Disappearance of Yuba County Five

Date: February 24, 1978 • Location: Chico, United States

Five men disappeared after attending a college basketball game in Chico, California; the bodies of four of them were discovered months later.

The Yuba County Five were young men from Yuba County, California, United States, each with mild intellectual disabilities or psychiatric conditions, who were reported missing after attending a college basketball game at California State University, Chico, on the night of February 24, 1978. Four of them—Bill Sterling, 29; Jack Huett, 24; Ted Weiher, 32; and Jack Madruga, 30—were later found dead; the fifth, Gary Mathias, 25, has never been found.