Yuba County Five

On the evening of February 24, 1978, five young men from Yuba City, California—Jack Madruga (30), Bill Sterling (29), Ted Weiher (32), Jack Huett (24), and Gary Mathias (25)—drove together to watch a college basketball game at California State University, Chico. They were all described as intellectually disabled or living with mental health conditions, and they were close friends who played on a Special Olympics basketball team. They were in good spirits and planned to return home that night.

The men never returned. Their Mercury Montego was found days later, abandoned on a remote dirt road near Oroville, approximately 70 miles from the basketball game—in the opposite direction from their home in Yuba City. The car was in working condition with gas in the tank, parked on a snowy mountain road at an elevation of approximately 4,000 feet. There was no logical reason for the men to have driven to this remote location.

The search for the five men was hampered by heavy snow. In June 1978, as the snow melted, the bodies of Ted Weiher, Jack Madruga, Bill Sterling, and Jack Huett were found. Madruga and Sterling were found near the car, apparently having died of hypothermia. Weiher and Huett were found approximately 20 miles further up the mountain at a Forest Service trailer, along with evidence that someone had survived there for an extended period—up to 13 weeks. The trailer contained canned food, matches, and heavy clothing, but the food was barely touched. Weiher had been wrapped in bedsheets and had lost significant weight.

Gary Mathias, the fifth man—and the only one with outdoor survival experience as an Army veteran—was never found. His shoes were discovered in the trailer, but no other trace of him has surfaced. The central mystery remains: why did the men drive to this remote location, and why didn't they use the ample supplies in the trailer to survive? The case has been called 'America's Dyatlov Pass' for its parallels to the Russian mystery.