In February 1978, five young men from Yuba County, California, drove to Chico to watch a college basketball game. They were close friends who thrived on routine and predictability, and they had a big basketball tournament of their own the next day. But after a quick stop for snacks, Jack Madruga, Bill Sterling, Ted Weiher, Jackie Huett, and Gary Mathias vanished. Instead of driving south toward home, their car was found abandoned 70 miles in the opposite direction, stuck on a remote, snow-covered mountain road.

What followed is one of the most baffling cases in true crime history. Months later, the remains of four of the men were discovered miles away from their vehicle, including one who had miraculously survived for weeks inside a well-stocked forest service trailer but failed to use the resources that could have saved him. Gary Mathias has never been found. We discuss the confusing timeline, the strange witness account of a man stranded nearby, and the lingering questions of why these men walked deeper into the freezing wilderness.

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