The Mysterious Disappearance of the Yuba County Five
TLDR The Yuba County Five, a group of friends with intellectual impairments, disappeared after attending a basketball game. Their remains were later found in the mountains, raising questions about why they went there and what happened to them. The mystery surrounding their disappearance is still unsolved.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
The hosts of the History of Curb Your Enthusiasm podcast will be rewatching and discussing every episode with special guests, including Larry David and Cheryl Hines.
05:15
Five friends known as "the boys" who lived at home with their parents and had normal, predictable lives, went to a basketball game and then disappeared, causing their families to become increasingly worried and eventually contact the police.
10:20
The car belonging to one of the missing friends was found abandoned up a mountain road, 70 miles away from the basketball game they attended, with the window rolled down and no signs of it being stuck in the snow, and the keys missing, but with a quarter tank of gas and the engine starting up immediately when hot-wired, along with maps of California and food wrappers inside.
15:20
A group of high school students started a project to research a string of unsolved murders, and their predictions about the killer turned out to be accurate.
20:32
The body of Ted Weir, one of the missing men, was found in a trailer in the mountains, where he had been wrapped in sheets and tucked in as if someone else had done it, and had lost a significant amount of weight before his death, but there was a year's worth of food in the trailer that the men did not use.
25:52
The investigators find Gary Matthias's tennis shoes in the trailer where Ted Weir's body was found, suggesting that Matthias used Weir's shoes to go back out into the wilderness, and they also find the remains of the other missing boys in the area.
31:10
Shone's realizes that he was probably the last person to see the missing boys alive and comes forward to the police.
36:11
The remains of Sterling and Madruga are found about 11.5 miles from the car, suggesting they never made it to the trailer, while Jackie Hewitt's remains are found closer to the trailer, and Gary Matthias is still missing.
41:17
Gary Matthias, who had schizophrenia but was on his medication, left his shoes in the trailer and didn't take his pills with him, suggesting that he expected to return home shortly after leaving for the basketball game, raising questions about why they went to the mountain in the first place.
46:26
The theory is that the Yuba County Five decided to go up into the snow because they were so invested in finding something and didn't want to turn back, but it's unclear why they didn't eat the food or make a fire when they reached the trailer, and it's possible that Gary Matthias stayed behind to take care of Ted Weiher before going off to get help and ultimately dying.
51:38
The boys' intellectual impairments and lack of understanding may have contributed to their inability to survive in the cabin, and the mystery surrounding their disappearance is compounded by other theories and mysteries, such as witnessing a crime and being chased up the mountain.
Categories:
Society & Culture