The Yuba County 5 - The FULL & Untold Story (PART 1 & 2) - The Missing Enigma

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Before we get into the video, I want to briefly
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(00:34):
to render support, I would greatly appreciate it. There's a
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channel if you're interested. I'll put a link to the
Patreon page in the description of this video right now.
For signing up. You can get early access to part
two of this video in the end, patron or not,

(00:56):
I'm eternally grateful for all the support I've received from
subscribers in the last couple years. Thank you so much.
I've decided the best way to cover this case is
to split it into two parts rather than have one

(01:18):
extensively long video. A video on the Yuba five has
been frequently requested, and I was surprised at the wealth
of information that exists on this case. I think people
already familiar with this incident will learn many new details
because of that. Keep an eye out for part two
for the unfamiliar. This story takes place in February of

(01:39):
nineteen seventy eight and involves the disappearance of five men.
The events take place across multiple areas in California, Yuba City, Chico,
and the mountains north of Oroville. In order to best
understand this case, it is important to know the individuals involved.
Each of the five men had some sort of mental

(01:59):
hand or mental illness, though at differing levels of severity.
All of the men had met and become friends through
Gateway Projects, an organization dedicated to mentally disabled individuals. All
of the men lived in the Uba City area between Marysville, Linda,
and Olivehurst. Together, they enjoyed attending sporting events, playing basketball

(02:21):
or going bowling. Jack Hewitt was twenty four years old.
He was very shy and reclusive. He hardly ever spoke,
and when he did, it was with a notable speech impediment.
He also could not read or write. He did not
particularly like to be away from home and had never
stayed somewhere else overnight. He was nonviolent and considered to

(02:42):
be a follower. He had also worked at gateway projects
for the last four or five years. Jack's father indicated
that of the five men, Jack was the most handicapped.
Jack's best friend was Ted Wiher, whom he had known
for around eight years, said to be almost constant companions.
Jack did not like telephones and could not concentrate long

(03:06):
enough to really be able to use one. Ted Wire
was thirty two years old. He was slow in learning things,
but outgoing, friendly, and he loved to talk to people.
He was considered mostly non violent, but with a quick temper.
He could read, write, and do simple math. Ted could
hold down a simple job, but required a lot of supervision.

(03:28):
Ted was afraid of the dark and was unlikely to
venture out alone at night without somebody going with him.
Ted generally took care of Jack when they were together
and made many of the decisions for the two. He
could get confused easily and had a poor sense of direction.
Some behavioral examples for him include that he did not
understand why someone would need to stop at a stop sign,

(03:51):
and once didn't want to leave a burning house because
he was busy sleeping and had to be forcibly removed
from his bed. His mother believed that if he were
caught in a dangerous situation, he would simply run and hide.
Ted could easily be influenced by anyone who was friendly
to him. He was not considered a follower or a leader,

(04:11):
but when confronted with a problem, could analyze and make
a decision accordingly. Jack Madruga was thirty years old. He
was considered to be a shy loaner, and his parents
stated that he was not mentally handicapped, but he was
slow in his thought processes. He was known to be
nonviolent and had the ability to hold down a job

(04:32):
as a dishwasher and support himself. Madruga was in the
army for about two years, during which time he was
a truck driver. He was eventually honorably discharged in nineteen
sixty eight. Madruga lived with his mother, but he also
helped pay rent at their home and took care of
his own finances. His mother said that he was not

(04:53):
a leader and did not have a strong personality. He could, however,
assess a situation and make an appropriate judgment. Madruga's best
friend was Bill Sterling, who was his constant companion. Madruga
was the only one of the group to have a car,
and he would never let anyone else drive it. He
was also afraid of the dark. Bill Sterling was twenty

(05:16):
nine years old. He had been hyperactive his entire life
and could be a danger to himself and others if
they got in his way. Bill was very social and
got along well with others. His best friend was Jack Madruga.
He was considered basically nonviolent, but would defend himself if necessary.
Sterling was able to graduate high school and was also

(05:38):
able to hold down a job when one was available.
His parents felt that he could be taken advantage of
rather easily. He could also be considered either a leader
or a follower. Bill's mother said that he and Madruga
were good walkers and that they could cover significant distance
in a short time. Bill's basketball coach said that he

(05:58):
was somewhat more intelligent than the others, but also very lazy.
Gary Matthias was twenty five years old. He spent time
in the US Army between nineteen seventy two and nineteen
seventy three. He was medically discharged after he was diagnosed
with schizophrenia during his time in the army. He was

(06:20):
also suspected of drug use. After the Army, Gary tried
to go to school, but was unable to keep up
and soon failed. Instead of facing his stepfather, Gary ran
away to Oregon, where his grandmother lived. Some time later,
Gary would show up back at his parents' house in
rough shape. He had walked and hitchhiked from his grandmother's

(06:40):
house in Portland, Oregon, to his parents' home outside Yuba City, California,
a distance of roughly five hundred and thirty five miles.
During that time, he had stolen milk from porches and
eaten dog food to stay alive on the way. After
returning home, he made friends with Madruga, Sterling, Hewitt, and Wyfe.

(07:00):
Around the time of the disappearance, he had expressed being
very content living at home. He was protective of Hewitt
and Wire and would not likely follow Madruga and Sterling
into doing something that he was not okay with. He
could drive a car and was not afraid of anything.
He was readily able to defend himself if threatened. He

(07:21):
was also considered a bit of an odd man out
in the group, with one parent calling him a fifth wheel.
Gary's basketball coach said he was spacy and seemed like
he could flip at any time. Of all the missing men,
it was said that Gary would be the one most
likely to lead or suggest places to go or things
to do. Gary was also considered to be rather unpredictable

(07:44):
and sometimes violent, especially if he was having a schizophrenic episode.
Because of this, Gary had a serious and extensive criminal history.
For the two years prior to his disappearance, Gary had
been taking medication that helped him, and he was considered
a model patient by his doctors. During this time, Gary

(08:05):
did not have any notable run ins with the law,
and things seemed to be going well for him. Though
this is a fairly broad description of each of these
men's personalities, you can get a reasonable grasp on what
the group dynamic might have looked like. The group are
always close and known to many as simply the boys.

(08:25):
Their behavior was typically easy to predict, and rarely did
they divert from their usual or scheduled activities. It seems
generally agreed upon that all the men were relatively high functioning,
but when placed into a stressful situation, their behavior could
deteriorate quickly. The following description of events is based on

(08:47):
police interviews that would later be conducted with key witnesses.
Combining all these interviews, I have pieced together a narrative
and timeline that will cover events before, during, and after
the incident. On the evening of February twenty fourth, nineteen
seventy eight, the five men were planning on seeing a

(09:09):
basketball game at Chico State University in the city of Chico,
some forty six miles north of Uba City, Madruga as
the driver was to pick up each of his friends
in his nineteen sixty nine blue and white Mercury Montego
and was last seen by Bill Sterling's mother around six
PM while getting fuel from a gas station. Afterwards, the

(09:33):
duo picked up Wire and Matthias before finally getting Hewett
around six point thirty to six forty five pm. The
five men then left Uba City and proceeded to make
the hour long drive along Highway ninety nine to the
city of Chico, a trip the men had made together
many times before. All the men were expected to return

(09:53):
home by the late evening, for in the morning, they
were planning to travel to Sierra College to participate in
a basketball tournament connected to the special Olympics. They were
all very excited about it. The five men arrived at
Chico State University and were seen attending the basketball game
that began at eight pm. Witnesses did not notice anything

(10:15):
strange regarding their behavior during this time, with one witness
saying the boys were quietly enjoying themselves and that the
boys were still there when the game ended at nine
point fifty pm. After the game, around ten PM, the
group stopped by Bears Market on Eighth and Pine. The
store clerk at the time, Mary Davis, would later tell

(10:35):
police about how the five men came in around closing time,
which she found annoying as she was trying to leave.
According to Mary, they ended up buying an abnormal amount
of junk food before leaving. She would state that the
men seemed happy, excited, and unworried. Once the group got
back to their vehicle, they would have presumably begun their

(10:55):
drive back home on Highway ninety nine, but the boys
never made it back to Yuba City. Earlier in the evening,
around five PM, a man named Joseph Shones was sitting
at his vacation home in Barry Creek, some twenty five
miles east of Chico. Mister Shones became bored and decided

(11:19):
to leave his trailer home off of Rockefeller Avenue and
drive north to the Brush Creek Bar, where he had
at least one beer. He then went to the Mountain
House Bar, where he had some more beers. Some time
between five thirty and six pm, mister Shones left the
Mountain House and began heading north up the Oroville Quincy Highway.

(11:40):
Shones's plan was to check the snow line because his
family was going to visit over the weekend and he
anticipated that they would want to go and play in
the snow. He also stated that he simply wanted to
kill a little bit of time. Witnesses at the Mountain
House confirmed seeing Shoans leave, thinking it was very strange
for him to head up that way, as he knew

(12:01):
that many cars would get stuck in the snow on
the rough road up there. Sometime between six and six
thirty pm and about eight miles up the highway, mister
Shones found the snow he was looking for, but his
Volkswagen Beetle also became stuck in it. Specifically, mister Shones
was heading up a hill until about forty four hundred

(12:22):
feet in elevation, when he says, his vehicle lost traction
and bottomed out. Mister Shones tried for roughly half an
hour to get his vehicle unstuck, but was only successful
in moving it about twelve feet when he began to
experience severe pains in his chest, which he was certain
was a heart attack. He subsequently became very ill, perspiring

(12:44):
freely while also vomiting all around his Volkswagen. Mister Shones
got back into his vehicle, turned the engine on and
the lights, and tried to get warm and dry out.
During this time, he was in and out of his vehicle,
vomited and defecating multiple times. Hours later, at around eleven
PM to midnight, mister Shoons was aroused from sleep by

(13:06):
a whistling noise that he described as being like a
person calling a dog. Shortly afterward, he felt that someone
was shining lights into his vehicle. The windows on the
Volkswagen were completely fogged over at the time, and mister
Shoons was unable to make out the figures that were outside.
He rolled down one of the front windows and yelled

(13:27):
to the people outside that he was sick and needed help.
The figures immediately proceeded back down the road to the south.
As they left, mister Shones continued to honk the car
horn and to yell after them that he needed help,
getting no response. As the figures continued moving down the road,
mister Shoons struggled out of his vehicle and began working

(13:48):
his way up a snow bank on the roadside. From
his new vantage point, mister Shones was able to look
down the road and see two vehicles. One of the
vehicles he thought might have been a light colored Ford Sedan,
while the other one was a rust colored pickup truck
parked directly behind it at an angle. The headlights of
the vehicles were shining in such a way that he

(14:10):
was unable to make out much of what was happening,
but he could discern that they were figures walking around.
Mister Shones got the impression that one of the figures
near the driver's door of the pickup was a woman
holding a baby. Mister Shones tried to yell to the
figures from atop the hill that he needed help, but
he received no response. Instead, the pickup truck's engine then

(14:33):
started and all the figures got into the truck, which
then left the area. Mister Shones returned to his Volkswagen
to try and get warm. The engine was still idling
and his lights were still on until around midnight, when
the vehicle ran out of gas. At around two am

(14:54):
the next morning, mister Shones began to get cold and
he realized that he would have to try and walk
back to the mountainton House bar. He spent the next
two hours trying to psyke himself up and prepare for
the grueling seven mile walk through the snow. It was
four in the morning when mister Shones began to make
his walk down the hill. He had only been walking

(15:14):
for a few seconds when he came across the vehicle
he thought was a Ford Sedan. In actuality, it was
a blue and white Mercury Montego. Mister Shoons opened the
driver's door and looked inside. The dome light came on,
illuminating the interior of the vehicle with items strown all around.
Later on, mister Shones would say that something about the

(15:35):
way the interior looked made him think of a child.
Mister Shones then continued his difficult walk toward the mountain house,
sometimes only moving thirty or forty feet at a time
before needing to rest. He finally reached his destination around
ten am. Employees and patrons witnessed mister Shoons stumble into
the Mountain House and sit down in a seat at

(15:58):
the bar. The waitress, on Irene Aycock, would later tell
authorities that mister Shones placed his hand on his head
and stated, I should have done this two years ago.
Other witnesses at the Mountain House corroborated that Shoones made
this statement. Mister Shones then asked for two aspirins and
a glass of water, which he was given. After taking

(16:20):
the aspirin, he asked if anyone could give him a
ride home. Missus Aycock asked a local, Steve Robinson, if
he would be willing to drive Shoans home, and he agreed.
Mister Robinson and his girlfriend, Laura Lynn Smith then began
driving mister Shones back to his house. During this time,
Shoenes must have been feeling somewhat better, as he had

(16:41):
spent quite some time criticizing the driving of mister Robinson.
When mister Robinson was later asked by detectives if he
could recall anything from the drive, he stated that Shoones
described that he had become stuck in the snow above
the mountain house, and that a car had followed him
so closely that he could not stop and he could
not turn around. Shoones said that he could not get

(17:04):
off of the road, and when he tried to go
up a hill, he became stuck. Mister Robinson stated that
Shones blamed the entire incident of getting stuck, as well
as the physical stress that he was suffering, on another
vehicle that had been following him, a story that is
notably different from the one that he would later convey
to investigators. While in the vehicle, mister Shones made no

(17:28):
mention of having had a heart attack, though he looked
very tired. When the trio arrived at Shones's trailer home,
mister Shons exited the vehicle without a word of thanks,
went inside, and immediately went to bed. Meanwhile, in Uba City,
the parents of the five men were in a state
of panic. Many of them had been up all night

(17:50):
waiting for their respective children to come home. Unsure of
what to do, the parents began calling each other, confirming
that none of the men had made at home the night.
Pride this type of thing had simply never happened before.
Back near the mountain house, a man named Bill Neil,
who worked with the Forest Service, was driving up the

(18:10):
Ooralville Quincy Highway in order to go cross country skiing.
He estimated that the time was approximately ten am when
he arrived at the snow line and found a Mercury
Montago parked in the middle of the road. Mister Neil
noted that the Montago did not appear to be stuck
and was sitting on snow that was about five or
six inches deep. He noticed some skid marks near the

(18:33):
rear tires that indicated the wheels had been spinning either way.
He thought the vehicle could easily be moved as someone
wanted to. Mister Neil also noted that the driver's side
rear window was rolled down. He used a shovel to
dig away the snow around the side of the vehicle
so that he could drive past and get further up
the hill. Afterwards, he went up a short distance maybe

(18:57):
forty to fifty feet around a bend, and discovered mister
Shoon's Volkswagen stuck in the snow. Mister Neil parked right
next to the Volkswagen and noticed that its trunk lid
was open, and it appeared as though somewhat had been
working on the engine. He noticed a pile of feces
on the ground that he thought was from a dog.
Mister Neil then began skiing and left the area back

(19:21):
in Barry Creek. It was around noon when mister Shon's wife,
Rosenda Shones, and their mentally handicapped daughter, arrived from Sacramento.
She found mister Shones in bed and woke him up,
after which he tried to explain what had happened. Missus
Shons subsequently decided to go up and attempt to get
her Volkswagen out of the snow. With the help of

(19:43):
her daughter, She drove up to the mountain house and
talked to the owner about what she was planning to do.
The owner asked a man named Jim Birch to go
with Missus Shoones in order to help her get the
vehicle unstuck. The trio went up the hill and came
upon the location of the Volkswagen. They discovered that it
was completely out of gas and the battery was dead.

(20:04):
They found Bill Neil's pickup truck parked nearby and borrowed
a shovel out of the back in order to help
dig out the Volkswagen. They only succeeded in moving the
Volkswagen south along the highway to a point where it
was parked some twenty to thirty feet in front of
the Montego. When Missus Shones described the area around the car,

(20:24):
she said that there was vomited on the ground and
some feces, and that Joe had made quite a mess.
Since their efforts to start the vehicle had failed, they
decided to leave the area and come back Sunday, February
twenty sixth Later, around two pm, Bill Neil came back
from his skiing and noticed that the Volkswagen had been

(20:45):
moved closer to the Montego. He thought that the Montago
might have moved as well, but he wasn't sure. He
noticed the window on the vehicle was still rolled down.
Bill Neil then left the area. At around six pm,
Joseph showed Zhones was taken to the Oroville Medical Center,
where he was omitted and treated for a mild heart attack.

(21:06):
Back in Yuba City, Jack Madruga's mother called the authorities
around eight pm, informing them that the five men had
not returned home the night before. The group had at
this point missed their special Olympics basketball game at Sierra College.
The Yuba County Sheriff began making attempts to discover where
the five men could have gone. Missus Shoones returned to

(21:32):
the area of the volkswagen between ten am and noon
that Sunday. As planned, She asked one of her neighbors
on Rockefeller Road, bud Coveyu, to assist her with this task.
This time, they took both gas and jumper cables and
were able to get the vehicle started and drive it
back home. While they were there, they noticed some four

(21:54):
or five vehicles in the area and ten or twelve people.
They were all playing in the snow. On Tuesday, February
twenty eighth, Jack Madruga's Mercury Montego was officially discovered by
authorities up on the deserted Oroville Quincy Highway. A forest

(22:16):
ranger had seen the car on February twenty fifth, but
thought nothing of it at the time since people go
cross country skiing in the area. Once he heard the
news of the five missing men in the description of
the car they were driving, he notified authorities of its
location north of the mountain House. I was fortunate enough
to get some old photo film strips that show what

(22:38):
the car looked like when it was found. Keep in
mind that the environment surrounding the vehicle has been changed.
Bill Neil and possibly others had shoveled snow to clear
away past the vehicle by this time. Inside the vehicle
they found a number of candy wrappers, a discarded milk carton,
and four different road maps. Authorities also found programmed for

(23:00):
the basketball game the boys attended. One of them had
even written the scoring throughout the game. The vehicle still
had a quarter tank of gas and started right up
when police tried hot wiring it. The situation was a
bit baffling to authorities, as the car was not really stuck,
and even if the boys were having problems, the five
of them could have easily moved the vehicle. The photographs

(23:23):
of the vehicle bear these facts out, as the back
wheels are far from being buried in the snow. A
search began in the immediate vicinity of the car's location,
but a storm rolled in the very same day, dropping
fresh snow in the area and creating dangerous conditions for searchers.
One searcher would wind up having a heart attack, while

(23:44):
another would catch pneumonia. Regardless, authorities from neighboring Butte and
Plumus Counties assisted in the search, using everything they could
muster search dogs, horses, four wheel drive vehicles, and even helicopters.
The rough, craggy, and head heavily wooded area proved difficult
to search, and despite everything they put into it, they

(24:05):
had no success in finding anything. On March second, detectives
made contact with mister Shones via telephone while he was
still in the hospital. During this interview, mister Shones gave
a general overview of what occurred on February twenty fourth,

(24:25):
and also made several statements that add details to his
story and alter others. He stated that he got the
impression that the group of individuals he saw could have
been anywhere from two to twelve people. He also acknowledged
that he had told his wife about another vehicle, a
pickup truck, at the scene, but now stated that he

(24:46):
did not recall seeing a pickup truck and may have
been hallucinating due to his heart attack. As the search
dragged on without success, detectives began investigating the incident for
signs of foul play, Tips and sightings of the five
men started pouring in from all over. By far, the

(25:08):
vast majority of these sightings proved to be misidentifications. At
least one, however, seemed legitimate and caught the attention of
authorities at the time. On March third, nineteen seventy eight,
a woman named Rosella Florence Mulder would tell police that
on February twenty sixth, at around two thirty pm, she

(25:28):
stopped by Mary's Country Store in Brownsville. She ended up
parking next to a red Chevrolet pickup truck. Inside the
cab were two white males who both grinned at her.
She felt that they may have been mentally challenged. Two
more white males were at a phone booth about twenty
feet away. At first, she thought one of the men
was a woman. One was talking on the telephone while

(25:50):
the other was looking around nervously. Inside the stores, She
noticed another man walking the aisles. Shortly afterward, she left,
and once she heard about the disappearances of the uba five,
she contacted police about her sighting. Miss Moulder was shown
a line up to see if she could identify any
of the missing men. She picked out Sterling, Wire, Madruga,

(26:12):
and Hewitt as being the four men she had seen
outside the store. Sterling and Wyre were sitting in the
car with Hewitt on the payphone, while Madruga was standing
beside it. She had already seen pictures of the five
men twice on television prior to this time. To follow
up on this sighting, police interviewed the individual who had

(26:33):
been working in Mary's Country Store at the time of
the sighting, a mister Carol Waltz. He was shown a
photographic line up by police to see if he could
identify any of the five men. He identified Wire and
possibly Hewitt as being in the group of five or
six men who were in the store on both February
twenty fifth and February twenty sixth, and who had driven

(26:56):
there in an old red pickup. He stated that he
had not seen the group since that time. Detectives were
unable to do much with this information, but it was
unique amongst the multitude of tips to get a couple
witnesses who say they saw the Yuba boys at Mary's
Country Store over the course of several different days, while
also seeing the red truck Detectives interviewed mister Shones in

(27:25):
person on March seventh, nineteen seventy eight, roughly two weeks
after the incident and the same day he was set
to leave the hospital. This was the most long form
and detailed interview mister Shones would provide to investigators. During
this interview, mister Shones changed his opinion on the pickup truck.
This time, he told investigators that he did see the

(27:47):
pickup truck behind the Montego and also gave details about
how it looked and how it was parked, no longer
mentioning anything about the possibility of it having been a hallucination.
Detectives noted during this interview that after the questioning became
somewhat redundant or when specific minute details were pursued, Shoones

(28:07):
began to have an attitude change. Up until that point,
he had been very active and engaged in questioning. When
he was asked to specifically describe the activity of the
figures he had seen moving around the vehicles when he
was on the snow bank, Shones became very defensive. He
reclined back on his bed, put his hands behind his head,

(28:28):
and said, I get a feeling you guys think I
know something about these dudes. Detectives note this behavior was
out of character compared with the rest of the interview.
Shones also described that during his first few days at
the hospital he was extremely emotional and could not talk
to anyone without crying. He was unable to speak to

(28:49):
even his wife without crying this way. During the interview,
mister Shones also mentioned how brightly lit the area was
by moonlight that night, and that he could not believe
how right it was. After the Showan's interview, detectives would
go on to talk to multiple witnesses from the Mountain
House and surrounding area. Their interviews provided the details for

(29:11):
much of the narrative surrounding showns after his arrival back
at the Mountain House that we covered earlier in this video.
During the investigation, a number of people contacted police as
character witnesses for some of the missing five. A good
few were in regard to behavior exhibited by Gary Matthias
in the past. One witness, Janet and Zara, reported that

(29:35):
Gary had told her on several occasions that he had
a dream where he and several other people would disappear.
He would also talk about spaceships and people from outer space.
She would also say that she knew Gary to be
a very violent person, hurting several men seriously, and that
he also did not like women. Another witness, a mister

(29:56):
de Losure, told police that he had once been involved
in a f fistfight with Gary Matthias, stating that Matthias
had once hit him in the face for no apparent
reason and mister Delosure had retaliated. Mister Delosure could also
describe at least one other instance he knew of where
Matthias had been involved in a fight. One of Gary
Matthias's friends, Joseph Lele, also talked to police, telling them

(30:20):
that Matthias's mood was sometimes up and down and that
he could be very unpredictable. He described Gary as having
a low tolerance for women. Mister Lele could think of
no reason why Gary or any of the other men
would leave home or stay away. It should be noted,
in relation to these actions attributed to Gary Matthias, that

(30:41):
no dates were given for any specific incident, or whether
or not they occurred before or after he had become
medicated and more behaviorally stable in the prior two years.
Another interesting report came from a man named Charles Hedrick.
He contacted police to inform them about an incident that
occurred two or three years prior to the disappearance. Mister

(31:04):
Hedrick was in the vicinity of Bucks Lake, where he
was deer hunting prior to having an unusual encounter with
Ted Wire. While hunting, mister Hedrick would stay at a
cabin located not far from where Jack Madruga's car would
eventually be found. When mister Hedrick arrived at the cabin,
he found Wire and another man with a small boy.

(31:25):
He said Wire didn't do much talking, but the trio
were apparently hunting deer in the area. Mister Hedrick informed
them that they had no business being at the cabin,
and since nothing in the cabin appeared to be missing,
he simply told the group to leave. As they left,
he noticed they were driving an older model Ford pickup
that was faded red in color. Mister Hedrick told police

(31:49):
that he was positive that it was Ted Wire that
he saw, since he actually lived very close to Wyre's
house in the city. When police contacted Missus Wire regarding
this new information, she seemed completely unaware, stating that she
had never known ted to have a gun or to
go deer hunting. She did know Ted to be associated

(32:09):
with a man who owned a faded red Ford pickup,
though this individual was older and had children. Police tried
to follow up on who this individual was, but seemed
to have made little headway. By June fourth, nineteen seventy eight,
the snow that had covered the search area in the

(32:31):
winter had receded, and some motorcyclists were riding through the
back country roads of the Granite Basin. They came across
a Forestry Service fire camp located about a mile from
the Daniel's Inc. Campground, when their attention was directed to
a trailer with a broken window. As they approached, they
were overwhelmed by a nauseating odor. They attempted to look

(32:52):
through the window of the trailer, and although it was dark,
they could make out what appeared to be a dead
body laying on a bed and cover in sheets. The
group contacted the Plumus County sheriff as the camp was
in their jurisdiction, and Plumus County made contact with Yuba
County shortly thereafter. The location of the forestry camp was
about five miles as the crow flies from where Jack

(33:15):
Madruga's car had been found. Deputies from Butte Plumus and
Yuba County arrived on scene at the Granite Basin fire
camp and found several buildings on the property. The main
area of interest was a sixty foot trailer with its
north side window broken from the outside. Below the broken window,
deputies found several empty cans of army rations around the

(33:39):
back door of the trailer. They found several paperback books
lying on the ground. About thirty feet to the northeast
of the trailer, they found a white bed sheet in
one sock. When deputies entered the trailer, they found the
remains of a white adult male in a bunk bed.
Located on the bedside table were a number of items
like a wallet containing the idea of Ted Wire, a

(34:02):
ring with the name Ted engraved on it, a neck chain,
and a gold Waltham brand wristwatch, which, according to the families,
did not belong to any of the men. The body
itself was completely covered by eight sheets. Upon removing all
the sheets from the body, the deputies recognized the clothing
worn by the subject as the same as those worn

(34:23):
by Ted Wire on the night of his disappearance. Wire
was lying on his back with his hands on his chest.
Both pant legs were rolled up above the knees. His
shoes were missing, and his feet appeared to be badly frostbitten,
with three toes completely missing from the right foot and
two from the left. There was also evidence of severe

(34:44):
infection coming from the feet. The face was unidentifiable at
the time, but particular note was taken of the fact
that the subject had a full beard and mustache ted.
Wire had been clean shaven at the time of his disappearance.
It was clear that Wire had been starving and had
lost vast amounts of weight while staying in the trailer.

(35:05):
Deputies noticed that surrounding the body were several more cans
of Army rations that had been opened in the same
manner as the ones found outside, using a P thirty
eight can opener which comes with each case of sea rations.
There was also heavy forestry service clothing, playing cards, and
notebooks laying around on the floor. There was evidence that

(35:26):
a candle had been lit, however, there was no evidence
that any attempt had been made to light any kind
of fire. Also located in the trailer was a pair
of low quarter black canvas tennis shoes. The shoes were
not Wires, who was wearing swayed leather shoes when he disappeared.
The black tennis shoes did match the description of those
worn by Gary Matthias, whose parents would later confirm them

(35:49):
to be his. Later, all of the buildings nearby were
examined and it was determined that a trailer directly parallel
to the one with wires remains had been ransacked. However,
Forestry Service personnel were unable to say if anything was
missing or if anything had been moved from one trailer
to the other. Another structure on the property had also

(36:10):
been broken into. The Forestry Service personnel determined that several
blankets in three cases of sea rations were missing and
were consistent with the thirty one empty cans found in
and around the trailer housing Wire's body. I will point
out that there is variation in the reported amount of
cans found. The sheriff's report leads me to believe thirty one,

(36:32):
but some newspapers state thirty six, and at least one
newspaper states that seventy two cans were found, of which
most had been opened but not all, acknowledging the possible
uncertainty here, I'm going to go with thirty one cans
indicated in the report. It was also discovered that several
cases of dehydrated food in this structure had been overlooked,

(36:54):
perhaps because the men had failed to search the locker
the food was being stored in. One other ructure on
the property had been entered by someone using a prie
bar to break the padlock, but there was no evidence
that any of its contents had been removed. This was
unusual because the structure held gasoline, oil heaters and oil outside.
There was also a large butane tank that provided the

(37:17):
trailer with heat and light when turned on. Though at
the time it was likely obscured by snow, still the
resources were there to keep the men good and warm
for quite some time. Later, searchers would find four blankets
and a flashlight approximately half a mile to the northeast
of the site, along the side of the road. It
was determined they were forestry property and had been removed

(37:40):
from the site. The thirty one open metal ration cans
and other miscellaneous items were submitted for fingerprint testing, while
Wire's body was removed from the forestry camp and sent
in for autopsy. The search for the other men was
then renewed in the Granite Basin area. The reason why
this area was not previously searched appear to come down

(38:00):
to a miscommunication of some sort. The Forestry Service claimed
that they had told the sheriff's office of the trailers
in the area, while the sheriffs denied any knowledge of
the trailers existing. The families would later pen an open
letter in the papers stating that the Butte County Sheriff's
office actually refused forest rangers offer to go to the

(38:21):
trailer camp in March to check if the boys were there.
If true, there is quite a bit of blame to
place on the Butte County Sheriffs for negligence during the search.
On June sixth, two days after finding the body of
Ted Wier, a search dog discovered the remains of Jack

(38:42):
Madruga and Bill Sterling on one of the back roads
about six point eight miles from the Forestry Service fire camp.
The deputy first found the badly decomposed body of Madruga
on the northeast side of the roadway. He was able
to tentatively make an identification based on the clothing and
personal items that he had found Sterling's remains were then

(39:04):
found directly across the roadway on the southwest side. Decomposition
and animal predation damage was extensive, and various bones were
found over a fifty square yard area. Again, the deputy
was able to make a tentative ID using the clothing
and personal effects found at the scene. Positive identification of
both men was made through use of dental records. The

(39:27):
remains of Jack Hewitt would be found the next day
by his father, who was participating in the search. He
would only find bones, clothing, and personal items like a
bracelet with the name Jack on it. Hewitt's remains were
found one point seven miles southeast along the road from
the forestrycamp. His skull would be found three days later
by a member of the Sheriff's office, about one hundred

(39:49):
yards below the location of the initial discovery. Using the skull,
authorities were able to confirm the remains were Hewitt's using
dental records. Now, with four of the five men's remains
having been found, searchers focused their efforts on finding Matthias,
but no evidence of him was found. The search was
officially called off on June nineteenth, pending any further developments.

(40:12):
In the case. Let's briefly touch on the autopsy results
for all four men. Since the remains of Madrugas, Stirling,
and Hewitt were found in a state of advanced decomposition,
it would be difficult to be one hundred percent certain
of cause of death. Yet, given the available information, all
three men's death certificates state that they died of hypothermia

(40:33):
and exposure. The only exception was Ted Weyre. Initially, the pathologist,
doctor Liptrap, was uncertain about Wire's time of death due
to the cold conditions. He was then apparently shocked to
discover from detectives that Wire had been clean shaven when
he had went missing and was later found with a
full beard. This forced him to have to completely re

(40:55):
evaluate the estimated time of death. He believed that Wire
could have been alive over two months. In his notes,
he estimated that Wire had been dead at least three
or four weeks. Wire had been missing for one hundred
days by the time he was found. His official cause
of death was listed as exposure and pulmonary congestion or edema,

(41:16):
which is a build up of fluid in the lungs.
I think it is important to discuss the locations of
the bodies of the four men in relation to the vehicle.
As there was a lot of inaccurate information out there
about this topic, the following locations are based on labeled
maps created by the searchers who discovered the remains. Madruga

(41:38):
and Stirling's bodies were found about six point eight miles
down the road from the fire camp. Hewitt's remains were
one point seven miles southeast of the fire camp trailer
and along the roadside. According to most sources, you will
find ted Wire's body was found nineteen point four miles
from the location where the vehicle was found. Initially, this

(41:59):
number can see seem rather confusing, but it is for
the most part accurate and also based on an assumption.
The idea is that, given the locations of the bodies
of Madruga, Sterling, and Hewett, the five men must have
taken the longest possible route in order to get to
the fire camp. During their walk from the Montego, Madruga

(42:19):
and Sterling would have fallen first after walking at least
eleven and a half miles, followed by Hewitt five miles later,
with Matthias and Wire actually making it to the trailer
If the men followed this route, they would have walked
very close to the nineteen point four miles often sighted.
Google calculates the distance somewhere in the vicinity of eighteen

(42:41):
point four miles, but still a significant undertaking in the
deep snow. The stretch of road they were found on
has been described as a paved logging road in the
remote country. Again, this estimate is based on the assumption
that the men found along the road died on the
way to the trailer. There does remain a possibility that

(43:02):
the routes the men took two or even from the
trailer are different. The shortest route they could have possibly
taken from the car to the fire camp would have
been about ten miles. There is still ample reason to
assume that the men did take the long path. However,
a snow cat had been up to the forestry fire
camp on February twenty third, the day before the boys

(43:24):
went missing. In its wake, it left a path of
packed snow that would have been an obvious route of
travel amongst the four to six foot snow drifts in
the area. What exact route the snow cat took is uncertain. Additionally,
the men were not dressed for the weather they encountered,
nor did most of the men do well on the
snow and cold. The parents of some of the men

(43:46):
confirmed that they hated the snow and would avoid it
if possible. The journey from the car to the fire camp,
if made on foot, would no doubt have been an
arduous one. The snow would have only slowed them down,
and if one man lagged behind, it would slow their
pace even more. The fact that Bill Sterling and Jack
Madruga were found together makes sense, as the two were

(44:06):
known to be inseparable, and if one of them stopped
at some point to rest, the other would have likely
not left in behind. The cold would in turn take
them both. The remaining three would continue on until Hewitt
had to stop. I think it likely that Hewitt died
before reaching the trailer. The amount of food that was
known to have been consumed at the trailer would not

(44:27):
have sustained three men for any extended period of time.
It seems likely that the two who made it to
the fire camp were Wire and Matthias. Given that Matthias's
shoes were found inside the trailer, it has been speculated
that Matthias removed his own shoes and instead put on wires,
which would have been more comfortable if Matthias's feet were

(44:48):
swollen from frostbite. Wire at the time would have been
completely incapable of doing almost anything given the state of
his feet, and somebody would have had to take care
of him if he were to survive for months in
the trailer. The food that they did discover was insufficient
for even two men, and the duo likely spent much
of their time starving in isolation. Someone would have had

(45:11):
to have been in the trailer with Wire up until
the end, as evidenced by the fact that Wire's body
was covered in the sheets the way it was. It
appears that after Wire's death, Matthias left the trailer and
headed out on his own in search of rescue. Whether
or not Matthias made use of any forestry service clothing
before he left is unknown, since his body was never found,

(45:34):
the only possible clue to his whereabouts being the flashlight
and blankets found by the roadside not far from the trailer.
This is, for the most part, the end of the
timeline for this incident. Part two of this video will
focus on analysis and theories related to this event, so
please check out Part two and as always, thanks for watching. Hopefully,

(46:43):
if you're watching this video, you've already seen part one
of this little series. If you have not, you probably should,
or this video will not make much sense. I'll include
a link to Part one in the description of this video.
Since Part one was mostly about covering the facts, witness testimony,
and timeline related to the disappearance of the Yuba County five,

(47:03):
this video will cover analysis of certain individuals involved and
also theories related to the incident. Because of this, there
will also be quite a bit of speculation. Gary Matthias
sometimes gets looked at, or even blamed, as being a
possible cause for the whole tragedy that befell the five men,

(47:26):
mostly because of his past criminal behavior and his schizophrenia.
Some people have theorized that this was some wicked plan
concocted by Matthias for unknown reasons, but Matthias had been
behaving well for two years leading up to the incident
and was known to his doctors as a model patient.
He reportedly always showed up to his appointments and took

(47:47):
his meds accordingly. Because of this, his schizophrenia likely played
no part in the initial disappearance of the men. Matthias
took medication twice a day, administered by his stepfather to
ensure he was consistent. His doctor would tell detectives that
Matthias could go as long as a month without taking
the medication before causing any severe change to his personality.

(48:10):
Matthias's stepfather was less certain, saying that if Gary didn't
have his medication for two weeks, then he would start
talking to himself. Regardless. If Matthias's mental illness played a
part in this incident, it was more likely in the
late stages, as he sheltered in the trailer with Ted Wire.
I think it is most likely that it was only

(48:30):
Matthias and Wire in the trailer, and the evidence on
hand supports that. It has been speculated that perhaps Hewitt
had made it to the trailer as well, and that
he eventually ran off on his own shortly after Wire died,
but I think that unlikely. Hewett was a follower, not
someone likely to leave and go off on their own.

(48:51):
He also has found less than two miles away from
the trailer. I think it makes more sense that he
died after walking a long distance from the car, rather
than the relatively short distance from the trailer. He would
also have to consider that if Hewitt made it to
the trailer, he was probably not in much better shape
than Wire, meaning he would be unlikely to leave again

(49:12):
with frostbitten feet. Other theories I've seen suggest that Hewitt, Wire,
and Matthias made it to the trailer, but Matthias stayed
only briefly before leaving Hewitt and Wyre there alone. I
think this is also very unlikely. By the time Matthias
made it to the trailer, he was probably exhausted on
a level most people couldn't even imagine. I find it

(49:35):
extremely doubtful that he would leave as soon as he
acquired food and shelter. Matthias was likely already suffering from
hypothermia and frostbite, but his history has shown he had
an ability to endure that is not evidence in any
of the other men. In addition, this theory proposes that
it would then be Hewitt who stayed and took care

(49:56):
of Wire as he died, and subsequently covered him up
with sheet. Keep in mind that Wire was actually the
one who usually took care of Hewitt, and Hewett's own
father said he was the most handicapped of the group.
The idea that Hewitt took care of Wire for perhaps
a couple months while also suffering from severe frostbite seems unlikely. Again,

(50:18):
I think it makes more sense that Hewitt made it
quite far when walking with Matthias and Wire, but eventually
the cold and frostbite forced him to stop a couple
miles from the trailer. Another point I often see brought
up is the apparent strangeness surrounding the fact that Matthias
never made a fire to keep warm while in the trailer.

(50:39):
But I'm not certain this is really that unusual. We
know Matthias had some matches and probably a lighter as well,
since he was the only one of the five who smoked,
so it seems he had the means to do it.
But what did he really have to burn? We know
some books and notebooks were found nearby, but they wouldn't
have lasted long. All the wood and stick outside would

(51:00):
be wet or frozen and impossible to light. What did
he really have? I found one obscure newspaper that mentioned
there might have been dry firewood, but this wasn't even
mentioned in the sheriff's report. But let's assume that's true.
Where then would he make a fire, likely not outside
in the snow, so was there somewhere in the trailer

(51:21):
for him to build a fire? This is a question
I can't seem to find a clear answer to. All
information I've seen suggests that the heating system for the
trailer relied on butane gas, and there's no mention of
it having a hearth. I've never actually seen a contemporary
source that states the trailer had any sort of fireplace.

(51:42):
The Yuba Sheriff's report states that there was no indication
that any attempt had been made to start a fire,
and newspapers at the time usually state similar things. Perhaps
such statements are meant to be an indication that a
fireplace existed in the trailer, and I'm simply overthinking it,
but if there was one, it would have been helpful
for any source to say that there was no evidence

(52:04):
the fireplace had been used. Adding to all of this,
Wire was apparently deathly afraid of fire following the incident
where his house was burning down, so his parents had
impressed upon him the dangers of fire. Because of all
these questions, I'm unsure that making a fire was ever
very feasible. What does seem odd is that nobody made

(52:26):
use of the resources available in the structure that housed
the heater's gasoline and oil, although specifics on these items
are lacking in the sheriff's report, like what kind of
heaters were in the structure and were they easy to
identify and use? Why did they not take advantage of
these items? Since we know very little about what the

(52:46):
interior of the structure looked like, the answers are not forthcoming.
It does appear that Matthias broke into all the nearby
structures and did a cursory search for supplies he thought
would be useful. He was likely already exhausted and frost bitten,
perhaps causing him to not notice the additional things that
could have helped them. It appears to me that both

(53:07):
Matthias and Wire ate the canned food, with Matthias tossing
his finished cans out of the broken window. One minor
detail I need to correct from the first video is
in relation to the mechanism with which the cans were opened.
All of the cans found except for one, had been
opened with a church key style can opener, with one
single can having been opened using a P thirty eight.

(53:31):
The two openers worked differently, with the church key being
more commercially available to the average civilian, while P thirty
eight style can openers were used by the Army at
the time. Matthias's experience in the Army and as a
civilian would likely mean he had experience with both church
key and P thirty eight type openers. It's unknown how

(53:52):
long Matthias might have stayed in the trailer, but eventually
he decided to leave, venturing forth on frost bitten feet.
Of all the men, Matthias is the one who would
be most likely to endure the pain of attempting to
walk to safety. The question has always been how far
did Matthias get. Some people theorize that since he wasn't found,

(54:13):
it might indicate that he survived. I believe it's almost
a certainty that he died during this incident. Here's why.
When Matthias was unmedicated, he had a proclivity for criminal behavior.
He was consistently having contact with police, getting arrested, and
committing crimes. The only reason this stopped was due to
the medication he was taking. If Matthias had survived this

(54:37):
incident and was somehow eluding discovery, all these years, then
he would have certainly relapsed back into his old behaviors.
Without his medications, he would have been discovered. There would
have simply been no way for him to maintain the
calmer demeanor he had developed in the two years prior
to his disappearance. Since there has been no confirmed sightings

(54:57):
of Matthias since this incident, the likelihood that he perished
in the mountains is extremely high. Overall, there is also
ample evidence showing Matthias was in the trailer with wire,
that he perhaps nursed and fed wire as best he could,
and finally wrapped him in sheets when he passed away.
These are not the actions of someone who is trying
to harm, but rather someone who actually cared about their friend.

(55:21):
This would go against the idea that the incident was
in some way orchestrated by Matthias. Finally, there's the blankets
and flashlight found to the northeast of the fire camp,
which we can't be certain were used by Matthias, but
there is a strong possibility since they were found by
a road. You might think that perhaps Matthias spotted a vehicle,

(55:42):
dropped the flashlight in blankets, and was rescued, But at
the time the road was closed due to snow, and
even if he was picked up, then why hasn't he
been found? I think it is more likely that Matthias,
going through the stages of hypothermia, simply stopped holding onto
the blankets and flash light, eventually collapsing somewhere to the northeast.

(56:03):
Until Matthias's remains are found, he will likely always be scrutinized,
but it appears he was every bit of victim as
any of the other men. When it comes to theories
about this case, the red truck often pops up as
a subject for scrutiny. A few years prior to the disappearance,

(56:27):
Charles Hedrick reported seeing Ted Wire hunting with another man
and a child. They were in a cabin they shouldn't
have been, and in an area only miles away from
where Wire would later be found dead. The trio would
be seen leaving in a faded red pickup truck. Fast
forward to the night of the disappearance, and Joseph Schoenes
would describe seeing a group of men get into a

(56:48):
pickup truck that he would describe as being rust colored.
During that time, he believed there might have been a
woman and a child present. Two days after the disappearance,
witnesses were seeing the five men around a country store
in Brownsville. They were being transported in a red pickup truck.
While all these sightings may have the red pickup truck

(57:09):
in common, at least one of them almost assuredly has
nothing to do with the others, and that is the
sighting in Brownsville. For the sighting in Brownsville to have
been legitimate, then that would mean that the five men
left their vehicle in the mountains on the night of
the disappearance, traveled to Brownsville, and at some point went
back up to the mountains in order to die in

(57:31):
the snow. The Brownsville sighting has additional red flags, like
the fact that the key witness claimed to see Jack
Hewitt using the payphone. This goes against his known behavior
where his parents claim he hated phones and could not
concentrate long enough to use one. Of all the five men,
jack Hewitt would be the least likely to be seen

(57:52):
using a telephone. If you eliminate the Brownsville sighting, then
the two you have left are still very noteworthy. Ted
Wire being seen with an unidentified man who owned a
red truck could have potential to be relevant to the case,
but there is no obvious connection between that man, whoever
he was, and the night of the disappearance. The rust

(58:15):
colored truck supposedly seen by Joseph Shones is also a
bit questionable. He never mentioned it to the folks who
gave him a ride home. He did tell his wife,
but later told police he might have hallucinated it. Then
in his final interview, he decides that he did see
the truck and gave specific details about it. There is
simply too much uncertainty and shown statements. I believe much

(58:44):
of this case hinges on the account of Joseph Shoones,
a rare type of witness as far as disappearances go,
since he was present for the pivotal moment in the incident.
His account of events, however, brings up many questions about
his credibility. Sholmes told investigators that he had gone up
to check the snow. When interviewed by the La Times,

(59:05):
he told them he had gone up to check on
his cabin, but it appears he never owned a cabin
up there. Shones lived in Sacramento and the trailer home
in Berry Creek. He considered his vacation home. Much has
been made of his account of seeing the rust colored
pickup at the scene, and whether or not he did
in fact see the truck. He said he believed the

(59:27):
truck to be a hallucination in his first interview, but
during his second he seemed certain it was real. In
the first interview, he also claims that there was anywhere
between two to twelve people in the area. If you
actually take a moment to think about this, it makes
no sense. That would mean that there was one car
on scene, and somehow there could have been up to

(59:48):
twelve people. How would they all get there? The first
interview is basically sown with uncertainty about every important detail.
Maybe there was two people, maybe there was twelve, Maybe
there was a truck there, or maybe it was a hallucination.
During Shoon's final interview with detectives, his story seems to

(01:00:08):
have solidified. He gave a rather detailed description of the
truck he claimed to have seen, write down to how
it was parked, what color it was, when it turned
its headlights on or off, but he does not describe
how the truck left. It couldn't have headed further up
the road because Bill Neil would be in the area
the next day, and in order for him to get

(01:00:29):
around the montago, he had to dig a path through
the snow. So if the truck was there, it must
have turned back down the road, but Shones does not
mention the truck executing a sluggish, multi point turn, as
it would have had to do. He simply says the
truck left. This is the testimony that was presented in
part one and is Shones' final story that he told

(01:00:50):
detectives the definitive version, if you will, but that in
no way means it is completely accurate or truthful. To
be very clear, here is a timeline of Shown's different stories.
He told a story about being followed up the mountain
to mister Robinson and his girlfriend, the folks who gave
him a ride home. He then told the story involving

(01:01:12):
the red truck to his wife Rosenda. Then during his
first interview with authorities, he changed his story a bit,
including the removal of the red truck. Finally, during his
second interview with authorities, he includes the red truck once more.
This timeline does not even include certain statements Shown's made
to the press, which provide even more contradictions to his story.

(01:01:35):
I believe the key moment of Shoan's involvement is actually
what happened when he finally got back to the mountain house,
where other witnesses were able to observe his behavior. Shoon's
statement that he should have done this two years ago
was overheard by multiple people in the mountain house, nobody
could discern its exact meaning. Afterwards, while being given a

(01:01:57):
ride to his home, Shoones told a story about how
he was followed closely by another vehicle as he drove
up into the mountains. The car would not allow him
to slow down or turn around, and he blamed the
entire incident on this vehicle that was tailgating him. Obviously,
this story does not match up with anything Shoans would
later tell detectives. The story he told authorities was that

(01:02:19):
he drove up, got stuck, had a heart attack, fell asleep,
and woke up to a car already parked behind him.
This type of behavior is highly indicative of deception on
Showan's part. I would submit that whatever story Shoans was
telling people before he knew there was a serious police
investigation might be closer to the truth than whatever he

(01:02:40):
told investigators in the days and weeks after the event.
The story that Shones reportedly gave Steve Robinson and Laura
Lynn Smith as they drove him home is also quite specific.
The story has an air of anger and frustration. He
was being followed and he couldn't pull over or get
off the road. This car forced him to get stuck

(01:03:01):
in the snow, so they were responsible for the stress
he was suffering from. This initial version of Shown's story
is incredibly important because it sets the stage for what
sounds like a possible altercation. Shoanes was angry that there
was a vehicle following him so closely, and due to
the snow and the narrowness of the road, he felt
he could not turn around or get off to the side.

(01:03:23):
If Shoanes get stuck in the snow, then the car
that was following him closely would also have to stop,
as there was no room to pass. In a situation
like this, what would be the odds that mister Shoanes
would then get out of his car and confront the
individuals that he believed caused him to get stuck in
the snow. What if the car that had been following

(01:03:43):
him so closely was the Montego with the five men
from Yuba City in it. Now, before we go any
further down this line of speculation, we have to acknowledge
a potential timeline issue. Joseph Shanes was seen leaving the
mountain house between five point thirty to six pm. He
then began heading up towards the snow. The Yuba City

(01:04:04):
boys did not get out of their basketball game until
about ten PM. For someone who knew where to go,
it would take a little over an hour to drive
to Showan's location. I imagine it took the Uba boys quite
a bit longer than that. This timing fits was shown
story that he was aroused from sleep around eleven PM
to midnight by whistling in lights coming into the cab

(01:04:26):
of his vehicle. But how then do we square this
with Shones's story to mister Robinson that he was followed
closely by a vehicle. There are a number of different
avenues of speculation one can go down when discussing this case,
and one thing that is important to keep in mind
is this the reaction that these five men might have
to a stressful situation is likely to be different than

(01:04:49):
for the average person. To be clear, the following is
purely speculation on my part, but using the evidence at
hand and shows his own words to Steve Robinson, I
could imagine a scenario where Shoons left the mountain House
and traveled up towards the snow. He had just been
to two different bars and reportedly drank quite a few

(01:05:10):
beers over a short period of time. When he gets
up near the snow, he stops somewhere along the road
and falls asleep. It makes no sense for Shoans to
actually drive all the way up into the snow at
this point if all he needed to do was check
where it was. The mountain house witnesses said themselves that
Shanes was well aware of how easily someone could get

(01:05:30):
stuck in the snow. He knew the area, he knew
where to go and where not to. Continuing on, Shones
gets awoken around eleven pm to midnight by the headlights
and whistling of the Yuba boys as they arrive and
find the path blocked by the VW Bug. Realizing he
is sitting in the road, Shoan starts his vehicle and

(01:05:51):
begins driving up, looking for a place to pull off
or turn around, but the road is so narrow and
the snow is so prevalent that he can't find anywhere
to do do this. Eventually, Shoanes get stuck in the snow,
blocking the roadway. This obviously makes him angry to the
point where he attempts to confront the men who he
feels forced him up the mountain. One point of evidence

(01:06:13):
to support this is the fact that a driver's side
window on the Montego was rolled down when it's cold outside.
One of the few reasons you might roll down a
window would be to talk with someone who is outside.
Shoanes may have been confrontational with the Uba boys. They
in turn may have tried to leave hurriedly, attempting to
back up, but much as Shoans experienced, the road conditions

(01:06:37):
made turning around very difficult and the back wheels started
to spin. The Yuba boys then get out of their
vehicle in order to push it, but an altercation ensues
with Shoanes. During a brief scuffle, Shanes begins having a
heart attack. This scares the boys, as they might have
felt somehow responsible, and they flee the situation altogether, running

(01:06:59):
up the road into the snow and inevitable death. This
speculation is being generous to Shoones, who, in his anger,
could also have threatened the Uba boys in some way,
forcing them into running away. After this event, Shoones had
a very interesting and delayed emotional reaction to whatever happened,
since at the hospital he began to cry uncontrollably for

(01:07:22):
quite some time. Shoen's behavior in general is highly suspect,
and while the different stories he told might all be untrustworthy,
we are still forced to speculate with what we have
Shown's stories, as well as the testimony of multiple witnesses
who encountered Shones or his vehicle around the time of
the incident, or the information we have to work with.

(01:07:44):
When Showens told investigators that a reddish truck came and
picked the men up, it sent people and resources elsewhere.
Shoones made it sound like the Yuba boys got into
a vehicle and left the area, while in reality it's
almost a certainty that did not happen. All of this
took scrutiny away from Shoans and put it elsewhere. I

(01:08:05):
think one thing is almost certain, Shoones was hiding something.
I think authorities believe this as well, but they had
no real evidence against him. Shoones's statement about how he
should have done this two years ago also raised as
many questions. What did Shoones do that night? According to
the story, he told police, all he did was get

(01:08:25):
his car stuck and have a heart attack. He should
have done that two years ago. His statement doesn't make
much sense in this context, and makes one wonder if
Shoans knew one or more of the Uba Boys. Police
tried very hard to find any potential connection Shoans might
have had with any of the five men, but they
found nothing. Nothing that would show that Shoanes may have

(01:08:49):
held a grudge against one of them. Shoanes did have
a mentally handicapped daughter who lived with him and his
wife in Sacramento. The Yuba Boys had spent a lot
of time driving to Zacramento for events and dances. It
is unknown if they ever crossed paths with Showns and
his daughter while in the area. The specificity of the
words Showns chose also leads to questions two years what

(01:09:13):
happened two years ago? The amount of time has popped
up once before Gary Matthias taking his meds roughly two
years prior to the incident. Before that time, Matthias had
been racking up quite a criminal record, and later multiple
witnesses had stories about Matthias committing assaults seemingly at random.
At least a few of these had gone unreported to police.

(01:09:35):
Was showns the target of one of these incidents, something
that went unreported, but that Shoones never forgot. With no
real evidence to support it, it certainly feels like a
bit of a reach. It leads to too many other
unanswered questions, like how would Showans get the Uba boys
to cross his path in the mountains? Was it just
some unbelievable coincidence or something more insidious. This is a case.

(01:10:00):
It gives you just enough information to want to make
these types of speculations, but nothing ever seems to completely fit.
There are rumors that Shoanes was known to his community
as a drunk and a liar. Shoans would be arrested
for drunk driving only a year after the incident. He
had a criminal record, with grand theft auto likely being
the worst charge he received, but nothing to indicate that

(01:10:22):
he was necessarily dangerous. Over the years, numerous other theories
have been developed in relation to this case. Some wonder
if one or all of these men were targeted, perhaps
simply for being disabled. Back in the nineteen seventies, such
acts were not altogether uncommon. Gateway Projects itself was the

(01:10:46):
target of numerous firebombing attacks. In nineteen seventy five. The
Gateway Project's director, Donald Garrett, would eventually be found burned
to death outside his home. It appeared as though someone
threw an accelerant on him, followed by a match. Nobody
would ever be arrested in association with these crimes. Three
years later, the Yuba Boys would disappear, all of them

(01:11:09):
having been associated with Gateway Projects. Police did not believe
there'd be a connection at the time, and there is
certainly no evidence of one today. Whoever the Gateway Project's
attacker was, they seemed more concerned with the organization itself
rather than the people Gateway Projects was set up to help. Still,
the example exists to illustrate the possibility of the Yuba

(01:11:32):
Boys being a target simply for their existence. Other theories
are built on rumor passed down through local families. Little
physical or testimonial evidence exists to show that they are true.
Some say that the town Bolly at the time, a
man with a criminal past, was responsible for what happened
to the boys. He would later go on to become

(01:11:54):
a pastor. This individual may actually be a man by
the name of Gary Dale Whitely, the former husband of
Sharon Matthias, Gary Matthias's sister. Gary Whiteley reportedly had a
tumultuous relationship with both Sharon and the Matthias family. During
interviews subsequent to the disappearance, he rarely, if ever, had

(01:12:16):
a good thing to say about Gary Matthias. In nineteen
ninety four, a third hand report would reach authorities that
Gary Whitey had admitted to being responsible for the deaths
of two of the five Uba boys. Apparently, this confession
occurred while he was at church. While this story contributed
to casting suspicion on Gary Whitey, none of it had

(01:12:37):
ever been proven. The individual who reported it was not
there to witness the incident themselves, and not a single
member of the church ever came forward to confirm that
the supposed confession ever happened. The entire investigation was a
difficult one for the Yuba County sheriff. Three separate counties
would be involved in the case, which required close coordinate.

(01:13:01):
Sometimes things worked, sometimes they did not. The lead detective
on the case. Lance Ayers certainly tried his best to
solve this mystery, even employing multiple psyekics for their assistance.
The psychics, for their part, added very little, if anything
to this case. After reading their predictions well over one

(01:13:21):
hundred pages of them, I can say that none of
them really came very close to getting things right when
it came to the locations of the bodies. Ayers also
spent a lot of time interviewing the families and compiling
a profile for each of the missing men to better
understand their behavior and reactions to stressful situations. The FBI

(01:13:41):
was also used for assistance in this case. What the
extent of their involvement was, I can't really say. When
I requested information from the FBI about any of the
Uba five, I was given a response that indicated that
they did have records but would not release them because
this case is still considered to be open since Gary
Matthias has yet to be found. There are records that

(01:14:04):
indicate the entire case was reviewed as recently as two
thousand and six, whereupon they found that there were no
leads that were not followed until the end. Also as
recently as twenty twenty, the Yuba County Sheriff's Department considered
Gary Matthias to be a victim of foul play, adding
that the case remains an open missing person slash homicide case.

(01:14:27):
Given this, I'm frankly surprised that I was able to
get the information I did with regard to this case,
even after all this speculating. There's a piece that simply
doesn't fit, and it is the crux of this case,
the true mystery. What were the Uba boys even doing
up in the mountains at eleven PM, far off course

(01:14:48):
from their route home? What could have possibly lured these
men up there, especially when they had their own important
basketball game to attend the following morning. None of the
men known to have had any particular interest in the
mountains or the snow. In fact, they disliked it. Jack
Madruga's mother was adamant that he would not let anyone

(01:15:09):
else drive his car. She also stated that he had
laid out all his basketball equipment in his room in
preparation for the game the following morning. It appears he
fully intended on making it back home that night. Madruga's
mother was also emphatic that her son would not pick
up any hitchhikers, and would not stop on the roadway
to give assistance to anyone except possibly a female, and

(01:15:34):
only if they specifically asked for help. She was also
adamant that her son would not drive his vehicle to
the location where it was found due to his fear
of the dark. She felt certain that he would not
stray from the route to and from the basketball game.
She would also say that she believed that if someone
were to hold Madruga at gunpoint, he would obey. Were

(01:15:57):
the boys lured up into the mountains after coming across
as a woman in distress, or were they taken up
there more forcefully? And there always remains the possibility that
they went up there for reasons we simply have not considered.
While some believe that Madruga simply made a wrong turn,
I think that scenario to be unlikely. How far would

(01:16:18):
they have had to go before realizing they were off course?
Between the five of them, at least one would have
likely noticed something amiss. It's pretty much a straight shot
from Chico back to Yuba City, where the men lived.
This is the exit that Madruga missed, either on purpose
or by accident. Afterwards, their path would have led them

(01:16:38):
straight into Oroville, a city that they supposedly had no
intention of visiting. If they were lost, they could easily
pull over here and ask for directions. Instead, they made
their way onto the oro Quincy Highway. Madruga had a
fair amount of driving experience, having driven trucks during his
tenure in the Army. There was many miles of road

(01:17:00):
and a city where Madruga could have turned around if
he had thought he was lost. At the time, Yuba
under Sheriff Jack Beecham felt it was unlikely that Madruga
simply got lost. For these same reasons, the group should
have been on Highway ninety nine, but they veered off
course for some reason. Madruga's mother would state that the

(01:17:21):
group had never taken Highway seventy before during their many
trips to Chico, so this diversion was very out of character.
Whatever the explanation is, it appears to have been an
intentional decision. Did the boys have some plan in mind
when they traveled up that way and running into Shoan's
vehicle was just an unlucky accident, or did something more

(01:17:43):
sinister drive the boys up that way. Some have postulated
that Madruga was not the driver of the car as
it made its way into the mountains, but Madruga certainly
had the ability to make the drive despite the dangers
and roughness of the mountain roads. According to contemporary newspaper articles,
the pavement on the Ora Quincy Highway ended at around

(01:18:05):
four thousand feet in elevation, with Madruga's vehicle being found
about four hundred feet higher than that, which amounts to
a distance of under a mile. They didn't travel on
unpaved road for very long. Other newspaper reports indicate that
the vehicle was found just two hundred yards into the
snow line, so they didn't travel on snow for very

(01:18:26):
long either. When Madruga was found, he still had his
car keys with him. The coroner's receipt confirms that when
he received the remains, part of Madruga's property consisted of
four keys. So if Madruga had the keys and he
was the driver, why did he drive up to this area.
Whatever happened at the location of the vehicles, it appears

(01:18:49):
to have frightened the five men. A few of them
were scared of the dark, a few of them hated
the cold. None of them were likely in any hurry
to endure both. Montego was also left with a window down,
something Madruga's mother contends he would never do if they
left willingly. Most people would be inclined to travel downhill,

(01:19:11):
especially when they know that that is the direction of safety.
But the Yuba boys went up. Everything seems to indicate
that they left in a hurry and perhaps out of fear.
Their vehicle, though not necessarily stuck, might as well have been.
Madruga likely had little experience driving in the snow, and
being on a narrow road surrounded by snow with nowhere

(01:19:33):
to turn around, could easily create a stressful situation. We
may never know why they were there or what happened
when they encountered Shoanes's vehicle. We are left with a
number of deceptive puzzle pieces that are difficult to fit together.
Shones likely knew more than he let on, and the
heart attack he had, whether it was real or not,

(01:19:54):
only worked to give him a good alibi. Whatever he knew,
he took it to the grave when he passed away
into two thousand and four. Everything that happened next, sadly,
is not all that surprising. Five men experiencing a traumatic
fight for survival and unforgiving conditions. Given the fact that
they were all wearing light clothing, it's a miracle any

(01:20:15):
of them made it as far as they did. The
three who died along the road to the fire camp
would only end up being covered by snow during the
storm that hit days later, adding to the fact that
they were already outside of the initial search perimeter that
had been set up. Matthias, the only one of the
five who really had any survival experience, lasted longer than

(01:20:37):
the rest, and it is just as likely he perished
in the snow after making an attempt to leave the trailer.
By that time, he would have been deep into starvation,
his feet frostbitten. Matthias simply might have made it to
an area further away than anyone had really considered. This
case is certainly a mystery, and oftentimes is considered by

(01:20:59):
some to be pair normal. Given all of the information,
there is nothing necessarily paranormal about this case. There are
too many possible worldly explanations that involve real and shady
characters to even really consider a paranormal explanation. I tend
to agree with the Yuba County Sheriff's impression that this
incident was the result of foul play. The only problem

(01:21:22):
is figuring out the who and the why. Unfortunately, the
likelihood of figuring that out dissipated with each passing year,
and now that we've reached the forty fifth year since
this incident occurred, it feels like it may never happen.
The mystery of the Yuba County five will likely endure,
and the trauma of the families had to experience will
continue to burden their subsequent generations. That is the unfortunate

(01:21:46):
reverberation of most unsolved crimes. Until next time, thanks for
watching a

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The Yuba County 5 - The FULL & Untold Story (PART 1 & 2)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Yuba County 5 - The FULL & Untold Story (PART 1 & 2)