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Strange Matters is back! In our return episode the mysterious disappearance case of Yuba City is discussed, one of the strangest group vanishings in modern history.
On a cold winter night in 1978, a group of five men known by their families as “The Boys” left a basketball game and presumably traveled back home. Instead, for reasons unknown, they inexplicably drove into the mountains and would seemingly vanish into the snowy wilderness of the Sierra Nevada. When the five friends remained missing, their concerned families alerted the police. At this point law enforcement would launch an investigation that would provide more questions than answers, as everyone involved was left clueless the closer they got to solving this strange disappearance.
I was literally just talking to someone about this and saying, “that would be a great thing for Strange Matters to tackle”.
Soon as I started reading about this case I knew it would make for an interesting Strange Matters episode topic! One of the strangest mysteries we’ve come across in a while!
Dude so glad you guys are back!!!! I’ll start patronizing again!!
We’re there any wild animals that could’ve scared “The Boys” and make them scatter into the woods, separating them from each other. Hypothermia starts to kick in as they each start to deteriorate.
It’s hard to know what caused the boys to venture further up the mountain and then separate. Some type of wild animal that scared them into going up the mountain instead of down and causing them to get lost seems like a possible theory! As the families of the men said, it didn’t make since for them to just go out on their own up there to die. I think something must have made them go up there. Whether it was an animal or a person is anyone’s guess at this point though!
Did anyone investigate the owners of the cabin? Or investigate further the reports of the man who claimed he encountered them while having a heart attack? He would be a suspect in my mind, as well as the owners of the cabin.
The trailer was run by the local Forest Service, as far as I was able to take from what I’ve read the trailer the men were found around were basically open to the public. There was the gold watch on the bedside table besides Ted’s body that didn’t belong to any of the five, which to me could be the only hint that perhaps someone else had been there recently.
As for Joseph Schons, his story seemed to check out as he was admitted to the hospital the day after the men went missing from the heart attack and his car was found by his own trailer as expected. I couldn’t find any more information besides his story in newspaper articles, would be interesting to know if the police ever considered him a suspect!
Makes for a strange case in that there are basically no leads to go on in terms of suspects if there was someone else with the missing Yuba City men!