Like Mathias, each man lived with his parents, all of whom referred to them collectively as "the boys". It was a man named Joe Shones who alerted them about it. Everyone is welcome to attend. Authorities would later discover that a Snowcat vehicle had pushed snow aside to cut a path toward the trailer on February 23, which may have given the men some hope they were in an area where Forest Service employees might soon return. Purposeful motion like that is not consistent with the circular patterns traveled by those who genuinely believe themselves lost. Up in the mountains above the Feather River, the snow-drifts sometimes rose to 15 feet. 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. Janney plays Sue Buttons . 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. The case has been called the Mathias Group Incident, the Yuba City Five Case and the American Dyatlov Pass incident. [2], Police could not figure out why the men had abandoned the car. From his beard growth, they knew Weiher had been living there anywhere between eight and 13 weeks. 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. A woman takes advantage of her growing celebrity status when the police and the public think her dead husband is just missing. This was strange because it seemed none of the trailers life-saving amenities had been used. Winners receive a trip to Los Angeles for a week. There was no reason to believe he wouldnt be home in time for his next dose. The two cars stopped about 20 feet from him. 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". After the investigation details had been released, Joseph Schons came forward. This week we cover the bizarre case of the Yuba County Five.  "Oh, Grandma, I won't need a coat," Ted said. Is Ice Spices new boyfriend Pete Davidson? When Weiher and Sterling didnt come home, their mothers began calling the parents of the others, and soon the police were involved. What's so unbelievable about all of this is that Archie actually convinced a group of friends that killing 7 people would bring baby Craig back from the dead! He Hello and welcome to your favorite podcast that goes bump in the night. The next day, their car was Five men from Yuba City, California, disappeared in 1978 after a trip to a nearby town. [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. Inside the trailer, he found the body of Ted Weiher. Shones eventually decided hed have to help himself and hike down the snowy road until he got help. When Shones spotted their abandoned Mercury, the car had been driven roughly 70 miles away from the Chico basketball game. The trailer was 19 miles away from the car. Since Mathias had presumably not taken his medication, pictures of him were distributed to mental institutions all over California. He called to them for help, but they stopped talking and turned their headlights out. Ted Weiher's sister-in-law has theorized that the men may have seen something take place at the basketball game that prompted someone to chase them. The group aged between 24 and 32 years of age, had developmental disabilities and were all enrolled in a day program for mentally handicapped adults. All the drama surrounding the duo. True Crime Out Loud B and Jen Coast2CoastCrime Coast2CoastCrime The Women of Death Row Mariel and Amanda True Crime & Consequences Kari & Brian Current Inside Crime with Angeline Hartmann Angeline Hartmann: Journalist and Crimefighter True Crime and Coke truecrimeandcoke Unnatural: A True Crime Podcast Emily and Andy yuba county 5 crime scene photos. The Yuba County Five were young men from Yuba City, California, all 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. Is Hailey Bieber obsessed with Justin Biebers ex Selena Gomez? It was impossible to tell just how long it had been there. 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. [6] He was wearing a velour shirt and lightweight pants, but his shoes could not be found. His leather shoes were off and missing. After his return from Army service in Germany, he would fail to take his drugs and lapse into a disoriented psychosis that usually landed him in a Veterans Administration hospital. Many people knew this group of friends around town. In this week's episode, we revisit two of our favorite Patreon episodes. If authorities couldnt make any sense of how the group's day had ended on February 24, they at least had some idea of how it began. Today, Yuba City Police Department still has the investigation while the prosecution was left with the state Attorney General's office. At the time, Shones was preoccupied with his own emergency. Madruga's body had been partially consumed by scavenging animals; only bones remained of Sterling, scattered over a small area. [5], The woman said she immediately realized that the men were not from the area because of their "big eyes and facial expressions". The trailer was 19 miles away from the car. Investigation. In 1978, five young men disappeared after seeing a basketball game, never to be seen alive February 24, 1978. They never returned home. They were always referred to by their families as the boys even though they were all full-grown men from ages 24-32. He passed a 1969 Mercury Montego, but the vehicle had no occupants. Unfortunately, as he did, he started suffering a heart attack. As he sat in his car wondering what to do, he noticed two sets of headlights, one belonging to a pickup truck. 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. The game ended around 10 p.m. Doctors later confirmed that he had indeed experienced a mild heart attack. [9], It also seemed that Weiher had not been alone in the trailer, and that Mathias and possibly Huett had been there with him. Updated: 4:21 PM PDT April 11, 2022. 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. [2] Autopsies showed that they both died of hypothermia. They would have to have gone east for a long time from Chico, instead of south towards their homes. He weighed just 120 pounds at the time of his death. Joe Shones, age 55, was having car trouble and a mild heart attack. To this day, Gary Mathais remains the only person missing. Allison Janney leads an all-star cast in the new film, "Breaking News in Yuba County.". Have you noticed theres been no mention of Matthiass body? This week were going to be covering a very strange story. The initial investigation by Yuba County police was frustrated by the snowfall in the region that winter. Today, we're covering the true crime story of the Yuba County 5. More baffling, Weiher was emaciated. The photos on the slideshow above were taken on June 28, 2014. Several bed sheets in a shroud were tightly tucked over his body, indicating that someone else had been with him in the trailer as he could not have bundled himself up in this manner. What had brought them to the middle of nowhere and why had Shones seen them with a woman and a baby? Sadly, these men were able to cheer on UC Davis, but they never made it to their own basketball match. Stars Tim Donahue Michael May Dominick Sherry 19 miles in heavy snow is quite a hike without proper equipment. 3 While the ground search was called off, a California Highway Patrol helicopter continued to scour the area from the sky. vanished while driving home from a basketball game. Weiher lived for, at least, eight weeks after his disappearance given his beard growth on his body. "He was either tricked or threatened.". 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. Did they somehow leave the car and lose the keys. Thats because they never found it. Marduga still had the keys to the Mercury. They soon started to discover some very strange facts. All five piled back into the Mercury and took off. As a result of their varying conditions, they each lived at home with their parents. Curious, they went inside. They left after it finished and then somehow drove up a mountain into the wilderness and were never seen alive again. In a storage shed outside, there was a years supply of c-rations. It was Weiher who had died under the most mysterious circumstances. All the drama surrounding the duo. Why did Ted Weiher apparently starve to death? Afterwards, they stopped at a local market for snacks and drinks. The area in which the incident took place was named Dyatlov Pass in honor of the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov. Her mother had been recently widowed and it's a fair question to ask how much one person can stand. Is Netflix's 'The Imposter' its most terrifying true-crime story yet? [2], Mathias supplemented his Army disability pay by working in his stepfather's gardening business. The police said she was "a credible witness" and they took her account seriously. [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 felt fine, especially for 55, and he'd decided that day to venture up a lonely road through the Plumas National Forest, close to Rogers Cow Camp . They played basketball together through a Gateway program and were that night . But instead of driving south toward their homes roughly 50 miles away, they inexplicably drove east. The Yuba County 5 remains one of the most baffling puzzles within the true crime community. Were the group together and then decided to separate after Ted's death to try and find help? Updated: 1:41 PM MST March 2, 2023. At 5:30p.m., about 150 feet (46m) up the road, he, too, had gotten stuck in the snow. He would later say he saw a group of men, one woman, and a baby. 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. "Bizarre," says John Thompson, the special agent from the California Department of Justice who had joined the investigation. 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. The day after Weiher's body was discovered, searchers found the remains of Madruga and Sterling. In this episode, Zack tells us about a very creepy one that is available on Netflix. How these five men came to be on an inhospitable mountain road more than 50 miles from their homes in and around Marysville and Yuba City, California, was just one of the mysteries surrounding their disappearance. About five miles from Weihers remains, the remains of Sterling & Marduga were found. Ashley talks about a case that is still unsolved to this day-- the Yuba County Five, also February 24, 1978 Five friends drove 50 miles from their homes in Yuba City California to cheer ** Viewer discretion is advised. Gary Matthias was one of the five who didnt have a mental disability. The route home wasnt a difficult one, and since the map police also found inside of the Mercury Montego was neatly folded up, they didnt seem to have been lost. 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. Not until the thaw came. Police and the families never ruled out foul play. VIEW and share photos of real crime scenes. The suspect . Search and rescue teams then began combing the area around the trailer. Could be violent to some. The plan was for them to watch the game and then come back home to get a good nights rest before their own basketball game the next day. "All they had to do was turn that gas on," says Yuba County Lt. Lance Ayers, "and they'd have had gas to the trailer, and heat.". Many, if not most should be considered armed and dangerous. "And no explanations.