On February 24, 1978, five young men left a college basketball game in Chico, California. They stopped at a convenience store, bought snacks, and began the drive home.

They never made it.

Days later, their car was found abandoned in the mountains of Plumas National Forest. It wasn’t wrecked. It wasn’t out of gas. There were no signs of a struggle.

So why did they leave it?

Months later, four of the five men would be found dead from exposure. One — Gary Mathias — has never been located. Inside a nearby Forest Service trailer, investigators discovered food, blankets, and supplies that could have sustained them. Much of it was untouched.

The Yuba County Five remains one of the most baffling unsolved mysteries in modern American true crime history — a case defined not by violence, but by decisions that still don’t make sense.

In this episode of The Pine Grove Briar, we examine the timeline, the abandoned car, the mountain trek, the trailer discovery, and the unanswered question that continues to haunt this case:

Why did they leave the car?

Pine Grove Briar is an independent show focused on cases that still don’t sit right. If you believe these stories deserve continued attention and careful research, you can support the show below. Every contribution goes directly back into research, production, and growing this work.

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