LogFAQs > #944117863

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

Basically, a group of men with (not well-diagnosed but fairly high functioning) developmental and mental disorders went to a basketball game two towns over in northern California and ended up missing. Their car was found fairly soon after their disappearance but it was WAY out of the way -- at the snowline in the mountains of a national forest thousands of feet in elevation and miles away from any where they should have been going. The car was in working condition and had enough gas to get back home (or close enough to it). There were no apparent signs of a struggle.

The search parties never initially found their bodies. A few months later a group of bikers stopped at a national parks service trailer campground -- about 15-20 miles from the car -- and found a dead body, Ted, wrapped in sheets on the bed, with a melted candle on the bedside table. 36 cans of rations had been eaten, but none of the warmer clothes in the trailer had been used, and there were more food supplies that had been untouched. Ted had lost 80 pounds and based on beard growth may have survived for 4-13 weeks after being lost. Three of the others were found fairly nearby -- Jack Huett was a couple miles from the trailer, while Jack Madroga and Bill were found on opposite sides of the road about 5-10 miles back. The shoes of the fifth man, Gary, were found near Ted's body and Ted's own shoes were missing. Gary's body was never found.

The reason they weren't initially found is that these campgrounds were uphill and farther into the wilderness and there had been snowfall. No one had assumed the young men would have gotten out of their car and trekked forward into the wilderness blindly. They hated the outdoors. This is unusual behavior for people who are lost - usually people wander in circles or go back to where they came from. And remember, they were prepared for late February weather in Northern California - that's not that cold unless you go up into the damn mountains. I walk pretty fast and I can cover about 2 miles in 30 minutes and then my pace will fall off -- and thats on totally flat and paved terrain. These guys went 10+ miles uphill in the snow.

In addition to the obvious strangeness of the story a few other things stick out:
-Gary was newer to the crew and the only one to not be considered mentally challenged. Jack Madroga wasn't formally diagnosed, but was a "slow learner" and the other men had various challenges functioning. Gary was schizophrenic and had some history of violence.
-The only reason anyone could come up with for why the boys ended up where they were is that Gary had a friend in a nearby town. Investigators figure they were going there but missed a turn in the dark.
-The guy who had a heart attack and (Maybe?) saw them supposedly said some things that the police were able to verify, and thus was taken seriously. But his story changed a few times and he never really claimed to be reliable, so its weird it was taken so seriously imo


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