yuba county five crime scene photos

Police believed their bodies had simply given up before they found shelter while Weiher and others marched on. Mathias, his feet perhaps also swollen from frostbite, could have decided to put Weiher's shoes on instead if he had ventured outside. [5], Inside the car was evidence suggesting the men had been inside it between when they were last seen and when it was abandoned. (No, thats not a typo. This conspiracy theory will surely tug on your heart strings and have you asking, "What One freezing night in 1978, five young men mysteriously disappear. Bianca Myrtil is a writer and freelance editor. Posted on December 5, 2021. Several days after their initial disappearance, the group's car, a Mercury Montego, was found abandoned in a remote area of Plumas National Forest, California, on a high mountain dirt road that was far out of their way back to Yuba City. To this day, no one knows why these four young men died in snowy mountains that were so far from home. They appeared to have died from exposure perhaps before reaching the trailer. . To the Los Angeles Times, she said it was impossible for her to believe Madruga would ever drive his car, which he prized, into an area where it might be damaged. Photo via Pinterest. His leather shoes were off and missing. Not until the thaw came. In the second part of this double-feature, we detail the infamous Yuba County Five, and compare All week, Gary Mathias told his mom "We got a big game Saturday, Don't you let me oversleep." . Shones later came forward with his story when the news broke about the disappearances, making him the last person to see the five alive. The flashlight was slightly rusted and had been turned off. When Weiher and Sterling didnt come home, their mothers began calling the parents of the others, and soon the police were involved. The next day when they failed to return from Chico, their families became concerned and called the police. Some of the rations in and around the trailer were eaten but much of it was untouched. After the investigation details had been released, Joseph Schons came forward. Police were never able to establish evidence for pursuit, but no one could shake the idea that the men seemed to be determined to move forward. tips for grilling chicken. Joseph spent the rest of the night in his car before walking back down the mountain in the morning. Posted on February 22, 2022 by . Madruga and the four other able-bodied men should have been able to dislodge it without a lot of difficulty. For example, he often asked why he should stop at a stop sign, and one night he had to be dragged out of bed while the ceiling of his bedroom was burning in a house fire because he was afraid he would miss his job if he got up. The passengers then left together in one car. This week were going to be covering a very strange story. They entertained a number of eyewitness sightings of the men, including one where they were driving the pickup Shones had mentioned, but none seemed plausible. He had left his tennis shoes behind in the trailer with Weihers body and had taken the mans leather shoes. Were the group together and then decided to separate after Ted's death to try and find help? [2] Only bones were left of the three bodies in the woods, a result of scavenging animals; but the one in the trailer, Ted Weiher, had apparently lived for as long as three months after the men were last seen, starving to death despite an ample supply of food and heating materials nearby. They were competing to qualify for the paralympics and this next regional tournament would not only get them closer to that goal but closer to winning a week-long trip to Los Angeles. Shones staggered back in his car while he let the heart attack pass and then wondered what on Earth he would do to get himself out of the mess he was in. Published: 13:22 BST, 5 February 2019 Updated: 15:52 BST, 6 February 2019 Remains aptly named Corpsewood Manor have been abandoned since the owners were The five were on a team for the mentally handicapped called the Gateway Gators, who were set to participate in a week-long tournament sponsored by the Special Olympics. It was impossible to tell just how long it had been there. You see, Shones had been stuck in a snowdrift the night of the boys basketball outing. The keys were gone and there was evidence of the boys having stopped at a convenience store for snacks. More baffling, Weiher was emaciated. The Gateway Gators was a collegiate basketball team at the rehabilitation center of Yuba City, California. Itsweird. The whole case is weird. Two days later, just off the same road but much closer to the trailer, Jackie Huett's father found his son's backbone along with a pair of Levis and ripple-soled "Get Theres" shoes. He made it home safely that night, but when the police found Madrugas Mercury Montego it only left them more confused. Ted apparently had a slow and agonizing death from starvation having lost over half his body weight. The Yuba County Five were a group of young men from Yuba City, California, with mild intellectual disabilities or psychiatric conditions, who attended a college basketball game at California State University, Chico, on the night of February24, 1978. Investigation. but hadnt been diagnosed as mentally disabled and both he and Gary had served in the U.S. Army and had drivers licenses. Also on the table was a gold watch, without its crystal, which Weiher's family said was not his,[2] and a partially melted candle. Why didnt they attempt to move the car once it got stuck, instead of walking to nowhere in the middle of the night? Was it by chance they came across the trailer, or did someone lead them there? Several months later, in June, the body of Ted Weiher was found in a trailer with missing shoes and badly frostbitten feet. The game ended around 10 p.m. This week, Emma teaches Brian about the Yuba County Five and their mysterious deaths. Her mother had been recently widowed and it's a fair question to ask how much one person can stand. None of the men's families could speculate as to why they might have driven up a long and winding dirt road[a] on a winter night deep into a high-elevation remote forest, without any extra clothing and on the night before a basketball game they had been discussing excitedly for several weeks. [6], It is assumed that once they found the trailer, the other three broke the window to enter. Miles away from help, Shones thought he could flag down help. All five had intellectual disabilities or psychiatric issues to various degrees; all of them lived with family, who kept a close eye on them. This team was supported by a local program for people with mental disabilities. 1978 deaths and disappearances in California, Image of Mathias around the time of his disappearance, distributed to help find him, "Mystery of 5 Men Lost in Sierra Deepens", "Missing 5: Foul Play suspected: 5 May Have Met Foul Play", "Cold case: Why did 5 Northern California men disappear in 1978? Many, if not most should be considered armed and dangerous. Helicopters surveyed the area from above. The Sutter County Sheriff's Office is responsible for crime prevention, law enforcement, and criminal investigation in the unincorporated areas of the County and in the City of Live Oak. Every day you've got a thousand leads. Ted Weiher was found in a trailer 19 miles from the car and Madruga, Sterling and Huett were found in the locality but several miles away. We know he was in the trailer where he left his shoes, and it's assumed he took Weiher's, which would have fit his frostbitten feet a bit better, but his remains have not been found after 47 years. Why did the men turn east in the first place? Dyatlov Pass refers to the unsolved deaths of nine hikers in the northern Ural Mountains in the Soviet Union (now Russia) between 1 February and 2 February 1959. However, watching the creepy flick will remind anyone familiar with the case of the Yuba County Five of those poor, lost young men. [7] On March 3, the woman, who saw fliers that had been distributed with the men's pictures and information about the $1,215 ($5,000 in 2021 dollars),[8] reward the families had put up, told deputies that four of them had stopped at the store in a red pickup truck, two days after the disappearance. Madruga had held on to the keys to the car. Schons called for help and the lights turned off and the whistling sounds stopped. Luego de la desaparicin de los chicos el 25 CrimeDoor is the first app of its kind. When 5 men disappear into the snowy wilderness leaving their perfectly functioning car behind, What happened to the 5 men who mysteriously vanished one winters night? In a storage shed outside, there was a years supply of c-rations. 1971 Press Photo Yuba City, CA Reporters at J.L. According to the Daily Mail, the District Attorney publicized the gruesome photos a week after they were presented to a jury. Winners receive a trip to Los Angeles for a week. 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. A few hours later he saw flashlight beams outside his car and called out for help again, but immediately the lights went out. The Yuba County 5 remains one of the most baffling puzzles within the true crime community. The case has been called the Mathias Group Incident, the Yuba City Five Case and the American Dyatlov Pass incident. Why do that unless something more frightening was right behind them? Mobile:07904191715 Office Number:020 37124640 Email:[email protected]. Not much remained of Huett. It was February 24, 1978, and Shones was miles from help. Have you noticed theres been no mention of Matthiass body? 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? Your favorite mother-daughter podcast explains the freaky similarities of 1959's Russian Dyatlov Robin and Adam proudly present Episode 141 of Scary(ish)! The Davidson County Sheriff's Office has released photos of the Corbett home taken the night Jason Corbett was bludgeoned to death in his bedroom. When Shones tried to get their attention one more they continued to ignore him. They were supposed to play a basketball game of their own on February 25, part of a tournament, with a free week in Los Angeles if they won. On February 24, 1978, five men from the Yuba County, California-area vanished in the wilderness of Northern California. The day after Weiher's body was discovered, searchers found the remains of Madruga and Sterling. Instead, it looked abandoned. 2017's British wilderness horror The Ritual, directed by David Bruckner and written by Joe Barton, has not been officially attributed to any particular true story. Ortega, 55, is charged . And a thousand leads. All the conspiracies about this financier, 'America's Most Wanted': Behind the most tragic true-crime story ever. The 55-year-old Californian had felt fine just a few minutes previously, navigating his Volkswagen on a desolate mountain road near Rogers Cow Camp in the Plumas National Forest to see if weather conditions were good enough to bring his family along for a weekend excursion the following day. The trailer had food and propane. It's not perfect, but Dim the lights and strap in for a doozy, folks. [6], The day before the men went missing, a Forest Service Snowcat had gone along the road in that direction to clear snow off the trailer roof so it would not collapse. How did the group end up around a trailer 19 miles from the car? Jackie Charles Huett, who had a slight droop to the head, was sometimes slow to respond and a loving shadow to Weiher, who looked after Huett in a protective sort of way and would dial the phone for him when Hyett had to make a call. Two days later, Huetts own father found his sons backbone under a manzanita bush while with a search party in the mountains. This week Spencer and Ryan recount the strange Five young men travel to a basketball game and disappear. We can't visualize someone getting the upper hand on those five men, but we know it must have been." The police said she was "a credible witness" and they took her account seriously. The five friends decided to go to a basketball game together to cheer on the UC Davis team. It was about an hour away from their homes, but it was a pretty straight shot there and back. [2], Most puzzling to the investigators was how Weiher had come to his fate. The initial investigation by Yuba County police was frustrated by the snowfall in the region that winter. Shones said he saw a woman as well, and that he also heard a babys cry. vanished while driving home from a basketball game. [5], The woman said she immediately realized that the men were not from the area because of their "big eyes and facial expressions". 15 ratings1 review. Almost certainly, he had taken Weihers leather shoes, though police had no real idea why. a mild heart attack. Doctors later confirmed that he had indeed experienced a mild heart attack. [3] The eventual discovery of four of the five men's bodies seemed to suggest otherwise, but raised even more questions about what had happened that night, and whether at least one of them might have been rescued. The last time any of these people were seen was at a college basketball game at California State University. Janney plays Sue Buttons . They continues walking, ignoring him. What puzzled them most was how Weiher was found emaciated, despite the fact that the trailer been stocked with plenty of canned and dried food and a can opener. Huetts skeletonized remains were found shortly after. Stars Tim Donahue Michael May Dominick Sherry She recalled how he and Sterling had helped someone they knew get to the hospital after overdosing on Valium. New as of February 2022, the "Yuba County Five" podcast is made up of seven episodes, each averaging about 35 minutes long. It was possible, police believed, that the group had decided to follow the tracks it left, through snowdrifts 46 feet (1.21.8m) high, to wherever they led, in the belief that shelter was not too far away. Police and the families never ruled out foul play. It was possible that Madruga had missed the turn-off and gotten lost, driving deeper into darkness until the snow ground the Mercury to a halt. Talking to Shones proved even more frustrating. The real mystery is that Mathias was never found. "We know good and well somebody made them do it," she said. Same when it comes to that woman and baby that Shones saw with the Yuba County 5, though Shones admitted he could have hallucinated everything. As he sat in his car wondering what to do, he noticed two sets of headlights, one belonging to a pickup truck. He was pretty sick. The Yuba County Five Mysterious Death 1978 Mysterious Death , Exposure On the evening of Feb. 24, 1978, Gary Mathias and friends Bill Sterling, Jack Huett, Ted Weiher, and Jack Madruga loaded into Madruga's white 1969 Mercury Montego to drive to Chico, Calif., to watch the University of California, Davis men's. link True Crime Videos Madruga's body had been partially consumed by scavenging animals; only bones remained of Sterling, scattered over a small area. Northwest of the trailer, about a quarter-mile away, searchers found three wool forest service blankets and a two-cell flashlight lying by the side of the road. Following the game, the five men visited a local store and purchased snacks and drinks, shortly before 10pm. 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 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. His shoes and jeans nearby helped identify the body. After his return from Army service in Germany, he would fail to take his drugs and lapse into a disoriented psychosis that usually landed him in a Veterans Administration hospital. Inside the trailer, he found the body of Ted Weiher. " Yuba County 5 or the Yuba incident that has been called the American Dyatlov pass. Later, he clarified to police that he could not be sure of that, since at the time he was almost delirious from the pain he was in. Basketball. Then Colusa County District Attorney John Poyner authorized needed search warrants for the investigation and said he would prosecute the crime if it occurred in his county. The car was found several thousand feet up in an area above the snow line in a completely different direction. Directed by Tate Taylor and written by Amanda Idoko with Jake Gyllenhaal and Franklin Leonard among its producers, there was obviously something about Breaking News in Yuba County that snared all these great thesps - some gem on the page that became distorted in the journey to screen. It appeared that Ted had lived 8-13 weeks after his disappearance based on the length of his beard and around 100-pound weight loss. Chico to Yuba City is a straight down Highway 70 through the Central Valley in low-lying land with no snow at this time of the year. Months passed and no progress was made on the boys case. He weighed just 120 pounds at the time of his death. Police became aware that Madrugas 1969 Mercury Montego was stranded on the side of a mountain road about 50 miles away from home.