June 12, 2018 ▸ Conspiracy, True Crime

Episode 305: The Yuba Five: A Truly Creepy Missing Person’s Case

On this episode of the Sofa Kind Podcast, we look at a truly strange and creepy missing persons case from the 1970s, the case of the Yuba Five. Also called the Mathais Group (named after one of the members—Gary Mathais), this was a group of mentally ill and mentally disabled men who vanished under very odd circumstances and were found dead (four of the five of them) several months later in an isolated cabin in the California Mountains.

The group of men were tight friends who shared a love of sports. In fact, their basketball team, the Gateway Gators, were on the verge of a huge playoff game that would have taken them to a Special Olympics game that would have been an all-expense paid trip to Los Angeles. A few days before this big game, however, they went to see a college basketball game at Chico State. On their way home from the game, they stopped for snacks at a convenience store, and the Yuba Five were never seen alive again. Sort of. Maybe.

One other store clerk some 70 miles away later identified some of the missing men based on police photos as people who came to her store that same night to buy more snacks and use the phone. However, nobody who any of the men knew received a call that night. Even more odd, a man who owned a cabin the mountains (named Joseph Schons) accidentally drove his car off the side of the road due to a snow storm and had a heart attack. While laying his car in excruciating pain, he heard the men and a loud whistle and called for help. The people apparently heard his calls for help but fell silent and didn’t come to his aid. Schons found the missing car the next day, as did a park ranger, and the rest got really strange.

The car belonged to one of the men. It, too had apparently fallen off the side of the road due to a massive winter storm that moved into the dangerous mountain roads (roads they had no reason or business being on). The car had an open window in spite of the snow storm and was 70 miles from home in a place the men had no reason to be.

Several months later, after the spring thaw, the bodies of these men were found in a trailer owned by the forest service. The bodies of the three of them were found partially eaten and decayed around the vicinity the trailer (almost 20 miles from their car!). One of them was dead in the cabin and wrapped in a shroud. Evidence suggested that he had been living here for up to 13 weeks before he died of starvation. However, inside the trailer was enough food and emergency rations to last five people a year!

Why did a man starve to death in the mountains while surrounded with rations? Who wrapped him in a death shroud? Why didn’t he have any shoes? What happened to Mathias, the only one whose body was never found? Who was the woman with a child appearing on the side of the road? What was the eerie whistling heard in the woods? Were the Yuba Five running from someone? Were they running to someone? This one is very strange, so listen, laugh, and learn.