Weiher's brother told the Los Angeles Times that while driving to Brownsville in a different car in apparent ignorance of the basketball game seemed completely out of character for them, the owner's description of the two men's behavior seemed consistent with them, as Weiher would "eat anything he could get his hands on" and was often accompanied by Huett more than any of the other four. No one had even bothered to cover the broken window they had smashed in to get inside. Joe Shones, age 55, was having car trouble and a mild heart attack. (They changed her name to "Dale Harum" in Michigan Murders .) [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. Schons shared with the police that he had been on the same road as the Yuba County 5 that night - he had been checking out skiing conditions at a lodge he owned. The wrappers and empty cartons and cans they had purchased in Chico were present, along with programs from the basketball game they had watched and a neatly folded road map of California. 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. In 1978, in Yuba County California, five young men vanish. The Yuba County Five Case (Mathias Group) Background 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. Natural spring well houses and outhouse structures still stand, and evidence of bonfires clogs the property. Jane Carter, who goes by Jane Schneck on Facebook . But there had been no apparent attempt to start a fire despite the freezing temperature on the mountain. The county sheriffs department began searching for the men. Our groundbreaking Augmented Reality technology accurately recreates crime scenes and allows users to experience and investigate them just as detectives at the actual crime scenes did. 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. No one even covered the window they had smashed to get inside of the trailer. Mathias took Stellazine and Cogentin, both used in the treatment of schizophrenia. The autopsy showed that he had died of a combination of starvation and hypothermia. It was February 24, 1978, and Shones was miles from help. This eventually led to him being diagnosed with schizophrenia and being psychiatrically discharged. A 46-mile drive, around one hour. Have you noticed theres been no mention of Matthiass body? The Gateway Gators was a collegiate basketball team at the rehabilitation center of Yuba City, California. " Yuba County 5 or the Yuba incident that has been called the American Dyatlov pass. Search parties were sent to investigate and more bodies were found. The Yuba County 5 remains one of the most baffling puzzles within the true crime community. Maybe something supernatural did happen to the boys of Americas Dyatlov Pass. Huett's remains were located northeast of the trailer, like Sterling's and Madruga's. Perhaps, Shones thought, it belonged to the group he had seen earlier. If you come across them, do not attempt to apprehend them yourself. 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. "I'm positive he never went up there on his own," she told the paper. Chico to Yuba City is a straight down Highway 70 through the Central Valley in low-lying land with no snow at this time of the year. This case is bizarre as hell, Yuba County undersheriff Jack Beecham told reporters. There was a half moon that night, a winter moon in a cloudless sky. Investigators could not determine why the car was abandoned, as it was in good working order and could easily have been pushed out of the snowpack it was in. Many, if not most should be considered armed and dangerous. Months passed and no progress was made on the boys case. In the early morning hours of February 25, Shones made it to the lodge and was able to get medical treatment. Police never ruled out foul play, nor did the families. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yuba_County_Five&oldid=1142230284, February 1978 events in the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Disappearance in unusual incident where four of his traveling companions died, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 06:22. These were individual canned, pre-cooked, and prepared meals issued to the U.S. military. Besides, who knows. Madruga's parents said he did not like the cold weather and had never been up into the mountains. "They wouldn't have fled off in the wood like a bunch of quail. Following the game, the five men visited a local store and purchased snacks and drinks, shortly before 10pm. But they did. All five piled back into the Mercury and took off. Did Prince Andrew fly on Jeffrey Epsteins plane Lolita Express? He was schizophrenic, a condition controlled by medication he hadnt bothered to bring along. He had even left a window rolled down, something he would never normally do. 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. Thats why when the late hours of the night turned into the wee hours of the morning, and none of the boys returned home, their parents started to get worried. 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. Twitter reacts. "Bizarre as hell" was Beechams summary. His shoes and jeans nearby helped identify the body. One of them made a phone call from a nearby phone booth, and the other two stayed in the truck. Some of the rations in and around the trailer were eaten but much of it was untouched. He had driven up there, where he had a cabin, to check the snowpack in advance of a weekend ski trip with his family. Almost certainly, he had taken Weihers leather shoes, though police had no real idea why. Sadly, these men were able to cheer on UC Davis, but they never made it to their own basketball match. They found a body tucked into a bed, draped in sheets from head to toe. The men wore only light coats against the cool temperatures in the upper Sacramento Valley at night that time of year. yuba county 5 crime scene photos. Hosted by Shannon McGarvey. The Mercury would be found last where Shones saw it with enough gas for the five to return home. Posted on December 5, 2021. [2], Weiher's body was on a bed with eight sheets wrapped around it, including the head. They even seemed to be trying to conceal their presence since they momentarily shut off the flashlights they had been shining. Heavy forestry clothing, which could have kept the men warm, also remained where it had been stored. Were going to be covering a story Let's discuss the strange disappearance of the Yuba County Five. As for getting a real answer in the case, we may never know unless someone talks or, maybe, Mathais is found. His car had gotten stuck in the snow, and pushing it out by himself brought it on. The story from here is a little confusing. Hours into his ordeal and with his car still stuck and now out of gas, Shones felt well enough to begin walking down the mountain road and toward a lodge roughly eight miles away. Is Ice Spices new boyfriend Pete Davidson? Joseph Schons of Sacramento told police he inadvertently wound up spending the night of February 2425 near where the Montego was found. This team was supported by a local program for people with mental disabilities. 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. vanished while driving home from a basketball game. . [2][4], The five men's favorite leisure activity was sports. 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. Looking out, he saw a car parked behind him, headlights on, with a group of people around it, one of which seemed to him to be a woman holding a baby. Sterling was in a wooded area, scattered over about 50 feet. Wyoming Police this week released photos from the July 2014 case known as the Craiglist murders. The Mercury Montego was slightly stuck in the snow, but it wasnt anything five healthy young men couldnt have handled pushing out. Some of them even laid out their uniforms for the team and asked their parents to make sure they woke up on time for the game. Is Netflix's 'The Imposter' its most terrifying true-crime story yet? Why do that unless something more frightening was right behind them? Heres what you need to know. As for getting a real answer in the case, we may never know unless someone talks or, maybe, Mathais is found. New as of February 2022, the "Yuba County Five" podcast is made up of seven episodes, each averaging about 35 minutes long. His leather shoes were off and missing. When Shones tried to get their attention one more they continued to ignore him. Ted apparently had a slow and agonizing death from starvation having lost over half his body weight. Is Ice Spices new boyfriend Pete Davidson? They found no sign of them, but a few days later, a Plumas National Forest ranger told investigators that he had seen the Montego parked along Oroville-Quincy Road in the forest on February 25. VIEW and share photos of real crime scenes. Why did Ted Weiher apparently starve to death? Directed by Tate Taylor and written by Amanda Idoko with Jake Gyllenhaal and Franklin Leonard among its producers, there was obviously something about Breaking News in Yuba County that snared all these great thesps - some gem on the page that became distorted in the journey to screen. Miles away from help, Shones thought he could flag down help. Read more Print length 152 pages Language English Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe Publication date Four days later their car was found on a Plumas National Forest access road. Episode Info Jackie Huett Photo Source Gary Mathias Photo Source Doctors later confirmed that he had indeed experienced a mild heart attack. However, no trace of him has ever been found. The Yuba County sheriff's office said they wouldn't resume the ground search unless new evidence came forward that indicated that the five men were still in the dense forest. This week, Emma teaches Brian about the Yuba County Five and their mysterious deaths. Updated: 1:41 PM MST March 2, 2023. Listen Now For our friends in the Deaf and Signing community, you can view an ASL version of this episode HERE. The Sutter County Sheriff's Office is responsible for crime prevention, law enforcement, and criminal investigation in the unincorporated areas of the County and in the City of Live Oak. The clerk remembers this as it was right before closing, so she was annoyed by having to get a large group checked out before closing and heading home herself. yuba county 5 crime scene photos 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. He had left his tennis shoes behind in the trailer with Weihers body and had taken the mans leather shoes. Jack Madruga's mother Mabel says firmly. 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. 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. 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). [2] His death, too, was attributed to hypothermia. How did the group end up around a trailer 19 miles from the car? "We know good and well somebody made them do it," she said. Two days later, Huetts own father found his sons backbone under a manzanita bush while with a search party in the mountains. This week Spencer and Ryan recount the strange Five young men travel to a basketball game and disappear. The real mystery is that Mathias was never found. It was a straight shot on the hiway from Chico to Yuba. "Not tonight." An assistant sheriff from Plumas County found a skull the next day, about 100 yards downhill from the rest of the bones which the family dentist used to identify the remains. When he went back outside to yell into the darkness, no one responded to the sound of his voice. Maybe something supernatural did happen to the boys of Americas Dyatlov Pass. [6], With the evidence not pointing to any clear conclusion about what happened the night the five men disappeared, police and the families were not ruling out the possibility that they had met with foul play. Find us on Elle Crime and Mo Tibbs comin' in hot with another unsolved crime. Up in the mountains above the Feather River, the snow-drifts sometimes rose to 15 feet. Bianca Myrtil is a writer and freelance editor. [6] On a table next to the bed were some of Weiher's personal effects, including his wallet (with cash), a nickel ring with "Ted" engraved on it, and a gold necklace he also wore. Several months later, in June, the body of Ted Weiher was found in a trailer with missing shoes and badly frostbitten feet. To this day, Gary Mathais remains the only person missing. But all five friends wound up missing or dead. One of the first famous crime scene photos was taken on May 5, 1903, in the home of a Parisian woman named Madame Debeinche who had been murdered. 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. At 32, Weiher was the oldest, a former janitor who was closest to the youngest of the group, 24-year-old Huett. At their homes, some of their parents waited up to make sure they returned. However, the discovery of the car raised more questions than it answered. Their names were Ted Weiher, Gary Mathias, Jack Madruga, Jack Huett, and Bill Sterling. When not talking and writing about pop culture (especially superheroes or any show with a paranormal bent), freelance writer Bec Heim is usually tackling her mountain of books, writing scripts or stories, or listening to podcasts. but hadnt been diagnosed as mentally disabled and both he and Gary had served in the U.S. Army and had drivers licenses.