The Yuba County Five
The Game and the Disappearance
On the evening of February 24, 1978, five friends from Yuba City, California — all with mild intellectual disabilities or psychiatric conditions — drove to Chico to attend a college basketball game.
The men were:
- Gary Mathias (25) – diagnosed with schizophrenia, but stable and on medication
- Bill Sterling (29)
- Jack Huett (24)
- Jack Madruga (30)
- Ted Weiher (32)
The group was tightly knit and rarely did anything spontaneous. They were excited for an upcoming basketball tournament they were scheduled to play in the very next day.
After the game ended around 10 p.m., they never returned home.
The Abandoned Car in the Mountains
Four days later, their Mercury Montego car was found abandoned on a remote mountain road in the Plumas National Forest, 70 miles off course. The car wasn’t stuck — it could have easily been pushed out of the snow. Strangely, it had been driven up the rough road far into the wilderness, despite none of them being familiar with the area.
There was no sign of the men. The car showed no mechanical failure. Footprints suggested they had left on foot — into the forest, in the middle of the night, with no jackets, no flashlights, and no clear reason.
A Spring Thaw Reveals a Nightmare
On June 4, four months after the disappearance, a group of motorcyclists discovered an abandoned U.S. Forest Service trailer over 20 miles from the car.
Inside was the emaciated body of Ted Weiher.
He had died slowly, wrapped in blankets on a bed, with frostbitten feet and 100-pound weight loss. Evidence showed he had lived 8–13 weeks in the trailer — long after the others may have died.
A locker in the trailer contained enough C-rations to keep all of them alive, but they hadn’t been opened. A propane tank for heating had been left untouched. Someone had lit candles and used sheets for warmth, but none of the obvious survival resources were used.
In the surrounding woods, the bodies of Sterling and Madruga were found a short distance away — likely dying of exposure early on. Jack Huett’s bones were found 2 miles further in.
Gary Mathias, however, was never found.
Unanswered Questions and Theories
1. Why drive into the mountains at all?
The men were headed home — but their car ended up in the opposite direction, on a narrow, unpaved road they had no reason to take.
2. Why not use the food and heat in the trailer?
Ted survived for two months. Yet no one lit the propane heater, and nobody opened sealed food containers. Were they unaware of how, or afraid to?
3. Where is Gary Mathias?
Gary’s shoes were found in the trailer, suggesting he was there at some point. But his body was never recovered, and no one knows if he died in the wilderness — or escaped.
A Case of Fear, Confusion… or Something More?
One theory suggests the men may have been chased or coerced into the mountains. Another suggests paranoia or disorientation, possibly caused by Mathias experiencing a schizophrenic episode.
But no evidence of foul play was ever found. And yet:
- The car was in perfect working order.
- The trailer had all the means to survive.
- One man lived for nearly three months, starving to death, seemingly waiting.
Legacy: The American Dyatlov Pass
The case is often compared to the Dyatlov Pass Incident in Russia — another mysterious death in the mountains involving missing people, hypothermia, and inexplicable behavior.
Five men drove into the cold.
Four died.
One vanished.
And nobody knows why.