0:01

Due to the nature of this episode,

0:03

listener discretion is advised. This

0:06

episode includes discussions of violence, sexual

0:08

assault, substance abuse, and descriptions

0:10

of dead bodies. Consider

0:12

this when deciding how and when you'll

0:15

listen. It's

0:21

the middle of the night in the spring of 1978. Lance

0:26

Ayers of the Yuba County Sheriff's

0:28

Department is wide awake. He

0:31

spent weeks on a baffling case

0:33

of five men missing in California's

0:35

Sierra Nevada Mountains. Now,

0:38

those men have started invading his

0:41

dreams. A blanket

0:43

of snow, just beginning to thaw, has

0:45

obscured the search area for weeks. Investigators

0:49

have uncovered a few clues, but

0:51

each is more baffling and bizarre

0:53

than the last. It's

0:56

a breeding ground for a host

0:58

of strange theories. Lieutenant

1:00

Ayers investigates every tip, regardless

1:03

if he finds it believable or not. He

1:06

has to, for all he knows, those

1:08

men, including an old classmate

1:11

of his, could still

1:13

be out there, holding

1:15

on to survival and waiting

1:17

for help. So

1:19

he hopes more than anything, the

1:22

answers come soon. Then

1:24

he can put the strange theories to

1:27

bed, and maybe he can

1:29

sleep soundly too. He

1:31

has no idea that as investigators

1:33

scour the mountain, they'll uncover more

1:36

clues than they've gotten in months, or

1:39

that far from offering any

1:41

explanation, those clues will prompt

1:43

more questions, like

1:45

connecting the dots, only

1:48

to create a picture that your eyes

1:50

still can't make sense of. Welcome

1:53

to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify

1:56

podcast. I'm Carter Roy. You

1:59

can find us here, every day. Wednesday. And be

2:01

sure to check us out on Instagram at

2:03

The Conspiracy Pod and we would love to

2:05

hear from you. So if you're listening on

2:08

the Spotify app, swipe up and give us

2:10

your thoughts. Today we're

2:12

exploring the mystifying story

2:14

of the Yuba County

2:16

Five. In 1978, five

2:19

men went missing in the

2:21

snow-covered forests of Northern California.

2:23

The search for clues led

2:25

detectives and loved ones on

2:27

a strange dark journey, one

2:30

that still haunts the area to

2:32

this day. Stay

2:35

with us. We

2:46

got another day of NBA action and

2:48

with FanDuel, every night is a watch

2:50

party. So it's time for your FanDuel

2:52

crew to make their best. We

3:20

need more than what you can do. We're

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all down in the field. We're

3:26

all down in the field. Two

3:29

months less than prepping in Ohio. First man on real

3:31

money wage in England. Two times the first time. We're

3:33

in a position to not throw the best. Six

3:35

and a half seven days after a few. See

3:38

Bluetooth, fanduel.com, slash Sportsman. Damning

3:40

problem called 1-800-GAMBLER. It

3:45

feels like we're all being told to go

3:47

on this diet. Take that supplement. Ozempic will

3:49

give you depression, but you know what will

3:52

cure that? Weed. Or

3:54

you can try to balance your hormones. At

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Science vs. Willy? What

3:59

The f*** is going on? I

4:02

get a crap online and listen to sign

4:04

that says. Just the back out and

4:07

a budget. Stupid Jax, what is it

4:09

goes? Favorite fruit. Blueberries,

4:12

That. Science in the ass. Me: See

4:14

them out on spotify said. Hello!

4:16

Lover of things that go bump in the night, this is

4:18

the incumbents. And I'm Lindsay. Come in and we. Co.

4:20

Host the paranormal or Podcast. Scared

4:22

to Death or Settle People Real?

4:24

What about demonic possession? Poltergeist activities?

4:26

Do believe in ghosts? Malevolent entities?

4:29

Are aliens real? Could be abducted?

4:31

We don't know. What we do know

4:33

is that we have over two hundred

4:35

and thirty episode the stories on our

4:37

podcast scared to Death exploring all of

4:39

the possibilities. Each week we share several

4:41

supposedly true stories that have been gathered

4:43

from around the world and submissions More

4:45

own fans of allegedly true tales? Curious.

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About the paranormal. Just like a Spooky

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Death or released every Tuesday nights. Listen:

4:58

Wherever you get your podcasts, We hope

5:00

you end up scared to death. This.

5:05

Is a difficult story. It concerns

5:07

five possible victims, all young men

5:09

who had their whole lives in

5:12

front of them. They also all

5:14

had some form of mental disability.

5:16

I can't be much more precise

5:19

than that, because this happened in

5:21

the Nineteen seventies. The language we

5:23

use to discuss mental health issues

5:25

has changed since then, and the

5:28

contemporary reporting on the victim's conditions

5:30

was incomplete at best. But we

5:32

do know that these young men

5:34

were. Especially vulnerable, which makes

5:37

the injustice of what happened

5:39

of them steam them much

5:41

worse. As I said,

5:43

it's a difficult story, but if

5:46

you stick with it, it's also

5:48

assassinating mystery. It's.

5:53

nine sixty five pm on

5:55

february twenty fourth nineteen seventy

5:57

eight o'clock to bears more

5:59

Market in Chico, California, watches

6:01

the clock, counting down

6:03

the minutes until his shift is over. He

6:06

is almost free to make his way home through

6:09

the snowy roads of his small mountain town. He

6:12

is about to lock the door when five

6:14

men barge inside. The

6:16

men talk amongst themselves as they shop,

6:19

gloating about the basketball game they just

6:21

attended. Their team, UC

6:23

Davis, just beat Chico State,

6:26

the local college. They're

6:28

out of towners, and they're keeping

6:30

the clerk late. He watches

6:33

them, tapping his foot as they select

6:35

their goods. All together,

6:37

they purchase two bottles of Pepsi, a

6:39

quart and a half of milk, two

6:42

pies, and two candy bars. They

6:45

leave shortly after they arrive, and the

6:47

clerk breathes a sigh of relief. He

6:50

closes up and heads home, thinking

6:52

it was just an ordinary interaction

6:54

on a regular night. He's

6:57

dead wrong. In fact, he's

7:00

the last person who will ever see those

7:02

five men alive. Seven

7:07

hours later, at 5 a.m.

7:09

on February 25th, Imogen

7:11

Weir wakes up in Marysville,

7:13

California, about 50 miles south

7:16

of Chico. She goes

7:18

to check on her son, 32-year-old

7:20

Ted Weir, but he's not in

7:22

his bed. This is

7:25

immediately concerning. Her son

7:27

never spends the night away from home,

7:30

but the timing is especially weird.

7:33

Ted plays in an intramural basketball

7:35

team run by the Gateway Project,

7:38

a sports league for people with

7:40

intellectual disabilities. He's playing

7:42

in a Special Olympics tournament later that

7:44

day. It's important to him. He

7:47

wouldn't risk missing it. Imogen

7:51

knows that the night before, Ted went

7:53

out with four friends from his team.

7:56

Jack Madruga, Bill Sterling, Jack

7:58

Hewitt, and and

8:00

Gary Mathias. She

8:02

thinks of them as the boys, but

8:04

they're all between the ages of 24 and 32. They

8:08

traveled about an hour to Chico to watch

8:10

a college game and were supposed to return

8:13

late that night, but Imogen

8:15

calls the four other men's families. None

8:18

of them made it home. The

8:21

parents spend the day on edge, hoping

8:23

their sons will return. When

8:25

they miss their basketball game and

8:28

still aren't back by 8 p.m., the

8:30

families report them missing. Officers

8:35

at the Yuba County Sheriff's Department

8:37

open an investigation right away. They

8:40

start by trying to pin down the group's

8:42

last known movements. On the night

8:44

they went missing, the group had

8:46

been traveling in Jack Madruga's car, a

8:49

turquoise and white 1969 Mercury Montego. Madruga

8:53

was driving the group to and from

8:55

Chico to attend the basketball game. They

8:58

also find out more about the exact

9:01

nature of each man's disabilities. Of

9:03

the five, 30-year-old Jack Madruga

9:05

is the only one who's

9:08

never been officially diagnosed with

9:10

an intellectual disability or psychological

9:12

disorder. Although his family

9:14

describes him as slow

9:16

in his thought processes, he's capable

9:18

of managing his own affairs. He

9:21

was in the army as a truck driver when

9:23

he was younger and now works as a dishwasher.

9:26

As one of two in the group with a license, he

9:28

often winds up driving his friends around. One

9:32

of those friends is 32-year-old Ted Weir,

9:35

the man whose mother first noticed him missing.

9:37

He's known around town, is kind

9:40

and open-hearted. At the

9:42

same time, he often struggles to

9:44

understand instructions and he doesn't always

9:46

realize when he's in danger. For

9:49

example, one night when his

9:51

family's home caught fire, his brother

9:53

had to physically drag him out of the house.

9:55

Weir didn't understand how dangerous the fire

9:58

was. He was more focused on his own. on

10:00

getting the full night's sleep for work the next day.

10:03

Twenty-nine-year-old Bill Sterling has

10:06

a similarly significant intellectual

10:08

disability. He used to have

10:10

a job as a dishwasher at an Air

10:12

Force base, but his mother discovered the airmen

10:14

were taking advantage of him. They'd

10:17

pretend to be his friend, get him drunk,

10:19

then steal all the money he'd made working.

10:22

Since then, Sterling only spends time

10:24

with his real friends, like Jack

10:27

Hewitt. Of

10:29

the group, twenty-four-year-old Jack Hewitt's intellectual

10:31

impairment is the most significant. He's

10:34

also the most shy, perhaps

10:36

because he has a speech impediment and

10:38

can't read or write. Madruga,

10:41

Weir, Sterling, and Hewitt are

10:43

all well-liked around town. Among

10:45

their peers, they're seen as athletic

10:48

and popular jocks. None

10:50

of them have ever gotten into any trouble

10:52

with the law. But there's

10:54

the fifth member of the group. Gary

10:56

Mathias is a relatively new addition,

10:58

and he doesn't have an intellectual

11:00

disability. Instead, he's been

11:03

diagnosed with schizophrenia, a

11:05

psychological disorder typified by

11:07

hallucinations, delusions, and cognitive

11:10

problems that can make

11:12

day-to-day functioning difficult. At

11:14

the age of twenty-five, he's already

11:16

had several run-ins with the law. Like

11:19

Jack Madruga, Gary Mathias

11:21

also has military experience,

11:24

but was discharged from the Army after a

11:26

few years. The Yuba

11:29

County Sheriff's Department makes note of

11:31

Mathias' name. They know he

11:33

has a criminal record, but ever

11:35

since he started taking antipsychotic medication

11:37

two years ago, he hasn't

11:40

had any issues. And

11:42

regardless of his past, he's also

11:44

missing. Mathias could be a

11:46

victim in this scenario. He's

11:48

just as vulnerable as his friends. If

11:51

they're going to get any answers, the

11:53

Sheriff's Department needs to find all five

11:55

men, and they need to do

11:58

it before the weather gets any worse. They

12:04

start by patrolling the 50 miles

12:06

of mountain roads between Marysville and

12:08

Chico. They peer deep

12:10

into snowdrifts that tower up to 15 feet

12:13

above them. They brave the elements,

12:16

looking for any sign of a

12:18

car accident or broken down Montego.

12:21

But they find nothing. In

12:23

the meantime, the men's families

12:25

console each other. They

12:27

still can't think of any reason that their

12:29

boys would choose not to come home. They

12:32

wanted to play in their basketball game, and

12:35

they didn't like being out overnight. The

12:38

fact that they're still gone means that something

12:40

terrible must have happened. The

12:43

sheriff's department puts out an all-points

12:45

bulletin for every law enforcement organization

12:47

in the area. The

12:49

next two days are spent searching to

12:51

no avail. Then, on

12:54

Tuesday, February 28, the winds

12:56

bring a rolling snowstorm back

12:58

into the mountains. Snow

13:00

blankets the roads and the countryside.

13:03

In some areas, it falls 10 inches deep.

13:08

This is devastating for the search and rescue teams.

13:11

The mountains were already blanketed with snow,

13:13

so the men's tire tracks and footprints

13:16

would have been visible. But

13:18

now, their tracks are covered. Gone

13:20

for good. The search already seemed

13:22

like a long shot. Now

13:25

it feels impossible. However,

13:27

as the sun moves across

13:29

the sky, the storm passes,

13:31

and something unexpected happens. A

13:34

forest ranger makes his way through

13:37

the Plumas National Forest, a

13:39

two-and-a-half-hour drive east of Chico.

13:42

The country roads are winding and

13:44

isolated. That's when

13:47

he notices a car parked on the road

13:49

covered in snow. He's

13:51

seen it before. It's been

13:53

sitting in that spot for three days, ever

13:56

since the 25th. He

13:58

thought nothing of it before. People

14:00

often drive into the forest, park their

14:02

cars, and go skiing. But

14:05

they don't usually leave their vehicles unattended

14:07

for days at a time. He

14:10

wipes the snow off. It's a

14:12

turquoise and white 1969 Mercury Montego. He

14:17

checks the plates and discovers the

14:19

car belongs to a missing person, Jack

14:22

Madruga. This

14:25

is a major clue. The first trace of Jack

14:27

Madruga and his friends in three days. But

14:30

it's also pretty confusing. The

14:32

Plumas National Forest is about 60

14:34

miles east of Chico. Marysville,

14:36

where the five men live, is

14:39

around 60 miles south. Meaning

14:41

they must have driven over 50 miles in

14:44

the opposite direction of their homes for their

14:46

car to end up here. The

14:49

forest ranger reports the discovery and

14:51

pretty soon the area is swarming with

14:54

law enforcement. They closely

14:56

examine the vehicle, hoping

14:58

for anything that can help them make sense

15:00

of the situation. The

15:02

inside is filled with empty food wrappers

15:05

and one half-eaten marathon bar.

15:08

The remnants of the food the group purchased

15:10

at Bear's Market on the night they disappeared.

15:13

The sheriff looks for the keys, but they are

15:15

nowhere to be found. He

15:17

and his team wonder if the group abandoned

15:20

the car after it died. Perhaps

15:22

it ran out of gas or got stuck. But

15:25

when the officers try to hotwire the vehicle, they

15:28

make a startling discovery. The

15:31

car starts without issue. Even

15:33

after three days in the freezing cold,

15:35

the battery hasn't died. The

15:37

gas tank is still a quarter full. The

15:40

tires are fully inflated. It

15:42

isn't even stuck in the snow. The

15:45

officer's last thought is perhaps the car got

15:47

damaged as the men went up the bumpy

15:49

dirt roads. They check the

15:51

undercarriage, but it doesn't have a scratch

15:53

on it. Whoever drove

15:56

the car here managed to navigate

15:58

a dangerous rocky road without putting

16:00

any damage on the vehicle, even

16:02

as five grown men weighed it down. Which

16:05

means the group drove an hour and a

16:07

half away from home and into the mountains,

16:10

then left their perfectly functioning car

16:12

behind, all for no

16:15

discernible reason. It

16:17

just doesn't add up. As

16:20

they step back from the car to take stock

16:22

of the situation, the officers

16:24

can't help but wonder, what

16:27

happened here? The

16:36

discovery of Jack Madruga's abandoned,

16:38

but strangely undamaged car in

16:41

the Plumas National Forest raises

16:43

immediate questions. But

16:45

it does provide at least one answer, a solid

16:48

lead towards the whereabouts of the five

16:50

missing men. Since

16:53

Madruga's car is in the forest, it

16:55

stands to reason they might be somewhere

16:57

nearby. Police set

16:59

up massive search parties and scour the

17:01

surrounding woods. They bring

17:03

dogs, horses, and snow cats, and

17:06

even fly search and rescue helicopters

17:08

over the forests. They

17:10

comb through the snowy woods for

17:12

five days, devoting a combined

17:15

6,000 man hours to the

17:17

task, and they find

17:19

exactly nothing. Finally,

17:24

the sheriff's department is forced to

17:26

admit defeat. The area

17:28

they're searching is too large, the

17:30

terrain too rough, the weather too

17:32

punishing. If the missing men

17:35

are somewhere nearby, they are

17:37

most likely buried beneath several feet of snow,

17:39

and they may never be found. They

17:42

call off the search. As

17:45

you might expect, the missing men's

17:47

families aren't satisfied. They

17:49

push law enforcement to keep looking, but

17:52

combing the mountain just costs too much

17:54

time and money. Over

17:56

the next few weeks, the families are

17:58

tortured by the absence of a police officer. of

18:00

their sons, they try to understand

18:02

what could have motivated them to go into the

18:04

mountains in the middle of the night. Jack

18:08

Madruga's mother is particularly mystified.

18:11

His car was his most prized possession. He

18:14

never let anybody drive it. She

18:17

thinks he must have been behind the wheel, but

18:20

he also hated the mountains and camping. The

18:23

Plumas National Forest is the last place

18:25

he'd want to go. She

18:28

tells the LA Times, quote, I'm

18:31

sure he would have come home directly from the

18:33

game. There is no way

18:35

he would have gone voluntarily into the mountains

18:37

at night. So

18:40

if Jack Madruga didn't drive them up there

18:42

by choice, there's only one

18:44

explanation that makes sense to the family.

18:48

Somebody forced those men into the

18:50

wilderness. It

18:54

would be easier to accept this theory if

18:56

the men had any enemies, but they don't.

19:00

There's no one with a motive to hurt them. One

19:03

possibility is that someone stole Jack

19:05

Madruga's car. But even

19:07

then, if a person purposely took the vehicle,

19:10

they wouldn't have turned around and left it out in

19:12

the woods. None of it adds up.

19:15

In the absence of any real

19:17

information, each family is

19:20

forced to come to their own

19:22

conclusions. Gary

19:24

Mathias' stepfather decides that his

19:26

son is likely dead. He

19:29

tells reporters, quote, I think

19:31

they're either in the lake or six feet

19:34

under brush somewhere. But

19:36

not everyone accepts that. Ted

19:39

Weir's mother Imogen is convinced the

19:41

men have been taken captive. She

19:44

speculates they are being held hostage in a

19:46

cabin in the woods. Others

19:48

think the group might have been kidnapped

19:50

and then abandoned somewhere in the wild.

19:53

Maybe by Oroville Lake a few miles

19:55

away. Frustrated with

19:58

the police and desperate for the police. for

20:00

answers, the family's put together

20:02

a reward fund. About

20:04

a week after Madruga's car is found, they

20:07

offer $1,000 for information leading to

20:10

their son's discovery. The

20:13

community bands together and more than doubles

20:15

the money. Tips

20:17

come in from all over the area. The

20:20

sheriff's department follows up on each one,

20:22

but they're all dead ends. It

20:25

seems like the reward mostly attracted people who

20:27

are looking to make a quick buck. This

20:30

only compounds the tragedy. Time

20:33

ticks by, and with every passing

20:36

day, the odds of finding the

20:38

group get slimmer. Hope

20:42

fades and grief sets in. The

20:45

weather warms up and the snow starts

20:47

to melt, but the homes

20:49

of the missing men get colder and

20:51

more somber in their absence. Their

20:54

story fades from the headlines. Without

20:58

their full names constantly in the newspapers,

21:00

the group becomes known by a new moniker,

21:03

the Yuba County Five. Most

21:07

people in the community remember them, but

21:09

assume they'll never be found. Then

21:13

it happens. On

21:18

June 4, 1978,

21:20

a little over three months after the Yuba

21:22

County Five disappeared, a group

21:25

of motorcyclists ride down the dirt roads

21:27

of the Plumas National Forest. They're

21:29

having a grand time hooting and hollering

21:32

until they come across an old ranger's

21:34

trailer site. The trailer

21:36

is big, 60 feet long. One

21:39

of its windows has been broken, presumably

21:41

to unlock the front door. The

21:44

motorcyclists peer through the shattered

21:46

window and see a man's

21:49

body laying on a cot, decomposing.

21:53

Terrified, they race back to civilization

21:55

and tell the sheriff's department what

21:57

they found. Under

22:00

Sheriff Jack Beecham travels to the

22:02

site along with several recovery teams.

22:06

On his way, he notices the

22:08

access road leading to the trailer

22:10

branches off the same road where

22:12

Jack Madruga's car was found once

22:14

earlier. While he drives,

22:17

he measures the distance from that location

22:19

to the trailer. It's exactly

22:21

19.4 miles. As

22:25

he nears the trailer, he is struck

22:27

by the putrid scent of death. He

22:30

and the recovery team find the door unlocked

22:33

and go inside. Empty

22:36

cans of food litter the ground. The

22:39

man's body lies on the bed underneath

22:41

eight layers of sheets. The

22:44

scraggly beard has grown out on his chin.

22:48

The recovery team removes the sheets. The

22:51

man's hands are on his chest and

22:53

his pants are rolled up. Five

22:55

of his toes are black with frostbite. His

22:58

legs are scarred with gangrene and his

23:01

veins are colored with blood poisoning.

23:04

Physically, he's incredibly frail,

23:06

nearly skin and bones.

23:10

The investigators notice a leather wallet,

23:12

a bead necklace, and a ring

23:14

on the bedside table. The

23:17

ring is engraved with a single word. Ted.

23:22

They have found one of the missing

23:24

Yuba County Five, Ted Weir. Just

23:29

like with the discovery of the abandoned car,

23:32

finding Ted is simultaneously a

23:34

big step forward and

23:36

a bigger step sideways. It

23:38

just raises more questions. To

23:41

get from the car to the trailer, Ted

23:43

Weir must have hiked 19.4 miles in the dead of night

23:48

in the freezing cold. But

23:50

why would he do something so drastic and

23:53

dangerous? How long did he

23:55

survive in the trailer and

23:57

where are the rest of his friends? Bit

24:00

by bit, investigators piece together what they

24:02

can. Through an

24:04

autopsy and forensic analysis, they

24:07

determined Ted Weir died of a

24:09

pulmonary edema or an excess buildup

24:11

of fluid in the lungs. It

24:14

was caused by prolonged exposure to freezing

24:16

temperatures and the damage to his feet

24:18

and legs. Based

24:20

on the length of Ted's beard, they

24:22

approximate he survived somewhere between 4 and

24:24

13 weeks after

24:27

he disappeared, depending on the reports,

24:30

likely into the early days of April. During

24:34

that time, he starved, losing nearly

24:36

half his body weight. And

24:40

this is where things get especially

24:43

confusing. Investigators

24:45

soon realized the trailer site is equipped

24:47

with a storage locker. It

24:50

contains more than a year's

24:52

supply of non-perishable food. The

24:55

locker is easily accessible, but

24:57

it's been left entirely untouched.

25:01

Ted was starving, and there

25:03

was food right there. To

25:06

make matters worse, there's a propane

25:08

tank connected to the trailer. It

25:11

could have provided the heat Ted clearly

25:13

needed, but it's never even

25:15

been turned on. Perhaps

25:17

Ted didn't know how to open the

25:20

locker or operate the propane tank. After

25:23

all, he often struggled with

25:25

understanding instructions and recognizing

25:27

when he was in serious danger.

25:31

There's no way to know what might have been going through

25:33

his mind if he was on his own. But

25:36

signs indicate he wasn't alone. At

25:39

least not at first. Along

25:43

with the storage locker, there are also

25:45

lots of empty cans scattered around the

25:47

trailer. It looks like some

25:49

of them were opened with a special Army-issued

25:51

P-38 can opener. The

25:54

thing is, Ted wouldn't have known how to use a

25:57

P-38 can opener. These

25:59

are finicky tools you have to be shown how

26:01

to use them. And if

26:03

you remember, Jack Madruga

26:06

and Gary Mathias both had

26:08

military experience. Either

26:10

of them would have known how to use the can opener,

26:13

which suggests that one or both of them

26:15

likely made it to the trailer as well.

26:19

That's when investigators noticed Gary Mathias'

26:21

sneakers on the floor of the

26:23

trailer. Interestingly,

26:26

Ted Weir's shoes, ones

26:28

made of sturdy leather, are missing.

26:31

Putting all of this together, it

26:33

seems likely Mathias was at the

26:35

trailer opening cans and

26:37

eating food. Then

26:40

at some point he traded his

26:42

shoes for Weir's and left. Where

26:45

he and the other three men wins is

26:47

still a mystery. The

26:51

sheriff's department organizes a 40-person

26:54

search party. Two

26:56

days later, on Tuesday, June 6, they

26:58

fan out from the trailer, calming the

27:01

wilderness for the missing four. Four

27:04

miles away, they find something.

27:07

A pile of human bones is scattered on

27:09

the side of the road. Some

27:11

of them are still wrapped in old

27:13

clothing and a wallet is found. The

27:16

items in the wallet reveal that the

27:19

bones belong to Bill Sterling, another

27:21

one of the missing five. Across

27:25

the road, they find another

27:27

body ravaged by animals. One

27:30

arm has been chewed off and the body

27:32

has been dragged ten feet to a nearby

27:34

creek. The clothes are

27:36

torn, but the keys to

27:38

the Montego are still in one

27:40

pocket. This

27:42

is Jack Madruga. Other

27:45

tests find that he died from hypothermia.

27:49

This puts more pieces of the puzzle

27:51

together. It seems that

27:53

after hiking 11 miles in the

27:55

freezing cold that night, both

27:57

Madruga and Sterling sat down

28:00

to rest. They likely fell asleep

28:02

and froze to death, while

28:04

Weir and Matthias continued walking until

28:06

they reached the trailer. The

28:09

search team continues to scour the

28:11

forest for Matthias and Hewitt, who

28:13

are both still missing. They

28:16

don't find anything that day, but they aren't

28:18

going to give up. Meanwhile,

28:21

word spreads among the men's families.

28:24

In Weir's, Madrugas and Stirlings

28:26

are devastated, but at

28:29

least they know what happened to their loved

28:31

ones. The Matthias'

28:33

and Hewitt's hold on to hope their

28:35

sons might still be found

28:37

alive. Jack Hewitt,

28:39

Sr., in particular, wants to find

28:41

his son more than anything in

28:43

the world. He insists

28:45

on joining the recovery team. Police

28:49

think it's better for him to let them do

28:51

their jobs and notify him if they find his

28:53

son, but he won't be

28:55

dissuaded. On June 8, he

28:58

drives up to the mountains to join the

29:00

search effort. While

29:02

authorities comb the road in woods, Hewitt,

29:05

Sr. goes straight to the trailer site.

29:08

While making his way through the brush, he

29:11

peers through the dense vegetation, looking

29:14

for anything detectives might have missed.

29:17

His eyes pass over branches and leaves. Then,

29:22

two miles beyond the trailer, he

29:25

sees something he recognizes.

29:33

On June 8, Jack Hewitt,

29:35

Sr. finds a jacket lying on the

29:37

ground a couple miles from the trailer.

29:39

The one he wore on the night

29:41

he disappeared. Tears

29:43

well up in his eyes. As

29:46

he lifts it up to get a closer look, he

29:48

hears a rattle. A

29:51

human spine drops out,

29:54

his son's spine. Hewitt,

29:58

Sr. is shattered. He

30:00

leaves the search to grieve. Meanwhile,

30:03

law enforcement finds the rest of

30:05

Jack Hewitt Jr.'s bones scattered around

30:07

the area. They confirm

30:09

his identity by checking his dental charts,

30:13

which means that four of the missing

30:15

Yuba County Five have now been found.

30:18

The Mathias family waits with bated

30:21

breath. Police are confident

30:23

they'll find their son's bones at some

30:25

point too. The

30:28

search party returns to the woods day after

30:30

day. They check under

30:32

every rock and bush for miles around

30:34

the trailer. They search

30:36

for two weeks straight, but

30:39

detectives find absolutely nothing. They've

30:42

spent so long in the woods, they

30:44

can no longer afford to keep searching.

30:47

They call it off, and the

30:49

Mathias family is left without closure.

30:52

The missing Yuba County Five has

30:54

become the missing one. And

30:57

even though four of their families

31:00

are finally able to bury their

31:02

loved ones, there are many questions

31:04

left unanswered. Why did

31:06

the men drive up a dirt road in the

31:08

mountains instead of coming straight home? Why

31:11

did they leave a perfectly functioning car

31:13

and hike miles in the freezing cold?

31:17

Why did Jack Madruga and Bill Sterling sit down

31:19

on the side of the road? And

31:21

why did the other three carry on without them?

31:24

Why didn't Ted Weir, Gary Mathias, and

31:27

Jack Hewitt use the propane to heat

31:29

the trailer or eat the food that

31:31

was readily available? What

31:33

made Jack Hewitt leave the trailer to

31:35

die nearby? And

31:38

the most pressing question of all, what

31:40

happened to Gary Mathias? Even

31:45

with all the open questions, the families

31:47

are vocal about one thing. They

31:50

don't think their son's deaths and

31:52

disappearances were an accident. They

31:55

believe that someone forced them to go into

31:57

the mountains, then into the

31:59

woods. They don't

32:01

have any proof of this though, and

32:04

the investigation doesn't turn up any new

32:06

evidence. A year

32:08

passes, and the families

32:10

are still tormented by what happened.

32:13

Four of them write a joint letter

32:16

to the editor of the Marysville Appeal

32:18

Democrat, titled Still One Missing,

32:20

Still a Reward. It

32:22

puts out a united front among most of

32:24

the families, as they remind people

32:27

to keep looking for Gary Mathias. In

32:30

one particularly moving passage, they write,

32:32

quote, When your son

32:34

leaves home with friends to go to a basketball

32:36

game, do you always put

32:39

your arms around him, give him

32:41

a kiss, and remind him how much you love him?

32:44

You really should. He may never come

32:46

back to you. But

32:48

for all their pleas, there's nothing anyone

32:50

can do. No

32:53

one has seen Mathias or has

32:55

any answers. The case

32:58

goes cold. Years

33:04

pass, then decades. Most

33:07

of the men's parents pass away. The

33:10

story of the Yuba County Five

33:12

fades into obscurity. But

33:15

as time passes, old

33:17

whispers start to resurface. In

33:22

early 2019, 41 years after the

33:24

men went missing, the

33:26

Sacramento Bee decides to re-examine the

33:29

case. Reporter

33:31

Benji Eagle does a deep dive

33:33

on all available sources, including police

33:35

files, to see if he can

33:37

piece together any clues that might have been missed

33:39

in the initial investigation.

33:42

He discovers something that completely changes

33:44

his perspective on the case. While

33:48

no newspapers or reporters mentioned it at

33:50

the time, it turns

33:52

out that many of the investigators

33:54

and family members had a theory

33:56

about who was responsible. points

34:00

to the only member of the Yuba

34:02

County Five who was never located, Gary

34:05

Mathias. This

34:09

shouldn't come entirely out of nowhere. If

34:12

you remember, the police were initially

34:14

suspicious of Mathias because of his

34:16

criminal record. The other

34:18

man's families never really trusted him either, and

34:21

in their defense, Mathias' past behavior

34:24

makes him look pretty dangerous. When

34:28

he was young, Gary Mathias did common

34:31

activities like playing sports and joining a

34:33

band, but his home life

34:35

wasn't perfect. His parents

34:37

went through a messy divorce, though

34:39

it seemed like he was going to turn out all

34:41

right. Then, in high school,

34:43

things took a turn for the worse. Sometime

34:47

during his sophomore year, Mathias

34:50

experienced an episode of psychosis and

34:52

was put in a psychiatric ward

34:54

for the first time. Based

34:57

on the way his parents described the event, it

35:00

seems that it may have been triggered

35:02

by an extreme reaction to psychedelic drugs.

35:05

Whatever initiated the episode, Mathias

35:08

was released from the psychiatric ward

35:10

soon after, but his

35:12

mental health continued to suffer. In

35:15

the early 1970s, after

35:17

he was out of high school, Mathias

35:20

enlisted in the army. Somehow

35:22

he managed to find and use drugs even

35:24

while he was in the service. After

35:27

a few years in the military, Mathias

35:30

abruptly abandoned his post in 1973.

35:34

The sheriff's office arrested him for going

35:36

AWOL and gave him a

35:39

short jail sentence. From

35:41

behind bars, Mathias called out

35:43

to the officers. They went

35:45

to check on him, but when they

35:47

opened his cell door, he strolled

35:49

out naked and punched one of them in

35:52

the nose. Soon

35:54

after this incident, Mathias was medically

35:56

discharged from the army with a

35:58

diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. The

36:01

next few years of Gary

36:03

Mathias' life were marked by

36:06

increasingly strange and violent incidents.

36:09

A cousin accused him of sexually assaulting

36:11

his wife while staying at their house.

36:14

Another friend said that he showed up at

36:16

their home while extremely intoxicated and threatened

36:19

to kill their three-year-old daughter. He

36:23

fought strangers at bars and crept

36:25

around graveyards. He

36:27

continued using various drugs, including

36:30

methamphetamine and benzodrine. During

36:33

this time, Mathias was in and out

36:36

of various mental health institutions. He

36:38

broke out of three of them once

36:40

by climbing out of the facility through a

36:42

drain pipe. At one point,

36:45

he found his way up to Portland and

36:47

spent the next five weeks walking more than

36:49

500 miles back to

36:52

Marysville, California. He

36:54

survived by stealing cat food and milk

36:56

off of people's porches along the way. It

37:00

all came to a head in 1975, when

37:03

Mathias broke into the home of two

37:06

strangers by punching through their window and

37:08

unlocking the front door. The

37:11

couple asked why he was there. He

37:13

told them they were in his house and he wanted

37:15

them to pay rent. He

37:18

also claimed he was looking for a ring

37:20

to return to Satan. The

37:23

police picked him up again and

37:25

for some reason, this episode seems

37:27

to have marked a turning point

37:29

for Mathias. He

37:31

started consistently taking the psychiatric

37:33

medication he'd been prescribed to

37:35

manage his schizophrenia. He

37:38

spent the next two years working for

37:40

his stepfather's business without any

37:42

violent incidents or run-ins with the

37:44

law. It was

37:46

during this period that he joined

37:48

the Gateway Project's basketball team. That's

37:52

where he met and befriended the other

37:54

members of the Yuba County Five. But

37:58

while Mathias stayed on good behavior here,

38:00

some people weren't comfortable with him spending

38:02

time with the group. The

38:05

coach of the Gateway basketball team

38:07

later told investigators he thought

38:10

Gary Mathias quote could

38:12

possibly flip out at any time.

38:16

And perhaps the most eerie detail of

38:18

all. One of

38:20

Mathias' old acquaintances told police that

38:22

he used to talk about a

38:24

recurring dream. In it,

38:27

he and a group of people disappeared.

38:37

Knowing all this, some of

38:39

the men's families think it's possible

38:41

that Gary Mathias experienced an episode

38:43

of psychosis, forced their

38:45

sons and brothers into the wilderness,

38:48

and abandoned them there. They

38:51

don't know where Mathias went after that,

38:54

but they think he was responsible for the

38:56

tragedy playing out the way it did. It's

39:00

a serious accusation, and

39:02

without evidence, it's impossible to

39:04

prove. Gary Mathias

39:06

has never been seen alive

39:08

again, and his body

39:10

was never found. Some

39:13

people think that reinforces the idea that

39:15

he could have been behind what happened,

39:18

but it doesn't really confirm or

39:20

disprove anything. Former

39:23

undersheriff Jack Beecham told

39:25

the Sacramento Bee that he thinks

39:27

Mathias simply hiked further into the

39:29

wilderness before succumbing to the elements,

39:32

and that his remains were lost in

39:34

the dense, manzanita brush. And

39:36

while those incidents from Gary

39:39

Mathias' past are extremely troubling,

39:41

it's worth reiterating that he hadn't had

39:43

a violent episode in years. Remember,

39:46

Ted, at least, had seemingly

39:49

survived for several weeks, and

39:51

there was no evidence that anything violent had

39:53

happened to him. It's

39:56

possible Gary's psychosis led the men

39:58

astray, but it's a A scenario

40:00

that doesn't sound like his previous

40:02

episodes as described by those who

40:04

knew him. For context,

40:07

mental illness was misunderstood and often

40:09

stigmatized back in the 1970s. Well,

40:13

it still is today. Maybe

40:15

pointing the finger at Gary feels

40:18

like the easiest answer, but

40:20

even this theory requires us to fill

40:22

in a lot of holes with presumptions.

40:25

Gary could also be a victim

40:27

of whatever unknown circumstances led the

40:29

Yuba County 5 to their deaths.

40:32

In fact, that's the official

40:34

stance of the investigating Sheriff's

40:37

Department. Their records on

40:39

the matter were made public in October, 2023.

40:43

I said this was a difficult story.

40:47

That's only partly because of

40:49

the tragic circumstances, how vulnerable

40:51

the victims were. The

40:53

other part is the lack of closure.

40:56

We may never know what happened on

40:59

that frigid night in the Plumas National

41:01

Forest or why the men even

41:03

went there in the first place. Maybe

41:06

some cases are destined to stay

41:09

cold forever. Or

41:11

maybe the truth is still out in those woods

41:14

waiting for someone to

41:16

find it. Thank

41:22

you for listening to Conspiracy Theories,

41:25

a Spotify podcast. We'll

41:27

be back next week with another episode.

41:30

Be sure to check us out

41:32

on Instagram at the Conspiracy Pod.

41:34

We would love to hear from you. If

41:36

you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up

41:39

and give us your thoughts. To

41:41

learn more about the case of the

41:43

Yuba County 5, we found Benji Eagle's

41:45

article out in the cold for the

41:47

Sacramento Bee, extremely helpful to our research,

41:50

along with Cynthia Gorny's 1978

41:53

Washington Post article, Five Boys

41:55

Who Never Come Back. Do

41:57

you have a personal relationship to the story? stories

42:00

we tell. Email

42:02

us at

42:04

conspiracystoriesatspotify.com. Until

42:06

next time, remember, the truth isn't

42:08

always the best story. And

42:11

the official story isn't always the

42:13

truth. Conspiracy

42:16

Theories is a Spotify podcast. This

42:19

episode was written by Giles Hofseth, edited

42:22

by Caris Allen and Andrew Kelleher,

42:25

researched and edited by Mickey Taylor,

42:28

fact-checked by Claire Cronin, sound-designed

42:30

by Russell Nash and Alex

42:32

Button, and produced by Aaron

42:34

Larson. Our head of

42:36

programming is Julian Blauro. Our

42:39

head of production is Nick Johnson,

42:41

and Spencer Howard is our post-production

42:43

supervisor. I'm your host, Carter

42:46

Roy.