Marysville

So these guys all come together at a place called the Gateway Projects.

And it's a place that was in Yuba City where they were all from and in and around Yuba City, Marysville, California, where they would teach you a trade and they would work with people that were handicapped, like four of them were with these mild to moderate intellectual disabilities.

And they were on a basketball team there through the Gateway Projects called the Gateway Gators.

It was a special Olympics basketball team.

Of course, back in two thousand and seven when I first started, you know, this is one of the most famous pictures.

This is the, the fire station in Marysville, California, and all this used to be grass years and years ago, but they turned it into a parking lot, and then they added cell phone towers.

The city said, "Hey, we can make some money." Well, those, those, uh, cellphone tower equipment sheds you see there on the right have air conditioners on them, and I can remember vividly standing there next to the MMTS with hot air blowing on me from these air conditioners.

And I said to myself, "This is where they're measuring climate?" Fortunately, a few months after I exposed this, NWS quietly closed the station.

It's a mystery defined by a series of nonsensical decisions that led five young men away from a celebratory night out and into a frozen, desolate death.

On February 24th, the anniversary was just recently here, nineteen seventy-eight, five men from Marysville and Yuba City, Bill Sterling, age twenty-nine, Jack Madruga, age thirty, Ted Weiher, age thirty-two, Jack Huett, age twenty-four, and Gary Mathias, age twenty-five, drove to Chico to watch a UC Davis basketball game.

The men were close friends, often referred to as the boys.

Now, they all had mild intellectual disabilities or psychiatric conditions.

The office manager told us that three days before, Mrs. Chaney had resigned her job by letter.

She asked that her final paycheck be sent to her mother, who lived in Marysville, California.

We contacted the Marysville Police Department immediately, and the home of Chaney's mother-in-law was placed under 24-hour surveillance.

We now had more than a half a dozen stakeouts going.

A week passed.

First pitch today, 340-hour time.

The Ballers will finish their season in Marysville, facing the Yuba-Sutter Freebirds.

I'm Brian Watt, KQED News.

Now, here's a deeper dive into some Bay Area news.

In Gridley, uh, you've got The Herald.

The Territorial Dispatch, that's Marysville, Yuba City.

I just spoke with people in Marysville and Yuba City area today regarding their wonderful businesses.

They're very interested in talking to me about Pat's Peeps.

Also, Paul, Colusa County Pioneer Review.

So these guys all come together at a place called the Gateway Projects.

And it's a place that was in Yuba City where they were all from and in and around Yuba City, Marysville, California, where they would teach you a trade and they would work with people that were handicapped, like four of them were with these mild to moderate intellectual disabilities.

And they were on a basketball team there through the Gateway Projects called the Gateway Gators.

It was a special Olympics basketball team.

It's a mystery defined by a series of nonsensical decisions that led five young men away from a celebratory night out and into a frozen, desolate death.

On February 24th, the anniversary was just recently here, 1978, five men from Marysville and Yuba City, Bill Sterling, age 29, Jack Madruga, age 30, Ted Weir, age 32, Jack Hewitt, age 24, and Gary Matthias, age 25, drove to Chico to watch a UC Davis basketball game.

The men were close friends, often referred to as the boys.

Now, they all had mild intellectual disabilities or psychiatric conditions.

Three of the others would be found along the mountain road below him, and the fifth has never been found at all.

The men the press would come to call the Yuba County Five lived in the flat farm country around Marysville and Yuba City, about 40 miles north of Sacramento.

Ted Wire was 32, a warm, talkative man who'd worked as a janitor and on a utility crew.

Jack Madruga, 30, was an Army veteran who'd driven trucks for the service and who had recently been laid off from a job at a fruit-packing plant.

The visit was unremarkable, and his next appointment was already on the calendar.

All five were connected through Gateway Projects, a local vocational program that trained adults with disabilities for work, and all five played on its basketball team, the Gateway Gators.

On Saturday morning, February 25th, the Gators were due to meet their coach outside a Marysville department store at 8 o'clock.

From there, they were to ride to a Special Olympics regional tournament at Sierra College, northeast of Sacramento.