 five friends with intellectual disabilities ended up driving into the wilderness for no apparent reason and four of their remains were later found there. It wasnt until June when the snow in the mountainous area had mostly melted away that motorcyclists helped make a break in the case. 3 While the ground search was called off, a California Highway Patrol helicopter continued to scour the area from the sky. Mathias had been in the Army, too, but was discharged because of psychiatric problems. They made it to the game, but none of these "boys," as they came to be called, ever returned home. When authorities lifted the veil, they found Weiher, his shoes missing and his feet badly frostbitten. Besides, who knows. [6], The day before the men went missing, a Forest Service Snowcat had gone along the road in that direction to clear snow off the trailer roof so it would not collapse. The families of the boys ultimately believed that they were forced or frightened into the wilderness. Debris recovered from the scene indicated the vehicle was a white Mercedes, and the Yuba County Sheriff's Office was able to identify the car using a license plate reader system, according to. They werent the type to stay out very late or make spontaneous plans. The Yuba County 5 remains one of the most baffling puzzles within the true crime community. Shones eventually decided hed have to help himself and hike down the snowy road until he got help. They came across a strong stench emanating from some trailers maintained by the Forest Service. Some of the rations in and around the trailer were eaten but much of it was untouched. Had the group been abducted and the perpetrator was preventing access to food or was Ted suffering from gangrene caused by frostbite. Sadly, these men were able to cheer on UC Davis, but they never made it to their own basketball match. Huetts skeletonized remains were found shortly after. Since it was locked, they may have believed it was private property, and may have feared arrest for theft if they used anything else they found there. Several days after their initial disappearance, the group's car, a Mercury Montego, was found abandoned in a remote area of Plumas National Forest, California, on a high mountain dirt road that was far out of their way back to Yuba City. Stars Tim Donahue Michael May Dominick Sherry 12 min ago Aaron Tobias Quinn, an Oroville man who was involved in a police chase and shooting with a California Highway Patrol officer, was sentenced Friday morning in a Yuba County. This conspiracy theory will surely tug on your heart strings and have you asking, "What One freezing night in 1978, five young men mysteriously disappear. They found no sign of Gary Mathias. In 1975, with a short stint at Yuba College proving unsuccessful, Mathias abruptly left school and moved to Oregon to stay with his grandmother. The last time any of these people were seen was at a college basketball game at California State University. There was no obvious damage to the car, despite the bumpy unmade road, it had around a quarter tank of gas and it was not stuck in the snow. The Russian case is as mysterious as the Mathias Group in Californias Plumas National Forest. All five had intellectual disabilities or psychiatric issues to various degrees; all of them lived with family, who kept a close eye on them. [2][5], After that, Schons said at first, he recalled a pickup truck parking 20 feet (6m) behind him briefly, and then continuing on down the road. How did they walk in normal shoes without outdoor clothing so far in snow several feet thick? 5 'Boys' Who Never Come Back. It was the fact that Shones had likely wound up being the last person to see Ted Weiher, Gary Mathias, Jack Madruga, Jack Huett, and Bill Sterling alive. Two of the men, whom she identified as Huett and Sterling, were in a telephone booth outside the store, while the other two went inside. The vigil is planned for 6 p.m. at Olivehurst Linda Little League field. The trailer had food and propane. [2] Autopsies showed that they both died of hypothermia. Is Ice Spices new boyfriend Pete Davidson? They were always referred to by their families as the boys even though they were all full-grown men from ages 24-32. These five men were great friends. What puzzled them most was how Weiher was found emaciated, despite the fact that the trailer been stocked with plenty of canned and dried food and a can opener. This was strange because it seemed none of the trailers life-saving amenities had been used. Ted Weiher was found in a trailer 19 miles from the car and Madruga, Sterling and Huett were found in the locality but several miles away. All the conspiracies surrounding Nicola Bulleys disappearance and death, Who killed Jeffrey Epstein? "Not tonight." Why was that odd? WASHINGTON The mother of late singer Aaron Carter is publicly calling on police to do more to investigate her son's death, accusing authorities of focusing . This was completely uncharacteristic behavior for the boys. The search teams nearly lost men themselves two days later, as their Snow-cats struggled through the drifts. The five would either play sports together or watch them. Joe Shones was having a heart attack. Don't you let me oversleep". He had even left a window rolled down, something he would never normally do. Shones staggered back in his car while he let the heart attack pass and then wondered what on Earth he would do to get himself out of the mess he was in. As mentioned before, they were homebodies. In the second part of this double-feature, we detail the infamous Yuba County Five, and compare All week, Gary Mathias told his mom "We got a big game Saturday, Don't you let me oversleep." . Most likely, Madruga and Sterling died of hypothermia about halfway through the long walk to the trailer. Investigation. Months later the remains of 4 Join us as we discuss the Yuba County Five and their mysterious disappearance. This eventually led to him being diagnosed with schizophrenia and being psychiatrically discharged. In this week's episode, we revisit two of our favorite Patreon episodes. After Schons' car ran out of gas in the early morning hours, his pain subsided enough for him to walk 8 miles (13km) down the road to a lodge, where the manager drove him back home, passing the abandoned Montego at the point where he had recalled hearing the voices originate from. About Us. [6] He was wearing a velour shirt and lightweight pants, but his shoes could not be found. Dyatlov Pass refers to the unsolved deaths of nine hikers in the northern Ural Mountains in the Soviet Union (now Russia) between 1 February and 2 February 1959. CAUTION, CRIME SCENE PHOTOS! The driver had either used astonishing care and precision, the investigators figured, or else he knew the road well enough to anticipate every rut. Perhaps, Shones thought, it belonged to the group he had seen earlier. The police said she was "a credible witness" and they took her account seriously. For most of them, their fate was to die in snow-capped mountains. They put out alerts for Matthias and searched nearby psychiatric hospitals to see if maybe he had wandered away from the cabin and ended up hospitalized, but they found nothing. It was a man named Joe Shones who alerted them about it. After the snow melted in June 1978, four of the men's bodies were found in and near a trailer camp used by backpackers as shelter, deep in the forest, 20 miles (32km) from the car. Posted on February 22, 2022 by . The trailer was 19 miles away from the car. Ronald Charles Trapp, 34, of Marysville, died around 9:35 a.m. Tuesday after being shot while driving a Honda Accord on Dunning Avenue, south of Hammonton-Smartville Road, in Linda, a news release . [4], On June 4, with most of the higher-elevation snow melted, a group of motorcyclists went to a trailer maintained by the Forest Service at a campsite off the road about 19.4 miles (31.2km) from where the Montego had been found. He saw a group of men, a woman, and a baby walking together, but they ignored him calling for help. Twitter reacts. [2] The sheets all over Weiher's body also suggested that one of the others had been there with him, as his gangrenous feet would have been in too much pain for him to pull them over his body himself. There was a half moon that night, a winter moon in a cloudless sky. At 32, Weiher was the oldest, a former janitor who was closest to the youngest of the group, 24-year-old Huett. As investigators descended upon the apartment, one of them picked up a camera and photographed the scene. Where is Matthias? Mathias, his feet perhaps also swollen from frostbite, could have decided to put Weiher's shoes on instead if he had ventured outside. [5], Additional details came from the store owner, who told investigators that men whom he believed to be Weiher and Huett came in and bought burritos, chocolate milk and soft drinks. Sterling's father had once taken his son to the area near where the car was found for a fishing weekend, but the younger man had not enjoyed it and remained at home when his father took later trips there. . Shones later came forward with his story when the news broke about the disappearances, making him the last person to see the five alive. [2], Most puzzling to the investigators was how Weiher had come to his fate. The Mercury would be found last where Shones saw it with enough gas for the five to return home. They continues walking, ignoring him. The whole case is weird. The boys had used Madrugas 1969 Mercury Montego to drive to the UC Davis game in Chico, California on February 24, 1978. Unfortunately, as he did, he started suffering a heart attack. Yuba County 5. In addition, there was a huge supply of freeze-dried meals. Five men went to a basketball game in Chico, California to watch their favorite college basketball team play. [2][5], Weiher's mother said ignoring someone's pleas for help was not like her son, if indeed he had been present. Maybe something supernatural did happen to the boys of Americas Dyatlov Pass. The boys parents alerted the authorities after confirming none of them made it home. All five piled back into the Mercury and took off. Why? He didnt think much about what hed seen until he heard about the disappearances. Their families raised a $2600 reward for information, petitioned psychics, and waited by their phones, but heard nothing. The junk food had been consumed, save for one half of a candy bar. To date, there hasnt been any evidence to contradict him. NOTE: This is an update to my original report found here So while getting pictures together for the page on the Yuba County 5, I stumbled across a Reddit post that had been made 18 days ago. Out of the five, the one man who stuck out a bit was Gary. There was no news for months as the spring snows melted on the mountains. All five travelled in Madruga's car, a 1969 Mercury Montego. The flashlight was slightly rusted and had been turned off. Several paperback booksperfect for fireswere also left untouched. After the UC Davis team won their game, the five men went to pick up snacks & drinks, Joe Shones, age 55, was having car trouble. They still had found no explanation for why the men were there, although they learned that Mathias had friends in the small town of Forbestown, and police believed it was possible that, in an attempt to visit them on the way back home, the men may have taken a wrong turn near Oroville that put them on the mountain road. On February 24, 1978, five men from the Yuba County, California-area vanished in the wilderness of Northern California. In her free time, Bianca enjoys stabilizing dangling modifiers and walking her cat. It was possible, police believed, that the group had decided to follow the tracks it left, through snowdrifts 46 feet (1.21.8m) high, to wherever they led, in the belief that shelter was not too far away. Similarly, another shed nearby held a butane tank with a valve that, had it been opened, would have fed the trailer's heating system. Soon, police found two other corpsesthose of Sterling and Madruga4.5 miles away from Weiher's remains. They played basketball together through a Gateway program and were that night . 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Jane Carter, who goes by Jane Schneck on Facebook . In one version, whilst he lay in his car, at about 11:30, he saw two sets of headlights coming up behind him - one was a car, and the other a pickup truck. Weiher was concluded to have died from a mixture of starvation and exposure, but both a heating system and food were readily available. Their families said that when they got together, it was usually to play a game or to watch one. They were supposed to play a basketball game of their own on February 25, part of a tournament, with a free week in Los Angeles if they won. Basketball. Their favorite? Hours later, Shones felt well enough to walk to get help. Then Colusa County District Attorney John Poyner authorized needed search warrants for the investigation and said he would prosecute the crime if it occurred in his county. On Tuesday, February 28, authorities found the Mercury on the same mountain road where Shones had last seen it, and where a park ranger had reported its location after hearing the missing persons bulletin. Today, we're covering the true crime story of the Yuba County 5. There was no sign of Mathias, aside from his tennis shoes, which had been left in the trailer. A witness later came forward, a local man who said he had spent the same night in his own car, a short distance away from where the Montego was found. Could they have been searching in the snow and been freaked out by his cars for help in this isolated area? He called to them for help, but they stopped talking and turned their headlights out. The men consumed 36 of the meals but left the majority of them untouched. Doctors later confirmed that he had indeed experienced a mild heart attack. yuba county 5 crime scene photos February 24, 1978. [5], Six hours later, lying in the car and experiencing severe pain, he saw headlights coming up behind him. Were they forced to go up the Bucks Lane on the way to Palmetto City, did they decide themselves to take a detour or did they take a wrong turn? Weiher had lost nearly half his 200 pounds (91kg); the growth of his beard suggested he had lived as long as thirteen weeks from when he had last shaved. Luego de la desaparicin de los chicos el 25 CrimeDoor is the first app of its kind. Mathias's tennis sneakers were in the trailer, and the C-rations had been opened with a P-38 can opener, with which only Mathias or Madruga would have been familiar from their military service. [2], Police could not figure out why the men had abandoned the car. Four decades later, the fifth man from the car has never been found. Turns out I totally missed a book that was published last December full of exclusive new interviews with family . Madruga's parents said he did not like the cold weather and had never been up into the mountains. Curious, they went inside. A propane tank connected to the trailer, which could have provided a ready source of heat and cooking fuel, was untouched. To add to the mystery, a man was stopped nearby, his car was stuck in the snow.