Searching for The Five

Friday. Joseph Shones was exploring some back roads in the Plumas National Forest. He spent most of the day driving his Volkswagen in hopes of returning to his family the next day. However, due to harsh weather conditions, his adventure caused his car to get stuck around 5:30 p.m. Miles away from help and with options dwindling, he jumped out of his car to give her a boost. However, in a surprisingly unfortunate turn of events, this physical exertion would lead to him suffering a heart attack in the worst possible place and at the worst possible time. He returns to the confines of his vehicle, enduring the pain and contemplating what to do.

However, soon after, he would have his biggest chance. Two sets of headlights were coming in the opposite direction and the shadows of what looked like a woman, a baby, and a group of kids walking towards him while talking. After realizing this could be his ticket home, he got out of the car and started calling for help. Once he started doing it, the headlights went out and the conversation fell silent. A couple of hours later, with his car still running, Shones would find another anomaly: flashlights shining in the distance. As expected, he would jump up once more, pleading vehemently for one of them to notice him.

However, this was also unsuccessful. A couple more hours pass and Shones' car runs out of gas. Fortunately, however, by that time he had felt well enough to exit his vehicle and begin a hike down the road toward a shelter about eight miles away. It was on this walk that he saw a 1969 Mercury Montego with no passengers inside. Considering the circumstances and having seen numerous people in the last few hours, he didn't think much of it. His journey to the mountain lodge took him into the early hours of the next day, and there he was able to get medical treatment and the help he so desperately needed to get his car out of there.

However, what he did not realize was the fact that on this trip he passed by the vehicle of

five

men who would soon become involved in one of the strangest and most inexplicable mysteries in history. February 24th. It was on this day that the lives of

five

old friends would converge. Jack Madruga, 30, was making his way through Yuba City and Oroville, California, to pick up the others for a night out at a Chico State basketball game. William Sterling, 29, Jack Huett, 24, Theodore Weiher, 32, and Gary Mathias, 25, made up this tight-knit group, commonly known as The Boys, and they were all looking forward to a night out before competing in his own basketball game.

The group played for a team called the Gateway Gators, an extracurricular segment of the Yuba City Gateway program. This was a rehabilitation center intended to help them learn a trade while overcoming their mild intellectual disabilities and mental health problems. It was because of this idea that the group lived with their parents, and with this came the expectation that they would return home that same night. Jack Madruga, owner of his prized 1969 Mercury Montego, was known to have recently worked as a dishwasher at a local fruit company. He was interested in managing his finances. However, due to what the family describes as "slow thinking", he found it difficult to hold down a job.

William Sterling was known to be Madruga's best friend. He was deeply religious and enjoyed spending his free time reading literature to comfort patients in psychiatric hospitals. Ted Weiher, the oldest of the group, enjoyed confiding in his friends, however, he was known to lack basic common sense. According to his brother, he was known to have spent more than $100 on pencils for no reason. He worked for a time as a janitor and bar clerk, but then his family urged him to resign because they believed he was causing problems. Jack Huett was known to react slowly and usually hung out with Weiher.

They took him under their wing, so to speak, and often needed his help to perform basic tasks like dialing phone numbers. Gary Mathias was the most enigmatic of the group. He was the only one without an intellectual disability. However, he suffered serious mental health problems instead. The most notable of these was his schizophrenia, which was the cause of his discharge from his brief stint in the Army. Both Mathias and Jack Madruga were the only two in the group who had a driver's license. And so they embarked. They had a drive of about an hour ahead and a conversation ensued about sports and the anticipation of a victory for them the next day.

The boy's uniforms were already placed at home by his parents, so they were ready to roll. Things were going well. (crowd cheering) 10:00 p.m. Chico State's visiting opponent, UC Davis, takes the win. Considering the favorite men's team was UC Davis, it's safe to say a celebratory snack was in order. They arrived at a local store called Behr's, where they bought a Hostess cherry pie, a lemon pie, a Snickers bar, a Marathon bar, a couple of Pepsis, and a quart of milk. It has been noted that the employee who served them that night was trying to close up and as a result was a little upset that they were there.

Little did they know that they would be one of the last to witness this group alive. The boys get back in the car and begin the trip back home. That night they did not manage to return home. Instead of driving south, they took a detour to the east. Their trip that night covered their journey from Oroville to Chico. You would think they would come straight back down Highway 99 and Highway 70, but that didn't happen. Just before reaching Oroville, the driver turned off Highway 70 onto the Oroville-Quincy Highway, a road that crosses Lake Oroville and climbs into the Plumas National Forest.

They drove until the road ended and continued their journey on a dirt trail until their vehicle got stuck in the snow. It is unclear what happened from that point on, but some time after this arrival, they would leave the confines of their car and set out into the night. Back at the shelter, Joe Shone's medical treatments had gone well. He didn't pay attention to the Mercury Montego since it wasn't out of the ordinary, and at noon he was able to fill his car with gas and return home. At the same time, as the boys were nowhere to be found, the mothers of Ted Weiher and William Sterling contacted the police asking for help finding their children.

It was unusual for each of them to be away from home for extended periods of time, so they believed the worst had happened to them. - Government officials insist this is an isolated incident. (garbled audio) We will continue to keep you informed as this story develops. - Tuesday. A ranger exploring the area notices an abandoned turquoise Mercury Montego. They dropped him off on an unpaved road near Elk's Retreat, a staggering two and a half hours from where the basketball game took place. The vehicle seemed normal. It was open, the window down, and sandwich wrappers covered the seats.

There was about a quarter tank of gas in the gas tank, and when they located it, it was not clogged. Surprisingly, considering how rugged the terrain is on this trail, the vehicle was found with minimal damage. Yuba County police began transmitting details and photographs of the missing men, and over the next five days their search team would scour the region. However, this would soon prove difficult, considering we were in the middle of a harsh winter in the mountains. The search team was reported to have nearly lost people on a couple of occasions, and by Sunday, a severe winter storm would arrive that would dump nearly nine inches of snow on the area.

It was because of this, the environmental dangers and the fact that time was against them, that led police to suspend the search until the snow melted that spring. And while the case was put on hold, their families became frustrated and the five men were left stranded. Isolated. Nowhere. June. A group of bikers are out for a weekend ride and head to the site of an abandoned forest service trailer at the Daniel Zink campground near Bucks Lake. The installation included a large main tug in the middle with several smaller satellites around it. When they arrived, they noticed a prominent, foul-smelling odor emanating from the main structure.

Immediately after, a broken window. They enter, curious to know what they have stumbled upon and a body. From head to toe there were sheets that hid his identity, and after removing them they discovered that he was one of the five men who disappeared four months earlier. It was Ted Weiher, forty kilos lighter and with a considerable beard, which made it seem like he was taking refuge here for about two months. In the bed they discovered his body with his shoes missing. With that, his feet froze badly. It appeared that he passed away due to starvation and exposure to the elements.

However, he strangely could have avoided this fate entirely. Since he took shelter inside a forest service trailer, he had access to ample sources of heat and enough canned food to last the five men for months if they decided to stay there. While they found 12 open cans scattered throughout the room, the vast majority of them were unopened, and it also appeared that no effort was made to block the window that was broken when they entered. The scene? Disconcerting, especially considering it was 30 kilometers from where Joe Shones saw his car abandoned. But overall, it was the push investigators needed to get back to this case.

The search continued. With increasing public attention and hopes for closure, search teams circled the new focus area southeast of Bucks Lake. It would only be a day before they too had their next break. On June 8, police discovered the bodies of Bill Sterling and Jack Madruga nearly five miles south of where Ted Weiher was found. In Madruga's pocket, the keys to his car. It was observed that he had been dragged a short distance and partially eaten by the animals. For Sterling, his remains were scattered around the area a few meters away. It was nothing more than bones.

Since the bodies were discovered closer to the vehicle and on a potential path they could have taken north, they believed the couple could not continue on their hike and died due to a combination of the elements and increasing fatigue. Two days later, Jack Huett's father discovers numerous pieces of clothing belonging to him a couple of miles northeast of the service trailer. Shortly after, the remains of him. Interestingly, service blankets and lanterns were discovered along the roadside a short distance west of their location. This discovery led investigators to believe that he and Gary Mathias likely arrived at the trailer with Ted Weiher and lived with him for an undetermined period of time.

His reasoning was due to the existence of Mathia's tennis shoes left in the room where Weiher was found. Theories are tenuous, but they believed they spent most of their final weeks with Ted Weiher in the trailer. However, after his death, they wanted to get away from the body and headed northeast to do so. It was on this hike that the couple would meet his demise, spending his final days exposed to Mother Nature. Now, it would make a lot of sense. However, to date, Gary Mathias' remains have never been found. For now, her missing persons case remains open, leaving many questions about the motive and circumstances of that winter night.

There are certainly questions about this case. The main one, however, covers the following: why didn't they return home? Stepping back and taking a look at this case presents an oft-mentioned anomaly. Gary Matias. He had a friend who lived in Forbestown, a few miles from Oroville and where the car was found. This has led many to consider the potential that Mathias had more to do with this than some were letting on. If we take a look at his route that night, mapping it from Chico to where they abandoned the car, it makes sense. The Oroville-Quincy Highway is just north of Oroville, and the possibility that Gary Mathias may have driven there in the past would not be far-fetched.

So let's entertain the idea that Madruga was convinced. She drove the car on the Oroville-Quincy Highway and missed the turnoff onto Forbestown Road. As a result of this, he kept driving and driving, until he finally got stuck, miles up a mountain trail. Up to this point, the events of that night seem like honest, innocent mishaps. However, what led Madruga Jack's mother to think otherwise was the fact that after getting trapped, with five sizable guys who could have rectified the situation with relative ease, they decided to abandon the car and move on. Towards the unknown? What was stopping them from going back and undoing the mistake they had made?

According to Jack's mother, she alleged that "There was some force that made themgo up there. They wouldn't have fled into the woods like a bunch of quails. We know very well that someone forced them to do it. "I can't imagine anyone taking advantage of those five men, but we know that must have been the case." Considering the circumstances at the time, postulating the potential for nefarious activity would not be out of the ordinary. The condition in which the car was found by Jack Madruga raised more questions than answers. Their car was reportedly found in impeccable condition, something almost unheard of considering the rough terrain that existed on the road they had taken.

With five moderately sized men packed into an already heavy vehicle and. With a low seat, damage to the landing gear was almost a guarantee. Since Jack had never driven on that road before, it seemed strange that he was able to navigate it so skillfully around midnight. Jack's window was down, which his mother claimed was extremely unusual for him. Considering that Mathías and Madruga were the only two with a driver's license, suspicions grew about the actual driver that night. Was Jack Madruga really behind the wheel or did Mathias demand the keys while he drove them there?

Considering Mathias' numerous run-ins with the law, this wouldn't be completely out of the realm of possibility. Before 1976, he was known to be unpredictable, however, he straightened himself out after being prescribed medication for schizophrenia. His stepfather reported that he "had no notable contact with police during the two years prior to his disappearance, and he had not privately 'gone out of control' during that time." The reason I mention this is because I see it mentioned all the time in various articles and forums. However, the evidence presented, especially given his own disappearance, is relatively insubstantial. While this is a notable possibility, in my opinion there are others that carry a little more weight.

Let's talk about Joseph Shones. We can remember that he spent most of Friday night trapped in the same area as The Boys. It's amazing that he spent most of the night in the most unfortunate of circumstances. However, I digress. In his testimony he stated that he witnessed something. A group, consisting of a woman, a man and a baby, all walking within the path of two lighthouses. If we assume that his memory is correct, then this leaves us questioning the identities of the other party involved. Ted Weiher's sister has theorized that the men witnessed something nefarious that night, sometime after the basketball game.

Perhaps they saw an attack or some kind of sign, whether domestic or not, and decided to follow the family to help. I'm not entirely sure how big the distance was between Shones and the group he witnessed, but hearing the cries of someone in need would surely spark some kind of desire to help rather than shutting up completely. I find it strange that the headlights went out and the conversations stopped in both cases when they saw people. While the circumstances don't scream malice, they definitely don't move the situation toward innocence. That is, if my memory of him was correct.

You see, since this testimony came out, Shones's story had changed slightly every time he shared it. While this, of course, could be a simple case of memory distortion, the notion that he changed her ultimately weakens his story entirely. According to sources, talking to Shones after the fact was certainly frustrating. He would claim that he was very ill during the times he believed he witnessed the others and essentially admitted that he may have hallucinated some of the details. Considering that the other parties stopped dead both times he called them, it could easily have been a figment of his imagination.

But what if he wasn't? It's just that. The nature of word-of-mouth testimonies, weakened by the circumstances of his situation, ultimately leaves them subject to debate and shrouded in uncertainty. While a dire situation is plausible, we can't rule out the possibility that The Boy's situation that night was all one big accident gone wrong. Let's put Gary Mathias in the spotlight once again. Entertain this. The men are in the game. Everything goes well and that night they leave without problems. They went to Behr's to pick up some snacks before heading back home. They're driving down Highway 99 toward Oroville, and somewhere along the way, Mathias convinced the others to visit his friend in nearby Forbestown.

Jack agrees and they turn off just before Oroville onto the Oroville-Quincy Highway, where they eventually miss the turnoff onto Forbestown Road. The Oroville-Quincy Highway is incredibly dark at that time of night, so it would make sense. Hesitant to turn around as the road winds heavily through the interior of the country, the others suggested alternative detours that were supposedly ahead. Alternative detours that, as we know, they never took. Before they know it, they are on a mountain road, lost in the darkness, before becoming trapped. Now, while they could have dislodged the car and turned around, we can't rule out the possibility that they simply didn't think to do so in this situation.

In addition to this, it was reported that a day before their dilemma, a snowplow had cleared a path along the road they were stuck on, which could instill a sense of optimism that some outside party would soon return to help. A party that never came. So, they map out the nearest place to get help, jump out of the car, and begin a walk toward their destination. Given that the service trailer was 30 kilometers away, it's safe to assume that surviving a trip of this magnitude against inclement weather is more or less a death sentence. As we know, the only ones who made it to the trailer were Mathias, Huett and Weiher.

An undetermined amount of time later, Huett and Mathias would leave to seek help for Weiher or abandon his corpse and embark on another last-ditch effort to break out of isolation. And it is on the way out that both Huett and Mathias succumb to the elements, bringing their situation to an unfortunate end. If you ask me, I think Mathias continued northeast, trying to make his way to the Meadow Valley area. However, what he probably didn't realize was the fact that he was approximately 21 miles away. If he was with Weiher, someone who lost almost half of his body weight, then we can assume that Mathias reflected this to some extent, leaving him weaker than when he initially arrived there.

I believe Mathias died somewhere in the Meadow Valley region and wildlife got to him before search teams could get there. But that's just my postulation. The Yuba County Boys case is, by all indications, one that makes no sense, and the details that support one theory ultimately weaken the other. It looks like we have the segments in front of us and they are mostly together. However, without Mathias' whereabouts ever materializing, that's all we can do. How did the car get through rocky terrain unscathed? Why didn't they react to the cries of Joe Shones, someone they could have seen as their beacon of help?

Why was the heat source and the food that could have lasted them months left untouched? It's cases like this that fascinate me, although countless questions still remain. Countless loose ends. Countless unknowns. The boys embarked that energetic Friday night on what was supposed to be a night of sports, a night of laughter, and a night they would never forget. What happened, in reality, were events that the world around them has been trying to piece together, because it is all of us who cannot forget them.