yuba county 5 crime scene photos

Thats because they never found it. "They might have seen it and didn't even realize they seen it.". Some were able to work side jobs, while others couldnt. The Montego's undercarriage had no dents, gouges, or even mud scrapes, not even on its low-hanging muffler, despite having been driven a long distance up a mountain road with many bumps and ruts. 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". The case has been called the Mathias Group Incident, the Yuba City Five Case and the American Dyatlov Pass incident. Jack Madrugas mother had told reporters, There was some force that made em go up there. 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. 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. No keys were found in the car; when it was hotwired, it worked without a problem and had a quarter tank of gas. Several paperback booksperfect for fireswere also left untouched. They left after it finished and then somehow drove up a mountain into the wilderness and were never seen alive again. [6], Efforts to search the vicinity were hampered by a severe snowstorm that day. This team was supported by a local program for people with mental disabilities. The Mercury Montego was slightly stuck in the snow, but it wasnt anything five healthy young men couldnt have handled pushing out. Many people knew this group of friends around town. Mathiass shoes were found in the trailer, and it looked like the food cans that had been eaten were opened with a military P-38 can opener, which only Madruga or Mathias would know how to operate the device from their time in the army. . If police and the families of the men were expecting closure from the discovery of their bodies, they werent about to get it. He passed a 1969 Mercury Montego, but the vehicle had no occupants. Autopsies confirmed their death was caused by hypothermia. [REQ_ERR: COULDNT_RESOLVE_HOST] [KTrafficClient] Something is wrong. They found a body tucked into a bed, draped in sheets from head to toe. When they opened the door, they were overcome by the odor of what turned out to be a decaying body inside. 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. Premium Powerups . "I'm positive he never went up there on his own," she told the paper. Weihers decaying body was inside the trailer, and the scene around him was very odd. "Bizarre," says John Thompson, the special agent from the California Department of Justice who had joined the investigation. They werent missing this game. Police lights at a crime scene. Joseph Schons of Sacramento told police he inadvertently wound up spending the night of February 2425 near where the Montego was found. Zodiac Killer Facts An undated photo of Zodiac Killer suspect Arthur Leigh Allen. The Yuba County 5 remains one of the most baffling puzzles within the true crime community. The Yuba County Five Mysterious Death 1978 Mysterious Death , Exposure On the evening of Feb. 24, 1978, Gary Mathias and friends Bill Sterling, Jack Huett, Ted Weiher, and Jack Madruga loaded into Madruga's white 1969 Mercury Montego to drive to Chico, Calif., to watch the University of California, Davis men's. link Videos 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. Her academic background has inspired her to share the parts of history not in most textbooks. Ted's feet were also badly frostbitten. When morning came and they had not, the police were notified. 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. 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. Advertisement Coins. 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. 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. It had enough gas to continue on, but a snowbank had likely caused its tires to spin out. Bill Sterling was 29 years old and intellectually disabled. Northwest of the trailer, about a quarter-mile away, searchers found three wool forest service blankets and a two-cell flashlight lying by the side of the road. How did the men die? 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. Bianca Myrtil is a writer and freelance editor. The Otomi: Mesoamericas Forgotten Civilization? Why? The fireplace looked to have never been lit despite the availability of matches and kindling. Read More. 'America's Most Wanted': Behind the most tragic true-crime story ever. It was about an hour away from their homes, but it was a pretty straight shot there and back. Shones said he saw a woman as well, and that he also heard a babys cry. There was no reason to believe he wouldnt be home in time for his next dose. 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. "We know good and well somebody made them do it," she said. He was discharged from the army because he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. But what happened to the fifth? This case can be best summarized by then-Yuba County sheriff Jack Beecham who described it as bizarre as hell.. However, police discovered that Mathias friends hadnt seen or heard from him in over a year. 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. At 5:30p.m., about 150 feet (46m) up the road, he, too, had gotten stuck in the snow. This, and the considerable distance from the car to where the bodies were found, has led to suspicions of foul play. His shoes and jeans nearby helped identify the body. 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 so-called "Zodiac Killer" murdered at least five people between 1968 and 1969, taunted journalists and the police with complicated ciphers, and seemingly disappeared without a trace. Find us on Elle Crime and Mo Tibbs comin' in hot with another unsolved crime. [6], Two days later, as part of one of the other search parties, Jack Huett's father found his son's backbone[2] under a manzanita bush[6] 2 miles (3.2km) northeast of the trailer. Like Mathias, each man lived with his parents, all of whom referred to them collectively as "the boys". Police began searching the route the Yuba County Five would have taken back from Chico, and there were no signs of the boys. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. "Bizarre as hell" was Beechams summary. The driver had either used astonishing care and precision, the investigators figured, or else he knew the road well enough to anticipate every rut. 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. The Yuba County 5 went missing 42 years ago today in 1978. He stayed in bed because he was afraid he wouldnt get to work on time if he got up. On the ground, officers tried to use horses to get around on the rocky roads. These were individual canned, pre-cooked, and prepared meals issued to the U.S. military. 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. He was schizophrenic, a condition controlled by medication he hadnt bothered to bring along. The front window of the trailer had been broken. Explore Gaming. Huetts bones were found not long after. A 46-mile drive, around one hour. Hoping he could flag down the passerby, he exited his vehicle and began screaming for help. It was reasonable enough that he had seen the men strike out from a car they believed to be stuck, but who was the woman and the child? He was pretty sick. The five would either play sports together or watch them. SUTTER COUNTY, Calif. Two people are dead and a third has major injuries after a crash on Highway 20 in Sutter County Tuesday afternoon. There they bought snacks along with sodas and cartons of milk to drink. Shones later came forward with his story when the news broke about the disappearances, making him the last person to see the five alive. He saw a group of men, a woman, and a baby walking together, but they ignored him calling for help. Talking to Shones proved even more frustrating. Some of the Yuba County Fives parents told police that there was no reason their sons would have gone that far into the mountains while it was snowing. What had led them there? Today in our daily look back at odd occurrences in history takes us to California taking a quick l. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. 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]. 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. When the boys parents noticed their sons had not come home, the police were called. 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. It was impossible to tell just how long it had been there. The next day, their car was Five men from Yuba City, California, disappeared in 1978 after a trip to a nearby town. Were the group together and then decided to separate after Ted's death to try and find help? An impromptu road trip was definitely out of character. "They seen something at that game, at the parking lot," says Ted Weiher's sister-in-law. They made it to the game, but none of these "boys," as they came to be called, ever returned home.. 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. 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. 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. But authorities would later realize the biggest story to emerge from that dark, desolate road wasn't his brush with death. For months and months, they searched for signs of Matthias. 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. Five young men ended up where they should not have been and most likely never intended to be. 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. [2], Weiher's body was on a bed with eight sheets wrapped around it, including the head. Some mysteries are full of twists and turns, which leaves the police and the public confused and with more questions than answers. Weiher lived for, at least, eight weeks after his disappearance given his beard growth on his body. Our library is built with an all-inclusive goal: providing trustworthy resources for our community of advocates and experts. April 30, 2023 2:25 PM. Was it by chance they came across the trailer, or did someone lead them there? The next day when they failed to return from Chico, their families became concerned and called the police. [2], Most puzzling to the investigators was how Weiher had come to his fate. After the UC Davis team won their game, the five men went to pick up snacks & drinks for the drive home. Almost certainly, he had taken Weihers leather shoes, though police had no real idea why. This week, Georgia and Karen cover the disappearance of the Yuba County Five and the tragic Is there a rational explanation for what happened to the Yuba County Five? The Mercury would be found last where Shones saw it with enough gas for the five to return home. but hadnt been diagnosed as mentally disabled and both he and Gary had served in the U.S. Army and had drivers licenses. Around 9 a.m. on Monday, a woman suffering from a gunshot wound to the arm walked into the Yuba County Sheriff's Office to report an alleged shooting that had occurred overnight off Begonia Way and Saagennah Trail. A few hours later he saw flashlight beams outside his car and called out for help again, but immediately the lights went out. One theory was that the boys may have taken a side trip to visit some friends of Mathiass in a nearby town. 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. This eventually led to him being diagnosed with schizophrenia and being psychiatrically discharged. yuba county five crime scene photos. A ranger from the Plumas National Forest had told investigators he saw a Mercury Montego parked along one of the roads in the forest on February 25. This week were going to be covering a very strange story. The keys were gone and there was evidence of the boys having stopped at a convenience store for snacks. Is there any crime scene photos of the Yuba County Five? Not until the thaw came. The trailer was located about 19 miles up the mountain from where the car was found. The men did live at home with their respective parents but were independent, and some held jobs. Organizing a search party in the midst of winter was no easy task, especially when it meant combing through rough terrain filled with rocky surfaces, wooded paths, and snow-covered slopes. [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. 'Yuba County Five' uncovers more answers and even more questions about the 5 California men who went missing in 1978 True Crime April 11, 2022 Listen to 'Yuba County Five' Listen On a winter night in 1978, five young men from Yuba County, California attended a nearby college basketball game. As a result of their varying conditions, they each lived at home with their parents. Of the group, Gary Mathias had the most severe mental health He was suffering from schizophrenia and was on medication to control his symptoms. In the late 1960s, a serial killer hunted victims in Northern California. The car was stuck in a snow drift, showing signs that the Yuba County Five tried to get the car free. Open discussion about the Crime Junkie podcast. The Reykjavik Confessions: Why Admit to a Murder that Never Happened? [2] For whatever reason, the men had left the Montego; they had, instead of going back down the road (where they had passed the lodge that Schons later returned to), continued along the road in the direction they were originally going. Melba Madruga, Jack's mother, toldTheWashington Post that she believed "some force" had led the group astray. Madruga and the four other able-bodied men should have been able to dislodge it without a lot of difficulty. 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. Historic Mysteries is an Amazon Associate and earns from qualifying purchases. This week, Carter tells the guys about the strange case of the Yuba County 5. At the time, Shones was preoccupied with his own emergency. I read a couple of the other stories, but many of them were reruns 24 Gary had been in and out of mental health institutions, but at the time of this story, he was being treated with antipsychotics and was said to have been doing well. 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. His car had gotten stuck in the snow, and pushing it out by himself brought it on. Huetts skeletonized remains were found shortly after. Weiher had asked his mother to wash his new white high-topped sneakers for the tournament saying "We got a big game Saturday. Knowing that Madruga drove a Mercury Montego, the police went to investigate and found Madrugas car. The trailer was 19 miles away from the car. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after being honorably discharged from the army following a drug related incident. He had left his tennis shoes behind in the trailer with Weihers body and had taken the mans leather shoes. Every day you've got a thousand leads. Around them, police saw nothing but rugged, dense forest, hardly an appealing option for the lightly dressed young men. Madruga had never been to Plumas, and a search began. En 1978, un grupo de amigos con diferentes Los 5 de Yuba CIty, El Dyatlov Americano - Parte 2. All rights reserved. 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. As for getting a real answer in the case, we may never know unless someone talks or, maybe, Mathais is found. How did five men coming home from a college basketball game travel in the wrong direction and become lost in the woods in the mountains of California? Out of the five, the one man who stuck out a bit was Gary. The woman was transported to the . The authorities and the boys parents alike wondered what on Earth they had been doing on this dirt mountain road. However, the discovery of the car raised more questions than it answered. Also on the table was a gold watch, without its crystal, which Weiher's family said was not his,[2] and a partially melted candle. According to a California Highway Patrol accident . samochd Los 5 de Yuba City, El Dyatlov Americano - Parte 1. When the game ended at the California State University at around 10 pm, they stopped three blocks away at Behr's Market, mildly annoying the clerk (who was trying to close up), and bought one Hostess cherry pie, one Langendorf lemon pie, one Snickers bar, one Marathon bar, two Pepsis and a quart and a half of milk. And they traveled for a very long time. 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. None of them was known to have any business on that part of the mountain. The disappearance at Dyatlov Pass is perhaps one of the most famous snowy mysteries the world over. The Yuba County Sheriff's Office has lifted most evacuation orders previously issued for the Glen Fire. They were all homebodies for the most part, but one thing they strongly bonded over was sports. [5], Inside the car was evidence suggesting the men had been inside it between when they were last seen and when it was abandoned. However, in 2017 David Bruckner directed a movie that seems to be largely based on the Yuba County Five. The Russian case is as mysterious as the Mathias Group in Californias Plumas National Forest. Have the Island Boys lost their net worth after alleged murder? They soon started to discover some very strange facts. Did they somehow leave the car and lose the keys. Purposeful motion like that is not consistent with the circular patterns traveled by those who genuinely believe themselves lost. The Yuba County 5 remains one of the most baffling puzzles within the true crime community. Is Netflix's 'The Imposter' its most terrifying true-crime story yet? But what happened to the fifth? Their names were Ted Weiher, Gary Mathias, Jack Madruga, Jack Huett, and Bill Sterling. They were often lovingly referred to as boys, despite being from 24 to 32 years of age. Afterwards, they stopped at a local market for snacks and drinks. 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. This book will take you on a harrowing roller coaster ride, full of twists and turns and bizarre outcomes! This wasnt something any of them were going to miss. They entertained a number of eyewitness sightings of the men, including one where they were driving the pickup Shones had mentioned, but none seemed plausible. 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. Search parties were sent to investigate and more bodies were found. [2], Police in Butte and Yuba counties began searching along the route the men took to Chico. None of the men's families could speculate as to why they might have driven up a long and winding dirt road[a] on a winter night deep into a high-elevation remote forest, without any extra clothing and on the night before a basketball game they had been discussing excitedly for several weeks. However, no trace of him has ever been found. 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. 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. The Other Titanic? Months passed and no progress was made on the boys case. 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. February 24, 1978. Two days after Madruga and Sterlins remains were found, they found the remains of Jackie Huett. 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. Mathias was a paranoid schizophrenic and did not have his medication with him which would have meant he began hallucinating and might have led the boys from the car in a deluded state. Similarly, another shed nearby held a butane tank with a valve that, had it been opened, would have fed the trailer's heating system. They werent the type to stay out very late or make spontaneous plans. W 1978 roku grupa przyjaci pojechaa obejrze mecz koszykwki. He got out of his car to flag them down. Gary Matthias was one of the five who didnt have a mental disability. Yet there was evidence that Weiher was not alone in the trailer the whole time. He saw a group of men, a woman, and a baby walking together, but they ignored him calling for help. Almost 50 years after they disappeared, what happened to the Yuba County Five is just as confusing as it was back in the 1970s. [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. Kalifornien, Februar 1978: Am ! 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? Don't you let me oversleep". Schons stayed in his car until it ran out of gas, then walked eight miles down to get help, passing Madrugas car on the way. The five were on a team for the mentally handicapped called the Gateway Gators, who were set to participate in a week-long tournament sponsored by the Special Olympics. Later, he saw more lights from behind him, this time flashlights, that also went out when he called to them. 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. What Caused The Patomskiy Crater in Siberia? Shones had gone outside to try to push his car out of the snow. Nobody knew why his car was there or why the Yuba County Five were even in Plumas. About Us. 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. $0.00. The boys were so excited about their game that they would not have missed the game unless something had happened to them. Joe Shones was having a heart attack. This week on Five men attend a basketball game together, only to never be seen again. Missing Three Flannan Isles Lighthouse Keepers. He could have survived there, but only a couple cans had been opened. Well, the last sighting of the Yuba County 5 wasdecidedly not. It's not perfect, but Dim the lights and strap in for a doozy, folks. 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. Police records showed he had become violent on occasion and was charged with assault twice. 0 coins.

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