Mystery Yuba County Five ("American Dyatlov Pass")

[LicoriceAllsorts]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Gary_Mathias

On the night of February 24, 1978, a group of five young men from Yuba City, California, United States, all with mild mental or psychiatric issues, attended a college basketball game played at California State University, Chico. Afterwards, they stopped at a local market for snacks and drinks. Four of them - Bill Sterling, age 29 Jack Huett, age 24, Ted Weiher, age 32, and Jack Madruga, age 30 - were later found dead; the fifth one, Gary Mathias, age 25[1] - vanished, and has never been seen again.

Thoughts on why they would go completely out of their way, and in particular what happened to Mathias? I think it might have been a team bonding session gone wrong the night before their basketball tournament

The five men are known collectively as the Yuba County Five, and the incident itself is referred to as the "American Dyatlov Pass." Police in the area continue to investigate.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Took a bit of interest in this one after it was mentioned in an ABC article and I found a 'Files of the Unexplained' episode focusing on it on Netflix.

It seems as though there's three leading theories.

1. The men innocently take a wrong turn and (with their lack of street smarts and common sense) get themselves further and further away from where they need to be, get the car stuck and then (not realising how easily they could have got the car unstuck), get themselves into deeper and deeper trouble in the Plumas national forest, leading to their deaths from exposure/starvation.

2. The men are taken to the bridge and into the forest against their will by a group who wished them harm, with a theory that Mathias was the main target and was thrown off the bridge. Terrified, the men leave their car, resulting in the rest of the story playing out similar to scenario #1: Madruga and Sterling staying together and not making it to the cabin and Weiher and Huett staying together and making it.

3. Mathias (who has never been found) became violent and forced the group to drive into the Plumas forest, once Weiher died, Mathias took his shoes (Mathias' shoes were in the cabin) and disappeared. There were unverified sighting of Mathias in the months following the mystery.

Particularly harrowing is that for those who made it to the cabin (Weiher and probably at least one other of Huett/Mathias) would have had plenty of canned food and heat, but wouldn't have known how to get the propane tank running and wouldn't (or couldn't) eat the canned food. Plus, as Weiher's nephew mentions, given the length of time he survived in the cabin (due to him being clean shaven when he disappeared and sporting a 2-3 months beard when his body was found), he certainly could have been found alive, if the search party had checked the cabin.

Not sure which I lean towards. There's cons for each theory. From the Wikipefia entry, I was leaning towards the group tragically getting lost by themselves and getting themselves in a hopeless situation and with none of them possessing the common sense to avoid their fate. The Netflix documentary seems to debunk that and appears to push more to scenario 2 or 3. If I had to pick, I'd go with scenario 2, but even then, there's a big question of why Mathias' shoes were at the cabin and how the cans of food had been opened (it's been suggested that only Mathias and Madruga would have known how to use the army style can opener that was available).