The Strange Disappearance of The Yuba County Five

On the night of the 24th of February, 1978, a group of five young men – who were all a part of a program for the mentally handicapped – attended a college basketball game at California State University, Chico. They were: Jack Madruga, 30, William Sterling, 29, Ted Weiher, 32, Gary Mathias, 25, and Jack Huett, 24, all from the Marysville area in California. The group of men had been anticipating their Special Olympic basketball tournament that was scheduled for the very next night in Sacramento. They planned on attending the college basketball game to get them enthusiastic for their own game. Before they left, they neatly laid out their basketball jerseys on their beds. If they won their game, they got a trip to Disneyland in California.

However, the five friends would never make it to their game.

Following the college basketball game in Chico, the men intended on driving back home. They all climbed into Madruga’s Mercury coupe and drove to a convenience store in downtown Chico to purchase snacks and drinks for the drive back. This was at approximately 10PM. After departing the store, the men seemingly vanished. Several days later, their abandoned car was found some 70 miles away on a Plumas National Forest road. It appeared as though the men unaccountably turned off a freeway on the way home, driving east rather than south. An investigation of the car indicated no signs of foul play and revealed it was in working order, ruling out the car breaking down. “The car was littered with candy wrappers, basketball programs, milk cartons, and other material indicating a good time,” said a Butte County sheriff. ¹

The elevation of the site where the Mercury coup was found was 4,400 feet and the area was surrounded by deep snow. It wasn’t looking optimistic. The missing men were wearing only light clothing and the area was exceptionally dense and mountainous. “Some places you can only get in on horseback,” said Yuba County Undersheriff, Jack Beecham.² While the men did suffer from mental disabilities, they all could function quite well. However, their families said that their behaviour tended to “deteriorate” if put in a stressful situation. Nevertheless, it was completely out of character for them to just up and vanish on their own accord, particularly given the fact they were all so excited about their upcoming basketball game. “Ted wouldn’t have missed that game for anything,” said his mother. According to their families, they most definitely wouldn’t have driven up an isolated, unknown road in the middle of the night and just abandoned their car for no reason. “I’m pretty sure he would have come home directly from the game,” said Madruga’s mother. “There’s no way he would have gone voluntarily into the mountains at night.” Several of the men were particularly afraid of the dark and two – Stirling and Wieher – abhorred the cold weather and the outdoors.

Foul play was suspected very early on in the investigation: “They could have stopped to aid somebody, and the people they aided took advantage of them,” suggested Sheriff Jim Grant.

Adding more to the mystery, a witness came forward to tell police that he had seen the Mercury coupe at some point between 11PM and midnight on the 24^th of February. The witness, Joseph Schons, had gotten his car stuck in the snow while driving on the same Plumas National Forest road where the abandoned car would later be found. While attempting to push his car out of the snow, Schons suffered a heart attack. While awaiting help, Schons said two headlights appeared behind him and then stopped around twenty feet behind him. He said that a group of men then climbed out of a Mercury coup and climbed into the second vehicle and drove off. However, Schons later said he couldn’t confirm without doubt that there had been a second car: “I was half-conscious, not lucid, hallucinating and in deep pain,” he later said. He did confirm, however, that he had definitely seen a Mercury coupe. Shortly afterwards, another witness came forward to say she had seen the five men in a red, 1950s pickup truck at around 2PM on the 25^th of February. She claimed she saw the men outside a store in Brownsville, approximately an hour away from where the Mercury coupe was found abandoned.

After the abandoned car was found, a severe blizzard blanketed the area, hindering search efforts and covering potential tracks. Nevertheless, teams of deputies from Yuba and adjoining Buttle counties searched the mountain on foot, on horseback, with dogs, in four-wheel drive vehicles and in a helicopter. The initial search was exhaustive but several weeks later, the ground search for the men was suspended. The Yuba County sheriff’s office said they wouldn’t resume the ground search unless new evidence came forward that indicated that the five men were still in the dense forest.³ While the ground search was called off, a California Highway Patrol helicopter continued to scour the area from the sky. “We’ve searched every place possible,” said Yuba County Sheriff Jim Grant.⁴

The case went cold until four months later, when the melting of the mountain snow revealed a tragic fate when a group of motorcyclists went to a trailer maintained by the Forest Service around 19 miles from where the Mercury coupe was found. They noticed the window was smashed and inside, they found the decomposed body of Weiher; his feet had severe gangrene after suffering from frostbite. They also found food, clothing, books, matches and fuel, all of which remained untouched. There was enough food to feed the five men for over a year. It was determined that Weiher had remained alive for up to two months in the trailer before dying of starvation and hypothermia. The late spring thaw then uncovered the bodies of Madruga and Sterling around 11 miles from the abandoned Mercury coupe. Both died of hypothermia. Investigators theorised that one may have succumbed to the desire to sleep that marks the final stage of hypothermia and the other refused to leave his side. Shortly afterwards, Huett‘s father – who had joined in on the search – found his remains two miles from the trailer. Investigators believe that Huett had been in the trailer with Weiher when he died and after becoming confused and scared, fled from the trailer to get away from the body. Despite an exhaustive search, Mathias was never found.

The discovery of the bodies led to even more questions. Why would they walk more than a dozen miles uphill through deep snow instead of walking downhill or remaining in their car? And even more tragically, why would at least one of them – Weiher – live for more than two months in a forest service trailer yet ignore the food, clothing and fuel around him before finally perishing? Their families stick to their belief that somebody forced the men up that mountain road and ultimately, to their deaths.

1. The Los Angeles Times, 10 March, 1978 “Foul Play Suspected in Disappearance of 5”
2. The Independent-Record, 9 March, 1978 – “Five ‘Slightly Retarded’ Men Vanish, Foul Play Suspected”
3. The Indianapolis Star, 10 March, 1978 – “5 Retarded Young Men Who Vanished Feb. 25 Feared Victims of Foul Play”
4. The Indianapolis Star, 14 March, 1978 – “Handicapped Team’s Fate Still Uncertain”