The Yuba County Five

I'm calling from Sacramento. I've been researching missing persons cases in Northern California for about six years now, and there's one that I can't stop thinking about. It happened back in February 1978, and it's probably the strangest disappearance I've ever come across. Five young men from Yuba County went to a basketball game in Chico on the night of February 24th. Their names were Jack Reynolds, Bill Norton, Ted Warner, Jackie Hughes, and Gary Morrison. They ranged in age from 24 to 32. All of them had mild intellectual disabilities or learning challenges, but they were independent enough to hold jobs and spend time on their own. Their families called them 'the boys.' These guys were really close friends. They'd met playing basketball together at a vocational rehabilitation center, and they were actually scheduled to compete in a Special Olympics tournament the very next day, February 25th. They had their uniforms laid out on their beds at home, ready to go. The winning team would get a free week-long trip to Los Angeles, and they were determined to win.

So on the 24th, they piled into Jack Reynolds' turquoise and white 1969 Mercury Montego and drove about 50 miles north to watch UC Davis play against Chico State. The game ended around 10 PM, and they stopped at a convenience store called Behr's Market in downtown Chico. The clerk remembered them because she was annoyed that such a large group came in right before closing time. They bought snacks, candy bars, sodas, cartons of chocolate milk. Witnesses saw them leave the store and drive off, heading south toward Yuba City. That's the last confirmed sighting of them alive. When morning came and none of the five had returned home, their parents started calling each other around 5 AM. This was completely unlike them. None of them except Gary had ever stayed out all night before. By Saturday morning, the families reported them missing. Police started searching the route between Chico and Yuba City. Nothing. No sign of them anywhere. Then on February 28th, four days after they disappeared, a Forest Service ranger reported finding Reynolds' Mercury abandoned on a mountain road in the Plumas National Forest.

Here's where it gets really strange. The car was found 70 miles from Chico, way up in the mountains on this remote dirt road called Oroville-Quincy Highway. This was the complete opposite direction from home. The car was stuck in a shallow snowbank at about 4,400 feet elevation, right near where the road was closed for winter. When police examined the car, the empty wrappers and containers from the snacks they'd bought in Chico were inside. The basketball game programs were there too, and a neatly folded road map of California. One window was rolled down. The doors were unlocked. The keys were missing. And here's the thing, the gas tank still had a quarter tank of fuel in it. When they hot-wired the engine, it started immediately. The car was in perfect working condition. your keys in the snow is the worst - Marcus' The snow around the car wasn't even that deep. Five healthy young men should have easily been able to push it out. But there was evidence they'd tried to spin the wheels instead. None of it made any sense.