Latest / Crime and Horror / A case so mysterious it’s called America’s Dyatlov Pass

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A case so mysterious it’s called America’s Dyatlov Pass · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There is a very famous mystery called the Dyatlov Pass
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: incident that occurred in the fifties in Russia, where you
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: had nine highly experienced hikers go out on an expedition
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and then not turn up at their rendezvous point. When
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: a huge search party is launched and they're discovered, these
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: circumstances under which they are found are truly baffling. I mean,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: you had people with clothes, some without. You had people
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: that were mildly radioactive, you had people that were missing
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: body parts, and none of it really fit the narrative
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: that there had been an avalanche or that they had
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: died of hypothermia. It was almost like something had attacked them,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: but we have no idea what it was, and so
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: that mystery has endured for years, for decades, and so
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: today's story is referred to as the American Datlov Pass
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: incident because you have a group of people that go
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: missing inexplicably and then are located under baffling conditions.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: And just like the original.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: D'atlov Pass, we know in today's story what happened to them.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: For the most part, we just don't know why. But
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: before we get into today's story, if you're a fan
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: then you come to the right channel, because that's all
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I do here, and I upload three to four times
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: a week, if not more. And so if that's something
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: you're interested in, I would encourage you to gently karate
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  Speaker 1: chop the like button and then subscribe to this channel
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  Speaker 2: We don't miss any of my weekly uploads.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get into today's story. Today's story takes
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: place in nineteen seventy eight, and it focuses on five
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: young men that were best friends, basically inseparable, who all
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: lived in Yuba City, California, and they came to be
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: known as the Yuba City Five. These five young men
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: were all either mildly intellectually disabled or had a mental
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: health disability, but they were all very high functioning. Bick
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Hewitt was the youngest of the group. He was twenty
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: four years old. He was fairly uncomfortable in social situations
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: and didn't do well around strangers, but around his four
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: best friends he blossomed and was incredibly funny and lighthearted
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: and got along extremely well. Ted Wheeler was the oldest
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: of the group. He was thirty two, and he kind
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of took a big brother approach to Jack Hewitt. He
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: kind of looked after Jack specifically those who were very
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: very close, and Ted was known to actually occasionally make
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: phone calls on Jack's behalf when Jack felt uncomfortable calling
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: a stranger on the phone. You know, Ted would step
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: in and be the bigger brother and make those phone
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: calls for him. Bill Stirling was twenty nine years old
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: and he was deeply religious. He would spend a lot
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: of his time going to the library where he would
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: read Christian literature. Jack Madruga was thirty years old and
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: he was an Army veteran. However, he had been discharged
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: from the army after a medical evaluation determined that his
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: IQ was too low, so he was discharged from the army.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: He was the designated driver of the Uba City five
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: because he was the only one of the five that had.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: A driver's license.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Jack loved being the driver because he loved his white
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: and turquoise Montigo in nineteen sixty nine Montigo. It was
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: like his prized possession and he felt very proud driving
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the group around. Last, but not least, you have Gary Matthias,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: who was the unofficial ringleader of the group.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: He was twenty five years old.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: He also was an army veteran and he as well
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: had been discharged following a medical evaluation where they diagnosed
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: him with schizophrenia. So he was discharged and he went
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: back home to Yuba City to move him with his parents. Initially,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: when he came home, he really struggled. They hadn't found
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: a good way to manage his diagnosis. But eventually his
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: doctor found the right mixture of medications and treatment and
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: he totally stabilized and in fact was able to even
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: hold down a job working part time with the stepfather
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: in his gardening business. Now, what really brought this group
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: of five men together was their shared love.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Of sports, really basketball specific.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: When they got together, they were either talking about basketball,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: watching basketball, or playing basketball. The Gateway program that they
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: were all enrolled in, the Volk rehab program, they had
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: a basketball team and so they all played on that
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: basketball team and they were.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Super passionate about that team.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: In February of nineteen seventy eight, their basketball team, along
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: with a host of others, were slated to compete in
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: a tournament where the winners of this tournament would get
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: a free trip out to Los Angeles, and so the
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Yuba City Five was so excited about this tournament. Their
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: tournament was supposed to start on February twenty fifth, nineteen
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: seventy eight, but their favorite basketball team, UC Davis was
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: playing just fifty miles away from them in Chico, California,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: on February twenty fourth, so the night before their big tournament.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: So they decide that they want to go watch this game.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Right, They want to go out to Chico and root
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: on their favorite team, but make sure they're back in
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: time so they can get a good night's sleep before
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: their tournament starts.
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  Speaker 2: On the twenty fifth.
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  Speaker 1: So they load up in Madruga's Montigo, they drive the
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: fifty miles out to Chico, California, and they root on
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: their team, UC Davis, who ends up winning the game. Now,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: there were multiple witnesses that saw the Yuba City Five
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: at this basketball game, so we know they were there.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Following the game, the.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Boys loaded up into Madrugu's Montigo and they drove a
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: short distance to a little convenience store in Chico where
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: they got sodas and cartons of milk and some snacks
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: and the shop owner would actually say to investigators that
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: he remembers them because they came in at about ten
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: pm and it was when he wanted to close down
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: the shop, and so he remembers feeling annoyed when this
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: big group, you know, five men come in and they're
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: buying a bunch of stuff, because it delayed the shop
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: owner's ability to close down the store. That sighting at
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the convenience store would prove to be the last time
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: anyone would see the boys alive. So that night, some
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: of the boys' parents had stayed awake to wait for
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: their son to come home, and when they didn't and
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  Speaker 1: it was starting to get late, the parents started calling
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  Speaker 1: each other to ask if they had seen their son,
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  Speaker 1: and no one had.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: And so not only was it.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Strange because the boys always told their parents and loved
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: ones where they were going to be, but the idea
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: that they would jeopardize a good night's sleep before this
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: tournament that they had been obsessing about just seemed very
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: very uncharacteristic. And so by very early the next morning,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: all the families called the police and said something is wrong.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: So the police officer in charge of the investigation was
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Lance Airs. Airs had gone to high school with
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Ted Weir, so he had a personal connection to this
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: investigation and was more motivated than perhaps he would have
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: been otherwise to make sure they are doing everything.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: In their power defying these boys.
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  Speaker 1: When the first few hours of the search don't turn
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: anything up, Lieutenant Airs decides that he's going to greatly
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: expand their search radius. And it was because of this
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: expanded search that just a few days later they were
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: able to locate Jack Madrugu's Montigo car. Presumably after the
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: boys had gotten their snacks and drinks at the convenience
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  Speaker 1: store around ten PM. They would have been driving straight
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: back to Ubisity because they had that big basketball tournament
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the next morning.
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  Speaker 2: But the car was found seventy miles.
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  Speaker 1: Away from Yuba City, away from Chico, up in a
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: remote forest on a dirt road. The families of the
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: boys had no idea. They couldn't even speculate why that
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: car would have driven up that access road into this
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: remote forest. There was no reason they'd be going up there,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: at least none that the families would have any understanding of.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: In addition to the strangeness surrounding why it was seventy
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: miles away up in some remote forest. It also didn't
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: make any sense that the boys had abandoned the vehicle.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Even though it was covered in snow, there was no
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: indication that it had been stuck in snow. There was
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: a quarter tank of gas, so it didn't run out
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  Speaker 1: of gas. There were no keys in the ignition, so
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: when the police had to hot wire it to drive
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: it back, the car ran just fine, so there was
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: no mechanical issues or any engine issues.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: They literally put.
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  Speaker 1: It in park in the middle of nowhere and got
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: out and left. They looked inside the vehicle and all
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: that was in there was some wrappers and cans and
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: cartons from the snacks that they had presumably been eating
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  Speaker 1: since they left that convenience store, but no keys. All
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the doors were shut, one window was down slightly, and
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  Speaker 1: some rappers.
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  Speaker 2: That was it.
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  Speaker 1: So the search shifts to now looking exclusively in the
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  Speaker 1: area that this car was found, and over the first
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: couple of days following the discovery of the car, they're
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: looking everywhere and there's no sign of the boys. And
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: then unfortunately, a massive snowstorm rolls in and basically covers
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: everything to the point where it's impossible to search, and
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: they had to abandon the search until the early spring,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: when the snow had melted a bit. During this waiting period,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the families of the boys put out rewards, were requesting
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: information from everyone and anyone that had it. The police
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: were fielding thousands of tips and unconfirmed sightings about where
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: they could be, but none of it amounted to anything.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: They made no progress. They had no idea where these
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: boys were. On June fourth, nineteen seventy eight, so just
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: a little over three months after the boys had gone missing,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: some motorcyclists that had been on a long road trip
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  Speaker 1: happened to be up in those mountains on those dirt
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  Speaker 1: roads near where the Montego the car had been discovered.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: They were about twenty miles from that point, and they
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  Speaker 1: had found this cul de sac that they parked their
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: bikes in, and they decided to just kind of stretch
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  Speaker 1: their legs and they look down a little ways off
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the cul de sack and they see this old looking trailer,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: and they decided, just out of curiosity to just kind
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: of walk over and see what it is. It would
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: turn out that it was a trailer maintained by the
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Forestry Service, but it really hadn't been up kept in
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: a long time, and so as they're walking over, they
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: see that one of the windows has been broken, and
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: they think, okay, it's more than likely abandoned, and they
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: think they're just going to open the door or poke
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: their head in and just see what's in there, just
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: purely out of curiosity, because they're kind in the middle
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: of nowhere and they're just curious. So they go up
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: and they open the door and they're immediately hit with
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: this horrible, horrible smell, and they.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Shut the door and they're like, I don't know what's
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: in there.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Smells like death. It would turn out that it was death.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: It was one of the Yuba City five. It was
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Ted Weir, who was the oldest of the group, who
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: looked after Jack, who was the youngest of the group.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: It was his body. The mystery really only deepens when
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: you go inside the trailer.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Ted Weir was.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Found wrapped in eight blankets on this bed inside of
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: this trailer. His feet were badly frostpitten and gangreness. He
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: looked like he had lost about fifty percent of his
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: body weight, and he had growth on his face like
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: his beard that showed he'd been laying there almost certainly
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: for about thirteen weeks. Ted had died from a combination
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: of starvation and from exposure to the elements. But in
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: the trailer in plain sight were loads of fire making materials.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: You had paperback books, you had kindling, you had matches,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: you had firewood. In addition to the fire making material,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: there was additional clothing, heavy clothing like for cold weather.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: There was lots of food like sea rash its military
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: sea rations where you can basically pop it open and
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: you have some food enough to feed someone for at
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: least a year. So there's food in plain sight. There's
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: fire making supplies and plane sight. And also there was
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: a propane tank out back that was basically full that
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: if they had just turned it on, they could have
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: turned on the heat inside of the trailer and then
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: you would have had heat for quite some time. But
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: there was no signs that any of these supplies were
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: ever touched. Now, one could potentially make the case that
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: perhaps Ted lacked the common sense to make a fire
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: and to use up all the resources that were right
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: in front of him. But Gary Matthias, his shoes were
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: inside of that trailer, and Gary was in the army,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: and I was in the military. And I can tell
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: you that the number one thing you're taught pretty much
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: no matter where you go in the military is how
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: to survive. You're taught to be resourceful and to use
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: things in front of you to stay alive. And it
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: just seems very strange that if you had Gary in there,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: that he wouldn't have immediately started a fire or at
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: least instructed the group to start a fire and eat
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: the food, turn on.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: The gas tank. Those are things that are just basic
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: life saving skills.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: A day after Weir's body is found inside of that trailer,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: searchers discover Sterling and Madruga's remains, located approximately eleven miles
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: from where the.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Car had been located.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Their remains showed signs of significant predation. Animals had gotten
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to their remains since there wasn't much left of them,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: but from what was left, investigators were able to determine
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: that both had passed away from hypothermia.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Two days after.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Madruga and Sterling's remains are found, Jack Hewitt's remains are
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: found as well, two miles from the trailer where Weir
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: had been found, and jack Hewitt had also died of hypothermia,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: So four of the five have been located, leaving Gary Matthias,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: who to this day has never been found. The only
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: thing that investigators discovered was about a quarter mile away
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: from the trailer where Weir was found, and they found
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: a bunch of blankets and a flashlight. It seems like
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: that could have been where Gary at one point had been,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: but they don't know for how long, and they don't
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: know where he went after that. So, in addition to
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: wondering where Gary went, you got to ask yourself, why
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: did these five men drive seventy miles out of the
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: way the day before they knew they had this big
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: basketball tournament that they were not about to jeopardize. Why
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: did they drive seventy miles away onto a remote dirt
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: road in a remote forest. Why did they then suddenly
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: park their car, turn it off, take the keys out,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: shut the doors, and then hike twenty miles in the
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: dead of night a snowstorm to some random trailer and
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: then get in the trailer where there's ample food, there's
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: ample blankets and additional clothes, but use none of it
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: and die over a thirteen week period from starvation and exposure.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Why and so there's many theories as to why this happened,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: ranging from you know, Gary Mathias is somehow responsible and
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: that's why we haven't found him yet to they simply
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: took a wrong turn and that's how they wound.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: Up in this mountain in the middle of nowhere.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: But none of it really accounts for the purposefulness of
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: all of their travel. If they had gotten lost, police
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: believed they would have been maybe driving in loops. They
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have just driven in a straight line, reached this
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: point in the road and then gotten out. It's not
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: consistent with being lost.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: So we don't know.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Why they wound up on that road, or why they
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: decided to go to that trailer, or what caused them
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: not to use the supplies. But something happened, something forced
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: them to do this, and to this day we don't
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: know what it was. So I'd love to hear your
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: theories as to why the Ubi City five did what
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: they did. Give me your best theory, and I'll do
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: my best to go through and respond to as many
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: as I possibly can. If you like this story and
• 14:59
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• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Four one six.
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  Speaker 1: mister Balin, just like my YouTube page, So wherever I
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  Speaker 1: watching to the end of this video and until next time.
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  Speaker 2: I'll talk to you soon.