The Disappearance of the Yuba County Five

Joe Shones was having a heart attack on the road. He quickly jumped out of the car and headed toward the oncoming vehicle, screaming for help and waving his arms. But no one paid him any attention – later, he said he watched as a group of men, a single woman, and a little baby walked right by. It must have been hours later, he remembered, when he thought he saw flashlights in the trees. He tried calling out again, but – again – got no response...By the time his car ran out of gas, the excruciating pain in Shones' chest had receded enough that he felt he could handle the eight mile walk down the snowy road to a lodge he knew would be occupied. On the way, he recalled, he spotted a 1969 Mercury Montego on the side of the road – complete empty. He assumed the vehicle belonged to the people he'd seen passing by hours before...In that moment, Shones wasn't too worried about the strange group of people he'd encountered – he was focused on handling an emergency of his own. Later, though, authorities pieced together that it wasn't Shones' near-death experience that was the strangest thing to happen that night. Instead, it was the fact that Joe Shones had – in all likelihood – been the last person to see Bill Sterling, Ted Weiher, Jack Madruga, Jack Huett, and Gary Mathias alive.