you are now listening to cryptid cocktail party
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of
Cryptic Cocktail Party, a show where we have
a few drinks, share a few laughs, take a dive
into the unknown. I'm your host, Dave. Joined
finally, once again, by my wonderful co -host,
Sarge. How's it going, Sarge? What up? What up?
Sorry, this last week, I was in another state.
You were in another state. Apparently having
a fashion show by a pool, because I feel like
I saw you in three different outfits. I was having
a fashion show. I mean, when you find a shirt...
and shorts combo with bananas and palm trees,
you have to buy it. You have to buy it. It kind
of, it kind of was given, remember back in like,
I don't know, like 2000, I want to say like 16,
something like that. There was like the men romper
fad going on where it was like the ones, like
the short t -shirt, like romper thing. It kind
of had that vibe to it. And not going to lie,
you could have pulled that off back then. You
could pull it off now. I think I could. Here's
the thing. I shouldn't. I should never, ever
wear that, but I could have pulled it off, I
think. I think, well, I mean, you're halfway
there. If you just sew the shorts and shirt together,
you have the same thing. I'm a big fan of the
matching shirt and short combo, as we discovered
when I went to Providence Pride. I just think
it's a valuable look. You wear it well. I think
I said that. I think I said that. Thank you.
It suits you really good. I felt right. And isn't
that what life's about? Just being comfortable
in your own skin slash fashion choices. Exactly.
Yeah. That's why I'm wearing an oversized Patriots
jersey right now. This is a, this is a two X
and I feel like I'm wearing a dress and I'm a
big dude, but look at this. For those of you
who can't see it, I apologize, but like I'm,
I'm wearing a dress and that's just okay. Yeah.
It's just okay by me. You just have to just go
to the gym or fill it out. Just fucking get so
ripped that you just go up a size or two. Just
going to keep doing it. Just going to keep working
out. I saw our friends from the Haunted By podcast
this week. They did their live show this week.
How was that? You seemed like you were having
a good time. Oh, gosh. Insanely funny. It was
hilarious. They did an amazing job. They killed
it. I couldn't stop laughing. The people I was
with, they couldn't stop laughing. It was just
insane. They were so funny. They did an amazing
show. Check out Haunted By. Good show. Very funny
people. I'm glad it went well. I'm happy for
them. Maybe next time I'll be able to come up.
I don't know. Who knows? Everything's bad right
now. The country's going to shit. It's fucking
snowing outside. uh i don't know if you i don't
know if you want to travel dave i mean they might
think that you're uh in illegal somehow true
i do look some i've been told i look vaguely
asian sometimes like if i don't have my glasses
on like i mean i mean i wouldn't say vaguely
asian you say full -on just just full -on asian
yeah yeah you look like a sous chef at a Really
upscale Japanese restaurant. Yeah. Well, speaking
of the country going to ship, as I'm sure all
of you are, a bunch of shitty things have been
going down in Minnesota with ice and all across
the country. And also now they're in Maine doing
a bunch of crazy fucking bullshit. Not great.
You know, Maine is just a bastion of illegal
immigrants. Well, they do have a big Somali population
there. I guess I found out. Yeah. We're in one
town. Probably. Yeah. But so. Uh, we, uh, alongside
a bunch of other cryptid and paranormal and one
very pro second amendment podcast got together
and, uh, we put out a t -shirt, uh, the proceeds
of which will go help the defending our neighbors
fund, which helps, uh, immigrants get access
to legal aid and lawyers and all that stuff.
Uh, so if you want to get one, you can go to
crushed ice dot big cartel .com. And they're
$25 each. The thing about it is they're pre -orders
only. So the pre -orders are only open for two
weeks. And then after that, only the amount of
shirts that were ordered will be made. So there's
no extras. It's not going to be a long time going
thing. And then all what's left over after shipping.
And I mean, I have to buy poly bags to ship them
in. But after all that, anything that's left
over will be donated. I kind of think I fucked
myself because I didn't realize how many people
were going to want their shirts. And logistically,
this might be a nightmare because I'm one person
who will be doing all the packing and shipping.
It's only been up for 24 hours and we already
have 100 shirts sold. Damn. All right. Well,
I'll see. Depending on how buried you get in
orders, maybe I can, I don't know, come down
for, you know, hop on the Amtrak and come down
and help you bag them up. Just so people know.
we are not making a dime off of this if we're
not paying for shipping supplies then the money's
getting donated and um we will certainly let
you know how many shirts were ordered and um
how much total we are donating so yeah i'm taking
screenshots of everything so if anyone has any
questions or want to yeah so it's on the up and
up i promise we're not this isn't yeah we just
don't want people to think we're Yeah, this isn't
like a right wing grift. Yeah, we're not pulling
it. We're not pulling a well, I better not say
any names because I don't want to open us up
to liability. But we're not pulling a thing that
many YouTubers do. We're actually going to donate
all of the all of the profit. Yeah. So I just
wanted to just let everyone know about that real
quick. All right, Sarge. So like we were saying,
it's pretty shitty. It's cold as fuck. It's snowing.
It's going to keep snowing for probably the foreseeable
future at this point. It feels like, at least
for me anyways, I don't know. It's supposed to
snow here until tomorrow night. I think there's
already a little more than six inches out there.
We're probably going to get up to a foot very
soon. Yeah, that's pretty much what it's like
here. So I figured today, just to revel in our
misery, why don't we cover a little cold weather
mystery together? What do you think? Yeah. Yeah.
You know, you know what happens is there's only
good stories that come from cold weather mysteries.
Lighthearted fare, mostly like the command to
ban incident or diet love pass. So I'm sure you
found something just as brilliant. You know,
what's funny is that. Oh, no. What's funny is
that before I landed on this subject, I. I was
looking for something to do, and I almost did
the, what was, not the Dyatlov Pass, what was
the other one you said? I almost did that one,
and then I realized, fuck, you already covered
it. I'm sure you could have done a better job.
I just rambled on for an hour. I didn't even
breathe. It's such a big story, I didn't realize
how long it would take me to get out. Are you
familiar with the Yuba County 5 incident? oh
god yeah yeah oh yes i am this is this is a like
tough story yeah um the story itself isn't there's
there's one part that fucked me up and it wasn't
even yeah that's i'm sure it's the same part
that fucked me up Okay. I'm sure it is. Maybe.
We'll find out. So for anyone unfamiliar, the
Yuba County Five were a group of longtime friends
named Jack Madruga, Ted Ware, Bill Sterling,
Jackie Hewitt, and Gary Mathias. And they spent
most, if not all, of their time together, mostly
through a local program for adults with intellectual
and developmental disabilities. They played together
on a basketball team. They hung out constantly.
And all of them had a routine that almost never
changed. Very routine -based lifestyle they had.
And that's all to say that these dudes weren't
like thrill -seekers or partiers. They weren't
spontaneous, I guess. They liked structure. They
liked to know... what was happening and they
like to know what was happening tomorrow. And
what was happening tomorrow, February 25th, 1978
was a basketball tournament. Like I said, they
played on a team called the ghetto, the gateway
Gators. And this tournament was like a huge deal
to them. They'd been talking about it all week.
They laid out their uniforms the night before
they told their families not to let them oversleep.
Like I said, big deal. And anyone who knew them
knew that this was something that they would
never voluntarily miss. So, right. That leads
us to the night of February 24th, the night before
the big tournament, the Yuba County five. I don't
know if they called them that before this. I
just called them like, I'm sure they were referred
to as that. If I remember correctly, all the
local articles kept calling them boys, which
was kind of messed up because they were grown
men. They were like in their late twenties, early
thirties. Yeah. Yeah. But I think it's because
they had developmental disabilities at the time.
that was like, they treated them like boys. You
know what I mean? But they were like highly,
they weren't like, they were high functioning.
It was very messed up is the point I was trying
to make. Like it was messed up that they kept
calling them that because they were grown ass
men. Yeah. I just didn't know if I should keep
calling the Yuba County five or this group of
friends. Yeah, I think the Yuba County Five makes
sense. I mean, you know, you got a lot to say.
I think that's the easiest way to get through
it. Yeah, so on the night of February 24th, the
night before the big tournament, the Yuba County
Five piled into Jack's turquoise and white 1969
Mercury Montego, which is a hell of a car, buddy.
And they drove about 50 miles north to Chico
to watch a local college basketball game, UC
Davis versus Chico State. Now, these dudes were
huge UC Davis fans. So when UC Davis won. They
were completely stoked on it. After the game,
around 10 o 'clock or so, they stopped off at
a little market in Chico called Bear's Market
to load up on some celebratory snacks for the
ride home. Pies, candy bars, sodas, and a quart
of milk. I assume it was to go with the pies.
I don't know. There's always one guy who just
drinks straight milk for some reason. My son
does it, and it turns my stomach every time.
He's 14 years old. Loves him a glass of milk
and it disgusts me every time. What is wrong
with this boy? Good for his bones, man. I don't
believe that. So after buying their celebratory
snacks, they get back in the car and left Chico
heading off into the night. And that was the
last time anyone ever saw the five of them alive
together. By morning. None of them were home.
Every single one of them broke from their daily
routine. No one showed up for breakfast. No one
was getting ready for the tournament. And within
hours, their families were calling each other,
realizing that something was seriously wrong.
So what happened? I was going to ask if you have
any theories, but you already know this story,
so that would be pointless. Oh, yeah. No, I still
don't have any theories. It's a total mystery
to me. Well, let's see. Well, maybe we can figure
it out together. Probably not. We're not that
smart. As a team. Yeah. Well, from Chico to Marysville,
the drive home is crazy easy. It's just a straight
shot south. It's a drive they had made a million
times before, but sometime after they left the
market, something went sideways. Four days after
being reported missing on February 28th. Searchers
found Jack's car in Plumas National Forest, the
foothills of like the Sierra Nevadas on a remote,
remote stretch of Orville Quincy Road, about
75 miles northeast of Chico, the exact opposite
direction of where they should have been going.
And this isn't the kind of place that you like.
You don't accidentally end up here like this
is a back road. There's no pavement. It's like
logging roads and access roads type shit. It's
late February in the mountains at night. It's.
Covered in snow. The temperatures are well below
freezing once the sun goes down. There's no streetlights,
no signs. There's no gas station to bang a UE
in. Like you have to like intentionally keep
driving mile after mile uphill into worsening
conditions. Yeah. I mean, this is the kind of
road that you could just do a three point turn
on. Yeah. It's not like a busy highway. No, you
could have even just probably gone in reverse.
But anyways, so when searchers found the car,
it was stuck in a shallow snowbank. It wasn't
buried or wrecked, just lightly stuck. Like someone
tried to keep going, but then just gave up whole
hog. But what's weird is that the car seemed
fine. There was about a quarter tank of gas left
in it. The headlights were fine. There was no
bent axles, no damage underneath, even though
this was a rutted out dirt road full of. potholes
rocks and snow which means whoever drove it up
there either went painfully slow or was familiar
with the road they were traveling on okay inside
the car police found the trash from the snacks
pie boxes candy wrappers soda cans everything
eaten except for half a candy bar i don't know
why they put that detail in there i feel like
it's not important uh there was one of the windows
was rolled down the doors were unlocked and the
keys were gone so the officers they hotwired
it just to see if maybe it was stalled out, but
it started immediately. So let's recap real quick.
The car works. There's gas. Five grown men were
with it and they abandoned it for some reason.
Like they abandoned it. Yeah. And they went off
into the freezing mountains in the middle of
the night. It seems suspicious. And the location
where the car was found gets even more suspicious
if that's possible. Because like I said, this
road was obviously not. on their route and none
of the families could figure out why they would
even be there to begin with jack whose car it
was he hated the cold he hated camping and as
far as anyone else knew he as well as the others
had never been up that road before so why the
hell were they there well Police started searching
the area around where the car was to try and
answer just that. But the timing couldn't have
been worse because that same day the car was
found, a winter storm slammed the mountain and
shat nearly a foot of new snow. So any footprints,
tire tracks or any evidence like just I forgot
about this part. Yeah, it just vanished. So.
And the search teams that were out in the area
couldn't see where they were going, and they
almost got lost themselves while searching for
the men who were lost. It was bad. So whatever
happened to the five men or evidence of where
they may have headed after they left the car,
the mountain just totally erased that. Yari,
how are you feeling? Well, I think I remember,
if I remember correctly, Jack absolutely loved
this car. And he knew, like, he knew how to fix
it. So, like, if there was any issues, Jack would
have been able to take care of that. Yeah. That's
why, like, it's so suspicious that it was just
stuck in a shallow snowbank. Like, I feel like
if that had happened to Jack, like, yeah, he
hates the cold, but he would have stayed in and
four guys could have easily pushed it out of
the snowbank. Yeah, like I said, it wasn't, like,
buried in snow. It was like when you're driving
down a road and your car doesn't turn right and
you just kind of bump into a snowbank. Right.
You can easily just get out of there. Yeah. Yeah.
But investigators did receive one piece of strange
information about the car, thanks to a man by
the name of Joseph Schoen. So Schoen's told police
that on February 24th, the same night the men
went missing, he had driven up the same mountain
road earlier in the evening to check snow conditions
for a trip he was thinking of taking. I don't
know what trip. Probably a camping trip. Who
knows? Yeah. Yeah. While up there, he got his
Volkswagen stuck in the snow about 50 yards beyond
where Jack's car would later be found. And while
trying to free it, he had a heart attack. So.
I forgot about this part. So now. Yeah, winter's
going to get you. Winter's going to get you every
time. So now this man is stuck in the dark in
the mountains, having a heart attack, just sitting
in his car with the engine running for warmth
while he just waits it out until morning. He
he then told that he waits out a heart attack.
Yeah, just just. They'll make them like they
used to. You're fucking right, dude. He then
told investigators that sometime around midnight,
he heard voices outside. Then he noticed headlights
on the road, and then a little later noticed
flashlights moving around the snow. He claimed
he saw a group of people near the road, several
men and possibly a woman holding a baby. So he
shouted out for help, but when he did, the lights
shut off and then the voices went quiet. Later,
he said he saw more flashlights moving around,
so he called out again, but then the same thing
happened. The lights went out, and it was just
dead silent. Eventually, his car ran out of gas,
and as the sun came up, he ended up walking eight
miles down the mountain until he reached a lodge
and got out. After a heart attack. After he had
a heart attack, he's like, you know what? Let's
take a light walk. Yeah, he did note that on
the way down, he did pass the Mercury sitting
empty on the road, meaning the car was there
during the night in question. Now, doctors did
confirm that he suffered a heart attack, but...
I'm sorry I'm laughing at this heart attack,
but it's just so mind -blowing to me. He's like,
you know what? I don't want to turn my car around.
I'm just going to wait it out. Well, he was trying
to get it unstuck, and I think he overexerted
himself, and that's what caused the heart attack.
I don't think he... I know, but I'm thinking
he could just put it in reverse and roll backwards
for a little bit. Maybe. He's on a hill. I don't
know. Maybe he spun out and, like, buried himself.
I have no idea. Yeah, that could be it, too.
Yeah, he could just be stuck. Yeah, so, like
I said, the doctors did confirm that he suffered
from a heart attack, but because of that, some
of his account from the night may be a little
unreliable. He could have been confused about
the number of people he saw, the order of events,
things like that. Also, sometimes when you have
a heart attack, you can start hallucinating just
because you're all fucked up. I guess. Yeah,
but, like, little things, like the detail about
a woman holding a baby. that's kind of weird.
I don't know if you're the kind of guy who has
a heart attack. The next day you walk eight miles.
I feel like you're probably pretty with it. I
mean, that's what I, I'm not saying that I say
that I was saying some people think, you know,
I think he's probably fine, but I mean, what,
what does, but what does line up is that he heard
voices near the car that night. He saw lights
moving around and whoever was out there didn't
come and help them. So that's kind of fucked
up. So if it really was the five men, then at
some point after midnight, they were walking
around in the snow with flashlights and just
straight up ignored this dude's cries for help,
which is kind of fucked up. And if it wasn't
them, then someone else was on the road that
night, which is unsettling. Well, yeah, that
and the woman with the baby thing is kind of
mind blowing to me like this. I mean, it could
just be a very dedicated Swedish family. You
know, they love to put their kids in the snow.
They do. I can confirm, by the way. Raised by
a Swede. Out there all the time. What do they
do with babies? Do they put them in a bassinet
and just put them on the fucking balcony? Yeah,
basically. My parents never did that because
they love me. I'm kidding. You're kidding. They
don't love you and they definitely did that?
No, not at all. They put me out in the snow all
the time. But either way, Shones is the only
known person who may have encountered anything
connected to them while they were still alive.
And from there, the search dragged on for days,
then weeks with nothing to show for it. No clothes,
no gear, no bodies, just trees and snow. And
eventually with more storms coming and no new
leads, officials were forced to scale back their
efforts as winter essentially just like sealed
off the forest. So. For more than three months,
nobody knew what had happened to the Yuba County
Five. That is until June when the snow finally
started to melt and people were able to get deeper
into the forest. And it wasn't long into June
because on June 4th, 1978, a group of motorcyclists
riding through a remote area called Rogers Cow
Camp noticed a strong, rotten stench drifting
through the trees. They followed it to a Forest
Service trailer that was sitting alone in the
woods. The door was locked, but one of the windows
had been smashed in, so they took a look through
the broken window and saw a body lying on one
of the beds. It was the body of Ted Ware. Now,
this trailer is about 19 or 20 miles from where
the car had been found, meaning at least one
of the men had walked roughly 20 miles through
the mountains to reach it, which is fucking crazy.
Yeah. Now, when his body was discovered, he had
lost somewhere between 80 and 100 pounds. Super
emaciated. And his beard was long and thick,
meaning he had survived there for weeks after
disappearing. His shoes were gone and five of
his toes had been lost to frostbite and gangrene
was starting to spread up his feet and legs.
The coroner ruled his cause of death as exposure
along with starvation. What's fucked up about
that isn't the fact he died or how he died. It's
how he was found. Where it wasn't found sprawled
out like he had just dropped dead, he was lying
on a bed, hands resting neatly on his chest,
tucked in under eight layers of sheets and blankets
as if someone had tried to keep him warm. Next
to him on a small table were his personal belongings.
his wallet with the cash still inside his ring
engraved with his name his gold change so nothing
was stolen like it was all just laid out also
on the table was a watch that didn't belong to
any of the five men that no one could explain
then investigators started taking a look like
around the trailer and this is where it gets
kind of confusing so Outside in one of the storage
sheds, they found 31 open cans of U .S. Army
C rations, and whoever opened them used a military
P -38 can opener. Now, only two of the men, Jack
and Gary, had any Army experience. Gary was a
veteran. I believe Jack was, too. And they would
have known how to use it. Now, I looked up this
can opener, and I was like, how fucking hard
can it be to open a can opener? Dude, this thing
is a nightmare. It's a straight edge, basically.
Yeah. This isn't like the Swiss Army can opener
that you have in your Swiss Army knife. This
thing is insane. Yeah, it's fucking stupid, and
I feel like you shouldn't need special army training
to open it. No, it's so weird looking. Yeah,
so at least one of those two was also alive long
enough to make it to the trailer, find stored
food, and open dozens of cans of it. They also
found extra clothing taken from the storage.
and evidence that a candle had been lit. So,
I mean, this all sounds like your standard survival
kind of thing. Like they're just surviving until
you learn about what they didn't use. In that
same shed was a locker full of dehydrated meals,
enough food to feed five men for almost a year.
And that was never opened. The trailer where
Ted's body was found had a propane heating system.
All you had to do was turn a valve. It was never
turned on. There were matches, furniture that
could have been burned, paperback books, wood,
but no fire was ever made. So someone was smart
enough to break in, find food, extra clothing,
all that, but not smart enough or not able to
heat the trailer, use the largest food supply
sitting right there, or at the very least start
a fire. Like I said, excuse me. Like I said,
it looks like survival, but mixed with... total
failure to do the most basic survival things.
Investigators believe that Ted may have lived
in the trailer for four to eight weeks before
dying, which means that while the families were
searching for him, Ted slowly starved to death
in a shelter that had literally everything in
it that could have saved him. And as I mentioned
before, he wasn't alone inside the trailer. They
found Gary Mathias's shoes. Ted's were gone.
Gary's high tops were there. I don't know why
they switched shoes. Maybe it has something to
do with Gary's feet about to get frostbite. Ted's
were already fucking long gone. So they switched
it. I really don't know. But what it means is
that the two reached the trailer together. This
would explain how the cans of food were opened
using the stupid army can opener because Gary
was one of the two of the five that was an army
veteran. But it makes it even weirder because
as an army veteran, he would have had survival
training like that. None of which seemed to kick
in. Which is great. I'm sure he would have known
how to turn on the heater, too. I mean, he would
have known at least how to make a fire. That's
what I'm saying. It's weird. So two of the men
made it this far, but only one left the trailer.
And once Ted Weir's body was found inside, search
teams changed up their tactics on how they were
going to start looking for the men. Instead of
just combing the area randomly, they started
working backwards, tracing the road from the
trailer to the abandoned car to try and find
out where the rest of the group may have fallen.
On June 5th, about 11 miles back down the road
from the trailer, searchers found the remains
of Jack and Bill. They were discovered on opposite
sides of the road, not far from each other, but
by that point, animals had just been going at
them for months. Jack's body had been dragged
roughly 10 feet into a stream bed and was lying
face up. Bill's remains were mostly bones at
this point, and they were scattered over 50 feet
of ground. The coroner ruled Jack's cause of
death as hypothermia. Bill's official cause of
death was listed as undetermined because again,
mostly bones. Yeah. So the assumption is that
he also froze to death, which is probably a safe
assumption. Mostly bones is a great name for
like a metal band. Mostly bones. Like an indie
pop band actually now that I think about it.
Yeah. Or if you're doing like a, like a clutch
kind of like that weird stoner rock kind of stuff.
Yeah. I think mostly bones. I think it could
work for that. The Yuba 5, actually, sadly, is
also a good name for a band. It is pretty good.
R .I .P., boys. But besides that, the only thing
they found was in Jack's pants pocket, and that
was his car keys, meaning Jack, the driver, walked
away from his car with the keys and died 11 miles
from it in the snow. Now, two days later, on
June 7th and 8th, the remains of Jackie Hewitt
were found. This one's a bit rough. This is where
I was kind of like, oh, shit. So even though
authorities warned him not to, Jackie's father
insisted on joining the search, and while canvassing
about two miles northeast of the trailer, he
spotted something in the brush, a gray jacket
belonging to his son. When he picked it up, a
human spine slipped out of it. I'm sorry. It's
fucked up. Yeah. Kind of the worst person to
find that. Yeah. The rest of his remains were
scattered nearby. Bones, his jeans, his orthopedic
high top sneakers. And then a day later, because
again, this was over the course of two days,
a deputy found a skull about 100 yards downhill
and dental records confirmed it was Jackie's.
And like Bill, Jackie's remains were too far
gone to determine an exact cause of death. But
there was no signs of trauma or anything to suggest
foul play. So it's safe to assume he went out
like the rest of them. So by now, four of the
five men had been found. One in a trailer, one
just short of the trailer, and two along the
road miles away. But one of them was still missing,
Gary Mathias. So Gary was different from the
other four in one key way. He didn't have an
intellectual disability. He was a paranoid schizophrenic.
When Gary was on his meds, he was stable. When
he didn't, things could go... horribly wrong
uh and in the past during episodes he would become
disoriented and wander long distances so the
question naturally came up had gary survived
long enough longer than the others to simply
walk off the mountain there were clues that gary
had made it to the trailer with ted Like I said,
inside they found his high -top sneakers and
Ted's leather shoes were missing. Outside the
trailer, they found three Forest Service wool
blankets lying near the road, a rusted flashlight
with dead batteries, and a gray cigarette lighter.
Now, none of the items could be definitively
tied to Gary, but their presence there hinted
that someone had been moving around the area
for some time. Authorities searched for Gary
for about two more weeks after finding the others.
They combed the woods, the roads, nearby ravines.
They looked for his glasses, clothing, personal
items, bones, nothing. And because he needed
daily medication to stay stable, they checked
hospitals, shelters and mental health facilities
all across California and even further out. His
photo and description were circulated nationwide.
But again. Nothing. He never turned up, which
means Gary died somewhere. The search party never
reached or he somehow made it off the made it
out of the wilderness and just vanished into
the world. Now, yeah, most investigators believe.
Option one is far more likely. The forest is
huge. There's snow, animals, and just time itself
can completely erase a body. If he had wandered
off the road and into deep brush or down a ravine,
no one's finding him. You're just gone forever
at that point. But if he survived and made it
out, he would have had to do it in a full blown
state of psychosis, possibly half blind if something
happened to his glasses and in just. The absolute
worst weather conditions. But like I said, no
one has ever reported seeing him anywhere. So
who knows? And officially, Gary Mathias is still
listed as missing. He was never declared dead,
which means the story of the Yuba County five
doesn't end in the trailer. And people have some
theories as to what happened that night. And
there are a bunch of them. So I chose a few.
How am I going to word this? I've chose some
that are more likely the reason for what happened.
And then a few that are just our bread and butter
just out there. Right. Insane, insane theories.
Yeah. So first up, we got just a wrong turn.
That's it. The most likely explanation is that
the men missed a key turn after leaving Chico
and ended up driving east into the mountains
instead of south towards home. There's a poorly
marked junction near Oroville Road, and if you
miss it at night, the road naturally drags you
uphill into remote terrain. Once they hit snow,
they likely kept driving until the car got stuck,
and then from there, they made the fatal decision
to leave the vehicle and look for help on foot.
Their bodies being found along the road between
the car and the trailer supports the idea that
they just kept walking deeper into the forest
instead of turning back. This explains why the
car was where it was and why the men were scattered
along the road, but doesn't explain why they
drove so far without realizing something was
wrong. Like you would, you would think that after
a while, especially if you're driving a drive
that you've driven a million times, you'd be
like, Hey, normally this is paved and not woods
at some point. Yeah. I would hope. Me too. And
then. Yeah. And then theory to just straight
up hypothermia and impaired judgment. By the
time like Ted Ware and Gary Mathias reached the
trailer, both of them had already been walking
for miles in deep snow, freezing temperatures
for who knows how long. And hypothermia doesn't
just make you cold. It causes confusion, bad
decisions and emotional instability. People can
still walk, talk and eat, but your brains kind
of stop working. Right. So where Matthias reached
the trailer already hypothermic, that could explain
the contradictions inside. They were able to
break in, find food and open cans, but fail to
do the most obvious lifesaving things like turning
on the propane heater or opening the locker full
of dehydrated meals. Instead, they relied on
what was just directly in front of them. So blankets,
a candle, canned rations. And if Gary's mental
health started to deteriorate once he ran out
of medication, that would have made. Everything
much worse. A hypothermic brain plus untreated
schizophrenia is a fucking brutal combo. Even
with shelter, the two of them may not have been
capable of planning, conserving energy or recognizing
how close they were to freezing to death. So,
yeah, this theory isn't like they didn't know
what to do. It's both of them are physically
and mentally compromised before they even reached
the safety of a trailer. And then this is where
this is kind of the middle theory, whereas we're
not absolutely batshit. But this is kind of like
a theory that some people have. And this is that
they were getting there. And this is that they
were chased or forced into the mountains. So
this theory kind of says that the men didn't
choose that road. They were kind of driven up
it. Somewhere after leaving Chico, they may have
encountered the wrong people or seen something
they shouldn't have. Maybe they witnessed a crime
cross paths with violent people or just simply
unlucky enough to be noticed by someone who's
fucking out of their minds. Joseph shown story
about hearing voices and seeing lights near the
car that night fuels this kind of theory, suggesting
there may have been other people out there. Supporters
argue that five men wouldn't willingly abandon
a car unless they were scared of something. The
problem is there's no physical evidence of violence.
There's no. Yeah. And maybe the lady just didn't
vaccinate that baby. But there's. I would run
from an unvaccinated baby. Yeah. But yeah, there's
there's no bullet wounds, no stab wounds. There's
no sign of a struggle. If someone forced them
into the mountains, they did it without ever
touching them and then just left them there to
die, which is creepy as hell. But also, it's
a very inefficient murder plan, if you ask me.
Also, was it Gary was found in the trailer? He
still had his money. So the world's worst robbers.
Yeah, they weren't good at what they do. And
it was Ted in the trailer still, I believe. Gary
was the one who went with Ted. And then Gary's
still missing. And then now we're moving into
our kind of shit. So the fourth theory is military
or government involvement. You said this before.
We started recording. This story has also been
dubbed America's Dyatlov Pass. So this series
treats the case like the U .S. version of that.
The idea is that the men accidentally wandered
into some kind of secret military activity in
the mountains. weapons testing, training exercises,
or some sort of surveillance operation and were
either chased off or intentionally misled into
the wilderness. People like to point to Gary
Mathias being an army veteran and also to like
nearby military facilities as evidence that something
official could have been happening out there.
Some versions claim the men were mistaken for
intruders or were considered loose ends after
seeing something classified. And there's no evidence
for this beyond like vibes. There's no documents,
no witnesses. There's no sign of a cover -up.
But when a case makes no sense... I got something,
though. What do you got? This is in the 60s,
right? 78? MKUltra, baby. Maybe they dosed these
poor guys with some LSD and sent them into the
woods to see what would happen. That is possible.
78? When did MKUltra happen? MKUltra was discovered
in 1971. The military... The thing is one of
the guys was a vet. He would have been able to
speak military to them, you know, like they're
not, they're not going to, I just, none of this,
then none of that makes sense to me. Like, what
could they possibly seen on a dark road that
would have forced them? Like, just no, no, no,
no, no, no. You want to know, you want to know
what they could have seen on a dark wood, dark,
dark road in the middle of the woods. What's
that? Well, because this happened deep. In a
Northern California forest, some people believe
the man ran into something not human. Maybe a
Bigfoot? Oh, I thought you were going to say
Nephilim. Yeah, Bigfoot. Honestly, to me, Bigfoot
sounds more reasonable than the United States
military finding five guys on the side of the
road. Just decided to kill them. Yeah, yeah.
Now, if this were happening today, if someone
were to blame the government today, I would believe
that. But back in 1978, they're going to be like,
go home you didn't see anything and they'd be
like okay yeah all right so i'm far more willing
to believe bigfoot did this all right well the
reason why people think it's bigfoot is is the
idea is that whatever they encountered scared
them off the road they abandoned their car in
a panic and then fled into the trees the smash
trailer window and their irrational behavior
get folded into this theory as like a fear response
instead of just confusion from But again, there's
no physical evidence of a cryptid attack. There's
no tracks, no wounds, no witnesses. But the theory
survives because it answers the emotional question.
What would scare five grown men enough to walk
into a frozen forest instead of staying in their
car? So in this version, it's not the cold didn't
start the disaster. It just kind of finished
it. Right. Yeah. It exacerbated the situation.
Yeah. So what really happened that night? Who's
to say? It was probably a good mix of like theory
one and two with a couple other factors thrown
in. Yeah. But we won't ever really know. The
Yuba County five case doesn't end with a revelation
or a villain. It just kind of stops. Just five
dudes leave a basketball game and somehow end
up in a frozen hellscape where every decision
they make just makes things worse. So whether
they were lost, scared, confused or running for
something, the result is the same. Four men are
dead and one is still out there. So whatever
really happened up there, it didn't need monsters
or conspiracies to be horrifying. Sometimes the
scariest thing is just how easy it is to disappear
when the road ends and the snow decides you don't
get to leave, which I'm starting to feel right
now. I do. So my theory is basically the same
as yours, I think. I think they probably got
stuck in the snowbank, realized that they didn't
know where they were. And I think. My my belief
is that the guy having the heart attack, him
screaming probably scared them. Yeah. Into thinking
that a either a they were on private property
or be, you know, maybe they thought something
more nefarious, but they probably got spooked.
And that's why they took off into the woods.
The fact that you find kind of almost like I
hate to say this because it sounds so awful,
but like human breadcrumbs, like the bodies.
It's so terrible in stages. It just tells me
that hypothermia picked them off one at a time
and the remaining two got in the trailer, but
they were probably deep into hypothermia. And
by the time maybe the hypothermia subsided for
Gary, the other guy was already too far gone.
He's like, I'll go get help. He hasn't been taking
his medication. Schizophrenia set in. It's a
horrible combination. It is. I feel like. And
I feel like we're talking about this case. Like
people focus too much on the fact that they were,
uh, mentally disabled. Like it, they, they were
like, I, I feel like they were all pretty well,
like they're all fairly high fun. I think Jackie
was the only one that kind of like relied on
the other ones a bit, but even then he was still
like, I don't think it had anything to do with
that. People just like to focus on that because
I guess it makes it more sad or something, but.
I think that I think that they were perfectly
capable of accomplishing a number of things.
And I think, you know, to try and blame this
on their mental disability is it's not giving
them enough credit. I think that these guys probably
could have done whatever they needed to to survive.
Yeah, it's because I was when I was researching
it, they focus on that fact heavily, but nothing
they said had anything. There's no evidence or
like they just kept bringing it up like it doesn't
matter. Like these dudes are fine. And one guy,
and one guy, you know, he's heavily medicated
and a normal functioning adult. It's just, if
he goes off his medication, he's in trouble.
So like, I just, you know, and I'm sure he wasn't
off his medication that day. I'm sure he took
it before he left and that med stays in your
system for a little while. So I'm sure over time,
over the course of maybe a couple of days or
even weeks, it'll get worse and worse and worse.
But I mean. i think i agree with you i think
it's messed up i also you know so many different
things that i found when i first heard about
the story kept calling referring to them as the
boys um and that was grown men full -on grown
men fully capable grown men you know some developmental
disabilities but like that could have meant anything
back in 1978 you know could have been dyslexia
you know what i mean yeah like high functioning
autism like they yeah They were fine. I really
do think that the guy having the heart attack,
I forget his first name, Mr. Schoen, screaming
is probably what scared them off. They were probably
just not sure what to do, didn't know how to
solve the problem, and better to run away. you
know, it's also very easy to get turned around
in the woods when they, when it's snowing, I
go hiking in the woods all the time. Like it's
snowing and dark. Like dude, you're. Yeah. Especially
in the dark. It's, it's really disorienting.
But even like you could be disoriented in the
dark and then once the sun comes up, you're just
fucked. Like you. Yeah. And then it snowed again.
You can't even retrace your own footsteps. Right.
Like it's all just a nightmare. Um, but yeah,
so that's a, that's the story of, uh, of these
guys i don't know if you got anything heartbreaking
story heartbreaking i mean it's not nothing about
this is crypto related i just like the mystery
of it it could be crypto related bigfoot could
have done it you know who didn't do it the fucking
government i promise you we don't know that sarge
all right it could have been anything i love
that the level of distrust for the military is
so strong They think that they were just going
into civilian territory, abducting and killing
people. Maybe Gary was in on it. Maybe Gary,
you know. Sleeper agent. Exactly. He got activated
by a number station that they heard on the radio.
Exactly. Oh, we fucking nailed it, dude. It's
all coming together now. Yeah. We're fucking
so dumb. Okay. All right. So that's the story.
It was just, I don't know. I watched something
about it. And then I did something. I don't know.
It's just stuck with me and I want a haunting
story. It's a really haunting story. I just wanted
to talk about it. Um, yeah. Yeah. Uh, so yeah,
I guess that's it. Sarge, you got any questions,
comments, concerns before we wrap this up? No,
no. Um, I, I'm not going to say I'm good. I'm
okay with the story. Was there anything I missed?
I don't know, because again, you know about this.
No, no, I think you got it all. I mean, the one
part that I forgot, so for me, the most disturbing
part was when they found the guy in the trailer
with the missing toes and everything. That really
bugged me, especially because he was surrounded
by food. For me, it was the human spine falling
out of a jacket. I forgot about that part. Yeah.
I forgot about that part. Again, sorry I laughed.
That was a nervous response. It's not funny.
I do the same thing sometimes. So I get it. Um,
all right. So yeah, that's it. Um, sorry. Do
you got anything you want to plug before I, uh,
before we sign off? No, just a pre -order one
of our t -shirts. We'll pre -order our t -shirt.
Um, we're making them in conjunction with all
the others, as you mentioned before, find the
link on a cryptic cocktails page. We're going
to donate to, um, help the folks that are being
terrorized by our own government. And fuck ICE.
We have a platform. Might as well use it for
good, right? Yeah, agreed. Exactly. All right.
So, yeah. So, like Sarge said, crushedice .bigcartel
.com. 25 bucks. Get a shirt. I'm going to be
fucked when it comes time to ship all these.
So, it's going to be a minute. Yeah, let me know
if you need some help. And you can follow us
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Cocktail Party. Please leave us a five -star
rating and review. It really helps. And I guess
with that out of the way, Sarge, do you want
to say goodbye and I love you to the audience?
Audience, goodbye and I love you.