'Sensationalist' might be a little bit overstating it. But it certainly has some of that kind of tone to the article. It also makes some definite assumptions. For example:
"
Soon, police found two other corpses—those of Sterling and Madruga—4.5 miles away from Weiher's remains. Police believed their bodies had simply given up before they found shelter while Weiher and others marched on. Madruga had held on to the keys to the car."
It's a reasonable possibility (and one which we have entertained on this thread) but it's not FACT. Madruga's body has never been found. Nether have the keys. Nobody can say with certainty that two ended up in the same place. We don't know that.
It does offer up a few theories up though.
"
There was also the theory that Mathias convinced the group to head toward Forbestown, an area between Chico and the mountain road, so he could visit a friend who lived there. It was possible that Madruga had missed the turn-off and gotten lost, driving deeper into darkness until the snow ground the Mercury to a halt. The men, panicking, may have believed their car was stuck and that they needed to get help."
Far from impossible, sure. Having worked with colleagues who have been on the autistic scale and at east one who had Asperger's I can attest that when under pressure, when stressed out, when something has gone wrong it can effect the choices they then make.
I have generally found that being paralysed by indecision, rather than to ploughing on, is what I would expect from autism.
The opposite can be said for my recent experiences working with a guy with Asperger's. They can get very set on the notion that they are Right and get a kind of tunnel vision from that - focusing entirely on one course of action (be that right or wrong). This has actually changed my opinion of this case somewhat.
"
Melba Madruga, Jack's mother, told The Washington Post that she believed "some force" had led the group astray. "We know good and well somebody made them do it," she said. "
With all respect to a grieving mother, while it might make more sense to her believing in that we have no evidence to support that notion.
"To the
Los Angeles Times, she
said it was impossible for her to believe Madruga would ever drive his car, which he prized, into an area where it might be damaged. He had even left a window rolled down, something he would never normally do. "
And that's fair. It probably was out of character for Jack. That is harder to explain. But not implausible if panic had set in, and the rest of the group had decided on a new course of action.
"
"I'm positive he never went up there on his own," she told the paper. "He was either tricked or threatened." "
Well, he didn't go up there on his own. The only person who cannot be accounted for is Mathias. The rest of the group were definitely
with Madruga when he drove up there. There is no evidence to support a trick or threat being involved. It could have been enough to have a car full of people and one guy giving directions while Jack drove. And once they started getting lost, and tempers perhaps fraying, this was where they ended up.
"
Ted Weiher's sister-in-law has theorized that the men may have seen something take place at the basketball game that prompted someone to chase them. Police were never able to establish evidence for pursuit, but no one could shake the idea that the men seemed to be determined to move forward. Why do that unless something more frightening was right behind them?"
That's not implausible. It would explain their behavior, and perhaps their seemingly aimless determination to push forward - if that is how you perceived it.
But again, it comes down to evidence - or lack thereof. The witness who saw them buying snacks after the game did not indicate that they were in any state of distress. If something happened 'at the game' then they seemed relatively unconcerned at that point.
Did something happen after that? Did they go somewhere else? Did they encounter other people afterwards? Was the final destination of the car for a rendezvous point for something else?
We just don't know? But there is no evidence to cover their movements between that snack grab and the final resting place of the car. Nothing to back up anything. A lot of speculation simply comes from this. In a pre-CCTV world we have no way of covering their movements during that period. No further witnesses ever came forward to explain it. Nobody will ever know.
It may seem logical to start speculating that because Mathias' body was never found he was somehow separated from the group, with the keys to the car, and the rest waited for his return. That maybe they went out in search of a ranger station rather than freeze to death in a car.
Given Mathias' past, his friends and association with a town known for drugs use and people disappearing, his mental illness, his dismissal from the military... you can easily think up a dozen dramatic explanations which could have covered what may have happened. But ultimately, while they would make for a very interesting story, there's just no evidence to support them.
