WEBVTT - Selects: The Disappearance of the Yuba County Five 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.760 Hi everyone, It's me Josh and for this week's Select 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:07.440 I chose our two thousand eighteen episode on the Mystery 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:10.600 of the Yuba County Five. I was actually inspired to 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.280 choose this one because I was recently a guest on 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:18.120 another podcast called The Yuba County Five hosted by Shanon McGarvey. 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.160 And it's actually a really fascinating deep dive into this 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:24.800 long standing mystery, and it expands on and actually does 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.080 a lot of updating on what we talked about in 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:30.040 this episode. So if this one strikes your fancy, go 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:33.640 check out the Yuba County Five podcast from Mopac Audio. 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:36.720 And in the meantime, I hope you enjoy our episode 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:44.919 on it. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:54.200 of I Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:57.200 I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W Chuck Bryant, and 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:03.600 there's Jerry over there. So this is stuff you should no. Yes, 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:07.160 how you doing, Chuck? Do I look tired? Do you 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:12.200 seem a little a little LOGI tired? Man? What's going 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:15.399 on with you? I've just been waking up like too 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:17.960 early for no reason, going to bed too late though, 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:20.479 because if you go to bed early and wake up early. 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:26.319 You're fine, well, going to bed late, sometimes not getting 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:28.720 enough sleep, then going trying to go to bed super 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.240 early to make up for it. But I don't know 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:34.480 about this making up for a sleep depisode. I don't 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:36.440 buy all that. I feel like we talked about it 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.280 before that there's that that that doesn't actually work. Yeah, 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.440 I'm just tired, that's all I can say. Sorry, man, Sorry, 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.760 I'll live all right. I'm glad we killed some time 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:50.400 before we got into this very mysterious sad story. It's 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.400 a good one, though, isn't it. It is extraordinarily sad, 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:56.800 probably the saddest true well, I don't know it's up 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:00.200 there as far as true life true crime. Disappeared his 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:05.960 go um, and it's the one about Gary Matthias. That's 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.720 what they call it. They call it the Gary Matthias disappearance. 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:10.840 But that really doesn't do it much justice, or it 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:14.000 doesn't serve it well, because it was a lot more 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:17.079 than Gary Matthias involved. Yeah, I've seen it more so 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:21.520 called the Uba County five. But you know, I guess 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:23.400 it just depends on where you're looking. I had not 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:26.280 run across that. Oh yeah, Oh god, that makes me, 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:29.440 wonder what all stuff I missed? Well, you know there 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:34.200 were five guys, what so, No, there actually were five guys. 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.839 There were five friends. Um, Gary Matthias was one of them, 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.640 and there were four others. There was Ted Weir who 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.640 was the oldest, he was thirty two. There was Jackie 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:49.280 Hewitt he was the youngest, he was twenty four. There 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:53.640 was Jack Madruga. I'm not sure what Ah was, but 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.079 he was definitely between twenty four and thirty two. I'll 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:00.680 tell you Bill Sterling. And then again Gary are Matthias 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.040 And those five guys were a set of friends and 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:09.959 they met at the Yuba City UH Vocational Rehabilitation Center 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:14.280 for the what you would call today UM cognitively impaired 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:20.320 or cognitively challenged. Yeah, because three of these guys, UM. 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.240 Of course, this one article you have from nine seventy 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.960 eight doesn't use appropriate terms anymore. But three of these 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:33.120 guys were intellectually disabled UM or developmentally disabled. Not an 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.440 exact like it's kind of hard to get an exact 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:42.160 DIA diagnosis from these terms, really, but h. Madruga was undiagnosed. 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:46.080 But according to his mom, uh, he was generally thought 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:49.960 of as she said, as quote slow end quote. And 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:55.880 then Matthias was the only one not diagnosed with a 0:03:55.920 --> 0:04:01.600 developmental disability, but he was under drug treatment for schizophrenia. Right, 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.160 So all five of these guys had some sort of 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:07.800 challenge going on in their life, right, exactly. So, so 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:09.560 there's a lot of details you can kind of glean 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:13.520 because you're absolutely right, Like reading the really great Washington 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:17.080 Post article, which is basically the comprehensive document on the 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:23.600 case from UM, you can kind of glean uh an 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.719 idea picture of these guys. So they're just five friends, 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:31.280 thickest thieves. Even within this this tight little group of friends, 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:36.320 there's subgroups of even tighter friends like um Ted Weir 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:41.039 and Jackie Hewitt were particularly close, and Bill Sterling and 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:44.760 Jack Madrugo were particularly close. Um. They had like they 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.560 were just these these five guys known as the Boys, right. 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.480 They all lived at home with their parents. They were 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:52.400 always going to live at home with their parents. It 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:56.760 was just what what the plan was, um, Like I 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:03.560 think Ted ted Weir had a had a job, um 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:05.599 as a janitor and then later on as a snack 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:11.560 bar clerk. Um. Basketball, Yeah, that was another one, and 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.160 they actually all played together on the basketball team for 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:16.840 the Vocational Rehab Center, basically like their hang out, the 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.719 place where they hung out. They played basketball on that team. 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:23.479 But um Jack madrew God's worth saying head a driver's license, 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:25.919 whereas three of the other ones didn't, although Gary Mathias 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:28.679 did as well. So these guys, they just they were friends. 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:34.160 They like had a tight kinship together. They had very normal, 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:39.680 reliable lives that were basically home centric, and when they 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.800 were out doing stuff, you could expect them home for 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.000 dinner kind of thing, like it was just a given. Yeah, 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:48.680 I think that's that's super worth pointing out here. Early on, 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.679 as they saw them more than one place, they said 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:56.400 they referred to their lives as very predictable and scheduled, 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:02.159 which is why this interesting. The events that occurred on 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:06.480 February nineteen seventy eight were very very unusual. Right, So 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.800 on February eight, the boys that's what their families all 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.560 call them, because apparently all their families were at least 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:16.120 in touch, if not friendly, with another. Yeah, I think 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:18.440 they kind of supported one another. It sounds like as 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:22.400 much as anyone did in ninety eight. Uh So, on 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:26.680 this night, February twenty four, there was a Friday night. Um, 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:31.520 the boys left their homes around Maryville and Ubis City 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.760 in California, and they traveled I think about fifty miles 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:39.719 north to cal State Chico which is now called Chico 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.760 State University, and they went to go see their team. 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:45.560 The cal State l A team beat up on cal 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:48.920 State Chico and cal State l A actually eighty four, 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.600 which would have pleased the boys tremendously. So they went 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:54.800 to the game. That much is known, and then they 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.600 left the game. That much is known too, because around 0:06:57.600 --> 0:06:59.359 ten o'clock when they left the game, they went to 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:03.760 a convenience store called Bear's Market and they bought some stuff. Yeah, 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.440 apparently that they were trying to kind of close up, 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:08.680 and so the clerk was a little bit annoyed that 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:10.920 they showed up. And these are the kind of details 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.200 that aren't so important, but it just shows that, you know, 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:19.600 they really did their investigating pretty thoroughly, including well, we'll 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.040 we'll get to sort of the the lead investigator in 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.000 a minute. But yeah, they bought just a few things. 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:29.080 They bought a Hostess cherry pie, um, a Langendorf lemon pie, 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.280 snickers bar, a Marathon bar, a couple of pepsis, and 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.280 a court and a half of milk, which is to say, 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.680 it's not like they were stocking up on food. They 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:44.920 just got some uh some some snacks, right exactly for 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:48.880 the drive back home fifty fifty miles about an hour. Yeah. 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:53.679 The thing is is they they would have been fully 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.760 expected back home, not just because there was you know, 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.880 this was it wasn't like any of them to spend 0:07:59.880 --> 0:08:03.440 the night away, right except Matthias. He he had friends 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:06.120 and he would stay out with friends sometimes. But um, 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:09.160 the other four like they slipped in their bed at 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:12.080 home every night. That's just what they did. So their 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.440 families fully expected them to come back. Um. And another 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:17.840 reason why they expected them to come back was because 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:21.080 the next day, Saturday, they had a basketball game for 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:25.760 their vocational rehab team, the Gateway Gators, and they they 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.880 apparently were all extraordinarily excited about this game. Yeah, which 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.920 again is just another point being made that there was 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.640 these guys had every intention on coming home super excited 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:40.240 about the game. I think Matthias even was kind of 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.800 driving his mom a little batty, saying, you know, don't 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:47.280 let me oversleep. Got this big game. Apparently the guys 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:50.120 had their clothes laid out. Uh, and they were all 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.520 super excited about this basketball game. Uh. And then they 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:57.120 don't come home, and you know, these parents and grandparents 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.360 start waking up at various points in the middle of 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:01.680 the night or in the morning and start getting in 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:05.120 touch with one another, you know, all verifying like your 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.880 kids not there, your your kids not there. And they 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:10.560 started to freak out. And by eight o'clock that evening, 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:15.840 I believe the mother of Madruga actually finally called the cops. Yeah, 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:19.160 and the cops, um, we're kind of I don't have 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:21.160 the impression that they were like, well this is I'm sure, 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:23.319 this is fine. I think they got involved pretty early on. 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.760 But things really picked up when I think on a Tuesday, 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.440 that was that was Saturday night that they finally called 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:35.160 the cops. And on Tuesday, Uh, Jack Madruga's car was discovered, 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:39.320 and it was discovered in a very very unusual place, right, Yeah, 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:43.439 what was this thing in old Mercury, Montego Yeah, sixty 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.640 nine Montego a land yacht is what it was. And 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.160 they found it. Um. And this was, by the way, 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:54.120 this is Jack Madruga's prized possession. Like no one else 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.720 drove the thing. He took pristine care of it. It 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.600 was like his baby. His car was right, So to 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.840 find it abandoned with the window one of the windows 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:08.320 rolled down up a mountain road, which was, um, I think, 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:13.120 seventy miles away from the basketball game, in a different 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.320 direction away from their house. Right, so the basketball game 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:20.840 was north of their homes. This was east of southeast 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:23.880 of the basketball game and up a mountain road. It 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.480 was extremely bizarre and also I'm sure quite worrying. When 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.360 the families were already worried, I think finding this car 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.920 like this probably really set them into panic mode. Well yeah, 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.959 and here's where, uh in this article is very clear 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:39.840 to say from that point on, nothing made any kind 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:42.640 of sense. So here's a few things about the car 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:47.040 that definitely don't add up. You might think, all right, there, 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.080 you know, there was a snowstorm, so they drove up 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.440 here and they got stuck. Apparently that is not true. 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.319 The car stopped at about the snow line, and they 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:58.600 said they did confirm that the wheels had spun some, 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:02.120 but the car wasn't stuck, and these five dudes could 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.760 have pushed it free pretty easily. Apparently, right, this thing 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:08.400 number one, thing number two is that it had a 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:10.640 quarter tank of gas still, so they didn't run out 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.600 of gas. Right then when the cops hot wired the car, 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.440 the keys were gone. Uh. And when the cops heartwired 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:19.360 the cars started up immediately. There wasn't any engine trouble 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:22.480 or anything like that. Yeah. The last thing they found 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:27.079 were all these maps of California and um, so it's 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.240 not like they had no way of knowing where they were. 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:31.800 And then they found all the you know, all the 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:36.400 rappers from the food items. Uh. The only thing, ironically 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:40.880 that wasn't fully eaten was the marathon bar um, living 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:44.880 up to his reputation. Right. See, I guess the toughest 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:47.440 candy bar to get through. Yeah, that's that's how they 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.679 build it, some weird cartoon cowboy. Yeah, so you know, 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:53.640 that's the deal. The underside of the car wasn't damaged, 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:57.840 which they say was pretty interesting because on this road, 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:00.360 apparently there were a lot of deep, deep ruts. This 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.120 thing kind of hangs low anyway, has a low hanging muffler, 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:07.360 has these five dudes inside, these grown men. Uh. And 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.080 there was no damage under the underside of this car, 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.640 which means, you know a couple of things. If you 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.640 kind of are surmising, which is the either the driver 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.920 kind of knew where they were going and drove through 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.280 the darkness with a lot of precision, or they just 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:26.240 maybe drew drove really slow. Yeah, I think it was 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:30.280 the ladder because I think Madruga did was probably would 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:32.559 have been very unhappy that his car was on this 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:34.920 road now. So I just took it slow and took 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.080 it super slow. I saw somewhere that there wasn't even 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.439 a large mud spot on it. It was they had 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:44.800 taken it that easy. Yeah, And apparently Madruga uh didn't 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:46.960 like the cold, he didn't like camping, so he wouldn't 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:49.040 have known that road. It's not like there's a lot 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:52.839 else to do up there but that, right, And evidently, uh, 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:56.680 none of the boys were big into outdoorsy type stuff. 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:00.800 Oh yeah, that's a really good point, Chuck. So like 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:03.240 that none of them had any connection to that, to 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.200 that area, and certainly not to that mountain. One of them, 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:11.080 I think Sterling, Bill Sterling had been had gone camping 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:14.240 with his family there eight years before. Yeah, and he 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:16.800 didn't even like I think they went back again and 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:18.520 he was like, no, I don't want to go right, 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.080 So he didn't like the outdoors, he didn't like the cold. 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:25.520 And then I think ted uh Ted Weir had gone 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:29.560 deer hunting or something once with friends way west of 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.680 the area. Um but still, I mean enough that you 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:34.520 could that was it was a lead that the cops 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.480 were to chase down. Um. But but then too, he 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:40.079 didn't enjoy himself and he didn't like the woods either, 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:43.480 So there was no let's go hang out in the 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:46.800 woods kind of thing going on here. Just everything about 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:48.920 the fact that they found this car and where they 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:50.600 found it, in the state they found it in was 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:54.000 really bizarre and really worrying. Should we take a break? 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:56.000 I think we should. Man, all right, you and I 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:58.640 are going to go hang out in the woods and 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:25.480 we'll be back right up to this. So I've never 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.720 swept the woods before. That was really interesting, right, It's 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:33.200 not spick and span out here. So um, So they 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:35.800 find the car, and when they find the car, Chuck. 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:39.280 I think it was the next night after they had 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:43.000 gone missing, a storm blew into the area and it 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:45.680 dumped like almost a foot of snow on the mountain. 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:49.440 This is February in the mountains in California. UM, I 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:53.480 would guess the Sierras, is what it sounds like, right, So, yeah, 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:57.120 Cheek is in the Chicos, in the Sierra Nevadas. I 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.320 think it's north of Sacramento. So it would be very 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:03.680 very cold and the snow would be pretty tough to 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.520 get through. Um So, but they still tried. They got 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.880 guys on horseback, they got helicopters out, they looked for him, 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:16.160 but they found nothing. They found not one bit of 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.600 of um and not a single trace of these guys 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:21.120 after just the car and that was it. Yeah, the 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.720 snow certainly didn't help anything because it would not be 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.280 until June. On June four, after this thing, you know, 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:32.480 the mountain faws out somewhat when these uh Sunday you 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:35.600 know motorcycle bikers, they'll go right around the mountains. They 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:39.760 went into an old Forest service trailer camp at the 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:43.600 end of a road and said, do you smell something 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:48.000 that smells like perhaps a dead body, And sadly it 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:52.080 was Ted Weir. And this is where things get even stranger. Yeah, 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:55.120 so the I think the trailer caught their attention, but 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.680 what caught their attention even further was that a window 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:01.320 had been broken to get into the trailer and then yeah, 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:03.480 like you said, what really called their attention was the 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:06.960 smell in the sight of of ted weirds decomposing body. 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:09.600 But what got what made it very, very weird is 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:13.720 one he's wrapped in sheets tucked under his head in 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:16.440 a way that like he couldn't have possibly tucked himself. 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.960 So somebody had tucked him in like that and he 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:24.320 ted weird been a portly fellow. Um. Cynthia Gorney, who 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:27.440 wrote the Washington Post article on this this case in 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:33.000 calls him, um, beer belly handsome, which I've never heard 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:35.520 those words put together in my entire life. I think 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:39.760 that's what I am. Sure, sure i'd call you beer 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:43.440 belly foxy. Okay, okay, so um, but he was beer 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:45.120 belly hands he was. He was a thick guy. He's 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.400 like five ten, two hundred pounds. He had a few 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.320 extra pounds on him right when they found him, though, 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:54.560 he weighed about a hundred and twenty a hundred to 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.960 a hundred and twenty pounds, which means that between the 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:01.360 time that they went missing and the time that he died, 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.720 he'd lost anywhere between eighty and a hundred pounds. Yeah. 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:10.560 A couple of more interesting tidbits. He his leather shoes 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:14.639 were gone and missing completely. Um. On the little night 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:17.920 stand by his bed was his his own ring because 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:20.560 it had his name engraved on it, his gold yeah, 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:24.879 ted his gold necklace, his wallet with money uh. And 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:27.879 then weirdly a watch that was not his. It was 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:32.720 a gold Waltham watch that had a missing crystal. Uh. 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:35.320 And all of the families said that this No, none 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:40.360 of our kids had this watch. So that's one interesting tidbit. 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:44.040 And the other is that he had a big, full 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:48.040 beard that indicated that he lived in that cabin for 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:51.800 anywhere from eight to thirteen weeks. And what's really really 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:55.399 underving about the thirteen week one thirteen week number is 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.960 that if he survived thirteen weeks, that means that he 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.679 would have died just days before for his body was found. 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:04.920 Is that right? Yes? Did you did you do the math? 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:07.160 I did the math because think about so they disappeared 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:10.640 on February and he was found June four, So you've 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:17.919 got a I really really hope I call on the 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:21.320 Saints that that not to have been the case, like 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:24.280 that he perhaps died a couple of days before. Yeah, 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:26.960 that that he he would have expired like like weeks 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:29.119 before that. There was just no chance for him, like 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.240 if he was destined and doomed to die. I really 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:34.679 hope it wasn't a couple of days before they found 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:38.119 his body after starving for thirteen weeks. Yeah. And to 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.120 cap it off, I don't think we we've mentioned yet, 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:45.760 this cabin was almost twenty miles from their car. Oh yeah, 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:49.240 so in the middle of the night. Uh. And at 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:50.840 this point, this is this is all we know is 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:55.840 about Ted in our story, he walked or ran almost 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.119 twenty miles in four to six ft snow drifts to 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.680 go to this trailer, where he spent the next two 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:07.399 to three months slowly dying. Yeah. So okay, that's pretty 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:09.639 weird in and of itself. And they found that his 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.720 feet were terribly frost bitten, right, which is why his 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:15.440 shoes were off. But again his shoes were missing. Um, 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.000 what gets even weirder. And this is just where the 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:22.720 case truly turns. Bizarres, one of the Yuba County Sheriff's 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.840 deputies are under sheriff, called it Bizaar's Hell is like 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:30.400 the quote of this story, Um, this this the trailer, 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.480 the cabin was actually like a forest Service trailer and 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:37.520 it was an emergency trailer from what I understand, and 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:41.119 it was fully stocked with a year's worth of food 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.080 that would have kept all five of those boys alive 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:47.800 for a year. It was built to keep you alive, 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:50.840 yes exactly. And they found it, but they didn't put 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:52.479 it to use. Now, let's not to say that they 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:57.000 didn't find the food. There was. There were twelve rations 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:01.520 like um sea rations like army meals opened and eaten, 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:05.199 but that was it. The other stuff wasn't touched. There 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:08.280 was a whole locker of other dehydrated food and like 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:12.359 fruit cups and stuff that hadn't been touched at all. Okay, 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.440 and bear in mind, this is all right here while 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:20.080 Ted ted Weir is starving to death. Yeah, so all 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:24.040 this food is there. Uh, they found out The investigators 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:27.520 determined that there had not been a fire built, even 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.879 though there were paperback novels, there was wood, furniture, there 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:34.359 were matches, like everything was there to build a fire. 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:38.320 And not only that, but there was a propane tank 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.159 that all they had to do, Uh, it was in 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:43.760 another shed outside. All they had to do was open 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:49.560 this thing on and they would have actually had gas heat, yes, Het, right, 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:52.560 they didn't. They also didn't even um cover up the 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:55.720 broken window that they used to get into the trailer. 0:20:56.520 --> 0:21:01.440 It's just weird, just bizarre decision after bizarre decision, right. Yeah. 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:05.040 So there's one other thing in the trailer that that is, 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:10.880 um pretty interesting. They find Gary Matthias's tennis shoes. So 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:15.119 Gary mathias Is tennis shoes are there, and um, Ted 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:19.760 Weir's shoes leather shoes are missing. Uh. And what they 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:23.800 think possibly is that Gary Matthias was in the trailer 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:27.399 with Ted. Ted had terrible frostbite. Ted would have had 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:31.200 bigger feet than Gary. Gary probably had frostbite too, so 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:34.399 he used Ted's shoes to put them on and go 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:38.600 back out into the wilderness. Yeah. I mean they pretty 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:43.000 much determined that probably all five of those guys were 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:46.080 in here at one point. Okay, so I have to 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:49.560 say that's that's I don't think that's true really because 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.959 that's what I saw. So I think so what I 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:56.720 saw was that they so, okay, we should probably tell 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:00.919 everybody that the we should continue on, Chuck. But the like, 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:03.239 I think a day after they found Ted Weir, they 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:05.960 started looking around the area and they started finding the 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:10.240 other boys remains. Yeah, and you know this is thanks 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:13.479 to what I said would be sort of the lead investigator, uh, 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:17.159 Uba County Lieutenant Lance Ayers, who actually had gone to 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:20.080 high school with We're uh didn't know him that well, 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:23.760 but he was really consumed by this case UM and 0:22:23.840 --> 0:22:26.600 seems sort of obsessed with trying to solve it to 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:30.560 the point where he was chasing down leads from psychics. 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:33.360 At one point, Yeah, apparently he met with a psychic 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:37.560 who um I told him that the boys were in 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:41.359 Araville or had been murdered in a red house either 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:45.720 brick or stained in Oraville with the house number UM 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:49.480 either four four seven to three or four seven five three. 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:52.320 And Lance Ayers was so consumed with this that he 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:55.640 actually drove every street of Oraville over a two day 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.280 period trying to find that house based on the tip 0:22:58.320 --> 0:23:02.720 of a psychic. That's how Upset TV came with this case. Yeah, 0:23:02.880 --> 0:23:05.800 so we've put a pen in our were they all 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:09.160 in the cabin debate? We're coming back to that right right, 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:11.720 All right, So now we pick up a story of 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:15.160 a man named Joseph Shoens, and this is where things 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:18.320 get even more odd. So this guy was fifty five 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:22.000 years old. He got in touch with the cops because, 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:24.160 you know, some strange things that had happened that night 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:27.760 of the disappearance. He was gonna go camping with his family, 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:30.760 um on you know, up that road, and so he 0:23:30.800 --> 0:23:34.840 decided to take his little Volkswagen Beetle um around five 0:23:34.880 --> 0:23:37.040 thirty that evening just to check out the snow line 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:39.560 to see if it was passable and if it was 0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:42.000 going to be safe to take his family camping that weekend. 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:44.879 He found out it was not. Yeah, he got his 0:23:44.880 --> 0:23:47.840 his car stuck right right above the snow line. And 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:51.160