The Disappearance of the Yuba County Five. The People Who Never Returned
The story of the Yuba County Five is a chilling mystery that remains unsolved to this day. In 1978, five men from Yuba City, California—Bill Sterling, Jack Huett, Ted Weiher, Jack Madruga, and Gary Mathias—went missing after a basketball game. Their car was later discovered abandoned on a remote mountain road, miles from their intended route, with no obvious reason why they had ventured so far into the wilderness.
Months later, four of the men’s bodies were found in rugged terrain, some in conditions suggesting a struggle for survival. Gary Mathias, however, remains missing, and his fate is still unknown. This case, often compared to Missing 411 mysteries, has been the subject of several documentaries exploring theories of what might have happened. To this day, the disappearance of the Yuba County Five leaves many asking, What really happened?
