Tony Wright ”The Mystery of the Yuba County Five” pt. 1

[00:00:00] From the darkest reaches of space, to the deepest corners of your mind, Welcome to From The Void. On the evening of February 24th, 1978, five friends, Bill Sterling, Jack Hewitt, Ted Weir, Jack Madruga and Gary Mathias all piled into a 1968 Mercury Montego after attending a basketball

[00:00:32] game. Normally they drive straight home, but that's not what happened on this particular night. On this fateful night, they'd vanish without a trace until four of the five men's remains would be discovered months later, which is where this mystery truly begins. Over

[00:00:48] forty years later, no one knows what caused these men to drive so far off course and to end up in the remote area that they were discovered. Was it simply five guys with diminished mental capacity making a series of fatal mistakes, or are they deprived of

[00:01:03] the justice they deserved based on the prejudice of the time period? Was there something or someone who scared them badly enough to abandon their vehicle and run off into the woods in which they were eventually found?

[00:01:16] For this week's mystery I speak with author and researcher Tony Wright, who wrote The Book on the Case. Welcome to this week's mystery, The Mystery of the Yuba County 5 on From the Void. All right, very excited to have my guest on today, Tony Wright, author, researcher, expert

[00:01:42] on this particular case. Thank you so much for spending part of your day with me today. Well, thank you for having me on the show. I'm glad to be here. Absolutely. We were just talking before we started recording. Caught you on a

[00:01:53] really interesting series that just came out on Netflix. The particular episode that you were featured on was in regards to the Yuba County 5, and you've written a book on it. Things aren't right, The Disappearance of the Yuba County 5. So you've spent a

[00:02:08] lot of time researching this case. What initially led you to this particular case of all cases? I was listening to True Crime Podcast and watching original True Crime content on YouTube. It was probably, oh, sometime in 2018 when the Yuba County 5 case was featured

[00:02:28] on a YouTube channel called Criminally Listed. They had their 100th episode, so I was pretty excited to watch that. And every week on Criminally Listed they have a different topic for all their cases. But on the 100th episode it was viewers'

[00:02:44] choice, so I thought that was a really cool topic. I don't remember the first two stories, but the last story was titled Gary Mathias and the Boys. And it was the story of the Yuba County 5, and I thought, I've heard of this story before or

[00:02:58] it's brand new. It was one of those moments where you discover a story and you don't know if it's something that's been covered on something like In Search of or Unsolved Mysteries. But I remember watching that episode and

[00:03:12] being really interested in that story because I thought it was incredibly fascinating. And with YouTube and with podcast, if someone's got a topic on something, generally other people see that and they too will create a podcast or

[00:03:29] an episode about that case. So more people were getting information about the case. And so through 2018 and to early 2019 it was talked about on podcasts and online on articles and Sacramento Bee had a two-day story on

[00:03:47] Yuba County case. And I found out no one had written a book about the story. So late 2019 I decided to write the book on the case. And I thought to myself, you know 2020 don't have much going on so it seems like a good year to

[00:04:02] travel and do some research and do this and do that. And the world had other plans for all of us that year. And I just did a lot of research at home and by 2021 we're not the California research the case been out there a

[00:04:16] couple times to go up to the Plumas to look at the original case files. I interviewed the family members law enforcement and the media that covered the case on the phone. And we've talked through email and

[00:04:27] Facebook and I would say I've spent four or five years working on the case and the book was finished 2023 and January of this year. The book was finally published and genius book publishing a very great just a great

[00:04:45] company to work with believed in the book and we've got it out there and then yeah April 3rd is when files the unexplained dropped on Netflix and I was incredibly happy about that because we've been we filmed that

[00:04:59] episode last year and been waiting forever for that episode to air. So it seemed like I got involved in this case at the right place right time. I guess that's the best way to put it.

[00:05:10] Yeah, we'll talk more about this but this case definitely has a lot of wrinkles and layers to it beyond just being your typical sort of unsolved case. So before we dive into that though set the scene for

[00:05:23] people when did this take place and kind of describe for people what was Yuba County like back then. So the time of this case was February 24th 1978 and it happened in it started in Yuba County California. Yuba County is north of Sacramento so

[00:05:40] it's more of that farming sort of agriculture based community. So they're more about farming community and then of course off in the distance you can kind of see the foothills of Sierra Nevada mountains. So it's a beautiful area. Yuba County the main city is

[00:06:00] Marysville, they're surrounding communities like Olivehurst and Linda, they're small towns they're probably at the time probably 10,000 12,000 people less than the outlying communities. Neighboring Yuba City is in a different county I'd submit confusing and it probably at the time may have had I don't know 50 60,000

[00:06:20] people but it was sort of a hub for agriculture. And at the time there was a little bit of a high crime rate in the area. Then the early 1970s one Corona was arrested and at the time he was

[00:06:36] one of the most prolific serial killers in America. And he actually resided in the Yuba City area and killed migrant farm workers and transient workers who were involved in seasonal work at some of the orchards and other farming areas in

[00:06:51] the Yuba City area. So there was a bit of a drug problem up there too, but all in all it was a nice place to live a quiet community. And there were five friends Ted Weir, Jack Madruga, Bill Sterling, Jackie Hewitt and Gary Mathias for

[00:07:13] the guys had intellectual disabilities. Gary Mathias had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in the early 70s. And they were linked to a local community organization called the Gateway Projects, which provided people with job training and life coaching. Plus they had sports for people who are

[00:07:33] involved with the gateway and it was tied to the Special Olympics. So their basketball team through gateway was the Gateway Gators. And the five men were ranging in ages, Ted Weir was the oldest at 32, Jackie was the youngest at 24. They lived

[00:07:49] in the area, they had jobs, they live with their parents, and they were all involved in Gateway. So they somehow became fans of a Division II basketball team UC Davis. Their plan for February 24 was to drive to Chico, California, which is

[00:08:10] an hour north of Yuba County. Give or take a little bit. And they were going to watch UC Davis play at Chico State. It was one of the last games of the year for UC Davis, they were doing well in their conference, they might go on

[00:08:24] to win the conference championship. And that leads to the Division II basketball playoffs. So they were very excited about this opportunity to see the game. And then on the 25th, the next day, they were to travel to Sacramento

[00:08:37] to play in the Special Olympics tournament. And if they won that tournament, they would go to the main Special Olympics event down at UCLA. If they made it to UCLA, they would be given passes to Disneyland, which was sort of a way to

[00:08:55] sweeten the pot almost if you will. So this is a big thing for these guys. And so the plan was let's go to the basketball game in Chico. Next day, we're going to get up, we'll go down to the Sacramento area, we'll do our tournament. And

[00:09:10] some of the parents are like, Oh, this seems to be quite a bit of stuff you guys are doing. So are you sure you want to go to the game? And they had made out of town trips before

[00:09:21] many times. And Jack Madruga was the driver of the group. He drove the boys as that's their nickname the five to Chico. Many times, he drove in the Sacramento many times, you know, no incidents, no issues that these guys getting lost. Just because they had developmental disabilities didn't

[00:09:43] mean they were incompetent by any stretch of the imagination. They just knew how to get from point A to point B. And even the day before they went to Chico, they actually traveled together down the Sacramento to get one last basketball practice in, because all the

[00:10:00] gymnasiums in their community were kind of booked and unavailable. If they can make it to Sacramento and back, then they made it to Chico and back. This wasn't a big issue. So the night of actually, I should say the evening of

[00:10:13] February 24th around 6pm, they leave you the city, they go to the game in Chico, they leave the game after UC Davis wins. So they're probably feeling elated that their favorite team won. They go about a mile from campus to

[00:10:33] a convenience store. They grab stuff like Pepsi milk, like hostess bars, candy bars, potato chips, get in the car. And the next thing was to drive home. If you know anything about the area. So from Yuba City and Marysville up the

[00:10:52] Chico, you can take two highways out of Yuba City there's California Highway 99 on the west side. And there's Highway 70 on the east side. So they run parallel to each other from those areas and they sort of merge together just

[00:11:07] south of Chico. So you would just drive into Chico with the connecting highway and coming home, they could have just taken 99 to Yuba City or 70 to Marysville and they be home as the hours go by and the parents start to

[00:11:22] worry that the guys aren't home. And initially there was thoughts of flat tire and you know, the car they were driving in which was in 1969, 1969, Mercury Montego, which was owned by Jack Madruga. It probably broke down. They might have run into some sort of issue otherwise and they

[00:11:43] couldn't make it home. But as time goes on during the early morning hours of February 25th, the parents start calling each other saying they're not home. Where are they? Where'd they go? And what was strange, the parents all noted that if the guys were ever running late, they

[00:11:59] would call in advance and say, hey, sorry, we stopped at this place. We got to grab a bite to eat or someone needs to use the restroom and we're running behind. They never did that. So on February 25th rolls around, they

[00:12:13] decide, all right, we're going to get together and we're going to figure out what's happening. We're going to find these guys and just get this resolved. Someone knew, hey, if they had this basketball tournament today, they're supposed to meet downtown Marysville at a

[00:12:27] Montgomery War Department store. All we'll do is just excuse me, go down to the meeting place and we'll find them there while they went down to the meeting place and they were nowhere to be found. And they found

[00:12:40] out the guys never made it to the event for their Special Olympics basketball tournament. So now they're really worried because all the families knew for the five that this tournament meant a lot to these guys. I mean, they were ready for it for

[00:12:52] weeks. They had their uniforms laid out. One guy bought new shoes. I mean, they were ready to go. And so the thought was, all right, the car probably broke down. They were probably walking the highway and they're probably tired. So people

[00:13:06] were driving up either 99 or 70 looking for them. No luck. They called the Yuba County Sheriff's Department around 8am that morning and they said, well, if these guys are adults, we can't list them as missing. And I believe there was an attempt to say, hey, you know, these guys

[00:13:23] do have disabilities and this is a big deal. This is not like them. But the Sheriff's Department held their ground and the families were kind of on their own for a little while. By 8 o'clock on Saturday night, they were able to tell the Yuba County Sheriff's

[00:13:37] Department, look, these guys haven't made at home. They've been gone. They're missing. You know, these men have disabilities. One person schizophrenia. They never made at home. So finally, the report was taken at 8pm that Saturday evening and they began to interview people,

[00:13:54] look for the guys. They had these all-points bulletins from the Oregon State Line, south to Sacramento. And if we find these guys, they'll be here somewhere. We'll call the jails. We'll call the hospitals. We'll do this. We'll do that. No signs of the guys. So February 25th becomes

[00:14:11] the 26th. That becomes the 27th and late on the 28th, which was February 28th, 1978, the cars found abandoned in the Plumas National Forest and that's 70 miles in the wrong direction from where they live in Marysville, Yuba City area. And the car was found at a place near

[00:14:33] a camping location called Rogers Cow Camp, which is in the foothills of the mountains. And that's about 4,000 feet above sea level. It's rocky terrain. It's unpaved roads. There's snow. It's cold and it's nothing like where these guys live in the Marysville Chico

[00:14:53] area. So their car is found in the middle of nowhere. Guys aren't in the car and now a search and rescue operation begins and now it's basically every person has to be available to help look for these guys. And then this is how the mystery

[00:15:11] really sort of unravels. Like, what are they doing here? And so they do extensive searching according to the police records and according to newspaper articles of searching up in the Plumas and they spend time looking for these guys and interviewing families asking why would they go

[00:15:31] this way? And now law enforcement stuck with what's basically a real mystery here. It's incredibly strange on how this story begins. Yeah, and you mentioned the fact that you said 70 miles in the wrong direction. I mean, it's not as if they

[00:15:46] were sort of went off the beaten path and were sort of lost for 15 minutes. This is like that's over an hour, you know, in the wrong direction. And one of the notes from the from the documentary episode mentions the fact that there's a

[00:16:01] couple of landmarks, you know, on the way that they had to cross over a bridge. There would have been signs indicating, hey, you're entering this this National Park. So there would have been things that would have indicated, hey, you were very much

[00:16:14] going in the wrong direction. And yet, you know, this car is found a significant distance, you know, outside of where they lived. So talk about what we know for certain that night. So it sort of gets sort of the mystery kind of kicks off after the grocery store.

[00:16:29] And there's some indication that there were witnesses at the grocery store. I think a young woman who was working that night indicated that she saw them and this is what they purchased. And that a couple of them may have been outside at a pay phone.

[00:16:43] Did law enforcement ever follow up in terms of like, were they making calls to someone? And if so, did that kind of lead them in any particular direction? Did they get any information out of what what calls may have been placed that night?

[00:16:59] Sure. So the night they went missing, they stopped at a place called Bears Market in Chico. It's a little convenient store. They were in there around closing time and the clerk who worked there, she was a little annoyed. These guys were walking in at closing

[00:17:14] time because she thought, oh man, it's Friday night. I get to go home and then these guys walk in. But she said they weren't in the store for long. They just kind of knew what they were looking for food wise and drink wise. They got everything.

[00:17:28] They went to the register. She noticed nothing strange or unusual. She said they seemed to be in good spirits. They paid for everything and just walked out of Bears Market. From there, you know, you just drive right out of Chico. And determining where they

[00:17:45] abandoned the car, it would have made the most sense that they would have taken Highway 70, which would have been on the Eastern parallel of the two highways. That would have taken them near town called Oroville and Oroville, if they turn into the city, they can link up

[00:18:02] to what's called the Oroville Quincy Highway. And you mentioned landmarks and one of the biggest landmarks they would have noticed is something called the Bidwell Bar Bridge, which goes over Lake Oroville. Back in the 60s, he did this huge project. They created this reservoir just

[00:18:18] because of river flooding. And so if you cross this bridge, you know you're not heading the right direction home because the driver of the car, Jack Madruga, he had driven the men many times and from places like Chico and Sacramento, so he knew his way home.

[00:18:38] But when you cross that bridge, you would know you're going the wrong direction. And if you see signs for the Plumas National Forest, you would know you're going the wrong direction because the roads that lead from Oroville into the Plumas begin to wind and go uphill.

[00:18:54] And as you wind and go uphill, you begin to notice a change of scenery. The temperatures drop if you go start driving up, up, up, up, up, up. You know, your ears might start to pop because, you know, changes in elevation, changes

[00:19:06] in weather, if they begin to see snow, pine trees, etc., etc. They know they're heading in the wrong direction. So what puzzled law enforcement is why would they go that way and why they abandoned their car because where the car was abandoned at Rogers

[00:19:25] Cow Camp in the Plumas, it's like an abandoned, like logging road. And at the time, a lot of the portions of the Oroville Quincy Highway weren't completely paved. They were kind of gravelly side roads were made of gravel and dirt and had ruts in them

[00:19:41] from use over the years. And this surprised Jack Madruga's family because they knew he would not take his car on a road like that because he was very, very careful about driving and not damaging his car. And when they noticed the car was abandoned, they noticed that

[00:19:59] there wasn't any damage to the undercarriage. It had to have been carefully driven up this road, which leads to nowhere. And it's not going to show up on a map. I don't. The men did have a map available to them, but it didn't have a detailed

[00:20:16] map of the roads to go through the Plumas. You're just not going to see that unless you have a Plumas map. And where these guys abandoned their car, it's the middle of nowhere. They had to have gotten out of the car and there's a

[00:20:30] witness that was on the same road where they abandoned their car that saw them that night leave and go into the woods. And this was just puzzling to everyone because why would they do what they did? Because when they left for the basketball game in Marysville, it was

[00:20:47] probably in the 60s. It wasn't going to be cold that night. It might got down to the 40s, but they were in like light jackets, tennis shoes. You're wearing jeans and shirts. They weren't dressed for, you know, cold weather because the night they abandoned the car in

[00:21:01] the Plumas, it was below freezing. There was snow on the ground. There were snowdressings spots that were 10 feet, maybe 20 feet in more extreme areas. And these guys just walk out and just go into the Plumas National Forest into the snow. And it doesn't make any sense

[00:21:16] whatsoever. It's just incredibly bizarre. But as that car was found abandoned, what happens is a lady calls in from a town called Brownsville, California, which is 60 miles south of where the car is abandoned. And she said that Brown Marys Country Store or something like that, they see

[00:21:38] the guys at another convenience store and three guys are sitting in a pickup truck. Two of the guys are outside the building using a pay phone. If they were in that location, they would have used the pay phone to call home because they would have been closer to

[00:21:56] the city of Marysville where they lived. And the lady that saw them in at this other store described the clothes they were wearing and it looked nothing like the clothes they were wearing the night they went missing. So this is even more strange, citing

[00:22:13] because if they had a car and if they had a phone, they just would have taken sort of these sort of side roads or whatever and gone back home. It wasn't like them to be away from home and not caring about their parents or

[00:22:28] family. I mean, that's just super strange. But this citing takes investigators 60 miles away from where they need to be. And they need people down in this area to view this citing. And then if you go back to the night the men went missing, there was a guy

[00:22:46] by the name of Joseph Shones who was on the same road where they abandoned their car. He had driven up that same road earlier in the day and had a heart attack. And so he claimed he was in his car and was trying to push

[00:23:07] his car out, which got stuck in the snow. And he's like the only witness that's left to see these guys sort of vanish into the wilderness. So like the last two, the last people to see these guys, there's a lot of questions.

[00:23:23] So we can say that the lady who saw them at the convenience store at Browns Market or Brownsville, California, that's bogus because they wouldn't have changed their clothes. They wouldn't have been that far away from home. But the Shones guy who sees him, he says when their car

[00:23:39] pulls up into the Plumas National Forest, he knows and notices another car behind them. And so he's watching these guys get out of the car. He has various stories that he tells the press after this. And what we can gather from stories is either the guys get

[00:23:56] into the pickup truck, maybe right in the bed at the back of the truck or they run into the woods. So law enforcement kind of has these two stories to deal with. Joseph Shones who sees them in the Plumas or this lady who sees him 60 miles south.

[00:24:12] And now they got to deal with both stories, which sort of diverts them from the search and rescue operation. And like I said, this is just the beginning of the story. It is something else. Or you dig into it. Thanks for listening to part one

[00:24:31] of my conversation with Tony Wright. We'll be back next week with part two. Until then, if you've enjoyed this or any of the prior episodes, please consider rating, reviewing and subscribing and also sharing with a friend. Until next time, I've been your host John Williamson

[00:24:46] and you've been listening to from The Void.