Yuba County Five

1969 Mercury Montego 2-door similar to the one involved

Inside the car was evidence suggesting the men had been inside it between when they were last seen and when it was abandoned. The empty wrappers, cartons and cans they had purchased in Chico were present, along with programs from the basketball game they had attended and a neatly folded road map of California. However, the discovery of the car raised more questions than it answered.[2]

One question was its location, 70 miles (110 km) from Chico, far off any direct route to Yuba City or Marysville. None of the men's families could speculate as to why they might have driven up a long and winding dirt road[lower-alpha 1] on a winter night deep into a high-elevation remote forest, without any extra clothing and on the night before a basketball game they had been discussing excitedly for several weeks. Madruga's parents said he did not like the cold weather and had never been up into the mountains. Sterling's father had once taken his son to the area near where the car was found for a fishing weekend, but the younger man had not enjoyed it and remained at home when his father took later trips there.[2]

Police could not figure out why the men had abandoned the car. They had reached 4,400 feet (1,300 m) in elevation along the road, about where the snow line was at that time of year, just short of where the road was closed for the winter. The car had become stuck in some snow drifts, and there was evidence that the men had tried to spin the wheels to get out of it; police noted that the snow was not so deep that five healthy young men would not have been able to push it out.[2] The keys were not present, suggesting at first that the car had been abandoned because it might not have been functioning properly, with the intention of returning later with help; when police hot-wired the car, the engine started immediately and the fuel gauge indicated the gasoline tank was one quarter full.[2]

The mystery deepened after police towed the car back to the station for a more thorough examination. The Montego's undercarriage had no dents, gouges or even mud scrapes, not even on its low-hanging muffler, despite having been driven a long distance up a mountain road with many bumps and ruts. Either the driver had been extremely careful or it was someone familiar with the road, a familiarity Madruga was not known to have; his family said that Madruga would not have let someone else drive the car.[2] The car was unlocked and had a window rolled down when it was found; his family indicated it was unlike him to leave the car so unsecured.[6]

Efforts to search the vicinity were hampered by a severe snowstorm that day. Two days later, after searchers in snowcats nearly became lost themselves, further search efforts were called off due to continuing bad weather. No trace of the men was found other than the car.[2]

In response to local media coverage of the case, police received several reports of some or all of the men being sighted after they had left Chico, including some reports of them being seen elsewhere in California or the country. Most of the reports were easily dismissed, but two of the sightings stood out.

Joseph Schons of Sacramento told police he inadvertently wound up spending the night of February 24–25 near where the Montego was found. He had driven up there, where he had a cabin, to check the snowpack in advance of a weekend ski trip with his family. At 5:30 p.m., about 150 feet (46 m) up the road, Schons, too, had gotten stuck in the snow. In the process of trying to free it, he realized he was beginning to experience the early symptoms of a heart attack and went back in, keeping the engine running to provide heat.[5]

Six hours later, lying in the car and experiencing severe pain, Schons saw headlights coming up behind him. Looking out, he saw a car parked behind him, headlights on, with a group of people around it, one of which seemed to him to be a woman holding a baby. He called to the party for help, but they stopped talking and turned their headlights out. Later, he saw more lights from behind him, this time flashlights, that also went out when he called to them.[2][5]

After that, Schons said at first, he recalled a pickup truck parking 20 feet (6 m) behind him briefly, and then continuing on down the road. Later, he clarified to police that he could not be sure of that, since at the time he was almost delirious from the pain he was in. After Schons' car ran out of gas in the early morning hours, his pain subsided enough for him to walk 8 miles (13 km) down the road to a lodge, where the manager drove him back home, passing the abandoned Montego at the point where he had recalled hearing the voices originate from. Doctors later confirmed that he had indeed experienced a mild heart attack.[2][5]

Weiher's mother said ignoring someone's pleas for help was not like her son, if indeed he had been present. She recalled how he and Sterling had helped someone they knew get to the hospital after overdosing on Valium.[5]

The other notable report was from a woman who worked at a store in the small town of Brownsville, 30 miles (48 km) from where the car had been abandoned, which they would have reached had they continued down the road.[7] On March 3, the woman, who saw fliers that had been distributed with the men's pictures and information about the $1,215 ($5,500 in 2022 dollars),[8] reward the families had put up, told deputies that four of them had stopped at the store in a red pickup truck, the day after the disappearance. The store owner corroborated her account.[5]

The woman said she immediately realized that the men were not from the area because of their "big eyes and facial expressions". Two of the men, whom she identified as Huett and Sterling, were in a telephone booth outside the store, while the other two went inside. The police said she was "a credible witness" and they took her account seriously.[5]

Additional details came from the store owner, who told investigators that men whom he believed to be Weiher and Huett came in and bought burritos, chocolate milk and soft drinks. Weiher's brother told the Los Angeles Times that while driving to Brownsville in a different car in apparent ignorance of the basketball game seemed completely out of character for them, the owner's description of the two men's behavior seemed consistent with them, as Weiher would "eat anything he could get his hands on" and was often accompanied by Huett more than any of the other four.[5] Huett's brother said Jack hated using telephones to the point that he would answer calls for Jack whenever he received any from the other men in the group.[6]

Weiher's body was on a bed with eight sheets wrapped around it, including the head. The autopsy showed that he had died of a combination of starvation and hypothermia. Weiher had lost nearly half his 200 pounds (91 kg); the growth of his beard suggested he had lived as long as thirteen weeks from when he had last shaved. His feet were badly frostbitten,[2] almost gangrenous.[6] On a table next to the bed were some of Weiher's personal effects, including his wallet (with cash), a nickel ring with "Ted" engraved on it and a gold necklace he also wore. Also on the table was a gold watch, without its crystal, which Weiher's family said was not his,[2] and a partially melted candle.[6] He was wearing a velour shirt and lightweight pants, but his shoes could not be found.[2]

Most puzzling to the investigators was how Weiher had come to his fate. No fire had been set in the trailer's fireplace, despite an ample supply of matches and paperback novels to use as kindling. Heavy forestry clothing, which could have kept the men warm, also remained where it had been stored. A dozen C-ration cans from a storage shed outside had been opened and their contents consumed, but a locker in the same shed that held an even greater assortment of dehydrated foods, enough to keep all five men fed for a year if that had been necessary, had not even been opened. Similarly, another shed nearby held a butane tank with a valve that, had it been opened, would have fed the trailer's heating system.[2]

Weiher's family members said that he lacked common sense as a result of his mental disability. For example, he often asked why he should stop at a stop sign, and one night had to be dragged out of bed while the ceiling of his bedroom was burning in a house fire because he was afraid he would miss his job if he got up.[9]

It also seemed that Weiher had not been alone in the trailer, and that Mathias and possibly Huett had been there with him. Mathias's tennis sneakers were in the trailer, and the C-rations had been opened with a P-38 can opener, with which only Mathias or Madruga would have been familiar from their military service. Mathias, his feet perhaps also swollen from frostbite, could have decided to put Weiher's shoes on instead if he had ventured outside.[2] The sheets all over Weiher's body also suggested that one of the others had been there with him, as his gangrenous feet would have been in too much pain for him to pull them over his body himself.[6]