Where is Matthias? Melba Madruga, Jack's mother, toldTheWashington Post that she believed "some force" had led the group astray. 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. In the process of trying to free it, he realized he was beginning to experience the early symptoms of a heart attack and went back in, keeping the engine running to provide heat. Later, he saw what he believed were flashlights. Basketball. A propane tank connected to the trailer, which could have provided a ready source of heat and cooking fuel, was untouched. [2], Police could not figure out why the men had abandoned the car. 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. Its called The Ritual, and although in this horror movie things turn supernatural, the parallels between it and the Yuba County Five story are strong. They played basketball together on a team called the Gateway Gators. A Yuba City police photo, left, shows Michael Alexander's backyard during a nighttime search of his family's house on Jan. 25, 2013. 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. He had once walked over 500 miles after escaping the asylum he was staying at. [6], Even knowing that four of the five men had died in the Sierra, investigators still could not completely explain what had led to their deaths. 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. But they did. Thats because they never found it. We now know these men must have been the boys because of Madrugas Montego just down the road, but they werent the only people Shones reported to have seen. Inside the trailer, he found the body of Ted Weiher. The men wore only light coats against the cool temperatures in the upper Sacramento Valley at night that time of year. . The trailer was 19.4 miles away from where the Mercury Montego was found. Based on the length of his beard had grown, the coroner was able to determine that Weiher had lived as long as 13 weeks after he last shaved. Gary Mathias, 25; Bill Sterling, 29; Jack Huett, 24; Ted Weiher, 32; and Jack Madruga, 30 were all friends. They made it to the game, but none of these "boys," as they came to be called, ever returned home.. It could not be determined how long those items had been there. At that time, no trace of the men was found. Months passed and no progress was made on the boys case. 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. yuba county five crime scene photos. At the time, he had not considered it significant, since many residents often drove up that road into the Sierra Nevada on winter weekends to go cross-country skiing on the extensive trail system, but after he read the missing persons bulletin, he recognized the car and led the deputies to it on February 28. 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. Either the driver had been extremely careful, or it was someone familiar with the road, a familiarity Madruga was not known to have; his family said that Madruga would not have let someone else drive the car. 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. In February 1978, five young men drove from Yuba City to Chico to watch a basketball game. 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? Weiher was concluded to have died from a mixture of starvation and exposure, but both a heating system and food were readily available. Police believed their bodies had simply given up before they found shelter while Weiher and others marched on. Shones said he cried for help but got no reply. Shones would admit he was very ill at the time of the sighting and could have hallucinated some of the details, but that didnt explain why the men bothered to abandon the car at all, or why they didnt acknowledge Shoness cries for helpunless he had somehow imagined the whole thing. After the UC Davis team won their game, the five men went to pick up snacks & drinks for the drive home. 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. Purposeful motion like that is not consistent with the circular patterns traveled by those who genuinely believe themselves lost. Four of the Yuba County Five tragically died in the forest. Jake Paul 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]. Bill Sterling was 29 years old and intellectually disabled. You see, Shones had been stuck in a snowdrift the night of the boys basketball outing. All five either had slight intellectual disabilities or psychiatric disorders. Crime Drunk driver who killed neighbor in Yuba County gets 10 years in prison Yuba County officials said then-21-year-old Kaitlyn Vansant was drunk when she got behind the wheel and. [9], It also seemed that Weiher had not been alone in the trailer, and that Mathias and possibly Huett had been there with him. 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. One of the c-ration cans had been opened with an Army P38 can opener. Available at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article226777394.html, Gorney, C. 1978.
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