WEBVTT - The Disappearance of the Yuba County Five 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.920 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:17.079 and there's Charles W Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there. 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:23.279 So this is stuff you should know. Yes, how you doing, Chuck? 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.080 Do I look tired? You seem a little a little 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:31.960 LOGI tired? Man? What's going on with you? I've just 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.720 been waking up like too early for no reason. Going 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:37.440 to bed too late though, because if you go to 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:42.240 bed early and wake up early, you're fine. Well, going 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:46.360 to bed late sometimes not getting enough sleep then going 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.120 trying to go to bed super early to make up 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.080 for it. But I don't know about this making up 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:53.920 for a sleep depisode. I don't buy all that. I 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.560 feel like we talked about it before that there's that 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.880 that that doesn't actually work. Yeah, I'm just tired, It's 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.160 all I can say. Sorry, man, Sorry, I'll live. But hey, 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:06.279 we're about to fly to Denver and that will correct 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:10.040 all those ills. Yeah, that'll definitely um make you catch 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:13.640 up with your sleep. Yeah, immediately that they being in 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.480 a different time zone two hours later for sure. But 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.760 a quiet, cool hotel that that'll help. It will help, man, 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:23.880 I'm glad it's gonna be two good shows, Charles, two 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.399 good shows and three because I am I'm kicking one 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:29.560 off the old bucket list venue wise and going to 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.240 a show at Red Rocks Friday. Who are you going 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:35.839 to see the Avid Brothers? Oh? Wow, that's really something. 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:39.160 Don't they wear like pocket chains and stuff? I don't 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.680 think so okay, Now, I was I was trying to 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.200 just go to any Red Rock show and if you 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:46.960 look at the Red Rocks calendar, there's a lot of 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:49.360 stuff on there that would not appeal to me at all, 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:52.960 a lot of groove jam yeah stuff. And then this 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:56.840 aligned with Ava Brothers and it's like, yeah, that's great, 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.080 I'll take it. That's great. Well, I'm glad it worked 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:01.000 out for you. Man, it will be good. I'm on 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:05.080 Row seventy of seventy, so I'm on Row seventy as well. 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:09.280 Are you going? Now, I'm just teaching. Yeah, I think 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:11.040 if I don't have a heart attack on the way 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:13.800 up to Row seventy, it should be Okay. It's supposed 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.280 to be a cool venue. I've always heard. Yeah, I've 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.040 been enamored of it since the Sunday Bloody Sunday video 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:21.040 when I was a kid. Oh that's right. That was 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.280 at Red Rocks, wasn't it? Absolutely nice? Well, here's to 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:27.799 your bucket list. Thanks and I and I could die 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:30.160 on row seventy and at least one thing will have 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:34.600 been accomplished. Right, Yeah, you'll have your butt, you'll have 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.320 your bucket list with you and just the one scratched off. 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.400 I hate that term anyway. Yeah, it's pretty pretty bad, 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:45.280 but I know that's what the people understand. You could 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:49.520 call it your death list. That's even better. It's more like, 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:52.240 I've got some music venues i'd like to see, and 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.200 that's one of them. Okay. Some people do that with 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.720 like baseball stadiums. They go to every baseball Yeah, before 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:00.440 they die. I try to go to as many of 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.040 those as I can. Um when I'm in different towns, 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:07.959 for sure. Just when i've been to you want to ask, Oh, 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:10.160 I'm sorry, Yeah, what was the best one you've been to? 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:14.920 Man Pittsburgh? Oh for three rivers, isn't that one? Well? 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.200 That was the old name. I think it has a 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:19.280 different name now. Was that the time when we went 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.400 and shot those Toyota commercials? Yeah? You went and that 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.440 was the best baseball stadium we've ever been to. It's gorgeous. 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:28.080 What what was so great about it? It's just, you know, 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.959 it's position right there on the river, and if you 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.000 have the right seat, you can look out over downtown 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:39.680 and see like all those beautiful bridges. It's just lovely. Wow. Okay, cool, Yeah, 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:43.200 I remember quite clearly. I stayed in my room and 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:47.360 gorged myself on chicken sog. It was totally worth missing 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.760 the Pittsburgh based remember that. It was funny. I hurt 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.960 myself on that stuff. All right, I'm glad we killed 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:58.160 some time before we got into this very mysterious, sad story. 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:01.920 It's a good one, though, isn't It is extraordinarily sad, 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:05.560 Probably the saddest true I don't know. It's up there 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:10.000 as far as true life true crime disappearances go. Um, 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:14.560 And it's the one about Gary Matthias, and that's what 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:17.200 they call it. They call it the Gary Matthias disappearance. 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:19.359 But that really doesn't do it much justice, or it 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:22.480 doesn't serve it well, because it was a lot more 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.640 than Gary Matthias involved. Yeah, I've seen it more so 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:30.039 called the Yuba County five. But you know, I guess 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:31.919 It just depends on where you're looking. I had not 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.120 run across that. Yeah, oh god, that makes me wonder 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.160 what all stuff I missed? Well, you know there were 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:42.720 five guys. What so, No, there actually were five guys. 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.320 There were five friends. Um, Gary Matthias was one of them, 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:50.200 and there were four others. There was Ted Weir who 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:54.200 was the oldest, he was thirty two. There was Jackie 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.760 Hewitt he was the youngest, he was twenty four. There 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.960 was Jack Madruga. Yeah, I'm not sure what age he was, 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:04.440 but he was definitely between twenty four and thirty two. 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:07.599 I'll tell you that narrows it down. Bill Sterling, and 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.680 then again Gary Matthias and those five guys were a 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:15.279 set of friends and they met at the Yuba City 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:21.240 UH Vocational Rehabilitation Center for the what you would call today, um, 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:26.640 the cognitively impaired or cognitively challenged. Yeah, because three of 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.839 these guys, UM. Of course, this one article you have 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:34.560 from nine seventy eight doesn't use appropriate terms anymore. But 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:40.360 three of these guys were intellectually disabled UM or developmentally disabled. 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:43.520 Not an exact like it's kind of hard to get 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:47.599 an exact DIA diagnosis. From these night terms. Really, but 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:53.520 Madruga was undiagnosed, but according to his mom, Uh he 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.960 was generally thought of, as she said as quote slow 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.360 end quote. And then Matthias Uh was the only one 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:07.520 not diagnosed with a developmental disability, but he was under 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:12.000 drug treatment for schizophrenia. Right, So all five of these 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:16.200 guys had some sort of challenge going on in their life, right, exactly. So, 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:17.800 so there's a lot of details you can kind of 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:21.320 glean because you're absolutely right, Like reading the really great 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:25.359 Washington Post article, which is basically the comprehensive document on 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:31.200 the case from UM, you can kind of glean uh 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.239 an idea picture of these guys. So they're just five friends, 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:39.719 thickest thieves. Even within this this tight little group of friends, 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:44.839 there's subgroups of even tighter friends like UM Ted Weir 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:49.520 and Jackie Hewitt were particularly close, and Bill Sterling and 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:53.240 jack Madrugo were particularly close. UM. They had like they 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:56.040 were just these these five guys known as the boys, right, 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:58.960 they all lived at home with their parents. They were 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:00.919 always going to live at them with their parents. It 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:05.280 was just what what the plan was, UM, Like I 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:11.000 think Ted ted Weir had a UM had a job 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:13.720 Um as a janitor and then later on as a 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:20.040 snack bar clerk. Um. Yeah, that was another one. And 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.680 they actually all played together on the basketball team for 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.360 the Vocational Rehab Center, basically like they hang out the 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:28.280 place where they hung out, they played basketball on that team. 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.960 But um Jack Madrew Good's worth saying, head a driver's license, 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:34.480 whereas three of the other ones didn't, although Gary Mathias 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:37.160 did as well. So these guys they just they were friends. 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:42.640 They like had a tight kinship together. They had very normal, 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:48.200 reliable lives that were basically home centric, and when they 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:51.320 were out doing stuff, you could expect them home for 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.520 dinner kind of thing, like it was just a given. Yeah, 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.200 I think that's that's super worth pointing out here. Early on, 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.200 as they saw him more than one place, they said, 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:04.880 they're referred to their lives as very predictable and scheduled, 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:09.720 which is why this interesting. Uh, the events that occurred 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:14.640 on February nineteen seventy eight were very very unusual, right, 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:19.160 So on February eight, the boys that's what their families 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.760 all call them, because apparently all their families were at 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:24.480 least in touch, if not friendly, with another. Yeah, I 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:26.400 think they kind of supported one another. It sounds like 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.720 as much as anyone did in ninety eight. Uh So, 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:33.400 on this night, February twenty four, there was a Friday 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:38.760 night eight um. The boys left their homes around Maryville 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.680 and Ubas City in California, and they traveled I think 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:47.400 about fifty miles north to cal State Chico which is 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.520 now called Chico State University, and they went to go 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:53.480 see their team. The cal State l A team beat 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:55.800 up on cal State Chico, and cal State l A 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:59.840 actually won eighty four, which would have pleased the boys tremendously. Sure, 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:02.560 so they went to the game. That much as known, 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:04.880 and then they left the game that much as known too, 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.560 because around ten o'clock when they left the game, they 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:10.800 went to a convenience store called Bears Market and they 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:14.160 bought some stuff. Yeah, apparently that they were trying to 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.360 kind of close up, and so the clerk was a 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:18.480 little bit annoyed that they showed up. And these are 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.520 the kind of details that aren't so important, but it 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:25.720 just shows that, you know, they really did their investigating 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.960 pretty thoroughly, including well, we'll we'll get to sort of 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.320 the the lead investigator in a minute. But yeah, they 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.960 bought just a few things. They bought a Hostess cherry pie, um, 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:40.040 a Langendorf lemon pie, snickers bar, a Marathon bar, a 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:43.120 couple of pepsis, and a court and a half of milk. 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:47.319 Which is to say, it's not like they were stocking 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:51.440 up on food. They just got some uh, some some snacks, 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.600 right exactly for the drive back home fifty fifty miles 0:09:55.640 --> 0:10:00.839 about an hour. Yeah. The thing is is they, um, 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.640 they would have been fully expected back home, not just 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:07.160 because there was you know, this was it wasn't like 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:11.000 any of them to spend the night away, right except Matthias. 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:12.880 He he had friends and he would stay out with 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.720 friends sometimes. But um, with the other four like they 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:18.960 slipt in their bed at home every night. That's just 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.160 what they did. So their families fully expected them to 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:25.320 come back. Um. And another reason why they expected them 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:28.319 to come back was because the next day, Saturday, they 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.800 had a basketball game for their vocational rehab team, the 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:36.400 Gateway Gators, and they they apparently were all extraordinarily excited 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:40.400 about this game. Yeah, which again is just another point 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:43.079 being made that there was these guys had every intention 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:46.640 on coming home super excited about the game. I think 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:51.480 Matthias even was kind of driving his mom a little batty, saying, 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:54.400 you know, don't let me oversleep. Got this big game. 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:58.000 Apparently the guys had their clothes laid out, uh, and 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:01.559 they were all super excited about this bast ketball game. Uh. 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:04.360 And then they don't come home. And you know, these 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.480 parents and grandparents start waking up at various points in 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:09.520 the middle of the night or in the morning and 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.520 start getting in touch with one another, you know, all 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.480 verifying like your kids not there, Your your kids not there. 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:18.480 And they started to freak out, and by eight o'clock 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:22.640 that evening, I believe the mother of Madruga actually finally 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:26.960 called the cops. Yeah, and the cops, um, we're kind 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:28.680 of I don't have the impression that they were like, 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:30.360 well this is I'm sure, this is fine. I think 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:33.760 they got involved pretty early on. But things really picked 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:36.840 up when I think on a Tuesday, that was that 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.439 was Saturday night that they finally called the cops. And 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:44.200 on Tuesday, uh, Jack Madruga's car was discovered, and it 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:47.800 was discovered in a very very unusual place. Right. Yeah, 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.920 what was this thing in old Mercury, Montego. Yeah, sixty 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:56.120 nine montego A land yacht is what it was. And 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:58.680 they found it. Um. And this was, by the way, 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.600 this is Jack Madruga's prized possession. Like no one else 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:06.160 drove the thing. He took pristine care of it. It 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.080 was like his baby. His car was right so to 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:12.360 find it abandoned with the window one of the windows 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:16.800 rolled down up a mountain road, which was, um, I think, 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:21.600 seventy miles away from the basketball game, in a different 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:24.800 direction away from their house. Right, so the basketball game 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:29.319 was north of their homes. This was east of southeast 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.360 of the basketball game and up a mountain road. It 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:36.000 was extremely bizarre and also I'm sure quite worrying. When 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:38.880 the families were already worried, I think finding this car 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:42.480 like this probably really set them into panic mode. Well yeah, 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.439 and here's where, uh in this article is very clear 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:48.360 to say from that point on, nothing made any kind 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:51.160 of sense. So here's a few things about the car 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:55.559 that definitely don't add up. You might think, all right, there, 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:58.560 you know, there was a snowstorm, so they drove up 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.959 here and they got stuck. Apparently that is not true. 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:04.800 The car stopped at about the snow line, and they 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:07.120 said they did confirm that the wheels had spun some 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:10.560 but the car wasn't stuck, and these five dudes could 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:14.280 have pushed it free pretty easily apparently, right, this thing 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:16.880 number one. Thing number two is that it had a 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.120 quarter tank of gas still, so they didn't run out 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:22.120 of gas. Right then when the cops hot wired the car, 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.960 the keys were gone. Uh. And when the cops heartwired 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.880 the cars started up immediately. There wasn't any engine trouble 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:30.960 or anything like that. Yeah. The last thing they found 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:35.600 were all these maps of California and um, so it's 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:37.839 not like they had no way of knowing where they were. 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:40.280 And then they found all the you know, all the 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:44.920 rappers from the food items. Uh. The only thing, ironically 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:49.360 that wasn't fully eaten was the marathon bar um, living 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:53.400 up to his reputation. Right. See, I guess the toughest 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:55.920 candy bar to get through. Yeah, that's that's how they 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.160 build it, some weird cartoon cowboy. Yeah, so you know 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.160 that's the d of The underside of the car wasn't damaged, 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:06.320 which they say was pretty interesting because on this road, 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:08.840 apparently there were a lot of deep, deep ruts. This 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:11.680 thing kind of hangs low anyway, has a low hanging muffler, 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:15.839 has these five dudes inside, these grown men. Uh, And 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.600 there was no damage under the underside of this car, 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:21.160 which means, you know a couple of things if you 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.160 kind of are surmising, which is the either the driver 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.480 kind of knew where they were going and drove through 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.760 the darkness with a lot of precision, or they just 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:34.720 maybe drew drove really slow. Yeah, I think it was 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:38.800 the ladder because I think Madruga did was probably would 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:41.080 have been very unhappy that his car was on this 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:43.400 road now. So I just took it slow, and took 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:45.560 it super slow. I saw somewhere that there wasn't even 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.920 a large mud spot on it. It was they had 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:53.320 taken it that easy. Yeah, And apparently Madruga uh didn't 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:55.480 like the cold, he didn't like camping, so he wouldn't 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:57.560 have known that road. It's not like there's a lot 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:01.320 else to do up there but that. And evidently, uh, 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:05.200 none of the boys were big into outdoorsy type stuff. 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:09.280 Oh yeah, that's a really good point, Chuck. So like 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.760 that none of them had any connection to that, to 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:14.680 that area, and certainly not to that mountain. One of them, 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:19.600 I think Sterling. Bill Sterling had been had gone camping 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.760 with his family there eight years before. Yeah, and he 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.320 didn't even like I think they went back again and 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:27.000 he was like, no, I don't want to go right, 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.560 So he didn't like the outdoors. He didn't like the cold. 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:34.040 And then I think Ted uh, Ted Weir had gone 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:38.080 deer hunting or something once with friends way west of 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:41.160 the area. Um but still, I mean enough that you 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:43.040 could that was it was a lead that the cops 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.000 would have chased down. Um. But but then too, he 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.560 didn't enjoy himself and he didn't like the woods either, 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:52.000 So there was no let's go hang out in the 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:55.320 woods kind of thing going on here. Just everything about 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.400 the fact that they found this car and where they 0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:59.120 found it, in the state they found it in was 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.520 really are and really worrying. Should we take a break? 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:04.480 I think we should? Man, all right, you and I 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.080 are going to go hang out in the woods and 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:34.360 we'll be back right after this. So I've never swept 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:38.240 the woods before. That was really interesting, right, spicking span 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:43.040 out here. So, um, so they find the car, and 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:44.840 when they find the car, Chuck, I think it was 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:49.440 the next night after they had gone missing, a storm 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:52.800 blew into the area and it dumped like almost a 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:55.320 foot of snow on the mountain. This is February in 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:59.119 the mountains in California. UM, I would guess the Sierras 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.320 is what it sounds it's like, right, So, yeah, Cheek 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:05.800 is in the Chicos in the Sierra Nevadas. I think 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:09.840 it's north of Sacramento. So, um, it would be very 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:12.159 very cold and the snow would be pretty tough to 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:16.040 get through. Um So, but they still tried. They got 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.359 guys on horseback, they got helicopters out, they looked for him, 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:24.680 but they found nothing. They found not one bit of 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.080 of um and not a single trace of these guys 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:29.600 after just the car and that was it. Yeah, the 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:33.240 snow certainly didn't help anything because it would not be 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.800 until June. On June four, after this thing, you know, 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:41.000 the mountain falls out somewhat when these uh Sunday you 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:44.080 know motorcycle bikers, they'll go right around the mountains. They 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:48.240 went into an old Forest Service trailer camp at the 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:52.119 end of a road and said, do you smell something 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.480 that smells like perhaps a dead body, And sadly it 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.560 was Ted Weir. And this is where things get even stranger. Yeah, 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.600 so the I think the trailer caught their attention, But 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.159 what caught their attention even further was that a window 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.840 had been broken to get into the trailer. And then, yeah, 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:12.000 like you said, what really caught their attention was the 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.440 smell in the sight of of ted weirds decomposing body. 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:18.080 But what got what made it very, very weird, is 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:22.239 one he's wrapped in sheets tucked under his head in 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:24.919 a way that like he couldn't have possibly tucked himself. 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:28.480 So somebody had tucked him in like that, and he 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:32.600 ted Weir had been a portly fellow. Um Cynthia Gorney, 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:35.840 who wrote the Washington Post article on this this case 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:41.240 in calls him, um beer belly handsome, which I've never 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:43.840 heard those words put together in my entire life. I 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:47.680 think that's what I am. Sure, sure, I call you 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:51.679 beer belly foxy. Okay, okay, so um, but he was 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:53.400 beer belly handsome. He was. He was a thick guy. 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:55.920 He's like five ten two pounds. He had a few 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.840 extra pounds on him right when they found him, though, 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:03.080 he way aid about a hundred and twenty hundred to 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.439 a hundred and twenty pounds, which means that between the 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.879 time that they went missing and the time that he died, 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:14.200 he'd lost anywhere between eighty and a hundred pounds. Yeah. 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:19.080 A couple of more interesting tidbits. He his leather shoes 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:23.119 were gone and missing completely. Um. On the little night 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.400 stand by his bed was his his own ring because 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:29.000 it had his name engraved on it. Ted gold Yeah, 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:33.359 ted his gold necklace, his wallet with money uh. And 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.399 then weirdly a watch that was not his. It was 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:41.240 a gold Waltham watch that had a missing crystal. Uh. 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:43.840 And all of the families said that this No, none 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:48.840 of our kids had this watch. So that's one interesting tidbit. 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.560 And the other is that he had a big, full 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:56.560 beard that indicated that he lived in that cabin for 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.320 anywhere from eight to thirteen weeks. And what's really really 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.720 underving about the thirteen week one a thirteen week number 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.359 is that if he survived thirteen weeks, that means that 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:10.159 he would have died just days before his body was found. 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:13.400 Is that right? Yes? Did you did you do the math? 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:15.640 I did the math because think about so they disappeared 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:19.160 on February and he was found June four, So you've 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:26.239 got Mark April. I really really hope I call on 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.200 the Saints that that not to have been the case, 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:32.800 like that he perhaps died a couple of days before. Yeah, 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:35.479 that that he he would have expired like like weeks 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:37.600 before that there was just no chance for him, like 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:40.720 if he was destined and doomed to die. I really 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.120 hope it wasn't a couple of days before they found 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:46.639 his body after starving for thirteen weeks. Yeah. And to 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:49.560 cap it off, I don't think we we've mentioned yet, 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:54.280 this cabin was almost twenty miles from their car. Oh yeah, 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.760 so in the middle of the night. Uh. And at 0:20:57.760 --> 0:20:59.359 this point, this is this is all we know is 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:04.280 about Ted in our story, he walked or ran almost 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.639 twenty miles in four to six ft snow drifts to 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.200 go to this trailer where he spent the next two 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:15.919 to three months slowly dying. Yeah. So okay, that's pretty 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:18.119 weird in and of itself. And they found that his 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:21.240 feet were terribly frost bitten, right, which is why his 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:23.960 shoes were off. But again his shoes were missing. Um, 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:27.480 what gets even weirder. And this is just where the 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:30.679 case truly turns. Bizarres, where one of the Yuba County 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:34.240 Sheriff's deputies are under sheriff called it Bizaar's Hell. Is 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:38.920 like the quote of this story, Um, this this the trailer. 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:41.960 The cabin was actually like a forest service trailer, and 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:46.000 it was an emergency trailer from what I understand. And 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:49.600 it was fully stocked with a year's worth of food 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:52.560 that would have kept all five of those boys alive 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:56.320 for a year. It was built to keep you alive, 0:21:56.560 --> 0:21:59.360 yes exactly. And they found it, but they didn't put 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:01.359 it to you. Let's not to say that they didn't 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:05.760 find the food. There was. There were twelve rations like 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:10.840 um sea rations like army meals opened and eaten, But 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:13.800 that was it. The other stuff wasn't touched. There was 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:17.040 a whole locker of other dehydrated food and like fruit 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:20.840 cups and stuff that hadn't been touched at all. Okay, 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:23.920 and bear in mind, this is all right here while 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:28.600 Ted ted Weir is starving to death. Yeah, so all 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:32.560 this food is there. Uh, they found out. The investigators 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:36.000 determined that there had not been a fire built, even 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:39.359 though there were paperback novels, there was wood, furniture, there 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:42.840 were matches, like everything was there to build a fire. 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.800 And not only that, but there was a propane tank 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:49.679 that all they had to do, uh, it was in 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:52.240 another shed outside. All they had to do was open 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:56.240 this thing on and they would have actually had gas heat. Yes, 0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:00.640 hate right, they didn't. They also didn't even um cover 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:03.680 up the broken window that they used to get into 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:08.320 the trailer. It's just weird, just bizarre decision after bizarre decision. Right. 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:13.480 So there's one other thing in the trailer that that is, 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:19.359 um pretty interesting. They find Gary Matthias's tennis shoes. So 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:23.600 Gary mathias Is tennis shoes are there and um, Ted 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:28.280 Weir's shoes leather shoes are missing. Uh. And what they 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:32.320 think possibly is that Gary Matthias was in the trailer 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:35.919