It’s one in every of California’s most enduring mysteries. The story of what occurred to the Yuba County 5 is the topic of an episode in Netflix‘s Information of The Unexplained, and it’s the form of incident that brings up extra questions than solutions.

The Yuba County 5 refers to a bunch of 5 younger males from Yuba Metropolis, California, who disappeared beneath mysterious circumstances in February 1978. The group included Jack Madruga, Jack Huett, Invoice Sterling, Ted Weiher, and Gary Mathias. 4 of the group had some type of studying incapacity, whereas Gary was being handled for schizophrenia. “[They were] simply good pleasant boys who went to video games collectively and went residence,” one in every of their moms advised the Los Angeles Occasions in 1978. 

Earlier than their disappearance, the 5 males attended a basketball recreation at California State College, Chico, on the night of February 24—from Chico to their properties, the gap was lower than 50 miles. They had been recognized to have left the sport collectively in a purple and white 1969 Mercury Montego, owned by Jack, and had been reported to have stopped at a comfort retailer in Chico generally known as the Bear’s Market to purchase snacks. This was the final time they had been seen alive. So what occurred to the Yuba County 5?

What occurred to the Yuba County 5?

What occurred to the Yuba County 5 stays shrouded in thriller. As a substitute of arriving residence after the basketball recreation, police say they turned off the motorway and headed up onto a mountain highway that the households say none of them had been acquainted with. It could be a number of hours till their moms raised the alarm that they hadn’t come residence.

4 days later, on February 28, Jack’s automotive was discovered deserted in a distant space of the Plumas Nationwide Forest, in an space generally known as the Oroville-Quincy Street, some 69 miles from Chico. The automobile was in advantageous form, the keys had been gone, it had not run out of gasoline, and there have been maps folded within the glove compartment. The scene contained indicators that that they had been there for a while, together with proof of them attempting to outlive by searching for shelter inside a close-by trailer, the place that they had entry to meals and water.

It wasn’t till the frost thawed that investigators would lastly get some solutions. On June 4, a bunch of motorcyclists wandered right into a abandoned forest service trailer camp on the finish of the highway and smelled one thing foul. It was the physique of Ted Weiher, stretched out on a mattress inside the principle trailer which was 19.4 miles from the automotive.

Within the months it took to search out him, he’d misplaced from 80 to 100 kilos. The expansion of his beard instructed he had lived, ravenous, for anyplace from eight to 13 weeks. His ft had been badly frostbitten. There was no proof that anybody had tried to make a fireplace, although matches had been discovered together with wood furnishings and books that might’ve burned simply.

Nobody had touched the propane tank in one other shed exterior, both. “All they needed to do was flip that fuel on,” Yuba County Lt. Lance Ayers advised the Washington Submit on the time, “they usually’d have had fuel to the trailer and warmth.”

Greater than a dozen ration cans had been opened and emptied from an out of doors storage shed. One had been opened with an Military P38 can opener, which solely Madruga and Mathias who had served within the Military, in all probability knew how one can use. However nobody had opened a locker in the identical shed containing sufficient dehydrated meals hold all 5 alive for a yr.

The subsequent day, the stays of Madruga and Sterling had been discovered 11.4 miles from the automotive. Madruga had been partially eaten by animals; bones had been all that was left of Sterling. Two days later, Jackie Huett’s father discovered his son’s spine. Autopsies concluded that the boys had died of hypothermia. There was no signal of Gary Mathias, however his tennis sneakers had been discovered contained in the forest service trailer and solely 4 units of footprints had been uncovered on the scene.

So many questions: Why would they abandon their automotive with fuel nonetheless within the tank? Why trudge virtually 20 miles via the snow to interrupt right into a locked, unheated trailer and die? Why did they drive up there within the first place? In the event that they had been chased, why wasn’t the automotive broken?

“There was some drive that made ’em go up there,” Jack Madruga’s mom Mabel advised the Washington Submit on the time. “They wouldn’t have fled off within the wooden like a bunch of quail. We all know good and properly that any individual made them do it. We are able to’t visualize somebody getting the higher hand on these 5 males, however we all know it should have been.”‘

Was Gary Mathias discovered?

Gary Mathias hasn’t been discovered by investigators, although there have been loads of unconfirmed sightings and theories about whether or not he was concerned in his mates’ deaths. In a Yuba County Sheriff’s Division letter dated mid-October 2020—made public by way of a information request in October 2023—investigators now imagine that “Gary Matthias is believed to be a sufferer of foul play. This case stays open as a lacking particular person/murder case.”

In Information of the Unexplained, Gary’s sister Tammie Phillips stated it was possible that he had gone “weeks with out his treatment,” which might have impacted his psychological well being. “I do imagine he didn’t make it out of there any greater than the opposite boys did,” she added. However some folks imagine Gary continues to be alive.

Jack ‘Doc’ Madruga’s niece Cathy Roberts claims the 4 males had been fearful of Gary. “I do know, God forgive me, Doc and the opposite guys had been fearful of Mathias,” she stated. “Gary was going to go to the sport with them they usually didn’t actually need him to go however they had been too scared to say something. And that got here from my uncle.”

Cathy additionally claimed she noticed Gary at a bar inside a yr after the our bodies had been discovered, believing she’d made eye contact with him earlier than he bolted. Tony Wright, the creator of Issues Aren’t Proper: The Disappearance of the Yuba County 5, disagrees with this suspicion. “His schizophrenia is straightforward to make use of as an excuse,” Wright outlined within the documentary, “however there’s no proof of Gary ever pulling one thing like this earlier than”.

He added: “If they will get in a automotive, drive to Chico with out incident, attend a basketball recreation with out incident, go to Behr’s market [convenience store] with out incident, how’s Gary the issue? I don’t purchase it.”

Information of the Unexplained is obtainable to stream on Netflix now.