Final Thoughts and Conclusion

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And that means you'll find more peace of mind with them Relieve your insur anoyia with NjM inssurance by visiting njM. com for a quote today You might not think about oil and natural gas, but it's a big part of your daily routine. From the soap you use to your toothpaste Even your bedsheets More than six thousand everyday products are made using oil and natural gas. Companies like Energy Transfer work behind the scenes, safely transporting these resources across the country through a network of underground pipelines Learn more at ittakes ennergy. com Welcome to another edition Tasa should suck. That doesn't fit this episode totally at all. I just that was a moment They're coming Today I'll be sharing the story of the mysty of the Yuba County Five February of nineteen seventy eight Five young men disappeared on their way home from watching a college basketball game Explably, their vehicle was found over seventy miles from their intended route in a very remote area of the Plumis National Forest in Northern California Snow and rough terrain hindered the initial search efforts and then months later, When that snow had largely melted Four out of the five men's dead bodies were found roughly twenty miles from their car Way out in the middle of the vast wilderness The fifth You'll have to listen to find out Nearly half a century later, no one can explain what led them so far off of their original intended course that night whyy they ever ventured into that forest in the first place, or what the hell happened to them in the weeks and months that follow. Words and ideas can change the world. I hated her, but I wanted to love my momother. I have a dream. I'll plead not guilty right now. Your only chance is to leave with I Very quick note for longtime Bad Magic Productions fans before I get any further. if you're feeling any deja vu, Over this topic, you're probably not alone While we have not covered this case in detail on Tim suck before It's only been mentioned in passing. I did share much shorter, far less analytical, less thorough version of this mystery On scared to Death episode one hundred thirty four, the Circleville Letters back on march twenty ninth, twenty twenty two addressed Let's cover this one here today The five men who disappeared that fateful day back in nineteen seventy eight were Jack Hewitt N name Jackie. William Sterling, nicknamed Bill Madruga No nickname Theodore Weir, nicknamed Ted. Gary Matthias no nickname for him either Collectively, they are now commonly known as the Yuba County Five These five men, all lid, unsurprisingly in Uuba County, about forty miles north of the city of Sacramento Madruga lived in Yuba City proper, while the other four lived within a few miles of town in the area of All of Hearst technically a census designated place really more of an adjoining town Based on recent YouTube videos, seems like a fucking terrible place to live. I search for the two words O of Heurst, California. Nothing else. on YouTube just to get a feel for this place. You know, watch a video. And these are the first eight videos that came up in order deadly shooting investigation underway in Ol ofhurst, two months ago All of herers, California, drone footage, that one not bad. Then man dies in all of her shooting, suspected shooter arrested after standoff, Ua County shheriff Two months ago, O of Hest, fourteen year old in critical condition after brothother shot him authority say, four months ago Two arrested charged with homicide after deadly shooting and gathering are at gathering in Ollivehurst two months ago, famamilies finally have answers decades after all of her girls' killings nine years ago Arest made after shooting turns to standoff in Ol of Hearst two months ago, man's decomposing body found inside of an Olive Hearst home four years ago. Now a few of those were covering the same thing. I know, but still And then it just keeps going on after that. All of herst man accused of murdering Brother with ice pick dismembering body. years ago. O of her first manen pleads guilty to murder and fatal shooting of ten year old boy Two years ago But enough about Ol ofst just found that a bit alarming Let's take a few minutes to get to know the Yuba County five Gary Dale Maththias was born october fifteenth, nineteen fifty two. He was twenty five years old at the time he went missing Ted Weir was born may twenty sixth, nineteen forty six, thirty two years old. He was the oldest member of the group Jack Madruga Born on june eighteenth, nineteen forty seven was thirty when he died. Bill Sterling. was born on april fifth, nineteen forty nine. I was checking my mas real quick. He was twenty nine And finally, Jackie Hewittt was born, march twenty ninth, nineteen fifty three. He was the youngest at just twenty four years of age These five men were all intellectually disabled to some extent. well Four of the five men We're intellectually disabled to some extent The others suffer from a mysterious mental illness They also all lived at home with their parents The L.A. Times reported that Ted, Jack, and Bill were classified as, quote, slow learners Jackie was classified as having an intellectual disability, although that's not what they called it backack in the seventies Ted Wears family has told various outlets that he lacked common sense, for example you want spndent a hundred dollars on pencils for no apparent reason At least no reason that the rest of the family understood. D just had a serious hanker in for pencils And one hundred dollars burning a hle in his pockets when he showed up at the store looking for them. Ted also once had to be dragged out of his bed when his bedroom ceiling was on fire He told his brother Perry to leave him alone when that was happening because quote, he needed to rest for work the next day. brother did remove him for ret obvious reasons The poor Dew did not exactly have the strongest self preservation instincts Perry interviewed by a Sacramento news station two years ago, ABC Ten said regarding Ted They didn't have a term for it then. But I think now he might have had autism Another one of Ted's brothers, Dallas said in the same interview He could write, he could spell, and he could remember movies better than the rest of us family members have told investigators that regarding the intellectual or his intellectual capabilities, Jack Madruga was, quote, merely slow in his thought processes Jack once worked as a dishwasher for a dried fruit company He helped Bill get a job there as well He was then later fired because he couldn't figure out to use some of the new equipment once they bought it However, he was pretty independent. He managed his own finances He'd also served as an Amy truck driver from nineteen sixty six to nineteen sixty eight Jack had his driver's license and loved driving his friends around in his turquoise and white nineteen sixty nine Mercury, Montego author, Tony Wright who had a book published about this case two years ago. Things aren't right. The disappearance of the Yuba County five said that Jack was, quote, a very quiet, introverted person, but very smart, very kind and loving Sacramento B reported that Bill Sterling was intellectually disabled. Early in the seventies, he had worked at the Bele Air Force Base, less than twenty miles east of his family home as a dishwasher But his mom then forced him to quit because she found out that some of the air men there were getting him drunk so they could steal his money. You know, some assholles. Tony Wright said Bill was an avid bowler known for being athletic and a very kind and sweet, you know kid a very pous young man It was reported that Jackie Hewitt could not read, write or dial a phone. He was described as being shy, sweet, a great friend, a homebody. more dependent on his parents than the other men Al looked up to his friend, Ted Weir, who would help him out from time to time, you know look after him Two men have been friends for eight years Gary Maththias He was the wild cp. the one who was the most different from the others. He was not intellectually disabled, but he had been diagnosed with a pretty serious case of schizophrenia Gary was another Army veteran, and he had started showing symptoms of schizophrenia while stationed in Germany U He hadd also been using various drugs pretty heavily during that time He actually had an episode before Germany as well. He was discharged, but I guess they didn't diagnose schizophrenia then. He was discharged shortly after his diagnosis By the time he disappeared, he'd acquired a fairly lengthy criminal record and had spent time in some mental health institutions But by the time his disappearance, he was taking medication regularly, supposedly seem to be doing much better He hadn't always lived with his parents as an adult outside of his time in the service. He was back to living with his parents when he disappeared was also working regularly for his stepfather and was collecting psychiatric disability pay It was imperative that Gary took his medication every day because without it he would eventually begin to experience psychosis lot of sources tend to downplay Gary's mental illness and criminal records. whichich contains some very serious charges, which I will discuss before we're done here Gary like the others, described as athletic Also has a great brother who had been in a rock band in high school, and he played a mean harmonic, I guess Jack, Ted, Bill, and Jackie. they had all been friends for several years, some more than several. Their friends and family lovingly called them the boys Gary had only started to hang out with the boys a few months before they all disappared The boy is also the name of a superhero series on Amazon Prime, by the way, what of my favorite series ever, I think. So irre, creative, funny, so smart, just wrapped up I thought they fucking killed could not not comment on that after hearing these guys described as the boys Anyway, these boys met on a basketball team for a Yuba County nonprofit Gateway proroject, a now defunct organization for adults with special needs that was ran through the Yuba County Vocational Rehabilitation Center Several of the men worked full time through this project Their team was called Gateway Gators, go Gators and they were also all big UC Davis basketball fans. Go Aggies You have the countounty undersheriff, Jack Beeacham told the Sacramento B They were almost inseparable pal around together, go together. they were described as kind of the studs of their community, you know, the special needs folks. They were athletic, very well liked, very well respected. Law enforcement had no issues with them They were nice kids, nice people. And that's not entirely true. That's true for four of them notot all of them I'll get to that later At the time of their disappearance, they were looking forward to slash working towards participating in a special Olympics tournament in Sacramento on february twenty fifth, nineteen seventy eight, the afternoon following their disappearance This was a huge deal, right? The winners would receive a week long trip to Los Angeles. They had a really good squad, a chance of going On Friday, february twenty fourth, the night before this big tournaments. that all made plans to go wal to the Cal State Chico Boys basketball team play against UT Davis in Chico which is about fifty miles from Yuba City important to emphasize just how excited they were for the basketball tournament the following day. It was reported that they had all adorably laid out their uniforms ahead of time They've been talking about this tournament constantly four days, if not for weeks. I mean, they were fucking pump. didid not want to miss it Tedd had even asked his mom to wash his new sneakers, Re shine those bad boys up, make them shine. Gary had made his mom promise not to let him oversleep Five men made it to Chico and multiple eyewitnesses there verified that they watched the game without incidident Then after the game at approximately ten PM, they were all captured on surveillance video, buying some snacks and drinks at a convenience store called Bears Market looccated just a few blocks from the game would also speak to authorities. He remembered them well because they had come in right as he was closing And you remember being slightly annoyed But he had to wait around to ring them up Right? It was a fucking Friday night You wanted to get the hell out of there A lot of places you wanted it to be rather than the store The boys bought a hostess cherry pie A Langondorf Lemon pie Snickers bar, a marathon bar, two Pepsis a quarter and a half a mil The most important parts of the perfect prep meal before you have a big basketball tournament. You gotta fucking carboad The more candy, the more soda, the more milk for important protein That's how you get it done. That's how you win A witness saw them drive away from the store toowwards Yuba City, back towards home but they would not head in that direction for very long And this is possibly the last time they were seen alive Madrgo was driving them that night in his nineteen sixty nine Mercury Monttego, fuck yeah bro, right? Really cool looking car hot sure if Jackax was a six cylinder or V eight, maybe even a big block V eight. That year had all those options They were supposed to be taking Highway seventy south to get home, but something went terribly wrong and they changed course Early the next morning, very, very early in one case These boys' parents began to notice that their grown sons had not come home the night before And they were all immediately worked. It was extremely out of character for any of them to well, any of them but one to stay out all night, especially this night when they had that big tournament to go to that none of them wanted to miss in just a few hours time. Ted's mom, Imogen Weir, woke up at five AM, went to check on her son only to find his bed empty She called Bill's mother, Juanita, learned that Bill had not come home either Wh Neda been up since two AM. Waiting for baby boy, right? That poor woman She was worried sick By the time she spoke to Imogen, Juanita said she had already called Jack's mom and she had said the same thing. Right, Her son didn't come home either Imogene then called Jackie Hewitt's mother who then walked down the street to speak to Gary's stepfather Same story with them all No one had seen or heard from the men since they had left the night before misss. Madruga finally called the police to report them all is missing at eight PM Saturday, february twenty fifth. Up until that point, The five families had made calls to everyone they knew who might know where these boys were They also had done a lot of searching themselves desesperately hoping that this was you know just some mistake, that it was not going to be a police matter off the five men Gary Matthias was the only one who had ever stayed out all night with friends from time to time before Gary again. not like the others He was the highest functioning member of the group, cognitively speaking, he struggled with serious mental illness, but as long as he took his meds consistently He was able to operate pretty independently. The rest of them preferred to stay home and stick to the routines, slash had to stick to the routines because they were not capable of living independently On Monday, february twenty seventh, nineteen seventy eight, three days after they had gone missing now. The first clue as to what happened to them was found. A U. S. Forest Service Ranger called in to report that Jack Madruga's car was found in a snow bank stuck in a snowbank along a remote road, way out in the Plumis National Forest The car was found almost fifty miles in the opposite direction from where the men should have been driving back to Ua City and found roughly seventy miles from their last known location in Chico Very, very confusing location for everyone The entire forestnut area was covered in at least ten inches of snow moreore in certain areas where it had drifted and piled up The Ranger reported that he first saw the car back on Saturday, february twenty fifth, hours after they'd gone missing But it did not concern him at that time because people frequently parked their cars on the road in that area go cross country scheme He only reported the vehicle once he saw that a missing personss bulletin had been issued Investigators quickly flocked to the area to search for the men, but there was nothing around the car that indicated where they might have gone The car still had a quarter tank of gas keys were missing There were several maps in the glove compartment, including a neatly folded road map of California. P'stty common for people to have maps in their glove boxes back then. Back in the days before GPS directions and the ability to look up directions online or Print out driving instructions, right from places like MapQuest The snack wrappers snack wrappers excuse me from their recent purchases were left in the seats Also in the car were programs from that basketball game they just gone and watched. There was evidence that the men had tried to spin the wheels to get the carart unstuck. Oddly, investigators found no signs that the man had then tried to push the car out of the snow bank which they would have been able to have done easily if they'd work together. The car had no mechanical problems engine started right away when the police hotwired the car. So strange that they left a perfectly, you know, working car with gas. just on the side of the road like that. The undercarriage also had no scratches or dents, which indicated the driver was being cautious on the quote tortuously bumpy mountain road per the Whington post. Bizzard brought in nine inches of more snow the following day, so search efforts were called off almost as soon as they had begun This new storm was so bad, the snow came down so fast, creating white out conditions that two members of a snowmobile rescue team had to be rescued themselves. question running through everyone's minds was How the hell These men end up in the Plumis National Forest None of them were thought to have been familiar with that area that not dressed for winter weather had no known reason to be there. The family said that Jack Madruga was the only one who ever drove his car. And Jack strongly disliked camping hated the cult As far as anyone knew, he didn't know shit about those mountain roads, unlikely he'd ever been in that area before. Also, the car was found unlocked, had a window rolled down. when it was found Madrug's family indicated it was very unlike him. to leave his car so unsecured The only one who was slightly familiar with the genereral area was Bill Sterling, who eight years earlier had went fishing with his dad once at the family cabin However, he did not enjoy himself actually hated it so much in fact that he flat out refused to go on any subsequent fishing trips. he was fucking out on fishing Three years earlier, Ted Weir had went deer hunting with friends in Feather River Country again, just one time But that area was far west of the area where the car was found Bill He was not fond of the outdoors either None of these dudes love to out into nature Eespeci when it was cool Thursday march second, nineteen seventy eight six days after they had gone missing. Before winter conditions had eased up enough to allow a new search party to start looking for them again, a fifty five year old man named Joe Sones came forward to make a report about his harrowing experience the night before Ecuse me not the night before. the night of Friday, february twenty fourth, the night the boys disappered Joe said that around five thirty PM that night hours before the boys would have made it out into the woods. He was driving his Volkswagen Beetle You know, Beetle often called a bug down a remote road in the area where the boys went missing Check on his mountain cabin near Bucks Lane He was checking the snowline because he wanted to bring his wife and daughter up to the cabin that weekend if the weather was good enough He said that the snow got deeper and deeper, was falling harder and harder he too ended up getting stuck in the snowbank Then the poor bastard suffered heart attack while trying to get his fucking bug free collapsed and was unable to move Shan said that he just lay there in the snow for a long time As quoted by the Orville Mercury reggister, he said, I thought it was a goner And I was just praying for it to be speedy didn't I Eventually he able he was able to get himself back into his car. Shan said, quote, I just laayid there for a while with my feet outside the car I didn't have the strength to lift him inside breaks to rest e andvent she was able to get fully inside and shut the door turned on his engine to stay warm. Around ten PM, he finally saw headlights approaching And this would have been too early for the boys there because they were getting snacks this time, but he sees headlights approaching. More of a strength in returned. He said he was able to roll down his window and shout help. I'm a sick man. but received no reply. car drove right on by Due to the snow that was still falling, he was unable to get a good look at who was inside When it wass clear that they were not returning, he laid back down Aout an hour later he heard a quote whistly noise. saidid he managed to get out, climb up a slope near his car where he saw headlights further down the road There he saw a group of people and heard voices, men and a woman he thought possibly holding a baby said he shot it again. help help I've had a heart attack. Please, please help me Cars lights and st they went out The group stopped talking, which signaled to him, right? they just heard him then instead of helping him They drove the fuck on off this guy was having an absolute shit night. Uh, and and I guess maybe some of those guys, you know Maybe maybe if they would have driven fast Probably not, probablyrobably not it could have been the boys Seun said I thought they'd run away from me. I laid there in the snow and cried He managed to walk back, get himself back into his car aboutbout two hours later, he thought he saw flashlight beams outside his window, rolled the window down and again called for help and again he was denied Lights went out, no one spoke to him or tried to help him You know, theoretically could have been the boys Dude then laid back down his car with the engine and hed on. As assuming he was fuckingying, I imagine until his car ran out of gas. The following morning, the morning is Saturday, febrary twenty fifth, he walked eight fucking miles for the snow to a lodge called Mountain House, where he was finally able to get some help He claimed that on his way down, he passed Jack Madrgu's Mercury Monttego sit in the middle of the road Did he see any of the Yuba County five though notot with any certainty. And it's actually unclear if Shan saw anyone at all that night Some think the Lucky to be Alive bastard hallucinated the entire thing Doctors confirmed that Shonans did in fact experience a heart attack. bad enough that he stayed in the hospital for a week wasn' released until march seventh Shones initially said he saw two sets of headlights, one of them from a pickup truck coming up behind him at eleven thirty PM while he lay in his car. Are you seen all these things? he said He said he got out yell for help, and the people parked behind him and then drove away. Then on March N ninetinth, told LA. Times he was unsure if he ever saw a second vehicle, saying I was half conscious, not looucid, hallucinating in deep pain Whether I saw half or half imagined second vehicle, I don't know And it gave like some, you know, conflicting times However, he did say that in an LA. Times interview, he was certain he saw the Mercury Monteigo on the road the next day Uh I'm agene Ted Weir's mom Maybe I said, Emma. earlier. I think it's pronounced I'ma's unusual, uncommon name that is pronounced different ways. I'm I think I'm a Emma Ema, I'ma. Im must say Ema. I'mae. Ted Weir's mom then told the Times that her son would have helped Shones if they had been there. She noted that Ted and Bill once took a person who had overdoseed to the hospital. She didn't think any of the people he may have heard and or seen were the boys However, Ken Michkelson from the Buttee County Sheriff's offffice speculated that being trapped in the snow and in the dark would have created a stressful situation that the man maybe didn't know how to handle And if they had been there, that might explain why they didn't respond to Shehllan's cries for help. He thinks that they might have hanicked and quote scattered Before we hear from any of the other witnesses, time for today's first to two Mitchow sponsor breaks If you don't want to hear these ads please sign up to be S spacer on Patreon. Get the catalog ad free, get these episodes early and more Wasn't that delicious? So good. Your bill, ladies? I got it. No. I got it Seriously, Iist. I exist first. Oh silly. You know' silly. People with the Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card prefer to pay because they earn unlimited two percent cash rewards on purchases. Okay, Rck paper scissors for it. Rock paper scissors. S! No! The Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card, visit wellspargo d. com slash active cash terms apppply Mint mobile plans are only fifteen dollars a month. So what's the catch You have to give them your first and second born Not a bad deal in my opinion There is no catch There are no gimmicks and no gotches. 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There's no catch forty five dollars upfront payment required equivalent to fifteen dollars a month. new customers on first three month plan only, spepeeds slower above forty gigabyes on unlimited plans. addditional taxes fees and restrictions apply, see MintMobile for details Have you ever considered surrounding your house with a moat to keep it safe Would you hire a professional wrestler as a bodyguard for your car Okay, maybe you wouldn't go that far But if you'd go to great lengths to avoid dealing with your insurance company You might have insoranoia And if you have insuranoia, you should have NJM insurance They go to great lengths to do what's best for their policyholders Start relieving your insure anoia today. at njM. com Thanks for listening to those ads and now let's return to March of nineteen seventy eight go over some more possible clues. Back on Friday, march third, a week after the boys disappeared. Two more people came forward to report a supposed sighting An unnamed woman claimed that she saw the five missing men in a red fifties pickup the Mercury Montteigo. PM on february twenty fifth, right this Saturday, the day after they disappeared in Brownville, Yuba County, thirty four miles northeast to Yuba City She said the men were in front of Mary's country store Two of them were in the truck. twow were snding at a phone booth and the fifth was inside the store She said she noticed them because they were not from town However, even though she had supposedly seen them on Saturday, the twenty fifth a day after they disappeared. She didn't get around to reporting them as being missing until march third, almost a week later And the same exact day an an announcement was made offering just over tw thousandve hundred dollars in reward money for information leading to those guys being found. Lieutenant Dennis Moore from the Ubah County Sheriff's Office did tell the L.A Times that she seem to be a credible witness, though that they were taking her information seriously, but over the years, Other people have begun to think that you know, maybe she was just someone looking for a payday However, Mary's countountry store owner Carol Waltz didid also claim that she saw the man on both february twenty fifth. And on Sunday the twenty six spepecifically, she believes she saw Ted Weir and Jackie Hewitt buying food and drinks Probably, but's that's what she said Uh Thursday, march ninth, nineteen seventy eight, thirteen days after the disappearance, shheriff's officials in two counties now said they suspected foul play in the men'saearces Over the following days, weeks and then months More reports of supposed sightings flo in from Sacramento, Tampa, even Ontario, Canada Nothing really credible though Investigators, while snow in the mountains continued to hinder search efforts. They were taking these dispp these disapparances, excuse me incredibly seriously, and were doing everything they could to help find these boys They even consulted psychics for help One psychic said the men had been kidnapped taken to Arizona and Nevad Anotherers said they were killed in a two story red house in Orriville with a gravel driveway and an address of either four seven twenty three or four thousand seven fif three But A detective could not find a house that matched that description And they should have been able to find it if there would have been that house there. Oracle had less than nine thousand people back then. So not many houses to check that had an address of either four seven two three or four seven five three Gasting that psychic was maybe a whacker doodle U a so called body witcher body witcher was also brought in. and this fucking body witcher pointed the police to an empty cabin But the lead was frrueless quote the article about this body witcher in the Sacrono Bee, a body body witcher was brought in in his magic rod Pointed them to an empty cabin, but no clues I applaud those investigators for trying everything. I do. I also applaud any officers who had enough self restraint. to not openly laugh point and mock a dude assisting the search effort with a quote, magic rod Presto changeo, real Rangeo. Show me spirits. let me know Where and snow did they go Anyone else picturing that guy wearing the kind of robe and sorcere's hat that Mickey Mouse was wearing in Fantasia U Three weeks after the men went missing, a woman from Uuba City named Debbie Lynn Reese claimed that when she answered her phone, she heard a man's voice on the other side and he said, I know where the missing five men are beforefore hanging up. He then called back the next day and said I need help because I really hurt those guys bad She hased Who did you hurt And then he responded, Don't play dumb with me hung up again Then on Friday, march seventeenth, three weeks after the disappearance. She received a third call The man said, Those five guys are all dead. She has They're all dead. He said again? They're all dead then hung up and never called her again Could he truly have been someone who did something terrible to them Or was he maybe just another strange creep who wanted to fuck with somebody? Makes me think of all those weirdos that we've come across in true crime episodes over the years who have made like crazy false confessions to horrible crimes who have reportedly, you know, outrageous heinous details about crime investigations that turned out to definitely one thousand percent not be true There are so many fucking weird, creepy people in the world, aren't there Sunday, juneth, nineteen seventy eight, sorry about that lip smack That's probably notxious. After the snow had finally melted, the bodies of four out of the five boys were found in the forest after they've been missing for exactly one hundred days That day, a group of motorcyclists had been exploring the Plumus National Forest when they found a forest Service trailer at the end of a road in the woods, nineteen point four miles from Jack Madruga's car curious they decided to check it out and they discovered something horrific inside The Oakland Tribune reported that one of the motorcyclists described as a boy peeked through the trailer's broken front window. Botted a dead body inside and was overcome with a stench of decay body was Ted Weirars. His remains were stretched out on a bed inside the trailer, wrapped up in eight sheets His feet were severely frostbitten, his leather shoes were missing he was emated severely emaciated, and based on the length of his beard, He had been alive before he had died from anywhere from two to three months after going missing before he finally perished, from exposure slash hypothermia Oh, Dude's body had grown weak from starvation And then the cold had finally finished him off Clearly that creepy collar from earlier had not killed him after all, was just a nut On a table next to his body, investigators found Ted's engraved gold ring, his gold necklace, his wallet with cash still inside and curiously a gold Waltham watch that did not belong to him or any of the five men. Based on the evidence, investigators theorized that Ted had walked almost twenty miles in the cold And remember he had not dressed for winter weather And then he had broken into the trailer by smashing out a window. And then somehow he survived in there lost, freezing, starving, and scared For months Investigators learned that a forest Service snow cat had driven up the road to this trailer just the day before the boys had gotten lost on Thursday, february twenty third, which had left a path in the snow that the men might have followed am And if only Ted had somehow made it to that trailer without using, you know those tracks Like on the twenty fourth and then the Forest Service had driven there to check it out on the twenty fifth who would have found him and the others but But since they had just checked, they weren't going to check again for months thirty one cans of food from an outside shed near the trailer had been opened, emptied, and almost, you, certainly eaten by Ted and possibly by some of the other boys. There were no conclusive fingerprints on the cans, so we don't know for sure who else may have been there eating those Oddly, Ted did not open a locker in that same shed where he would have found cans that contained a whole bunch of dehydrated meals, a ton of fruit cocktail and more, literally enough food to have kept all five men alive for at least one year It was all right there Ted also didn't use matches that were there. or available possible fuel sources like a bunch of books and wooden furniture in the trailer. He didn't use an available propane tank in another shed appeared as if he had never attempted to build a fire or to use gas for cooking in heat contam if someone with higher cognitive functioning H been there with him, it's very likely he has survived. Ted, who was five eleven and weighed around two hundred pounds when he had gone missing. was down to almost a hundred pounds. by the time his body was found God. Investators noticed that one of the cans of food he had likely eaten had been opened with an Army P thirty eight can opener. Only Jack and Gary had served in the Army. so they assumed that they were likely the ones who knew how to use that type of can opener and thus had been there with Ted for some time Al also didn't seem like Ted had ever tried to leave the trailer, even though the snow had eventually melted enough for him to attempt to hike back before you died Weir's family tried to explain his actions by telling the police about his lack of common sense. He might have been too worried about doing the wrong thing Like burning somebody else's property. might have been worried about the trouble he would have gotten in for doing that or for taking too much food You know, also just reminder this was the guy who had had to have been a you know, who needed to be dragged out of his bed when his bedroom ceiling was on fire when he didn't want to leave because quote, he needed to rest for work the next day. Gary's stepfather said he believed the only reason the group didn't build a fire was because they must have been, you worried about being found for some reason But why? Wh would they worry about that H they all decided to run away together Some kind of secret plan. Do they not actually like living at home Or did one or more of them not like that? And then that person or person' convinced the others that they should all strike out on their own And then when they got lost, needed help Maybe were they too afraid of their families being mad at them to try and be found then Next day Monday, june fifth, nineteen seventy eight, the remains of Jack Madruga and Bill Sterling were found in the woods, several miles away about halfway between the car and the trailer animals had gotten into the remains long before they were discovered Madruga's body had been partially consumed by scavenging animals Bones remained of sterling scattered over a small area Autopsies showed that they had both died of exposure slash hyperothermia Not a hundred percent sure how you determine that from just, you know, just bones, but That was apparently the determination. Had they both also been the trailer with with Ted and, you know, then after starving for weeks or months, did they decide to make a run for it before the cold finally took them It's actually unknown if they had ever reached Ted's trailer. I mean, probably, but it's not a done deal, they don't know for sure or if they had left possibly died while trying to hike out. No fingerprints were ever recovered or processed from the U. S. Forest Service trailer where Ted Weir's body was discovered. because this was initially treated strictly as a missing persons case rather than as, you know, multiple homicides Law enforcement did not secure the scene or collect standard forensic evidence like fingerprints or blood types which is only, you know, added to the mystery in years since Jack's body had been dragged near a stream, likely by some animal. What was left of him was found face up with his right hand curled around his watch Fourth body, Jackie Hew'z remains F found three days later, Thursday, june eighth, about two miles from the trailer father was actually the one to find him, the poor bastard. He found what at first he thought was his son's jacket But then when he picked it up his son's spine literally fell out That is some horror movie shit Jackie's remains were identified by his dental records His skull was found three hundred feet away from his jacket and spine or fifty feet away, sources vary I guess that detail doesn't particularly matter. His shoes and jeans, most of his bones, some tissue that scavenger animals had not eaten were found near his jacket and spine as well. It was again somehow determined. Based on what remained of him that he had died of exposure slash hypothermia Not enough food, way too much cold killed all four of them Three forest service blankets and a rusty flashlight were found a quarter mile from the trailer And a gray cigarette lighter was found three quarter miles northeast of the trailer The Washington Post reported that none of the men carried a lighter, not as far as their families knew anyway. I mean it's possible that one of them, like Gary carried one in secret At this point, no one can explain exactly how the fouren had gotten to the area of the trailer Why they'd never left their car? You know, why they ever went to the fucking forest in the first place and where Gary Matthias was Gary shoes were found in the Forest Service trailer in the midst of finding the dead bodies, which suggested that he had been there at some point Although there was no definitive proof of that, one of the other men may have brought his shoes into the trailer for whatever reason certainly doesn't point to his likely survival, though. Investigators thought that Gary might have taken Ted Weir's leather shoes which were never found head shoes were larger, better suited for the cold The search for Gary Matthias was called off less than two weeks later, june nineteenth, nineteen seventy eight. as he was strongly assumed have died Before we get into theories regarding why the bys disappeared Time for today's second and two Midj sponsor breaks. Blowing ad budget on metrics that look great til the CFO sees them, That's bull spend. And marketers are calling it out in Dashboard Confessions. 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Wednesday, ten wings for ten dollars. Thursday, eight teenders for ten dollars. Friday twenty four Nuggets for Oh, you guessed it, didn't you T dollars F machine. The ten dollar bucket of the day deal. Every weekday. onlyn at KFC, it's finger licking Goo. Prices and participation varles supp pl placeays last not to beable on thir party ordering platforms tax extra Thanksful list no sponsors. Now let's return to this mystery Bob Klopp Gary Step father said about his role in the early search efforts What I looked for all the time I was up there were his glasses. I didn't think the bear would eat that Gary glasses never been found John Thompson, a special agent from the California Department of Justice was quoted as say about the case, no explanations and a thousand leads Every day you've got a thousand leads Investigators were't able to prove a criminal act occurred the night of february twenty fourth, nineteen seventy eight, but they also have never been able to explain what happened to the men Jack's mother Mabel told the Washingon Post There was some forest that made them go up there They wouldn't have fled off in the woods like a bunch of quails We know good and well that somebody made them do it. We can't visualize someone going the or getting excuse me. We can't visualize someone getting the upper hand on those five men. but we know it must have been Ted sister losted. They seen something at the game at the parking lot. They might have seen it and didn't even realize they'd seen it Jack's mother also told L.A. Times, Things aren't right The investigators want to say They got stuck walked out like a bunch of idiots and froze to death Why would they leave the car to go die? That's no sense or there's no sense to that theory But we can't figure anything that works out right. There's no rhyme or reason to any of it Finally, the body of Gary Mathias has never been found he is still officially missing, from what I can tell. Now let's get into the theories it's around this mystery. What happened to the boys After looking into everyone's background, the main theory law enforcement investigators developed W that the men had decided to take a trip that their parents did not know about to go see a few of Gary's friends in Forbestown a census designated place in Butte County, California justust under forty miles from Ua City And on the way there, Jack took a wrong turn whichich led them to get lost, led, you know to getting lost and to getting stuck in the snow bank and panicking The Washington Post described Forbesetown as being halfway between Chico and Yuba City. onn a road with a turnoff so easy to miss that anybody driving it late at night might have ended up heading north toward the mountains and gotten lost However Gary's friends in Forbestown would report that they had not seen him for over a year and that they were certainly not expecting to see him that night So while this theory is certainly possible, many have found it to be very unlikely A second theory developed that Gary might have been experiencing hallucinations, powerful hallucinations because he didn't have his medication with him you know, they stop taking it and therefore that he, you know, might have led the group astray This of course, could tie in with the first theory. Gary may have thought that his friends wanted to see him that night in Forbestown. He might have hallucinated a memory of talking with them might have thought that they were secretly communicating with him and inviting him somehow Also in the past, he had demonstrated his ability to walk extremely long distances, hundreds of miles, which could explain why his body you, was never found that perhaps the other men were not capable of hiking in the rough, snowy terrain like him, and he had made it far, far away from the trailer And now for some more recent theories Over the years, a lot of suspicion has turned towards Gary Maththas, Most of it has Was he knowingly or unknowingly involved in his friend's death In twenty twenty one, the Sacramento B released a two part investigative series on the Yuba County five specifically focusing on Gary They interviewed surviving relatives and investigators, which created a disturbing image of who Gary really was B reported, quote Billed in virtually all media reports at the time as another lost lamb caught out in the cold, Matthias was an aberration within the flock a young manen who did not belong with the others He was violently schizophrenic, had a history of drug use was not intellectually disabled like the others Gary had a troubled home life from a young age, hisis mother Iyed a Klop. left her husband Garlland Matthias, taking her children with her when Gary was just three years old She then later called Garland, asked him to pick the kids up. then a short time after that Filed a restraining order against him Sadly, Gary's father would die by suicide in nineteen eighty seven, followed by his sister Sharon, also died by suicide in two thousand two It is assumed Slash believed that serious mental illness runs in his family Gary was first into a psychiatric facility, his sophomore year of high school following a bad trip on hallucinenics As I've said before, while, drugs like LSD cannot make anyone go permanently insane if you have certain underlying mental illnesses, they can trigger illnesses, you know, in rare cases becoming active Gary recovered from this mental health episode, but then he continued with recreational drug use despite probably not having the best psychological makeup to do so And he consistently continued to use drugs while joining the Army as well in February of nineteen seventy three after being arrested for going AWall at the age of twenty. Gary called two sergeants and a deputy towards his cell acccording to case files after they opened up his cell He walked out into the hallway, completely naked and then punched a sergeant He said during his following police interview I've been in the Army and I don't like it And I thought if I hit a cop, maybe they let me out Yeah, Gary was a fucking wild cart And to be fair, his plan there did work He was discharged Gary spent time at a cousin's house that same month, shortly following this, reportedly one morning to eight thirty AM he was spending time with his cousin, while his cousin's seventeen year old wife was sleeping Right They're all really young. She was groggy from some medication she was taking for an unspecified illness and she was laying in bed Gary left the room, saying that he was going to use the bathroom After he was then gone for a suspiciously long amount of time, Gary's cousin went to go check on him and he found Gary, not in the bathroom and straddling his wife on their bed groping her breasts. When he asked Gary what the hell he was doing, Gary straight up said that he wanted to kiss her Like that was a normal fucking response this moment A normal option When his cousin said he was going to call nine hundred eleven, Gary replied, quote, goodood I want to go back to jail. Gary eventually plleed guilty to battery of a polace officer Another charge of assault with intent to rape was dropped as part of his plea deal He would end up serving eight months in prison before being released early And then in December of nineteen seventy three, now twenty one year old Gary gets in trouble again for another disturbing incident Nordered a bunch of mess Swallowed some benzodine tablets, another form of amphetamine then went to a couple's home that he knew and talked about how he wanted to stab a woman in the jaw He also told her three year old daughter, quote, I thought I'd kill you once I guess I'll have to do it again So that's fucking terr f The couple threw Gary out of their home. He then proceeded to beat on their doors to try to get back in until the police got there invvestigative journalism attempts have not been able to determine with certainty whether or not he would serve additional time for that specific incident Short time later, Gary was arrested on suspicious of gnd theft auto and received a citation for disturbing the peace and driving without a license. Someone who knew him back then said that he also got into some bar fights around this time and was once reported for prowling around at night in a local cemetery like a fucking ghl Gary was known. He was definitely known to the Uuba County Sheriff's office at the time of his disappearance According to Gary Wyiley, the ex husband of Gary' sister Sharon Drugs warped Gary's brain Maybe. ly work, Maybe was born a serious mental illness and drugs interacted very badly with that brain After serving briefly in Germany Uh orr maybe they did warp him. I mean, fucking meth will eat your brain up. After serving briefly in Germany, Gary was in and out of the house and wildly mentally unstable for the next couple of years, clearly. nineteen seventy four, Gary was arrested by the police in Stockon, California and checked into a state mental hospital for unspecified reasons He stayed there for two days, then escaped through a drain pipe pipe and walked and hitchhiked his way back to his parents home in Marysville, Uba Cy Gary had also once snuck out of the Letteran Army Hospital Psychiatric Ward And he walked out of a different mental health facility in nineteen seventy five He was then medicated again, but stuck with at that time Police for while became stable enough to take some classes at Uuba College, a public community college in Marysville, Uuba County, nineteen seventy five But then he dropped out, moved to Oregon to go live with his grandma in Portland Gary's mom and stepdad, Ida and Bob called him, pleaded with him to come home, but then he stopped talking to them thenen they don't hear from him until he unexpectedly and impulsively had left his grandmas house and just showed up on their doorsteps. Five weeks later He had literally walked from Portland to Marysville. a roughly five hundred and forty mile journey ry told her that he stole milk off people's porches, a dog food along the way to survive that same year, another couple in Yuba County Welcome to find Gary. This is terrifying Welcome to Find Gary standing in their bedroom like in the middle the n punched through their window, unlocked their front door to get inside, and now he told them that he was looking for a ring to return to Satan. My God, a ring to return to Satan This dude was clearly wildly unstable and dangerous when he was off his mits He also told him that he was there to collect the rent money rent money for the house that they fucking owned Gary took another trip to the psychiatric facility following that incident It seems as opposed to going to jail or prison after that incident Gary started to be more consistent with taking his metss He was able to get hired on for a steady job, able to keep it, had no notable contact with the police for two years He joined the Gateway project, that nonprofit called gateway projects, plural in some sources and started hanging out with the other four men that we've met just a few months before they all went missing And is as we know, he joined their basketball team basasketball coach Robert Penick would tell the police that he felt like Gary quote could possibly flip out at any time. Dude made him nervous Dud made a lot of people nervous Back in nineteen seventy, Uubber County Sergeant, James Black interviewed Gary's friend, Janet and Zara And she said that Gary repeatedly told her about a dream where he and several other people would disappear So that's interesting Creepy AndZerah also claimed that Gary was, quote, a very violent person hurting several men seriously And she said he hated women So what a friend? What a friend to have around The parents of the other four men would all report that they did not feel comfortable around Gary They also said they did not know about his criminal record at the time that the boys went missing. case file notes written by investigators about the Uubbe County five disappearances, note that Gary was deemed the most likely of the group to quote lead and suggest places to go or things to do, right? So the leader of this group When not medicated is extremely mentally unstable, violent, very dangerous Yuba County undersheriff, Jack Beachcham told the Sacramento Be that the parents of the other four said they had said they had concerns about Gary's involvement during the initial investigation. They all thought Gary was different from the others. that he didn't fit in with the other men. investigative journalist with the Sacamento Bast speculated perhaps Gary chose not to take his meds Prior to those guys going missing because some of the listed side effects are drowsiness lethargy or lethargy, excuse me and dizziness. And you might have, you know, wanted to have been extra alert for his big basketball game the next day, right? pooor dude Because of that he might he might have started to hallucinate and then unintentionally led his friends to their deaths. Sounds like a pretty good working theory to me so fucking sad Another theory that has persisted for decades is that the men witnessed something they weren't supposed to see Right? And this was alluded to in a previous artle This idea comes largely from comments made by family members, Ted Were sister in law, not identified by name in a Whington Post article from nineteen seventy eight famamously speculated, as I believe we just heard not too long ago, that the group may have saw something in a parking lot after they seing something in the parking lot after the basketball game maybe a fight, maybe robbery, maybe some kind of drug deal, something that frightened them enough to leave Chico in a hurry But why wouldn't they race? home in that situation Why would they drive away from home Sary steepedad, Bob Klp pointed to the boys not burning anything as evidence they had gotten afraid of something. U, you know, if some someone, some group of people, people again that they may have witnessed doing something. I can't understand why Gary would have been that scared ent all those paperbacks and they didn't even build a lousy fire can't understand why they didn't do that unless they were afraid Peporters this theory pointed to the strange route the men took. Instead of driving home, they headed deep into the mountains, but I don't know if that really is evidence of this U, But they they feel like, you know, they took this strange route because they were fleeing from someone or someone' The biggest problem with this theory, one of many, there's absolutely no evidence that a crime occurred in the parking lot that night and no witness ever reported seeing the manen being chased Still, it is one of the most enduring theories because it postulates some sort of answer to the single biggest question in this case. Why did five men who desperately wanted to be home for a basketball tournament suddenly abandon their plans and drive seventy miles into the wilderness? Another enduring theory is the drug dealer theory a darker variation of the witness theory that focuses specifically on Gary Maththias because Gary had a history of drug use and newew people outside of the social circles of the other four men, Some have speculated that he had arranged to meet somebody that night someomebody he perhaps had planned on buying some drugs from Maybe want to get some fucking mh, be revved up for the game, or maybe it was somebody he owed money to B Perhaps he encountered someone from his past unexpectedly at the game Following this theory, the group either willingly followed Gary into the mountains or were forced there to some degree after an encounter gone wrong point to the mysterious gold watch found near Ted Weir's body, the unidentified lighter, and the fact that Gary's body was never found Critics counter that there is zero evidence that Gary had returned to drug use before he disappeared Friends and family said he had been very stable, employed takaking his meds U looking forward to the big basketball tournament the day after they disappeared very much Like many of the theories in this case, it explains some details, maybe kind of, but also creates new questions Another possibility is that the men encountered someone arriving or excuse me, that they encountered somebody after arriving in the mountains This does not answer the question of why they ended up in the mountains. It theorized that once the boys ended up in the Plumus National Forest for fucking whatever reason They found out real quick that the wilderness was far from empty. You, hunters, campers, cabin owners, occasional drifters were in that area. And once out on this lonely road road, the boys crossed path with someone or someone's hostile. Maybe they stopped asked for directions. Maybe they accidentally trespassed. Maybe an argument escalated The theory is sometimes linked to Joseph Shone's account of possibly seeing various unfriendly people near a vehicle in the mountains at night Another person was present, supporters argued that individual could have convinced the group to leave the car or head deeper into the forest for any number of reasons. The biggest problem with this theory is that investigators Well, they never found any evidence of violence No gunshot wounds, no stab wounds, no signs of struggle. notothing conclusively pointing towards murder. Instead, remember that they went on to live for months afterfter they disappeared Some other theories are A lot more out there. likeike one that takes us squarely into tinfoil hat conspiracy territory. Because two of the men had been in the military and because the area, they disappeared and contained some military facilities like the highly restricted BL Air Force Base, which wasn't that close, but kind of you know this air Force base was home to the SR seventy one Blackbird spy plane and U two spy plane programs in nineteen seventy eight Some amateur investigators and podcasters and YouTubers have proposed that the group accidentally witnessed some sort of highly classified military operation. according to this theory or I guess theories Since there are several variations, the boys encountered covert military personnel conducting some sort of exercise or transporting some sort of cllassified equipment Now what kind We don't know Be it's so secret. they were killed over it, okay If I didn't know they would kill me for telling you Rumors suggest that they might have seen secret experimental spy planes or early drone military technology being tested in the Plumb' National Forest or in the surrounding Sier Nevada Mounts. And then, of course, there were other people at that night weren'tilled. And then of course Following the murder of the boys, you know there was a big government cover up to hide the fact that they were killed. There's zero evidence for any of this. no documents, no whistleblowers, no credible witnesses. And again, there was a bunch of other people in theorest at night Why kill just them The theory persists Because, well, people fucking love shit like this People people want to believe shit like this. People often find it difficult to accept that a tragedy this bizarre could result from something as mundane as just getting lost or from following a group member's mental illness induced to hallucinations. It's not as exciting One of the most fascinating theories is, and I'm guessing a lot of you' already wondered about this yourselves Gary Matthias never died Anywhere on that mountain, unlike the others, Gary had repeatedly demonstrated inability to survive on foot for extraordinary distances. My dude walked home allegedly over five hundred miles from fucking grandma'souse Oreon His body was never found. hisis glasses were never found ueporters of this theory believe Gary may have left the trailer after the others died and successfully reached civilization, or he might have done that before the others died. Maybe he told him he was going to go get help Maybe unmedicated, he hallucinated some sort of vision A vision of a plan for how to escape Without medication, he would have experienced severe psychosis eventually And once that happened He could have not only wandered out of the woods, but then also adopted a new persona, new identity, a name, become homeless, died somewhere far from where the search was conducted, or not died, still be alive, unmedicated somewhere theoretically today notot likely but not totally impossible Law enforcement has never found any evidence whatsoever supporting that theory, though. But unlike a lot of the other theories, it remains technically possible. Another technically possible, super creepy theory is that somebody was already in that forest Service trailer when the boys found it The reasoning with this theory usually goes, somebody else owned that mysterious gold watch Somebody else owned that lighter. Somebody else helped Ted, you know, get wrapped in sheets you know, they wrapped him up after he became incapitated. And Gary disappeared because he stayed with this mystery unknown person. U But why the fuck would this mystery guy stay with the five of them up there while they starve for months Starve while there were all these dehydrated meals and so many fruit cocktail cans in a locker in the shed, again, literally enough food to have kept all five men alive for at least a year, you know, to have them be able to feast like fucking kings until summer came and then they could easily get out Why would that person not break into the shed Why would that person not start a fire? That theory is fucking ridiculous. lot of these areies are but that one is especially ridiculous in my opin There's also a cruel local bully theory Following this one, this mystery bully where they might have been had some sort of issue with Gary Maththias and grabbed him After the boys all got snacks fall in the game And then this bully and anybody who may have been helping this bully. Well, they They forced the other four guys to follow him and Matthias up into the mountains And then they made the boys park the car and then they marched them a few miles further and then they were like, I don't know, like I fuck you now get yourselves home And in the cold and darkness without any, you know, means to properly orient themselves, they all went deeper and deeper into the woods which is where they stumbled upon the trailer where we're, you know, his body was found and then they hid there because they were still scared of these bullies Uh, you know, and then I guessh maybe Bill Sterling. stayed with Weir while Madruga and you know, Hewitt eventually tried to go back to the car to get help a long, long time later. . So some version of the bully and the bully's henpin kidnpped Carry And then we're like, follow me up into the mountains to get him back And the other four did or were driven there by some of the bullies henchmen And then once up in the mountains, they was like Now get out of that car and follow me further, but on foot now. And they're like, oh, okay. And then they walk behind the car through the snow for miles and miles Well, I guess, you know, the bully and his henchmen were taking a lot of turns to get him confused and lost And then the bully are bullies then they toss Gary out of the car And they're like, haa, fucky guys. And then they fled. Anden the boys weren't able to follow their tire tracks anywh That's insane that one seems more riculous to me than the previous one Finally, there were a few other people who think a few more pretty unlikely things. likek that the boys encountered UFO's And aliens just Fuck around him for a while. them. experimented on You know, just kept them scared beforefore ultimately abducting Gary and taking him to I don't know, another planet. Okay, why not? Can't prove that didn't happen Just like that you can't prove that that didn't happen to anyone who's ever disappered, whose remains have never been found There are also those who think that maybe Bigfoot