Look closely into the daily goings on of any town or city, and soon enough you'll come across something a little unsavory or unsettling. A strange paradox when you consider that such places are often held up as examples of our superior sense of civility, we need not be so hard in ourselves, however, considering the number of different people and ideas all crammed in together in these places, it's
a wander they function at all. That said, when things happen there that aren't to our liking, we have only ourselves to blame, and it is only through ourselves alone that we can rectify such unwanted situations. The same cannot be said for the town of Castle Rock, the principal location and title of the recent Huluu TV series based
on the works of Stephen King. Without wanting to give anything away, the show essentially details the life of a seemingly quaint and quiet town in which darkness, in one form or another appears especially drawn to it. I was reminded of this show when researching this week's story, though I would never suggest an entire town, or in this case, a whole region, was preternaturally susceptible to unfortunate things. If I were to believe that such things were possible. However,
this place would certainly provide a compelling case study. The Uba Sutter area, of which Yuba City is the principal city, begins ten miles to the north of Sacramento and stretches northwestwards toward the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. In the early eighteenth century, much of the land, which would eventually encompass most of Uba County, including the Yuba City area, was sold to a highly controversial individual named
John Sutter. Around a hundred and fifty years later, the county's name would become synonymous with one of the United States's most enduring and tragic mysteries. You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McClean smith. In the early nineteenth century, Johann Sutter had been wanted for fraud in his home country of Switzerland before deciding to change his name to John and take his chances in the fledgling United States.
Leaving behind a wife and five children. He arrived in New York in eighteen thirty four and spent the next five years exhaustively touring the continent to get the measure of it. After managing to ingratiate himself with a number of prominent Euro American dignitaries, he eventually settled in what was then Alta, California, in the summer of eighteen thirty nine. At the time, Alta California was a relatively undeveloped province of Mexico, having so far managed to resist the clutches
of the ever expanding United States. Realizing the area's potential, Sutter succeeded in convincing the local governor to sell him almost fifty thousand acres of land along the Sacramento River. The following year, he established a trading colony there, which he named New Helvetia. Rarely as such a story of land purchase complete without some form of Native American displacement
or indeed slaughter, and Sutters was no different. Local tribes that were unwilling to recognize these self appointed owners of the lands that they lived on were dispensed with, swiftly, being either forcibly moved or exterminated entirely. Any tribes adopted to cooperate with the euro American or Mexican settlers would invariably be put to work as little more than slaves. The exact number of Native Americans that were killed in
the establishing of New Helvetia is unknown. It is thought, however, that Suttter kept as many as six to eight hundred of them as slaves, often locking them up in squalid pens and placing their food in troughs, forcing them to eat like farm animals. It is also speculated that he raped Native American girls as young as twelve years old.
In eighteen forty y eight, gold was discovered on Sutter's land. However, any hope he had of profiting from it was swiftly dashed when his efforts to keep it secret failed miserably. Within months, Sutter's land was overrun with swaves of prospectors feverishly clawing at the earth in search of the shiny metal. Such was the speed with which the gold rush unfolded, there was little that Sutter could do to stop them.
Having brought more land in a bid to claim ownership of any gold found on it, Sutter soon found himself in major debt. With no other options, he was forced to sell off his land, transferring any deeds he had left into the name of his son. His land owning ambitions were finished. A carmic come up once. Perhaps if you believe in such things, perhaps too, if you believe in such things, I'd say the series of events that would befall the region in subsequent years were inevitable, given
what many would consider to be such rotten beginnings. Part of the land that Sutter was forced to sell was located just forty miles north of New Helvetia and centered around the confluence of the Yuba and Feather Rivers. The land was sold in eighteen forty nine to a small consortium of men headed by Samuel Brannan, who quickly established
Yuba City in the middle of it. Almost immediately, the fledgling city was overshadowed by Marysville, the town on the opposite bank of the Feather River, which newcomers found much easier to access, But soon it began to prosper, and over the next one hundred years the city grew steadily from a population of three hundred to seven and a half thousand. Then, in December nineteen fifty five, a series
of devastating storms battered northern California. After days of relentless rain, just after midnight on December twenty fourth, a levee broke on the west bank of the Feather River, sending a wall of water twenty one feet high, cascading into the county and flooding ninety percent of Yuba City. Seventy four people were killed. Five years later, a Bowing fifty two bomber plane carrying two three point eight megaton thermonuclear bombs flying into the vicinity of Yuba County experienced a sudden
and inexplicable loss of pressure in the fuselage. After ordering the rest of the crew to bail out, the heroic pilot managed to stay in the cockpit just enough to steer the plane away from Uba City before baling out himself. At only four thousand feet, the plane would eventually crash into a barley field just eleven miles to the west of the city. Miraculously, no radioactive material was released as
a result. In late spring nineteen seventy one, a Uba County peach farmer noticed a large, freshly dug hole on his land that had no apparent purpose. When he found it filled in the next day, he became suspicious and called the police to investigate it. Digging away the fresh dirt, they found a man's body underneath, riddled with stab wounds.
The man was just one of at least twenty five migrant farm workers from around the Yuba County area that serial killer and Uba City resident Juan Corona was avent convicted of murdering. Corona had been previously diagnosed with schizophrenia, which some believe was triggered by the trauma he suffered as a witness to the worst effects of the nineteen
fifty five flood. Another five years later, a school bus carrying the Yuba City High School choir broke through a guardrail just outside the city of Martinez, plunging thirty feet to the ground. Twenty eight teenagers from the city and their chaperone were killed instantly in what was the worst school bus accident ever recorded in the United States at the time. And yet, incredibly, despite this litany of tragedy, the one for which the area would become most well
known had yet to pass. The story, most often referred to as the Uba County five, is a bizarre and heartbreaking mister that remains to this day unexplained. Mum, have you seen my gaiter's T shirt? Cried Gary from the laundry room. I need it for the game tomorrow. Gary's mum, Ida appeared a moment later, holding the beige T shirt, complete with its gateway Gaiter's logo emblazoned across it. All
washed and ready to go. Thanks, said Garry, taking it before running to place it with the rest of his kit that he'd laid out in preparation for the next day. Just then, the sound of a car horn could be heard coming from the turquoise Mercury Montego that had just pulled up outside the front of the house. They're here, said Gary excitedly as he grabbed his jacket and headed toward the door. Remember I've got a big game tomorrow.
Don't let me sleep in, he said. Yes, I know, said Ida, before kissing her son good bye and seeing him out the door. It was February twenty fourth, nineteen seventy eight, in the small district of Olivehurst, just to the south of Yuba City. Far off in the distance, the northern tip of the Sierra Nevada Mountains could be seen, its pine covered ranges still capped with snow. Down in
the valley, However, it was barely jacket weather. As a pale sun was slowly beginning its final descent toward the horizon. Waiting for Garry outside in the montago was thirty year old driver and owner of the vehicle, Jack Madruga, accompanied by thirty two year old Ted Weer and the twenty four year old Jack Hewett. The others shouted for Garry to hurry up as he raced to the car and jumped into the front seat. Moments later, they pulled away
as Ida waved them off from her front door. A few minutes later, they were parking up outside a small house on to Leda Street in Uba City to collect the fifth and final member of the group, twenty nine year old Bill Sterling. With Bill finally settled in the
back seat, they were on their way once more. The five men were friends from around the Uba County area who had met at the Gateway's Project, a local organization that helped adults with intellectual disabilities to better navigate their lives. Driver Jack Madruga was perhaps the least affected by his disability. Although he had never been diagnosed with anything specific, his
thought processes were considered to be slower than average. An Army veteran, Jack had served two years in Vietnam as a truck driver, and had recently started a job as a dishwasher at a local dried fruit company. Ted and Bill were perhaps the closest in the group, having known each other for almost eight years. Ted had been doing especially well recently, gaining employment through the Gateway Project repairing
cables for a local gas and electricity company. Just like the others, Ted was not thought capable of fending for himself, so lived at home with his parents. In his case, this was due to what some considered to be a basic lack of common sense. One time, when Ted's parents house caught fire, Ted had been more concerned about getting a good night's sleep than the flames that had begun raging above his bed. His brother had to forcibly pull
him out of the house to save him. When Ted tried to make friends with strangers, he could never understand why they seemed so intimidated by him, or why they wouldn't simply wave back when he waved at them. Bill Sterling had also done well to gain employment working as a dishwasher at the nearby Beal Air Force Base. Bill enjoyed the position, especially the sense of independence it had
given him. However, he was instructed by his parents to quit the job not long after taking it, after they discovered that some of the air men there had been plying him with alcohol and stealing his wages. Bill had spent much of his youth in Napa State Psychiatric Hospital, being generally misdiagnosed and misunderstood. Of all of them, twenty four year old Jack, who could not read, write, or use a telephone, was generally thought to be the most
severely affected by his disabilities. Having met Ted back when he was sixteen, Jack, who was so deeply shy, would come to rely heavily on him, and a pair had become firm friends as a result. And then there was Gary. Are you always taking care of your family? Do you often take care of others and not yourself? Now it's time to take care of yourself, to make time for you. You deserve it. Tele Adoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your
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For free. Teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or visit teledoc dot com forward slash unexplained podcast today to get started. That's teladoc dot com slash unexplained podcast. Unlike the other four who often went everywhere together and had known each other for an extended period of time, twenty five year old Gary Matthias was a fairly new addition to the group. Gary was also an Army veteran stationed for a few years in Germany.
After suffering a psychiatric episode brought on by hallucinogenic drug youth, Gary was discharged and sent home. For the past two years, however, Gary had been well and successfully holding down a job at his stepfather, Robert Clock's gardening business. Garry had been introduced to the Gateway Project as a way of finding new friends and had bonded with the others over their
mutual love of basketball. All of them played for the Gateway Gators, the Project's basketball team, and were looking forward to a big tournament they were due to play in the following morning, which promised an all expenses paid trip to Los Angeles for the winning team. That night, however, their excitement was for a different game. The friends were heading up to Chico, an hour's drive to the north, to watch their favorite team, University California Davis, take on
Chico State. Despite their disabilities, such a trip wasn't unusual, since the boys regularly traveled together to watch them play at their home stadium in Davis or anywhere else that wasn't too far to drive before returning straight home that night shouldn't have been any After picking up Bill, the men made a quick stop at Mico's service station on Caloosa Avenue. The others stayed in the car as Bill ran inside to pick up his fifteen dollar allowance from
his parents, who ran the place. Bill's mother, Juanita, who was concerned about the men making the trip the night before their tournament, tried again to dissuade her son from going. As Bill explained, however, to night was the last chance they'd get to watch their team this season, and there was no way they were going to pass that up. Realizing it was a lost cause, Juanita warned Bill not to be back too late before sending him on his way.
Later that night, the men watched with delight as U. C. Davis picked up their seventeenth win of the season, beating Chico ninety eight to eighty six. Shortly after ten p m. The men left the Chico University Stadium and piled back into Jack's Montego. Soon after leaving the parking lot, one of the men suggested they make a quick stop to get some supplies for the return journey. Pulling up outside a convenience store moments later, they were disappointed to find
the shop clerk closing the place up. After taking pity on them, however, she agreed to stay open just long enough for them to get what they needed. A short time later, the men were back in the car, loaded with some fruit pies and chocolate bath as Jack slowly eased onto the road before heading off into the night. Juanita Stirling hadn't taken her eyes off the clock since midnight. All things going to plan, her son should have been home by then by two am, she couldn't hold out
any longer. It wasn't the first time that Bill hadn't come home on time or had even gone missing completely. Often he would go and stay with friends and just simply forget to call home. Each previous occasion, he had never been more than a quick phone call away. Trying not to panic, Juanita picked up the phone and dialed for Melbourne, Jack Madruga's mother with whom he lived in nearby Linda, but Jack was also yet to come home.
It was a few hours later that Ted's mother, Image and Weier, who had slept through the earlier phone calls, woke up to find her son's bed empty, having not been slept in the night before. Calling Juanita immediately to find that both Bill and Jack were also still missing. Calling Jack Hewett's mother soon after, Imogen got the same response. Their last hope was that the boys had all gone
to Gary Matthias's family home. Since the Weirs lived just down the street from them, Imogen's daughter in law volunteered to go and check if they were there. The look on her face when she returned was all Imogen needed to know. The men, would you to meet the rest of their Gateway Gator's team later that morning outside a
store in Marysville. Knowing the five wouldn't have missed their tournament for the world, a few of the family members traveled to the store in hope that their sons and brothers might yet be there, but the men never appeared. By eight pm, having still heard nothing from them, Melbourne Madruga informed the the county Sheriff's office that her son
and his four best friends were missing. That weekend, the various families spent the days in a complete haze, anxiously looking out for any mention of a car crash or sighting of the missing men, but nothing came. On Monday, having heard nothing from the police, Juanita took it on herself to drive to Chico, where she handed out pictures of the five friends to the various ticket sellers and
security officers at the University basketball stadium. None, however, recognized the faces that had been sat in the venue for over two hours only a few nights before. In the meantime, the sheriff's office had released a statement to the local press giving a detailed description of the missing men and the vehicle they were traveling in urging anyone to come forward who might have important information as to their whereabouts.
Having been given a brief description of the personalities he was looking for, and taking into account their intellectual disabilities, Yuba County under Sheriff Jack Beecham was stumped as to what might have happened to them. Certainly, no crashes with that type of vehicle had been reported, and judging by how the parents described it, there was no reason to suggest that the men had struck out on an impromptu road trip. The following day, Beecham received an unexpected call
from Plumus National Forest Ranger Willard Burris. Buris had been making his way along a forest road when he came across an abandoned car. He hadn't thought anything about it at the time, but having seen a news report about the missing men later that day, he thought to call it in. Beecham was confused, however, Plumas Forest covered the northern tip of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and was located about seventy miles east of Chico, in the complete opposite
direction to where the men were supposed to have been heading. Moreover, the point at which Boris claimed to have seen the car was four thousand feet high into them, but Buris was adamant the vehicle he had seen was a turquoise mercury Montego. The following day, Wednesday, March first, under Sheriff Beecham with a handful of deputies, made his way to
the spot, detailed by forest Ranger Boris. An hour later, the officers found themselves leaving the mild flats of the Yuba Shutter area and heading up into the Sierra Nevarda Mountains toward the snow covered pines of Plumus National Forest. With the temperature deadily dropping the higher they climbed, They were soon approaching the snow line at an altitude of
roughly four thousand feet. The road was known locally as the Oraville to Quincy Road, running from the foothill town of Oraville at the western edge of the mountains, snaking east via the town of Quincy all the way through
to the other side. During the summer months, the roads would be jammed with daytrippers and holidaymakers heading out to one of the many cabins that dotted the surrounding area, with Bucks Lake, located in the middle of the forest about fifty miles from Oraville, being the biggest draw during the winter months. However, by the time you had reached the snow line, the road would quickly become impassable to
all but the most hardy of vehicles. It was at this point, with the unpaved forest road becoming ever narrower and more rugged, that Beecham spotted the car that Willard had come across. Although by now it was carrying a light dusting of snow, Beecham could see clearly that it was indeed a turquoise nineteen sixty nine Mercury, Montego. Beacham wrapped his jacket a little tighter about himself as he made his way through the slush toward the vehicle. Brushing
away the snow from the window, he looked inside. Empty food wrappers were strewn about on the back seat, along with a couple of basketball programs, but the vehicle was otherwise empty. Trying the door, he was surprised to find it unlocked, but the keys were gone. Pulling a panel from under the steering wheel, Beecham fiddled with the wires
until the car's engine roared into life. The under sheriff watched as the needle on the dashboard moved up to reveal at least a quarter tank of gas left in it. Stepping out of the car, Beecham took in the scene around him, staring off into the trees that backed away from the road. The ground, covered in fresh snow from the night before, all was completely silent, and there was no sign of track marks anywhere leading down or off
the road. Looking at the front wheels, he could see that they were a little stuck in the snow, but it was nothing that a quick push couldn't have dislodged. None of it seemed to make sense. Why on earth would the five friends have driven up into the mountains and then abandoned the car like this with absolutely no reason to unless, of course, it hadn't been them at all that had brought it there in the first place.
Could it be? Beacham thought that it had been stolen and merely dumped there Where that might put the five missing men would be anyone's guess at this point. After calling it in, Beecham was promptly appointed to lead the search for the missing men. Forty personnel from huber, Plumas and Butte County, along with snowmobiles and a highway patrol helicopter were drafted in For the rest of the day.
They searched every inch of the surrounding forest within a five mile radius of the abandoned car for any sign of the two Jacks Hewitt and Madruga, Bill Sterling, Ted Weier, and Gary Matthias, but no clue to their possible whereabouts was found. Beecham knew only too well that if the five men had driven into the mountains after all, only to abandon their vehicle, their survival depend on finding shelter
very quickly. Failure to do so, stumbling blindly in the dark in subzero temperatures, dressed as they were for a mild evening, would most likely be fatal. What's more, it had now been almost a week since they had disappeared, and no one in the immediate area had seen them, nor were they found in any of the nearby cabins that they might have sought as a place of refuge. Later that day, under Sheriff, Beacham had the unenviable task of informing the families of just what they had discovered.
It was hard to gauge which scenario offered them the most hope whether the vehicle had been stolen and the men possibly assaulted and left stranded elsewhere, or whether they themselves, for reasons unknown, had abandoned the car high up in a mountain, late at night in minus zero temperatures. What Beecham did know, however, was that neither scenario looked good. That was the end of part one of Unexplained, Season four, episode seven, called to the Forest. You can hear the
second and final part next Friday, April twenty six. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained and would like to help support us, you can now go to Unexplained podcast dot com Forward Slash Support. All donations, no matter how large or small, are massively appreciated. All elements have Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain Smith. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've
heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com, or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained. Now it's time to take care of yourself to make time for you. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video any time between seven a m. To nine pm local time,
seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app, or visit telldoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's t e l a d oc dot com slash Unexplained podcast