Yuba County Five
The mountainous region where the boys were eventually found.
On the cold winter evening of the 24th February 1978, five young men, dubbed the Yuba County Five, disappeared on their way home from a basketball game. In the warmer months four of them were found dead with the remaining body never being found. What happened to these men that cut them down in the prime of their lives in such strange circumstances?
Photos of the Yuba County Five boys from a newspaper article about their disappearance.
The five young men who made up the Yuba County Five, Gary Mathias, Bill Sterling, Jack Huett, Ted Weiher, and Jack Madruga, ranged in age from mid twenties to early thirties. All were either mildly developmentally disabled or had other severe psychiatric conditions.
They played basketball together through a Gateway program and were that night heading back from a basketball game at California State University. They were last seen (for certain) buying snacks for their trip home from a gas station.
When the Yuba County Five didn’t return home after a few hours their parents called the police and search parties were deployed. No trace of the men was found for several days until on the 28th of February a park ranger stumbled upon their car 4,500 feet up a mountain 2.5 hours away from where they should have been.
A Map of Yuba County, California.
There was no sign of the men with the car. They were not wearing warm enough clothing to survive for long outside. Investigators found that there was nothing wrong with the car that would have forced the five men to leave it.
The search teams found themselves unable to continue searching through the snow in this rough terrain so they paused the search to resume it when the weather cleared.
One man named Joe Shones thinks he may have sighted the Yuba County Five while he was up the mountain investigating the conditions at his ski lodge. He was trying to remove snow from around his car and started to have a mild heart attack.
He got back in his car and waited for someone to come past so he could get some help. He saw a group of men, a woman, and a baby walking together and called out to them for help but they ignored him.
Later he saw what he believed were flashlights in the surrounding area. Several hours later he was running out of gas and decided to walk down the mountain to find help.
Months later on the fourth of June a small group of motorcyclists were exploring the forested areas in Yuba County when they came upon a deserted trailer service area. When they removed their helmets they smelt a horrifyingly bad smell and alerted the park services that something was amiss.
The park services found a trailer that had been broken into with the body of Ted Weiher inside. He had severely frostbitten feet, had lost over 100 pounds and had grown a substantial beard. He is suspected to have lived for 8-12 weeks after the date he went missing.
It was believed that he wasn’t alone in the trailer as he was found with bedsheets tightly tucked over his body. His shoes were missing however several valuable items of jewelry and his wallet with cash inside were still with him.
Strangely the trailer was filled with food and materials that could have been used to start a fire as well as propane and a heating system. All they had to do to survive was eat the food and turn the gas on but for some reason they didn’t.
The day after Ted’s body was found the remains of Jack M and Bill were also discovered. They were found on either side of the road that led up to the trailer about 11 miles away from the car.
Jack M’s remains were believed to have been eaten by animas and dragged down the road a few meters. Bill was located in a woody next to the road. There were only bones left.
Two days after this Jack H’s remains were discovered by his own father. Jack’s backbone and shoes were found just a quarter-mile away from the trailer. There forest service blankets and a flashlight nearby. The remains of Gary Mathias were never found.
Theories about the Yuba County Five
It is possible that the Yuba County Five simply got lost for some reason and then attempted to find shelter by following snow cat tracks to the trailer. Once there they may have been afraid to eat the food or use the propane believing it would be stealing and not wanting to get in trouble.
Right after the men disappeared, the families and investigators were almost completely convinced that foul play was involved.
When no answers could be found the families grew frustrated with investigators and came up with their own theories about what could have happened including the boys being chased after the basketball game or someone kidnapping them and forcing them to walk to their deaths in the snow.
Some have speculated that they may have seen something paranormal like a UFO or a Sasquatch which led them up the mountain then caused them to panic and flee into the forest.
The Yuba County Five case has gone down in history as one of the most mysterious missing persons cases of all time.
What do you think happened to the Yuba County Five? Let us know in the comments.
If you liked this article you may also like the story of three men brutally murdered by a sasquatch or the disappearance of Vladimir Bastl.
