Shones had gone outside to try to push his car out of the snow. When authorities lifted the veil, they found Weiher, his shoes missing and his feet badly frostbitten. Four days later their car was found on a Plumas National Forest access road. They left after it finished and then somehow drove up a mountain into the wilderness and were never seen alive again. They decided to drive to Chico that night to cheer on the UC Davis basketball team in an away game against Chico State. When morning came and they had not, the police were notified. One of them made a phone call from a nearby phone booth, and the other two stayed in the truck. Hours later, Shones felt well enough to walk to get help. There was nothing left of him but bones. All five travelled in Madruga's car, a 1969 Mercury Montego. [6] He was wearing a velour shirt and lightweight pants, but his shoes could not be found. Why did they abandon the trip to Yuba? 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. No one even covered the window they had smashed to get inside of the trailer. New as of February 2022, the "Yuba County Five" podcast is made up of seven episodes, each averaging about 35 minutes long. When he went back outside to yell into the darkness, no one responded to the sound of his voice. They found a body tucked into a bed, draped in sheets from head to toe. The five were going to see a UC Davis basketball game and come straight home. The case has been called the Mathias Group Incident, the Yuba City Five Case and the American Dyatlov Pass incident. 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. Where is Matthias? To this day, no one knows why these four young men died in snowy mountains that were so far from home. Helicopters surveyed the area from above. Turns out I totally missed a book that was published last December full of exclusive new interviews with family . He saw a group of men, a woman, and a baby walking together, but they ignored him calling for help. 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 men consumed 36 of the meals but left the majority of them untouched. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The trailer had food and propane. 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. Also known as America's Dyatlov Pass, this missing persons case is incredibly bizarre and cr. The 55-year-old Californian had felt fine just a few minutes previously, navigating his Volkswagen on a desolate mountain road near Rogers Cow Camp in the Plumas National Forest to see if weather conditions were good enough to bring his family along for a weekend excursion the following day. They soon started to discover some very strange facts. The Yuba County Sheriff's Office says 44-year-old Christine Adams of Visalia was found with obvious physical trauma in a guest room at a residence in the 17000 block of Indiana Ranch Road around 8 . In June of that year, a small group of weekend motorcyclists came across an abandoned forest service trailer on a campground site. 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. Listen Now For our friends in the Deaf and Signing community, you can view an ASL version of this episode HERE. Why did the men turn east in the first place? Not much remained of Huett. With so much food close by why wasn't he eating. He had left his tennis shoes behind in the trailer with Weihers body and had taken the mans leather shoes. An anthology of True Crime headlined by the strange disappearance of the Yuba County Five.When Joe Shones left his house on February 24, 1978, he seemed to be in good health. 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! CAUTION, CRIME SCENE PHOTOS! The men, panicking, may have believed their car was stuck and that they needed to get help. Police found no evidence of foul play at the site of the car, but the car was unlocked, one window was down and the keys were nowhere to be seen. 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. They even seemed to be trying to conceal their presence since they momentarily shut off the flashlights they had been shining. 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. Mobile:07904191715 Office Number:020 37124640 Email:smax3ddesignstudio@gmail.com. When Weiher and Sterling didnt come home, their mothers began calling the parents of the others, and soon the police were involved. Huetts bones were found not long after. 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. His car had gotten stuck in the snow, and pushing it out by himself brought it on. Did Prince Andrew fly on Jeffrey Epsteins plane Lolita Express? 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. 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. Its players were in their 20s or early 30s and suffered from some form of . The group's car was left open, with gas in the tank and in working order. Crime Junkie. The Gateway Gators was a collegiate basketball team at the rehabilitation center of Yuba City, California. Why didnt they attempt to move the car once it got stuck, instead of walking to nowhere in the middle of the night? 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. After the investigation details had been released, Joseph Schons came forward. Posted on February 22, 2022 by . All the conspiracies about this financier, 'America's Most Wanted': Behind the most tragic true-crime story ever. No fire had been set in the trailer's fireplace, despite an ample supply of matches and paperback novels to use as kindling. In a storage shed outside, there was a years supply of c-rations. 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. The two cars stopped about 20 feet from him. [2] Weiher's family members said that he lacked common sense as a result of his mental disability. None of them was known to have any business on that part of the mountain. Inside the trailer, he found the body of Ted Weiher. They would have to have gone east for a long time from Chico, instead of south towards their homes. There was a half moon that night, a winter moon in a cloudless sky. The area in which the incident took place was named Dyatlov Pass in honor of the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov. Itsweird. Serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades stalked the highways of Texas in his mobile torture and death chamber. He Hello and welcome to your favorite podcast that goes bump in the night. The story from here is a little confusing. The boys parents alerted the authorities after confirming none of them made it home. She recalled how he and Sterling had helped someone they knew get to the hospital after overdosing on Valium. He hung up on them, they told sheriff's investigators. His tennis sneakers were in the trailer and the cans seemed to have been opened by the kind of military issue P-38 can opener Matthias might have been familiar with, but there was no Matthias. [2], The mystery deepened after police towed the car back to the station for a more thorough examination. He had lost almost half his body weight and his feet were badly frostbitten. The next night, Archie and his buddies went out in search of victim number one. Heavy forestry clothing, which could have kept the men warm, also remained where it had been stored. We know good and well that somebody made them do it. He had driven up there, where he had a cabin, to check the snowpack in advance of a weekend ski trip with his family. 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." [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. The keys to the vehicle were gone. . How did they walk in normal shoes without outdoor clothing so far in snow several feet thick? Four decades later, the fifth man from the car has never been found. 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. What had brought them to the middle of nowhere and why had Shones seen them with a woman and a baby? February 24, 1978. A woman takes advantage of her growing celebrity status when the police and the public think her dead husband is just missing. Some of the rations in and around the trailer were eaten but much of it was untouched. There was never any accounting for their strange decision to turn toward unfamiliar territory. "We know good and well somebody made them do it," she said. The authorities and the boys parents alike wondered what on Earth they had been doing on this dirt mountain road. Two days later, just off the same road but much closer to the trailer, Jackie Huett's father found his son's backbone along with a pair of Levis and ripple-soled "Get Theres" shoes. 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. Many, if not most should be considered armed and dangerous. Police say Brady Oestrike, 31, killed 25-year-old Charles . The mother of Aaron Carter shared photographs on social media from what she claims is the death scene from the pop singer's home in November. Hours later, back inside his car, he saw what he thought were flashlights. The keys were gone and there was evidence of the boys having stopped at a convenience store for snacks. Madruga's parents said he did not like the cold weather and had never been up into the mountains. This could explain the strange story told by Joseph Schons where he said he saw flashlights around a car. But all five friends wound up missing or dead. No one had even bothered to cover the broken window they had smashed in to get inside. The whole case is weird. ", "There was some force that made em go up there." Sullivan Ranch Crime Scene. It was suggesting someone create a video on the Yuba County 5 based on some new information. It was possible that Madruga had missed the turn-off and gotten lost, driving deeper into darkness until the snow ground the Mercury to a halt. Shones said he cried for help but got no reply. Schons' reports have been quite strange over the years and somewhat varied. They played basketball together through a Gateway program and were that night . Soon, police found two other corpsesthose of Sterling and Madruga4.5 miles away from Weiher's remains. The Yuba County Five Episode aired Jan 8, 2022 YOUR RATING Rate Documentary In 1978, a Mercury Montego was found abandoned in the Plumas National Forest, and the remains of four men found 20 miles away. 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 . ", 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. 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. Perhaps, Shones thought, it belonged to the group he had seen earlier. 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. Afterwards, they stopped at a local market for snacks and drinks. [3] The eventual discovery of four of the five men's bodies seemed to suggest otherwise, but raised even more questions about what had happened that night, and whether at least one of them might have been rescued. Ted apparently had a slow and agonizing death from starvation having lost over half his body weight. Some were able to work side jobs, while others couldnt. Police and the families never ruled out foul play. 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. After Weiher died, or after the others thought he had died, they may have decided to try to get back to civilization by different ways, such as walking overland.[6]. "Bizarre," says John Thompson, the special agent from the California Department of Justice who had joined the investigation. [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. 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. Similarly, another shed nearby held a butane tank with a valve that, had it been opened, would have fed the trailer's heating system. Sadly, these men were able to cheer on UC Davis, but they never made it to their own basketball match. Were going to be covering a story Let's discuss the strange disappearance of the Yuba County Five.  These are questions that may never be answered. This time the victim was a 14-year-old girl named Dawn Basom. NEW! Allison Janney leads an all-star cast in the new film, "Breaking News in Yuba County.". All five had intellectual disabilities or psychiatric issues to various degrees; all of them lived with family, who kept a close eye on them. This week on Loose Units, Four months after the disappearance of the Yuba County Five, the thaw came. It was terribly snowy on that country road and his cars wheels had gotten stuck. Weihers decaying body was found lying on a bed wrapped in eight sheets. There are many questions about this weird case. However, watching the creepy flick will remind anyone familiar with the case of the Yuba County Five of those poor, lost young men. Related Article Donnie Wahlberg unravels The Amityville Murders in this 6-episode true crime series, 'Very Scary People' The passengers then left together in one car. Johnny Arismendez was arrested on suspicion of murder and Victor Arismendez for . In this week's episode, Emilie and Shannon discuss the unsettling and still unsolved case of the Could the "boys" from Yuba County have been targeted by a stranger? Police records showed he had become violent on occasion and was charged with assault twice. Were the group together and then decided to separate after Ted's death to try and find help? 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. 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. 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. Several months later, in June, the body of Ted Weiher was found in a trailer with missing shoes and badly frostbitten feet. There was a whole shed full of canned food but it appeared only a dozen had been opened and eaten. The real mystery is that Mathias was never found. 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. Don't you let me oversleep". But then the story takes an even stranger turn. vanished while driving home from a basketball game. The front window of the trailer had been broken. There they bought snacks along with sodas and cartons of milk to drink. Gary Matthias was one of the five who didnt have a mental disability. 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 . Those kinds of mysteries still pervade the Yuba County Five case, as the men were known to follow patterns rather than deviate from them so drastically and right before a life-changing opportunity. Purposeful motion like that is not consistent with the circular patterns traveled by those who genuinely believe themselves lost. Weiher seemingly walked nearly 20 miles to the trailer in frigid conditions, despite having left his coat at home. " Yuba County 5 or the Yuba incident that has been called the American Dyatlov pass. On Thursday, the New York District Attorney released crime scene photos showing blood spatter and the knife allegedly used by nanny Yoselyn Ortega to kill two young children in her care. On Friday, February 24th, the five men drove about 50 miles north from Yuba to Chico to attend a college basketball game. 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. 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. This, and the considerable distance from the car to where the bodies were found, has led to suspicions of foul play. He made it home safely that night, but when the police found Madrugas Mercury Montego it only left them more confused. When he got out to push his car, the exertion brought on a searing pain in his chest. About Us. But they did. 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. He was driving up the gravel road to his cabin when his car became stuck in the snow and unfortunately, whilst trying to push his car out, he suffered a heart attack. He weighed just 120 pounds at the time of his death. However, the discovery of the car raised more questions than it answered. 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. Police and the families never ruled out foul play. 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. The turquoise and white 1969 Mercury Montego was located around a 2.5-hour drive from Chico, in the opposite direction from the route they would have been expected to drive home and way up in the mountains in the Plumas National Forest. Almost certainly, he had taken Weihers leather shoes, though police had no real idea why. The next day, a deputy sheriff found a skull downhill from the bush, 300 feet (91m) away, confirmed by dental records later to have been Huett's. 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. From his beard growth, they knew Weiher had been living there anywhere between eight and 13 weeks. The men wore only light coats against the cool temperatures in the upper Sacramento Valley at night that time of year. The five friends decided to go to a basketball game together to cheer on the UC Davis team. This week were going to be covering a very strange story. He passed a 1969 Mercury Montego, but the vehicle had no occupants. Police never ruled out foul play, nor did the families. 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.

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