In 1978, a group of young men would drive together to attend a basketball game, the five friends had a shared passion for sports and would often go on such excursions as a group. However, this time was different. This time something would go wrong and four of the men would later be found dead while the fifth wouldn’t be found at all. The case became known as that of the “Yuba County Five.”
The case has been liked to the Dyatlov Pass incident with which it shares more than a few similarities. The group consisted of Jack Madruga, Bill Sterling, Ted Weiher, Jackie Huett, and Gary Mathias. Four of the men had some form of learning disability with the fifth, Mathias suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times following their disappearance, one of the boys’ mothers stated that they were “just nice friendly boys who went to games together and went home.”
What happened to the Yuba County Five?
The incident occurred on a Friday, the night of February 24, the middle of a harsh Winter. The basketball game at California State University in Chico finished around 10pm and the group piled into the car belonging to Madruga to begin the drive back home to Yuba County. They were seen by a witness stopping at a shop close to the university campus for some snacks as per abc.net. They seemed happy and carefree, the drive ahead was a simple one, around 50 miles to get home.
But for some unknown reason they decided to turn off of the motorway according to police. Instead of heading straight home they took a detour onto an icy mountain road.
Several hours later the mothers of the boys began raising the alarm. However, despite contacting the police, authorities sat on their hands, telling the parents that, as they were all over the age of 18, they could not be reported missing “until a certain time.”
The police search begins
A police report was eventually filed Saturday night, however, earlier that morning Madruga’s car was spotted in a snow bank around 70 miles from Chico but it wasn’t reported until Tuesday.
One witness claimed to have been stuck on the same road that very night. He claimed he had a heart attack while trying to free his car and so had to lie down in the back. While there, he claimed to see flashlight beams and car headlights although his story kept changing. “I was half-conscious, not lucid, hallucinating and in deep pain,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
Bodies are found
It took until June 4 for the first body to be found. Ted Weiher was discovered in a forest service trailer wrapped in multiple blankets. He had grown a full beard which suggested he survived for a long time in the wilderness. Bill Sterling and Jack Madruga were discovered a couple of days later and then on June 7, Jackie Huett’s remains were also found. Gary Mathias remains missing to this day.
Speculation over what happened to the group is to be expected, after all, what would prompt these men to leave the motorway, abandon their car, and apparently split up and get lost in the icy forests so far yet so near to home? Madruga’s mother, Melba, told outlets “I’m positive he never went up there on his own.” claiming “He was either tricked or threatened.”
The case remains open as a missing persons/homicide case, although it is not clear who exactly could have committed the homicide.
