On February 24, 1978, five friends left a college basketball game in Chico, California and never came home. Days later their car was found abandoned on a remote mountain road in the Plumas National Forest, seventy miles in the wrong direction. Four of the men were eventually found dead. The fifth, Gary Mathias, was never found at all.

In this episode:

• The night of the game and the drive that went seventy miles off course
• The abandoned Mercury and Joseph Schons, the stranger stranded on the same road that night
• The Forest Service trailer, the tucked sheets, and Ted's months of survival
• The search for Gary Mathias and the 2020 sheriff's memo calling it a homicide case
• Every major theory: the wrong turn, foul play, the bridge, and what the evidence actually supports

Sources: Wikipedia (Yuba County Five), StrangeOutdoors.com, Den of Geek, Tony Wright's Things Aren't Right: The Disappearance of the Yuba County Five (2024), Netflix's Files of the Unexplained Season 1 Episode 3, Stuff You Should Know.

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Keywords: Yuba County Five, Gary Mathias, 1978 disappearance, Plumas National Forest, Chico California, unsolved mystery, missing persons, Ted Weiher, Jack Madruga, Bill Sterling, Jackie Huett

In November 1929, a young London occultist named Norah "Netta" Fornario traveled to the remote, wind-swept Scottish island of Iona. Deeply embedded in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn lineage and Alpha et Omega temple, Netta was searching for a "thin place"—a geographic portal where the earthly veil drops and nature spirits can be summoned. Days later, she was dead.

Was she the victim of a catastrophic psychic feud? Did she successfully open a gateway to interdimensional UAPs or the mythical Sidhe? Or did her extreme ritual fasting trigger a tragic, undiagnosed medical emergency known as metabolic acidosis?

Join host Amanda Joy as we peel back the layers of this classic gothic mystery, exploring the physical evidence left on the mound, the strange chemical reaction that turned her silver cross pitch black, and the final night that the island of Iona refuses to give up.

Connect With Us

Thank you for walking down this crooked path with me! Let’s keep the conversation going on social media:

• TikTok: @downthecrookedpath
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✨ Creator Shoutout: Massive love to our incredible creators collective! Give them a follow for all things eerie and unexplained on Instagram: @spookypodsquad

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Step into the overgrown, foggy paths of London's historic graveyard as we uncover one of the most bizarre chapters in modern vampire lore. In the early 1970s, a media-fueled frenzy gripped the city, transforming a local ghost hunt into a full-blown paranormal media circus. At the center of this unexplained mystery were two rival researchers, David Farrant and Sean Manchester, whose bitter obsession with tracking down the elusive Highgate vampire sparked a Fifty-Year War.

From midnight cemetery raids and shocking court evidence to a 1974 Old Bailey prison sentence and decades of digital sabotage, Amanda Joy breaks down the raw, human madness behind the myth

🕸️ Where to Find Down the Crooked Path

Don't get lost in the dark! Follow the trail and join our community of mystery junkies online:

• Instagram: @DownTheCrookedPath — Behind-the-scenes look at the graveyards, historic crime photos, and episode visual aids.
• TikTok: @DownTheCrookedPath— Bite-sized deep dives into the world's strangest urban legends.
• Facebook: Down the Crooked Path Podcast Discussion Group — Chat with Amanda and fellow listeners about tonight's case.

🎙️ Community Shout-Out

A massive shout-out to our incredible network at the Creators Collective! We wouldn't be here without the absolute best community of indie audio storytellers. If you love things that go bump in the night, go give our eerie family a follow over on Instagram at the @SpookyPodSquad for your ultimate fix of daily macabre content and indie podcast recommendations.

Want to sink your teeth into the primary documents, and deep dives used to map out tonight's journey? Explore the links below:

• Gothic History Breakdown: Read the historical timeline, cultural impact, and secondary accounts of the rivalry on the Gothic lore archives at David Castleton's The Serpent's Pen Blog.
• The 1974 Legal Case: Read the original archival reporting on David Farrant's Old Bailey trial and the media frenzy surrounding the cemetery desecration via the New York Times Archival Library.
• The Magician's Duel & Feud History: Explore how the urban legend completely consumed the lives of both men in the comprehensive investigative feature by The Observer.