Season 04 Episode 7: Called to the Forest (Rerun)

of the stories that has touched me the most. In February nineteen seventy eight, five young men from the Ubasutter area in northern California, took a short trip to watch their favorite basketball team. But the men never returned home. It's a tragic and beguiling mystery that to this day remains unexplained. This is season four, episode seven, called to the Forest. 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 on ourselves, however, considering the number of different people and ideas all crammed in together in these places, It's a wonder 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 unwonted situations. The same cannot be said for the town of Castle Rock, the principal location and title of the recent Hulu 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 Uber 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 Yuba County, including the Yuba City area, was sold to a highly controversial individual named John Sutter around one hundred and fifty years later, the county's name would become synonymous with one of the United states most enduring and tragic mysteries. You're listening to Unexplained

and I'm Richard McLean 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 is such a story of land purchase complete without some form of Native American displacement

or indeed slaughter, and Sutter's 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 co operate 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 Sutter 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 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 its 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 as little that Sutter could do to stop them.

Having bought 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 comic come upance. Perhaps if you believe in such things, perhaps two. If you believe in such things, you might 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 Uber and Feather Rivers. The land was sold in eighteen forty nine to a small consortium of men headed by Samuel Brannan, who quickly established

Uber 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, at 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 Uber 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 long enough to steer the plane away from Uber City before bailing out himself. At only four thousand feet the plaine 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 Uber 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 Yuber City resident Juan Corona was eventually 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 guard rail 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 Uber County five, is a bizarre and heartbreaking mystery that remains to this day unexplained. Ma'am, have you seen my Gaiters 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 Gary, 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 Eubers. 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 Gary outside in the montago was thirty year old driver and owner of the vehicle, Jack Madruga, accompanied by thirty two year old Ted Weir and the twenty four year old Jack Hewitt. The others shouted for Gary 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 Talleda Street in Yuba 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 Yuba County area who had met at the Gateways 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. 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. 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 also deeply shy, had come to rely heavily on him, and the pair had become firm friends as a result.

And then there was Garry. 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 use, 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. Gary 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 Gaiters, 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 different. 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, tonight 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 UC Davis picked up their seventeenth win of the season, beating Chico ninety eight to eighty six. Shortly after ten pm, the men left the Chico University Stadium and piled back into Jack's Montago. 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 Sterling 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 a m. 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 Melbourgh, Jack Madrugu'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, Imogun Weir, 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, she was shocked to find that both Bill and Jack were also still missing. Calling Jack Hewitt's mother soon after, Imogun got the same response. Their last hope was that the boys had all gone

to Garry Matthias's family home. Since the Weirs lived just down the street from them, Imagon'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 were due to meet the rest of their Gateway Gaiters 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 p m. Having still heard nothing from them, Melbourne Madruga informed the Uber 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, Plumus 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 Burris claimed to have seen the car was four thousand feet high into them, but Burris 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 Burris. An hour later, the officers found themselves leaving the mild flats of the Euber Shutter area and heading up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains toward the snow covered pines of Plumus National Forest. With the temperature steadily 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 Oroville 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 day trippers and holiday makers 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 Burris 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. Beecham wrapped his jacket a little tighter about himself as he made his way through the slush towards 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? Beecham 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 Euba, Plumus 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 Stirling, ted Weir, 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 would depend on finding

shelter very quickly. Failure to do so, stumbling blindly in the dark in sub zero temperatures, dressed as they were for a mild evening, would most likely be fatal. Whats 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, Beecham 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.

After scouring everywhere within a five mile radius of the abandoned Mercury Montego, the Yuber County Sheriff's Office had found nothing. By the end of the day. However, they would have their first significant lead. It came from a man named Joseph Schones. Around five fifty p m. On Friday, February twenty fourth, the night the five men went missing. Shones was making his way into Plumus National Forest along to

Aureville to Quincy Road. Fifty five year old Shons had been checking to see if the road would be accessible for a trip he planned to take that weekend when his Volkswagen bug got suddenly stuck in the snow. After trying unsuccessfully to push it out, Schones felt a painful tightening in his chest and immediately got back inside the vehicle to catch his breath. Unbeknownst to him at the time,

he had suffered my heart attack. Being in such discomfort, he decided his best hope was to keep the engine running and try to stay warm until it passed, or until someone else came by who could help. Drifting in and out of consciousness as the pain in his chest intensified. It was about eleven thirty pm when Schons were startled awake by what he took to be two sets of headlights driving in from behind him, one belonging to a

car and the other to a pickup truck by. Now unable to move, he could only watch in desperation as the lights passed him by and disappeared around the next bend. Thirty minutes later, after hearing what he thought were people whistling nearby, Schons gathered the strength to investigate. Stumbling along in the dark, he followed what he now took to be voices until he came across a car seemingly parked up by the road and a number of silhouetted figures

moving about in front of its headlights. Schons later described one of them as possibly being a woman who was carrying a baby, with all the other figures being men. When Shons called out for help, the talking ceased immediately. Moments later, the headlights switched off plunged into complete darkness. Shones angrily called out again for help, but got no response. Suddenly feeling a little exposed, he swiftly turned around and

headed back to his car. A short time later, he caught sight of what he assumed to be the beams of flashlights moving about in the forest around him. Calling out once more for help, he could only watch in desperation as one by one the beams of light were switched off in response. When shons Its engine eventually cut out at four am, he had little choice but to strike out for the nearest inhabited place that he could find.

Remembering the vehicle he had seen from the night before, he decided first to check if it was still there. Sure enough, just where it had been the night before, he found What he could see then was a turquoise Mercury Montego, but no sign of its previous occupants anywhere. Despite suffering from a heart attack at the time, Joseph Schones eventually walked five miles to a nearby lodge house, from where he was later taken home by its manager.

When explaining all this to the police later, although there was little doubt he had seen the abandoned car, Shons cautioned that since he wasn't entirely lucid at the time, not everything he s thund though what he had seen could be trusted either way, it was certainly something to

go on. What's more, if a fifty five year old man suffering a heart attack was able to walk five miles down the road to safety, there was reason to hope that the five men from Uber County, Bill Stirling, Jack Madruger, Jack Hewitt, Ted Weeher and Gary Mathias could have done the same, provided they were indeed the men that Seans had seen. Under Sheriff Jack Beecham received another break shortly after, when a print dusting of the car revealed no other marks inside apart from those belonging to

the missing men. Though it wasn't conclusive, it seemed to suggest at least that the car had not been stolen. By the end of that first day, nine inches of snow fell across the Plumous National Forest region, further complicating

the sur Buoyed by Schonz's witness statement. However, the various local sheriff's departments expanded their search to as far as Buck's Lake, some twenty miles up the road from where the car was found, having discovered that Bill Sterling's family owned a cabin near the lake, there was a chance that the men might have tried to reach it, but again no footprints, clothing, or any other sign of them

could be found. Back in the Uber City area, the families of the missing, crippled by worry, continued to wait helplessly for any sign of their sons and brothers. With the police continuing to draw a blank, some of the parents suggested contacting a psychic, in the expectation that even if they couldn't give them any clues, it might at least give them some hope. Doctor Gloria Daniel was a member of the Church of Zadi, an organization that claimed

to teach its members how to become psychic. Although Daniel had not come officially recommended by the Uber County Police, it is said that she had successfully helped them with similar cases in the past. On the morning of Friday, March third, a handful of family members gathered together with doctor Daniel and watched expectantly as she ran her hands through a series of clothes belonging to the missing men.

Then she sat back and closed her eyes. After a short pause, with the relatives in wrapt silence, Daniel began to speak. She could see people gathered together in a shack or a cabin in a wooded hilly area, somewhere near a body of water, she said. And something else, a small detail, a row of men tucked into what looked like green sacks made of canvas bags. Perhaps, she thought, so, they're still alive, asked one of the relatives. Hopefully. Doctor

Daniel hesitated, then opened her eyes. I'm afraid that is all I can tell you, she said. By Saturday, March fourth, as the search entered its second week, the Butte and Plumers County sheriffs began to question the merits of continuing. With the recent storms showing no sign of letting up and the snow continuing to fall heavily, they decided to pull back their resources for under Sheriff Jack Beecham, who

was supervising the entire search, and his superior Sheriff Grant. However, there was no question of calling it off anytime soon. Not only did the men's lives depend on it, but the entire reputation of the Up County Police Department was resting on it too. It was only the year before that then under Sheriff Lloyd Finley was arrested on charges of corruption, having been accused of stealing weapons, money, and

other valuable articles from the county evidence room. The DA who had prosecuted him, believed the crimes were merely symptomatic of a corrupt undercurrent in local police practices which had

been left unchallenged for too long. The case had been dragging on for almost a year by now, with it looking increasingly lightly that Finley was indeed guilty, finding the five missing men alive was the perfect opportunity to win back the community's trust for under Sheriff Beecham, who had been drafted in to replace Lloyd Finley, and Sheriff Grant facing re election later that year. The personal stakes could

barely have been any higher. At the beginning of that second week, having put posters up of the missing men all across the Uber and Sutter area, and with reports of their disappearance a daily feature in the local news, the pair finally had another lead to follow up. Carol Waltz was the owner of a local store in Brownsville, another foothill town of the Sierra Nevada just south of Oraville.

Waltz had been working on Saturday, February twenty fifth, the day after the men had last been seen, when two men matching the descriptions of Jack Hewitt and Gary Mathias came into her store. The pair was said to have bought a variety of snack foods before heading back outside to eat. A second witness also called that same day, claiming to have seen at least four of the men

at the same store. The day after, two of them, who she took to be Bill Stirling and Ted Weer, were sitting in a red pickup truck, while two others, who she assumed to be Jack Madruger and Jack Hewitt, were seen at a telephone booth nearby. Having previously focused their search to no avail on the immediate vicinity of the abandoned car, Beecham now feared that he had missed

a trick. In response to the possible sighting in Brownsville, who promptly split the investigation into four parts, with the mountain search still continuing. One unit was instructed to go back over all the evidence they had, tracing the men's movements up to the night that they disappeared. Another would focus on reinterviewing the family and friends, while the fourth focused its energies on trying to locate any more witnesses from Brownsville of immediate interest was the description of the

pickup truck, now mentioned by two separate witnesses. A short time later, one friend of Gary Matthias's suggested he might have taken the men to visit friends in nearby Forbestown, but when the police contacted them, they claimed not to have heard from Gary for months. A fund set up by the desperate families for any vital information raised almost three and a half thousand dollars, but failed to yield

any significant leads. On and on, the exhaustive search continued, entering a third and then a fourth week, but still the men could not be found. The police also failed to find any trace of the apparent pickup truck. On March twenty first, nineteen seventy eight, under Sheriff Beecham had no choice but to make the painful decision to call

off the search. After hundreds of hours, having used almost one hundred personnel, sniffer dogs, helicopters and snowmobiles, the five friends who had supposedly left home merely to watch a game of basketball, had completely vanished off the face of the earth. With the search having wound down, one deputy was put in place of collecting any further information that

might come to light. Having gone to Marysville High School with Ted Weer and his brothers, Deputy Lance Heirs had been affected by the men's disappearance, perhaps more than most, taking it as his personal mission to bring closure to the families, in whatever shape that may take. For the next few months, Heirs spiritedly followed up on each and every piece of information that came in, from apparent sightings of the men in Sacramento to as far as Ontario

and Tampa in Florida. He chased them all to no avail. When one local psychic claimed that the men had been murdered in Oroville in a two story house numbered either four seven two three or four seven five three, Airs spent two days driving the streets for any sign of it, but no such house existed. On some nights, Deputy Heirs, dreaming that he had found them, would find himself walking toward them with open arms, only to wake up alone in the cold darkness of his bedroom, his arms still

outstretched before him. By the end of May, even the families had begun to lose hope of ever finding out what had happened to their children, But high up on the mountain. The snow was steadily beginning to thaw, and soon it would be time to begin letting out up some of its secrets. On the afternoon of June fourth, three bikers went for a weekend ride through Plumus Forest. Heading along the Oureville to Quincy road, they decided to take a turn eastwards onto one of the narrower forest

roads that headed higher up into the mountain. A short time later, the group pulled into the Daniel Zinc Campground, located about three miles deeper into the forest off the main road. The bikers pulled over and made their way to a large forest service cabin at the back of the site, hoping to find a map of the local area. Approaching the building, having just noticed a window that had been smashed in, the riders were hit by a sweet,

putrid stench coming from inside. Going in to investigate further, the bikers soon located the source of the smell. There, stretched out on a camp bed before them, lying under multiple layers of darkly stained sheets, they could clearly see the outline of a steadily decomposing body. When the call came into the Euber County Sheriff's office later that day under sheriff, Beecham grabbed his hat and made his way to the nearest patrol car, arriving to find forensics and

deputies from the Plumers County Sheriff's Office already there. Beecham could tell by the look on their faces that they had found. One of them covering his nose from the stench. Beecham made his way into the cabin and approached the body. With the sheets now rolled back, he could see the emaciated figure lying underneath the way the cordroy trousers had been rolled up to reveal clear signs of gangrene on the legs. Next to it, on a side table lay

a brown wallet, a bead necklace, and a ring. Beecham picked it up and examined the engraving on the inside, which read simply ted. The body would later be formally identified as that of thirty two year old Ted Weir, last seen alive almost one hundred days before. The pathologist ruled the cause of his death to be the result of a pulmonary edema brought on by exposure, having survived for up to six weeks after he had first gone missing.

To get to the cabin, Weir would have to have trackt almost twenty miles up hill in minus temperatures through six foot snowdrifts in the middle of the night. The shirt and cord trousers found on his body, with the only clothes he had been wearing. What's more, he had most likely been sheltering in the cabin, alive and reasonably well throughout the entirety of the original search, but Beecham

couldn't understand it. A cursory look around the service cabin revealed thirty one cans of food that had been taken from a storage locker and eaten, but an entire other locker's worth that had been left untouched. Propane gas linked to a heating system was also discovered, as well as stoves and matches, but also books and furniture that could easily have been used as fuel for a fire. None of it had been utilized. And then there were the

missing shoes. Weir had been wearing a pair of sturdy leather shoes the night he went missing, but when they found his body, his shoes had gone. They did, however, find another pair of shoes left in the cabin, a pair of tennis shoes that had belonged to Gary Matthias. A recently burned out candle suggested that perhaps someone else had also been there too, long after Weir had died,

but had since left. The discovery of Weir's body prompted an immediate response from the Plumus and Uber County police, reconvening the search they had called off three months previously. Two days later, tracing likely lines from the service cabin back to where the Montago had been abandoned, officers soon uncovered another body, or what was left of it. It was found roughly halfway between the cabin and the abandoned car,

lying face up next to a small star dream. The face and extremities had been eaten away by forest animals some time after death. Car Keys found in the trouser pockets revealed it to be the body of thirty year old Jack Madruga. Later that day, not far from Madruger's body, more human bones were discovered scattered across an area of roughly fifty feet. It was all that was left of

twenty nine year old Bill Stirling. That those three had now been discovered was understandably devastating for the relevant families, but equally so for those of Gary Matthias. And Jack Hewitt, with neither having been heard from in over one hundred days. In all likelihood, they hadn't made it out of the

forest alive either. Believing it to be only a matter of time before the others would be found, scores of volunteers joined the police to help speed up the ser On the morning of June the eighth, Jack Hewitt's father, also named Jack, arrived to help. Deputy Lance Heyres, who had been entrusted with the case after the initial search had been ended, did his best to discourage him from

joining in, but Jack would not be dissuaded. A few hours later, searching an area roughly five miles from the cabin where Weir had been found, Jack spotted something out of place in the undergrowth. It was a faded Levi's denim jacket. He immediately recognized it as his son's. When he picked it up from the ground, a human spine fell out of it. Jack recoiled in horror as police quickly gathered round to take it from him. Hewitt's skull was found a further one hundred yards down the hill,

barely a quarter of a mile away. Investigators also found three woolled blankets and flashlights, which had likely been taken from the service cabin. But no matter how hard they looked, they found no sign of Gary Matthias. After two further weeks under Sheriff Jack Beecham called off the search for

a second time. The bodies, or rather remains of the four men that had so far been found had been placed into green canvas bags after all, just as supposed psychic doctor Daniel had apparently seen, only they weren't sleeping bags but body bags. Bill Stirling, Jack Madruger, and Jack Hewitt's deaths were all found to have been the result of hypothermia, with no apparent signs of foul play. That their bones and bodies were in the state that they were was thought merely to have been down to the

animals that got to them after they died. All that was left for Beecham was to try and piece together exactly what happened, and he knew just where to start. Beacham had his doubts about the twenty five year old Gary Matthias from the beginning. Where the others had intellectual disabilities of one form or another, Matthias had no such thing.

Early on in the investigation, Beacham learned from Matthias's family that his involvement with the Gateway project and how he met the others in the first place, was due to his struggles with schizophrenia. What Beacham also discovered, however, was that his history was a little more complicated than that.

Matthias had in fact been in and out of psychiatric hospitals since the age of fifteen, first being committed after seemingly having suffered an adverse reaction from taking hallucinogenic drugs. After being drafted into the army at the age of eighteen, despite his clear medical records, Matthias is said to have suffered another psychiatric breakdown as the result of his continued drug use. At one point, Matthias was arrested after going

a wall while waiting in his cell. He demanded to speak to the officers on duty, only to attack them when they opened his door. Matthias had stripped completely naked before carrying out the attack. Around the same time, the nineteen year old Matthias, now living back home in Olivehurst, went to visit his cousin. At some point in the night, Matthias was discovered sexually assaulting his cousin's wife, while she slept.

After being charged with assaulting a police officer and intent to rape, Matthias was facing up to twelve years in prison, but eventually accepted a plea deal and served only eight months. After his release, Matthias's behaviour became ever more erratic. With his drug use escalating, he found himself increasingly on the wrong side of the law. There were a number of bar fights, as well as complaints of disturbing the peace.

One time, Matthias is even said to have turned up high at the house of a couple he knew, telling them he was going to stab a woman in the jaw. Two subsequent attempts to have him committed ended in failure when Matthias managed to escape on one account by crawling out of a storm drain. In nineteen seventy five, Gary Matthias enrolled at Eyuber College, but struggled with both its

conventions and fitting in with other students. Eventually he moved out to Oregon in Washington State to live with his grandmother, only to turn up at his mother and stepfather's house

weeks later, tired into chevel. He had apparently worked the five hundred and forty mile journey home eating food he found along the way to stay alive, all of which, for Beecham, made Matthias not only a potential candidate for the murder of the other men, or at least to have led them astray, but also one who might even have been capable of getting out at the forest alive. That Gary Matthias has never been found only serves to

heighten this theory. It has also been speculated that at least Matthias and possibly Jack Hewitt had made it to the service cabin with Ted Weir, only to leave soon after, with Matthias being the one most likely to have taken

Weir's shoes. Unless Gary Matthias is found to have survived after all, it is unlikely there will ever be an arts as to what exactly happened on that mysterious night in February nineteen seventy eight, while five men found themselves driving high up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains seventy miles

in the wrong direction. Why Having gone as far as they could, the men then seemingly abandoned their car and undertook a treacherous journey through thick forest and six foot snowdrifts, reaching ever higher into the mountains, only to find death waiting for them at the end of it. Much has been made about the men's intellectual capacities, suggesting this may have been a significant factor in what could have been

little more than a horrifically wrong turn. Some have suggested this might also account for why those who made it to the forest to serve his cabin didn't eat the food and engage the heating apparatus to survive. Others suggest that, due to their innocence with such things, are worried that they will break the law made them too afraid to do so. As for Gary Matthias, despite under Sheriff Beecham's reservations in the time leading up to his disappearance, he

appeared to have turned his life around. Not only was he holding down a steady job, but having finally been treated properly for his schizophrenia, of which most of his erratic behavior was likely just a symptom, he hadn't suffered any negative effects from it for over two years. Once lost in the forest, however, we can only speculate how quickly he may have deteriorated without his medication. Certainly, for Gary's mother and stepfather, theirs was an especially difficult anguish.

Not only did they never get closure, but in the absence of it, they were also forced to endure the inevitable suspicions that arose once Gary's passed came to the attention of the public. Like many of the other parents, Gary's mother and stepfather had also joined in with the search for the missing men. His stepfather, Robert, had spent most of his time hunting for Gary's distinctive thick, black rimmed glasses, reasoning that if a bear had taken him,

it would have at least left those uneaten. In all the time spent waiting for news of her son's whereabouts, Gary's mother, Ida, refused to turn on her television to afraid of what she might find out. But no news ever came. She would spend the rest of her life looking for him. I'd like to thank Ryan Vaughns in New York for bringing this extraordinary story to my attention.

This episode was written by Richard McLain Smith unexplained as an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLain Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced by me. Richard McClean smith unexplained the book and audiobook with stories never before featured on the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon,

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