S1:A Cold Whispers True Crime Documentary E4: The Vanishing of the Yuba County FiveIn February 1978, five close friends from Yuba County, California vanished into the snow-covered wilderness after a routine trip to a basketball game — never to return. What should have been an ordinary night turned into one of America’s most enduring mysteries. The group, known as the Yuba County Five, were found months later in baffling circumstances that defy logic, reason, and explanation.In February 1978, five close friends from Yuba County, California vanished into the snow-covered wilderness after a routine trip to a basketball game — never to return. What should have been an ordinary night turned into one of America’s most enduring mysteries. The group, known as the Yuba County Five, were found months later in baffling circumstances that defy logic, reason, and explanation.

In June 1978, four men were discovered:

• Ted Weiher, emaciated and inside a Forest Service trailer miles from the car, suggesting he survived for weeks yet didn’t use nearby supplies.

• Bill Sterling, Jack Madruga, and Jack Huett, found scattered miles apart — all dead of exposure and hypothermia.

• Gary Mathias — the fifth friend — was never found.

With no footprints leading downhill, no clear reason the car was abandoned, and unused food and heat sources nearby, the case has puzzled authorities and armchair detectives alike for nearly half a century. Some theories suggest foul play, disorientation and panic, or tragic survival mistakes. Others point to a 2020 sheriff’s memo quietly reclassifying Mathias’s disappearance as possible homicide, deepening the mystery.

Join hosts Mike and Sarah as they dive deep into:

✔ The strange route the friends took

✔ The eerie discovery of bodies in the wilderness

✔ The baffling clues no one can fully explain

✔ The unanswered questions that still haunt investigators

This is Shadow Trail — where truth, mystery, and human frailty collide. If you love deep-dive mysteries, cold cases, and true unexplained disappearances, this episode will pull you deeper into a story that still defies closure.