Fifty years ago, a group of five men seemingly walked off the face of the earth. Their names were Jack Madruga (30), Bill Sterling (29), Ted Weiher (32), Gary Mathias (25), and Jack Huett (24). They all lived with their parents in the town of Yuba, California, and all had some form of mental impairment. Gary Mathias in particular was a diagnosed and medicated paranoid schizophrenic. The five were very close and referred to as “the boys”. They all took a liking to sports and played for the Gateway Gators, a local basketball team for those with disabilities. Yet on a late February day in 1978, they were never seen again. What truly occurred that night is still unknown, and the whole situation only gets more complicated the more details are uncovered.
On February 24th, 1978, the boys traveled north to the neighboring town of Chico to watch a basketball game. The following day, they were supposed to play for the Gators as part of a Special Olympics tournament in Los Angeles; this was something they were all looking forward to. After the game in Chico, they traveled in Jack Madruga’s prized white-turqoise 1969 Mercury Montego to a convenience store a short distance away at around 10:00 PM. There, they bought snacks and drinks much to the dismay of the clerk who distinctly remembered them given that their company prevented her from closing. She would be the last person to ever see them alive.
A simple map of where the boys went.
The next day, none of the boys returned home. Their families immediately contacted the police. Local authorities traveled 50 miles north to Chico. On the 28th, a forest ranger reported that there was a Mercury Montego parked along a remote mountain road over 4,000 feet in elevation at the Plumas National Forest. This car was Madruga’s. Inside, food wrappers matched what was bought at the convenience store and contained programs from the game. Further evidence suggested that the car seemed to have been abandoned in a hurry. It was unlocked and at least one window was down. The keys were also missing. Reports say the car had no major damage and was lodged in a snowdrift. Police claim that the boys easily could have freed the car without much issue. Additionally, it wouldn’t make sense for the boys to leave the car, given that it was a fairly cold winter night and the boys were not wearing clothing suitable for the snowy mountain environment. On top of that, the Montego wasn’t even near any direct route from Chico to Yuba, meaning that the boys deliberately did not drive back home. Their families assured authorities that this did not match their usual behavior. They expressed that most of the boys disliked the cold and how it wasn’t like them to not return especially because their tournament was the following day. Jack Madruga’s family said that he wouldn’t have left his car that unsecured. Unfortunately, a snow storm struck which nearly killed some members of the search team. This prompted the investigation to be called off until enough snow could melt to properly resume the search.
In the days after their disappearance, a $1,125 reward (equivalent to ~$6,000 today) offered by the families resulted in thousands of sightings being reported. The police primarily relied on two: the clerk from the convenience store and Joseph Schons. On the night of the 24th, Schons was also up in the mountains. He said he had driven up there to check on a cabin ahead of a weekend trip there with his family. Like the Montego, his car got stuck in a snowdrift at 5:30 PM. Whilst trying to free it, he began suffering a mild heart attack and opted to stay in his car with the engine running and wait out until morning. A few hours later, Schons reported seeing a car behind him with its headlights on surrounded by a group of people which included a woman and her baby. When he called out to them, Schons said they went quiet and shut the headlights off. Schons reported that a pickup truck briefly parked behind him before driving off after more time passed. He also said he saw more lights, this time from flashlights, that went out after he called out again. Eventually, his car ran out of gas. He amassed enough strength to trek eight miles down the mountain, stumbling across a lodge whose manager drove him home. For being the most reliable witness report, Schons’ account didn’t add up. For one, he repeatedly changed and sometimes contradicted what he saw that night in various police interviews. Schons himself claimed he was delirious due to the pain from his heart attack. The boys’ families said his report didn’t match their behavior and that they would have called back out to Schons. In addition, Schons was allegedly known as a local drunk, and often was found driving under the influence. Legitimate answers as to what happened to the boys wouldn’t be discovered for over three months. Joseph Schons would die in 2004 at age 83 from dementia and heart complications.
By June, most of the snow along the mountains of the Plumas National Forest had melted. On the 4th, a group of motorcyclists came across a Forest Service trailer. Upon finding a broken window and a rancid smell, they entered the trailer where they discovered a body on the bed. It had belonged to Ted Weiher. This immediately resumed the search, and three more bodies were discovered. Searchers scanned the area between the trailer and where the Montego was abandoned. Five miles from the car, Jack Madruga and Bill Sterling’s bodies were found on opposite sides of the road. Jack Huett’s remains were found two miles away from the trailer. By that point, the three of them were primarily bones and their cause of death was attributed to hypothermia. Gary Mathias and his body have never been found. Police theorize that the boys followed snowcat tracks that were made the day prior to their disappearance until finding the trailer on pure chance. The trailer was nearly 20 miles north from where the car was. To reiterate, none of them were wearing clothes fit for the harsh winter exposure.
A local newspaper detailing the discoveries of the bodies.
Ted Weiher was found wrapped with several layers of sheets. His feet were severely frostbitten and gangrenous. Beard growth indicated that he had remained alive for at least three months. His autopsy shows he had lost half his body weight (100 pounds) and succumbed to not only hypothermia but also starvation. This is incredibly puzzling as the trailer contained a fireplace and heavy clothing that weren’t used once. A nearby shed had been opened where rations were taken, but a second locker in that same shed had an even greater supply of food and wasn’t touched. In fact, another shed could have simply turned the trailer’s heating on, but it too was untouched. A rusted flashlight as well as blankets were also discovered a quarter mile from the trailer. It is very unlikely that Ted took care of himself, especially due to his mental disability. Evidence revealed someone else was in the trailer with him. That person was Gary Mathias. His shoes had been discovered in the trailer and Ted’s body was wrapped in a way that no lone person could do by themselves.
Local police had a very confusing case to deal with. The general consensus is this: after the game in Chico on the 24th, the boys did not return home and instead drove from the convenience store up a mountain in the Plumas National Forest. After the Montego got stuck in snow, the boys left the car and hiked for miles uphill in snowy weather. Bill Sterling and Jack Madruga would die next to each other and later Jack Huett further up the mountain from hypothermia. Ted Weiher and Gary Mathias would ultimately discover the trailer by chance where Ted would live for at least three months longer as Gary treated him until leaving potentially after Ted had died.
However, this of course does not explain everything. Why did these boys deliberately not return home? What encouraged them to drive and walk up a mountain during a harsh winter night? Was foul play involved? How much of Joseph Schons’ account had been true? Why was Ted starving despite being surrounded by food? Obviously, many people weren’t satisfied. Countless and countless of conspiracies have been made in the decades since. Some suspect Gary as the perpetrator, given that he was a schizophrenic and the only one to not have been found. He was the most able of the boys and also had no access to his medication whilst in the trailer with Ted. However, we simply do not know. Nearly half a century later, no new details have come out about what happened to the boys. The Yuba County Five is one of the country’s most eerie and bizarre missing persons cases, and unfortunately not all cases can be closed.
Image 1: https://dyatlovpass.com/page.php?language_id=1&id=21751
Image 2: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-24/yuba-county-five-missing-persons-case/103472558
Thumbnail: https://synwritestruecrime.school.blog/2021/04/05/the-deaths-of-the-yuba-county-five/
