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My guest for this episode is author and researcher Tony Wright, who joined me to talk about his recent book Things Aren’t Right: The Disappearance of the Yuba County Five.
The book explores the strange and tragic 1978 disappearance of five friends in the Plumas National Forest in Northern California; Ted Weiher, Jack Madruga, Bill Sterling, Jackie Huett, and Gary Mathias. Four of these men had intellectual disabilities while one was diagnosed with schizophrenia. On Friday, February 24, 1978, they left the Yuba County, California area in Madruga’s 1969 Mercury Montego to attend a basketball game in Chico, California. Four days later the car they were traveling in was found abandoned on a snow-covered road in the mountains of the Plumas National Forest, some seventy-five miles in the wrong direction from home.
Four jurisdictions of law enforcement would investigate and search for the missing men. Psychics were brought in, and there were strange reports of sightings of the five from numerous people. One witness came forward with an incredible story of seeing the men disappear into the forest that night. Yet every lead came to a dead end. About four months after they vanished, four of the five men’s remains were found some twelve miles from the car, with one discovered in a US Forest Service trailer with plenty of food and fuel to keep them alive for months.
Once described as ‘Bizarre as hell’, the case of the Yuba County Five has baffled law enforcement and the families of the missing men for over forty-five years.
Tony’s meticulous research has rightly earned him the reputation of being one of the foremost authorities on the subject, and his conclusions are likely as close as anyone will come to making sense of what happened to Ted, Jack, Bill, Jackie and Gary.
You can find out more about Tony and his book on his Facebook page.
Nick Kyle's The Missing Enigma YouTube channel also has some excellent videos about the Yuba County Five case. You can find out more at https://www.youtube.com/@TheMissingEnigma.
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The podcast theme music is by The Night Monitor, from his album, ‘Close Encounters of the Pennine Kind’. You can find out more about The Night Monitor's music at https://thenightmonitor.bandcamp.com/.
