Ted Weiher was employed for a while as a janitor and snack bar clerk but quit at the urging of his family, who thought Weiher's slowness was causing problems. Happy Sunday! Mathias, his feet perhaps also swollen from frostbite, could have decided to put Weiher's shoes on instead if he had ventured outside. When he got out to push his car, the exertion brought on a searing pain in his chest. Marduga still had the keys to the Mercury. Twelve army ration cans were found empty on the floor, but there was an untouched dry food pantry with enough supplies to keep all of the Yuba County Five alive for up to a year. ), A night out creeps into true crime territory, The cabin in the woods, a mysterious fate, However, in 2017 David Bruckner directed a movie that seems to be largely based on the Yuba County Five. However, the discovery of the car raised more questions than it answered. 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. We strive to bring awareness back into focus with our coverage, which features Crime stories that are underpinned by reliable information from up-to-date sources, as told by compassionate storytellers. [6], In an area to the northwest of the trailer, roughly a quarter-mile (400m) from it, searchers found three Forest Service blankets and a rusted flashlight by the road. Knowing that Madruga drove a Mercury Montego, the police went to investigate and found Madrugas car. No trace of the men was found other than the car. 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. About Us. He had left his tennis shoes behind in the trailer with Weihers body and had taken the mans leather shoes. A man called Joseph Schons contacted the police after he heard about the disappearance to say he had seen the men between 11-12 pm on the Friday that the group disappeared. On February 24th, 1978, five men from Yuba County, California, vanished into the night on their way home from a college Let's start from the beginning The five men, often referred to as the boys by their loved ones were all very good friends. 2009-2021 Historic Mysteries. He saw a group of men, a woman, and a baby walking together, but they ignored him calling for help. The trailers heating system was never turned on. 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. Madruga had never been to Plumas, and a search began. Why were only four men found, and what happened to the fifth? Apr. In this week's episode, we revisit two of our favorite Patreon episodes. Jack Antone Madruga, a high school graduate, and Army veteran was laid off in November 1977 from his job as a busboy for Sunsweet Growers. Inside the trailer, authorities found heavy clothing, matches, playing cards, books, wooden furniture, and other materials which could have easily been used to start a fire. They would have to have gone east for a long time from Chico, instead of south towards their homes. 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. The story from here is a little confusing. Bill Sterling was 29 years old and intellectually disabled. On the ground, officers tried to use horses to get around on the rocky roads. These five friends were part of a locally sponsored team for the mentally disabled called the Gateway Gators. He didnt think much about what hed seen until he heard about the disappearances. but hadnt been diagnosed as mentally disabled and both he and Gary had served in the U.S. Army and had drivers licenses. Don't you let me oversleep". Weihers family told police he lacked common sense from his disability citing an incident where he had to be dragged from his bed while the ceiling was on fire. Tickets from the UC Davis game were also there so it was clear they had at least made it to the game to cheer on the team. Around nine inches of snow dropped on the upper mountain. It was February 24, 1978, and Shones was miles from help. We also service a large portion of incorporated Yuba City under contract. [7] On March 3, the woman, who saw fliers that had been distributed with the men's pictures and information about the $1,215 ($5,000 in 2021 dollars),[8] reward the families had put up, told deputies that four of them had stopped at the store in a red pickup truck, two days after the disappearance. [5], The woman said she immediately realized that the men were not from the area because of their "big eyes and facial expressions". Itsweird. Ted's feet were also badly frostbitten. 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. Authorities think one of the boys may have laid down to rest or sleep, which is a side effect of late-stage hypothermia, and it seems the other boy stayed with his friend until he, too, froze to death. Every day you've got a thousand leads. Months later the remains of 4 Join us as we discuss the Yuba County Five and their mysterious disappearance. There was nothing left of him but bones. Autopsies confirmed their death was caused by hypothermia. William Lee Sterling, who was Madruga's special friend and deeply religious, would spend hours at the library reading literature to help bring Jesus to patients in mental hospitals. It still remains one of the most baffling cases within the US. https://bit.ly/2J4kzJENew Merch Drops.. Despite finding evidence that Matthias was in the trailer with Weiher at some point, they never found Matthias. The day after Weiher's body was discovered, searchers found the remains of Madruga and Sterling. The five men had prepared the night before, some even laying out their uniforms and asking their parents to wake them up on time. About five miles from Weihers remains, the remains of Sterling & Marduga were found. In February 1978, five young men drove from Yuba City to Chico to watch a basketball game. According to a California Highway Patrol accident . Why do that unless something more frightening was right behind them? Her academic background has inspired her to share the parts of history not in most textbooks. 2019. It was getting cold after he wasnt able to keep the cars AC heat running anymore, but to his relief he saw headlights in the distance. Same when it comes to that woman and baby that Shones saw with the Yuba County 5, though Shones admitted he could have hallucinated everything. Their clothes had been laid out the evening of the 24th, before they left for Chico with "Gateway Gators" on them, from the Yuba City vocational rehabilitation center for the handicapped where they all played basketball. Purposeful motion like that is not consistent with the circular patterns traveled by those who genuinely believe themselves lost. Why did they walk away from their car in a snow-filled forest? The Yuba County 5 remains one of the most baffling puzzles within the true crime community. A Yuba City police photo, left, shows Michael Alexander's backyard during a nighttime search of his family's house on Jan. 25, 2013. [2] The keys were not present, suggesting at first that the car had been abandoned because it might not have been functioning properly, with the intention of returning later with help; when police hot-wired the car, the engine started immediately, and the fuel gauge indicated the gasoline tank was one quarter full. They lay on opposite sides of the road to the trailer, 11.4 miles from the car. Shones said he saw a woman as well, and that he also heard a babys cry. Jake Paul They even seemed to be trying to conceal their presence since they momentarily shut off the flashlights they had been shining. He Hello and welcome to your favorite podcast that goes bump in the night. The Investigations Unit is dedicated to making continued advancements in the area of crime scene investigation while expanding to include expertise in gang suppression and narcotics enforcement. Later, he saw what he believed were flashlights. He passed a 1969 Mercury Montego, but the vehicle had no occupants. With so much food close by why wasn't he eating. The Disappearance of the Yuba County Five is a tragic story and a puzzling mystery. One of the c-ration cans had been opened with an Army P38 can opener. Another image, right, taken by detectives shows a wound on. Winners receive a trip to Los Angeles for a week. Madruga, who owned the Mercury, drove his four friends to a collegiate basketball game at the California State University, Chico. Off the job, outside of his family, he was close friends with four slightly older men who either had slight intellectual disabilities (Sterling and Huett) or were informally considered "slow learners" (Weiher and Madruga, also an Army veteran). It was about an hour away from their homes, but it was a pretty straight shot there and back. Four of them would, in the warmer months, be found dead. One of the strangest things about Shones encounter was that he said a little he saw a group of five men. The trailer was located about 19 miles up the mountain from where the car was found. [3], While he was stationed in West Germany as part of his United States Army service in the early 1970s, Gary Mathias, a native of Yuba City, California, developed drug problems. Jack had low I.Q. 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. On June 15, 1989 a Polaroid photo of a young woman and boy, bound and gagged was found in a convenience store parking lot in Florida. Huetts skeletonized remains were found shortly after. In her free time, Bianca enjoys stabilizing dangling modifiers and walking her cat. The Mercury would be found last where Shones saw it with enough gas for the five to return home. What had brought them to the middle of nowhere and why had Shones seen them with a woman and a baby? At 32, Weiher was the oldest, a former janitor who was closest to the youngest of the group, 24-year-old Huett. Well, the last sighting of the Yuba County 5 wasdecidedly not. Juan Corona is seen in this Jan. 23, 1987, photo, 16 years after a mass murder case began unfolding in Sutter County. "He was either tricked or threatened.". [2] The car was unlocked and had a window rolled down when it was found; his family indicated it was unlike him to leave the car so unsecured. Have you noticed theres been no mention of Matthiass body? This case can be best summarized by then-Yuba County sheriff Jack Beecham who described it as bizarre as hell.. What did they find Mystery True Crime und wahre Verbrechen aus Deutschland
Kalifornien, Februar 1978: Am ! Why did the men turn east in the first place? Nobody knew why his car was there or why the Yuba County Five were even in Plumas. The thought was that Madruga took a wrong turn and kept going straight ahead instead of turning around. For example, he often asked why he should stop at a stop sign, and one night he had to be dragged out of bed while the ceiling of his bedroom was burning in a house fire because he was afraid he would miss his job if he got up. [2], Police could not figure out why the men had abandoned the car. She recalled how he and Sterling had helped someone they knew get to the hospital after overdosing on Valium. At that time, no trace of the men was found. Become a member of StrangeOutdoors for exclusive content, See the latest Exclusive members-only articles on StrangeOutdoors.com, Read more strange stories from California, Chris Sylvia (The disturbing Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) disappearances), The Yosemite National Park Sightseer Murders and the two faces of evil, The mysterious disappearance of James J. 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These five men were great friends. Chico, California. 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. The passengers then left together in one car. Today, we're covering the true crime story of the Yuba County 5. They continues walking, ignoring him. Your favorite mother-daughter podcast explains the freaky similarities of 1959's Russian Dyatlov Robin and Adam proudly present Episode 141 of Scary(ish)! https://bit.ly/2IJL4EXWant More True Crime? Bizarre Disappearance of Keith Reinhard in Silver Plume, Colorado, Missing 411: Disappearances in the Wilderness, https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article226777394.html, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1978/07/06/5-boys-who-never-come-back/f8b30b11-baeb-4351-89f3-26456a76a4fb/, https://medium.com/the-mystery-box/the-disturbingly-mysterious-disappearance-of-the-yuba-county-boys-b8a7dfd07ab0. Police began to speculate that if Matthias had gone off his medication he might have gone on a psychotic break that led him to bring his somewhat docile friends there. When they opened the door, they were overcome by the odor of what turned out to be a decaying body inside. Afterwards, they stopped at a local market for snacks and 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. The real mystery is that Mathias was never found. None of them returned. Their names were Ted Weiher, Gary Mathias, Jack Madruga, Jack Huett, and Bill Sterling. Historic Mysteries provides captivating articles on archaeology, history, and unexplained mysteries. a mild heart attack. The Russian case is as mysterious as the Mathias Group in Californias Plumas National Forest. He made it home safely that night, but when the police found Madrugas Mercury Montego it only left them more confused. How did a fun night out with the boys turn into a death sentence in some remote snowy mountains? To this day, Gary Mathais remains the only person missing. There they bought snacks along with sodas and cartons of milk to drink. However, no trace of him has ever been found. 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. His car had gotten stuck in the snow, and pushing it out by himself brought it on. Weihers decaying body was inside the trailer, and the scene around him was very odd. The Yuba County Five: With Tim Donahue, Michael May, Dominick Sherry, Alexis Boozer Sterling. When Shones spotted their abandoned Mercury, the car had been driven roughly 70 miles away from the Chico basketball game. But as he drove further into the night, snowdrifts slowed his tires. At the time, Shones was preoccupied with his own emergency. [2], Police in Butte and Yuba counties began searching along the route the men took to Chico. Nobody could figure out why the boys were there. A table by the bed held his nickel ring with "Ted" engraved on it, his gold necklace, his wallet (with cash inside), and a gold Waltham watch, its crystal missing, which the families say had not belonged to any of the five men. A 46-mile drive, around one hour. This, and the considerable distance from the car to where the bodies were found, has led to suspicions of foul play. Two days later, Huetts own father found his sons backbone under a manzanita bush while with a search party in the mountains. As of 2018 the Yuba county coroner was by default the elected Sheriff, and any and all deputized officers may serve as assistant coroner if needed. True crime memes: Your strange obsession in a nutshell, 'The Kalief Browder Story': Most insane true-crime show ever. In 1978, five friends set out for home from a basketball game. [9], It also seemed that Weiher had not been alone in the trailer, and that Mathias and possibly Huett had been there with him. Hours later, Shones felt well enough to walk to get help. The Yuba County Five were young men from Yuba City, California, United States, all with mild mental or psychiatric issues, who attended a college basketball game at California State University, Chico on the night of February 24, 1978. A dozen C-ration cans from a storage shed outside had been opened and their contents consumed, but a locker in the same shed that held an even greater assortment of dehydrated foods, enough to keep all five men fed for a year if that had been necessary, had not even been opened.
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