WEBVTT - S04 Episode 7: Called to the Forest (Pt.2 of 2) 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:13.480 This is unexplained and you're listening to the second and 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:18.840 final installment of season four, episode seven, called to the Forest. 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:30.280 After scouring everywhere within a five mile radius of the 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:35.320 abandoned Mercury Montego, the Yuba County Sheriff's Office had found nothing. 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:39.199 By the end of the day. However, they would have 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:44.120 their first significant lead. It came from a man named 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:50.960 Joseph Shns. Around five fifty pm on Friday February twenty fourth, 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:55.120 the night the five men went missing. Shahns was making 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.480 his way into Plumus National Forest along the Aureville to 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:03.200 Quincy Road. Fifty five year old Sons had been checking 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:05.520 to see if the road would be accessible for a 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:09.080 trip he planned to take that weekend when his Volkswagen 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:14.200 bug got suddenly stuck in the snow. After trying unsuccessfully 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:17.760 to push it out, Sons felt a painful tightening in 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.200 his chest and immediately got back inside the vehicle to 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:25.680 catch his breath. Unbeknownst to him at the time, he 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:30.160 had suffered a mild heart attack. Being in such discomfort, 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:32.840 he decided his best hope as to keep the engine 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.440 running and try to stay warm until it passed or 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:41.080 until someone else came by who could help. Drifting in 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.840 and out of consciousness as the pain in his chest intensified, 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.920 it was about eleven thirty PM when Sons was startled 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:51.560 awake by what he took to be two sets of 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:55.840 headlights driving in from behind him, one belonging to a 0:01:55.920 --> 0:02:01.200 car and the other to a pickup truck by. Now 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:04.960 unable to move, he could only watch in desperation as 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:09.079 the lights passed him by and disappeared around the next bend. 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.960 Thirty minutes later, after hearing what he thought were people 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:21.320 whistling nearby, Shns gathered the strength to investigate. Stumbling along 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.680 in the dark, he followed what he now took to 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:27.959 be voices until he came across a car seemingly parked 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.200 up by the road and a number of silhouetted figures 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:36.040 moving about in front of its headlights. Shns later described 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:38.800 one of them as possibly being a woman who was 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:41.880 carrying a baby, with all the other figures being men. 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:47.239 When Shahns called out for help, the talking ceased immediately. 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:54.280 Moments later, the headlights switched off plunged into complete darkness. 0:02:54.800 --> 0:03:01.519 Shons angrily called out again for help, but got no response. Suddenly, 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:05.840 feeling a little exposed, he swiftly turned round and headed 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:10.720 back to his car. A short time later, he caught 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:12.960 sight of what he assumed to be the beams of 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:17.359 flashlights moving about in the forest around him. Calling out 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:20.680 once more for help, he could only watch in desperation 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:23.640 as one by one the beams of light were switched 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:28.480 off in response. When Schonz's engine eventually cut out at 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.360 four am, he had little choice but to strike out 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:36.040 for the nearest inhabited place that he could find. Remembering 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:38.800 the vehicle he had seen from the night before, he 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:43.920 decided first to check if it was still there. Sure enough, 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:47.840 just where it had been the night before, he found 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.360 What he could see then was a turquoise Mercury Montego, 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:58.040 but no sign of its previous occupants anywhere. Despite suffering 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:02.200 from a heart attack at the time, Joseph Shns eventually 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.640 walked five miles to a nearby lodge house, from where 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:16.000 he was later taken home by its manager. When explaining 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:19.119 all this to the police later, although there was little 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:22.839 doubt he had seen the abandoned car, Shns cautioned that 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.320 since he wasn't entirely lucid at the time, not everything 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.600 he thought he had seen could be trusted. Either way, 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:35.200 it was certainly something to go on. What's more, if 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:37.839 a fifty five year old man suffering a heart attack 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:41.160 was able to walk five miles down the road to safety, 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.520 there was reason to hope that the five men from 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:50.800 Yuba County, Bill Sterling, Jack Madruga, Jack hewet Ted Weiher, 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:55.800 and Gary Matthias could have done the same, provided they 0:04:55.800 --> 0:05:00.559 were indeed the men that Shans had seen. Under sheriff 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:04.400 of Jack Beecham received another break shortly after, when a 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.560 print dusting of the car revealed no other marks inside 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.520 apart from those belonging to the missing men. Though it 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.880 wasn't conclusive, it seemed to suggest at least that the 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:19.400 car had not been stolen. By the end of that 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:23.239 first day, nine inches of snow fell across the Plumous 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:29.200 National Forest region, further complicating the search. Buoyed by Schanz's 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:34.080 witness statement, however, the various local sheriff's departments expanded their 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:37.360 search to as far as Buck's Lake, some twenty miles 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:41.119 up the road from where the car was found. Having 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:44.360 discovered that Bill Sterling's family owned a cabin near the lake, 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:47.280 there was a chance that the men might have tried 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:53.679 to reach it, but again, no footprints, clothing, or any 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.719 other sign of them could be found. Back in the 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:02.240 Uber City area, the families of the missing, crippled by worry, 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.920 continued to wait helplessly for any sign of their sons 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:10.080 and brothers. With the police continuing to draw a blank, 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:13.640 some of the parents suggested contacting a psychic, in the 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.880 expectation that even if they couldn't give them any clues, 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:22.200 it might at least give them some hope. Doctor Gloria 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:26.039 Daniel was a member of the Church of Zadi, an 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:30.120 organization that claimed to teach its members how to become psychic. 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.359 Although Daniel had not come officially recommended by the Yuba 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:38.200 County Police, it is said that she had successfully helped 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:42.240 them with similar cases in the past. On the morning 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:46.160 of Friday, March third, a handful of family members gathered 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:50.160 together with doctor Daniel and watched expectantly as she ran 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.080 her hands through a series of clothes belonging to the 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:57.440 missing men. Then she sat back and closed her eyes. 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:02.240 After a short pau with the relatives in wrapped silence, 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:07.640 Daniel began to speak. She could see people gathered together 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:12.120 in a shack or a cabin in a wooded hilly area, 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:17.400 somewhere near a body of water, she said. And something else, 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:22.360 a small detail, A row of men tucked into what 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:27.680 looked like green sacks made of canvas, sleeping bags. Perhaps, 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:33.080 she thought, So, they're still alive, asked one of the relatives. Hopefully. 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:41.080 Doctor Daniel hesitated, then opened her eyes. I'm afraid that 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:51.720 is all I can tell you, she said. By Saturday, 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:55.320 March fourth, as the search entered its second week, the 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.560 Butte and Plumas County sheriffs began to question the merits 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:02.840 of continuing. With the recent storms showing no sign of 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:07.040 letting up and the snow continuing to fall heavily, they 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:12.200 decided to pull back their resources for under Sheriff Jack Beecham, 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:17.120 who was supervising the entire search, and his superior Sheriff Grant. However, 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.640 there was no question of calling it off any time soon. 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.800 Not only did the men's lives depend on it, but 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.280 the entire reputation of the Uber County Police Department was 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:32.600 resting on it too. It was only the year before 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:37.360 that then Under Sheriff Lloyd Finlay was arrested on charges 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:41.320 of corruption, having been accused of stealing weapons, money, and 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:46.280 other valuable articles from the county evidence room. The dye 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:50.239 who had prosecuted him believed the crimes were merely symptomatic 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:53.640 of a corrupt undercurrent in local police practices which had 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:58.240 been left unchallenged for too long. The case had been 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.040 dragging on for almost a year by now, with it 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:06.240 looking increasingly lightly that Finley was indeed guilty, finding the 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:10.040 five missing men alive was the perfect opportunity to win 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:14.880 back the community's trust for under Sheriff Beecham, who had 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:18.280 been drafted in to replace Lloyd Finley and Sheriff Grant 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:22.800 facing reelection later that year. The personal stakes could barely 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:27.440 have been any higher. At the beginning of that second week, 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.560 having put posters up of the missing men all across 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.680 the Uber and Sutter area, and with the reports of 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:37.120 their disappearance a daily feature in the local news, the 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:42.840 pair finally had another lead to follow up. Carol Waltz 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.560 was the owner of a local store in Brownsville, another 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:50.520 foothill town of the Sierra Nevada just south of Oraville. 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.960 Waltz had been working on Saturday, February twenty fifth, the 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:58.080 day after the men had last been seen, when two 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:02.160 men matching the descriptions of Jack Hewett and Gary Matthias 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:06.840 came into her store. The pair were said to have 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:10.280 bought a variety of snack foods before heading back outside 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:15.840 to eat. A second witness also called that same day, 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:18.240 claiming to have seen at least four of the men 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:22.840 at the same store. The day after, two of them, 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:25.400 who she took to be Bill Sterling and Ted Weir, 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:29.080 were sitting in a red pickup truck, while two others, 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.560 who she assumed to be Jack Madruga and Jack Hewett, 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:44.600 were seen at a telephone booth nearby. Having previously focused 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.920 their search to no avail on the immediate vicinity of 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:51.880 the abandoned car, Beecham now feared that he had missed 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:56.239 a trick. In response to the possible sighting in Brownsville, 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:01.280 he promptly split the investigation into four parts, with the 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:05.080 Mountain search still continuing. One unit was instructed to go 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.440 back over all the evidence they had, tracing the men's 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.880 movements up to the night that they disappeared. Another would 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:16.720 focus on reinterviewing the family and friends, while the fourth 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.599 focused its energies on trying to locate any more witnesses 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:26.000 from Brownsville. Of immediate interest was the description of the 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:31.480 pickup truck, now mentioned by two separate witnesses. A short 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:35.200 time later. One friend of Garry Matthias's suggested he might 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.439 have taken the men to visit friends in nearby Forbestown, 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.600 but when the police contacted them, they claimed not to 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:46.760 have heard from Garry for months. A fund set up 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.439 by the desperate families for any vital information raised almost 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.400 three and a half thousand dollars, but failed to yield 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:58.599 any significant leads. On and on, the exhaustive search continued, 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.920 entering a third and then a fourth week, but still 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:07.480 the men could not be found. The police also failed 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:12.120 to find any trace at the apparent pickup truck. On 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:17.280 March twenty first, nineteen seventy eight, under Sheriff Beecham had 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:20.240 no choice but to make the painful decision to call 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:26.079 off the search. After hundreds of hours, having used almost 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:31.920 one hundred personnel, sniffer dogs, helicopters and snowmobiles, the five 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:35.240 friends who had supposedly left home merely to watch a 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:39.360 game of basketball, had completely vanished off the face of 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:46.000 the earth. Are you always taking care of your family? 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:48.720 Do you often take care of others and not yourself? 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.000 Now it's time to take care of yourself, to make 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:55.400 time for you. You deserve it. Tele a doc gives 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:58.200 you access to a licensed therapist to help you get 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:02.960 back to feeling your best, feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:06.160 you can speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video. 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:09.959 Therapy appointments are available seven days a week from seven 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:14.359 am to nine pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed sometimes, 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:19.000 maybe you feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely, or 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.680 you might be struggling with a personal or family issue, 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:27.440 teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.240 so they make it easy to change counselors if needed. 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:35.360 For free. Teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers. 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:39.680 Download the app or visit teledoc dot com Forward slash 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:46.360 Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's teladoc dot com 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:56.320 slash Unexplained Podcast. With the search having wound down, one 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.600 deputy was put in place of collecting any further information 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:03.360 that might come to light. Having gone to Marysville High 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:07.000 School with ted Weer and his brothers. Deputy Lance Heirs 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.839 had been affected by the men's disappearance, perhaps more than most, 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:15.000 taking it as his personal mission to bring closure to 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:18.600 the families, in whatever shape that may take. For the 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:22.760 next few months, Heirs spiritedly followed up on each and 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:27.280 every piece of information that came in, from apparent sightings 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:30.440 of the men in Sacramento to as far as Ontario 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:35.160 and Tampa in Florida. He chased them all to no avail. 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.560 When one local psychic claimed that the men had been 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:43.360 murdered in Oroville in a two story house numbered either 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:48.080 four seven two three or four seven five three, Airs 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:51.240 spent two days driving the streets for any sign of it, 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:57.640 but no such house existed. On some nights, Deputy Airs, 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:01.640 dreaming that he had found them, would find himself walking 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.320 toward them with open arms, only to wake up alone 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:09.160 in the cold darkness of his bedroom, his arms still 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:14.760 outstretched before him. By the end of May, even the 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.800 families had begun to lose hope of ever finding out 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:22.000 what had happened to their children. But high up on 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:26.720 the mountain, the snow was steadily beginning to thaw, and 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.000 soon it would be time to begin letting up some 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:41.520 of its secrets. On the afternoon of June fourth, three 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:45.280 bikers went for a week end ride through plumous forest. 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.520 Heading along the Oureville to Quincy road, they decided to 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.400 take a turn eastwards on to one of the narrower 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:57.080 forest roads that headed higher up into the mountain. A 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:00.240 short time later, the group pulled into the dawn annual 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:04.680 Zinc campground, located about three miles deeper into the forest 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:09.200 off the main road. The bikers pulled over and made 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:12.200 their way to a large forest service cabin at the 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.960 back of the site, hoping to find a map of 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:19.560 the local area. Approaching the building, having just noticed a 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:23.080 window that had been smashed in, the riders were hit 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:28.880 by a sweet, putrid stench coming from inside. Going in 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:33.120 to investigate further, the bikers soon located the source of 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:38.360 the smell. There, stretched out on a camp bed before them, 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:42.720 lying under multiple layers of darkly stained sheets, they could 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:49.240 clearly see the outline of a steadily decomposing body. When 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.440 the call came into the Yuba County Sheriff's office later 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:57.000 that day, under Sheriff Beecham grabbed his hat and made 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:01.880 his way to the nearest patrol car, arriving to find 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:06.200 forensics and deputies from the Plumous County Sheriff's Office already there. 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:09.840 Beecham could tell by the look on their faces that 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.960 they had found. One of them covering his nose from 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:17.399 the stench. Beecham made his way into the cabin and 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:22.199 approached the body. With the sheets now rolled back, he 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:26.359 could see the emaciated figure lying underneath the way the 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.879 cordroy trousers had been rolled up to reveal clear signs 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:34.280 of gangrene on the legs. Next to it, on a 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:39.000 side table lay a brown wallet, a bead necklace, and 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:43.920 a ring. Beecham picked it up and examined the engraving 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:56.400 on the inside, which read simply ted. The body would 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.399 later be formally identified as that of thirty two year 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:04.280 old Ted Weier, last seen alive almost a hundred days before. 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:08.879 The pathologist ruled the cause of his death to be 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.280 the result of a pulmonary edema brought on by exposure, 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:15.520 having survived for up to six weeks after he had 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:19.960 first gone missing. To get to the cabin, Wea would 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:22.600 have to have tracked almost twenty miles up hill in 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:26.320 minus temperatures through six foot snowdrifts in the middle of 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:30.280 the night. The shirt and Cordroy trousers found on his 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:35.160 body were the only clothes he had been wearing. What's more, 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.880 he had most likely been sheltering in the cabin alive 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.639 and reasonably well throughout the entirety of the original search, 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:48.879 but Beecham couldn't understand it. A cursory look around the 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:52.520 service cabin revealed thirty one cans of food that had 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:56.040 been taken from a storage locker and eaten, but an 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:01.280 entire other locker's worth that had been left untouched. Propane 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:04.720 gas linked to a heating system was also discovered, as 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:08.720 well as stoves and matches, but also books and furniture 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:11.760 that could easily have been used as fuel for a fire. 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:18.000 None of it had been utilized. And then there were 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:22.959 the missing shoes. Weir had been wearing a pair of 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:26.359 sturdy leather shoes the night he went missing, but when 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:31.520 they found his body, his shoes had gone. They did, however, 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:35.040 find another pair of shoes left in the cabin, a 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:39.040 pair of tennis shoes that had belonged to Garry Matthias, 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.480 a recently burned out candle, suggested that perhaps someone else 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:48.040 had also been there too, long after Weir had died, 0:19:49.240 --> 0:20:00.359 but had since left. The discovery of Weir's body prompted 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.440 an immediate response from the Plumus and Uba County police, 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.440 reconvening the search they had called off three months previously. 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:12.760 Two days later, tracing likely lines from the service cabin 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:16.800 back to where the Montego had been abandoned, officers soon 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:22.640 uncovered another body, or what was left of it. It 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:26.359 was found roughly halfway between the cabin and the abandoned car, 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:31.520 lying face up next to a small stream. The face 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.400 and extremities had been eaten away by forest animals sometime 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:40.680 after death. Car keys found in the trouser pockets revealed 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.760 it to be the body of thirty year old Jack Madruga. 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:50.480 Later that day, not far from Madruga's body, more human 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:54.920 bones were discovered scattered across an area of roughly fifty feet. 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:58.359 It was all that was left of twenty nine year 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:03.520 old Bill Sterling that those three had now been discovered 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:08.040 was understandably devastating for the relevant families, but equally so 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:12.960 for those of Garry Matthias and Jack Hewett, with neither 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.720 having been heard from in over a hundred days. In 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:18.760 all likelihood, they hadn't made it out of the forest 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:23.600 alive either. Believing it to be only a matter of 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:27.200 time before the others would be found, scores of volunteers 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:31.359 joined the police to help speed up the search. On 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:35.760 the morning of June eighth, Jack Hewett's father, also named Jack, 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:41.400 arrived to help. Deputy Lance. Heirs, who had been entrusted 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:43.879 with the case after the initial search had been ended, 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:47.320 did his best to discourage him from joining in, but 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:52.560 Jack would not be dissuaded. A few hours later, searching 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:55.240 an area of roughly five miles from the cabin where 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:58.840 were had been found, Jack spotted something out of place 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:03.320 in the undergrowth. It was a faded Levi's denim jacket. 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:09.080 He immediately recognized it as his sons. When he picked 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:12.520 it up from the ground, a human spine fell out 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:17.639 of it. Jack recoiled in horror as police quickly gathered 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:21.840 round to take it from him. Hewett's skull was found 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:26.119 a further one hundred yards down the hill, barely a 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:30.040 quarter of a mile away. Investigators also found three wall 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:33.920 blankets and flashlights, which had likely been taken from the 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:39.000 service cabin but no matter how hard they looked, they 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:44.520 found no sign of Garry Matthias. After two further weeks 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:48.359 under Sheriff Jack Beecham called off the search for a 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:53.520 second time. The bodies, or rather remains, of the four 0:22:53.560 --> 0:22:57.320 men that had so far been found had been placed 0:22:57.359 --> 0:23:01.720 into green canvas bags after all, just as supposed psychic 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:06.800 doctor Daniel had apparently seen, only they weren't sleeping bags 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:14.920 but body bags. Bill Sterling, Jack Madruga, and Jack Hewett's 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:18.280 deaths were all found to have been the result of hypothermia, 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:23.119 with no apparent signs of foul play. That their bones 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:25.679 and bodies were in the state that they were was 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:27.919 thought merely to have been down to the animals that 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:32.960 got to them after they died. All that was left 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:36.760 for Beecham was to try and piece together exactly what happened, 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:49.159 and he knew just where to start. Beecham had his 0:23:49.240 --> 0:23:52.400 doubts about the twenty five year old Garry Matthias from 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:56.640 the beginning. Where the others had intellectual disabilities of one 0:23:56.680 --> 0:24:01.959 form or another, Matthias had no such thing. Early on 0:24:02.000 --> 0:24:06.119 in the investigation, Beecham learned from Matthias's family that his 0:24:06.200 --> 0:24:09.119 involvement with the Gateway project, and how he met the 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:12.160 others in the first place, was due to his struggles 0:24:12.160 --> 0:24:17.760 with schizophrenia. What Beacham also discovered, however, was that his 0:24:17.760 --> 0:24:23.400 history was a little more complicated than that. Matthias had 0:24:23.400 --> 0:24:26.359 in fact been in and out of psychiatric hospitals since 0:24:26.400 --> 0:24:31.280 the age of fifteen, first being committed after seemingly having 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:36.320 suffered an adverse reaction from taking hallucinogenic drugs. After being 0:24:36.400 --> 0:24:39.720 drafted into the army at the age of eighteen, despite 0:24:39.720 --> 0:24:43.240 his clear medical records, Matthias is said to have suffered 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:47.120 another psychiatric breakdown as the result of his continued drug use. 0:24:48.359 --> 0:24:51.800 At one point, Matthias was arrested after going a wall 0:24:53.160 --> 0:24:55.960 while waiting in his cell. He demanded to speak to 0:24:56.000 --> 0:24:58.920 the officers on duty, only to attack them when they 0:24:58.920 --> 0:25:03.919 opened his door. Matthias had stripped completely naked before carrying 0:25:03.920 --> 0:25:08.720 out the attack. Around the same time, the nineteen year 0:25:08.760 --> 0:25:12.560 old Matthias, now living back home in Olivehurst, went to 0:25:12.640 --> 0:25:16.520 visit his cousin. At some point in the night, Matthias 0:25:16.600 --> 0:25:20.480 was discovered sexually assaulting his cousin's wife while she slept. 0:25:21.880 --> 0:25:25.159 After being charged with assaulting a police officer and intent 0:25:25.240 --> 0:25:28.719 to rape. Matthias was facing up to twelve years in prison, 0:25:29.280 --> 0:25:32.679 but eventually accepted a plea deal and served only eight months. 0:25:34.760 --> 0:25:39.880 After his release, Matthias's behavior became ever more erratic. With 0:25:39.920 --> 0:25:43.639 his drug use escalating, he found himself increasingly on the 0:25:43.680 --> 0:25:46.679 wrong side of the law. There were a number of 0:25:46.720 --> 0:25:49.680 bar fights, as well as complaints of disturbing the peace. 0:25:51.520 --> 0:25:54.239 One time, Matthias is even said to have turned up 0:25:54.320 --> 0:25:57.000 high at the house of a couple he knew, telling 0:25:57.000 --> 0:25:59.240 them he was going to stab a woman in the jaw. 0:26:00.760 --> 0:26:04.080 Two subsequent attempts to have him committed ended in failure 0:26:04.200 --> 0:26:07.800 when Matthias managed to escape on one account by crawling 0:26:07.840 --> 0:26:12.520 out of a storm drain. In nineteen seventy five, Gary 0:26:12.560 --> 0:26:16.360 Matthias enrolled at Huber College, but struggled with both its 0:26:16.400 --> 0:26:21.040 conventions and fitting in with other students. Eventually he moved 0:26:21.040 --> 0:26:24.240 out to Oregon in Washington State to live with his grandmother, 0:26:24.800 --> 0:26:27.200 only to turn up at his mother and stepfather's house 0:26:27.240 --> 0:26:32.000 weeks later tired and disheveled. He had apparently walked the 0:26:32.040 --> 0:26:35.800 five hundred and forty mile journey home, eating food he 0:26:35.800 --> 0:26:40.200 found along the way to stay alive, all of which, 0:26:40.240 --> 0:26:43.919 for Beecham, made Matthias not only a potential candidate for 0:26:43.960 --> 0:26:46.520 the murder of the other men, or at least to 0:26:46.560 --> 0:26:50.400 have led them astray, but also one who might even 0:26:50.440 --> 0:26:53.760 have been capable of getting out at the forest alive. 0:26:55.320 --> 0:26:58.879 That Gary Matthias has never been found only serves to 0:26:58.920 --> 0:27:04.280 heighten this theory. It has also been speculated that at 0:27:04.359 --> 0:27:07.840 least Matthias and possibly Jack Hewett had made it to 0:27:07.880 --> 0:27:11.440 the service cabin with Ted Weir, only to leave soon after, 0:27:12.040 --> 0:27:14.879 with Matthias being the one most likely to have taken 0:27:14.920 --> 0:27:26.440 weird shoes. Unless Gary Matthias is found to have survived 0:27:26.480 --> 0:27:29.280 after all, it is unlikely there will ever be an 0:27:29.280 --> 0:27:32.480 answer as to what exactly happened on that mysterious night 0:27:32.680 --> 0:27:37.760 in February nineteen seventy eight. Why five men found themselves 0:27:37.840 --> 0:27:41.840 driving high up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains seventy miles 0:27:41.840 --> 0:27:45.800 in the wrong direction. Why having gone as far as 0:27:45.880 --> 0:27:49.840 they could, the men then seemingly abandoned their car and 0:27:50.040 --> 0:27:55.440 undertook a treacherous journey through thick forest and six foot snowdrifts, 0:27:55.440 --> 0:27:59.080 reaching ever higher into the mountains, only to find death 0:27:59.320 --> 0:28:03.040 waiting for them at the end of it. Much has 0:28:03.080 --> 0:28:07.120 been made about the men's intellectual capacities, suggesting this may 0:28:07.160 --> 0:28:09.680 have been a significant factor in what could have been 0:28:09.760 --> 0:28:15.080 little more than a horrifically wrong turn. Some have suggested 0:28:15.119 --> 0:28:17.439 this might also account for why those who made it 0:28:17.480 --> 0:28:20.080 to the forest to serve his cabin didn't eat the 0:28:20.119 --> 0:28:25.760 food and engage the heating apparatus to survive. Others suggest that, 0:28:25.840 --> 0:28:28.920 due to their innocence with such things, a worry that 0:28:28.960 --> 0:28:31.760 they were breaking the law made them too afraid to 0:28:31.800 --> 0:28:38.080 do so. As for Garry Matthias, despite under Sheriff Beecham's 0:28:38.160 --> 0:28:42.000 reservations in the time leading up to his disappearance, he 0:28:42.040 --> 0:28:45.600 appeared to have turned his life around. Not only was 0:28:45.640 --> 0:28:48.760 he holding down a steady job, but having finally been 0:28:48.760 --> 0:28:52.000 treated properly for his schizophrenia, of which most of his 0:28:52.120 --> 0:28:56.120 erratic behavior was likely just a symptom, he hadn't suffered 0:28:56.120 --> 0:29:00.440 any negative effects from it for over two years. Once 0:29:00.480 --> 0:29:03.760 lost in the forest, however, we could only speculate how 0:29:03.840 --> 0:29:10.000 quickly he may have deteriorated without his medication. Certainly, for 0:29:10.080 --> 0:29:14.560