First, sorry if this has already been discussed somewhere- I searched and couldn't find anything.
Second, there is hardly any information about this apart from the original Washington Post article and a long thread on Reddit. I'm not familiar with Reddit, and don't know how reliable it is but maybe this whole thing is a made up urban legend?
So in 1978 a group of young men drove from Yuba City to Chico, a distance of about 40 miles, to watch a basketball game. The men were described as having 'slight mental retardation' and one of them may have had schizophrenia although it was under control. Despite this, they had jobs; 2 of them had been in the army, and they were obviously capable of getting to the game and back. Except they didn't - they never came home.
Deviating from an apparently straightforward route home, they drove 70 miles in completely the wrong direction, from a low California valley up a mountain until they hit the snowline. The car got stuck in a snowbank, although investigators said 5 young men could easily have pushed it out. The car had plenty of petrol. Then they all left the car and headed further uphill on foot in the snow.
Of course they were not dressed for the mountains, and the people on Reddit claim it's almost impossible to make the driving mistake they made - they would have had to make several wrong turns, and the drastic change in altitude should have been obvious. Nevertheless they walked 15-20 miles (details vary) to a disused lodge. On the way, 2 of them succumbed to the elements - their bodies were found in the spring thaw. When searchers found the lodge, another of the men was dead inside. His feet were frostbitten and he had died of hypothermia and starvation. Investigators said they could tell from his beard growth he had lived for 8-13 weeks.
A fourth man had probably been to the lodge and left taking some blankets with him. He also was found out in the snow. The 5th man was not found, and his body has never been discovered, although it is thought he also was at the lodge for some time.
There was food in the lodge but it had not been eaten. There was fuel but it was not used. They had matches to start a fire, but didn't.
Oh, and there was a potential witness to them leaving the car - but he was having a heart attack, and his memory is confused??! The witness was also up along this deserted mountain road and stopped to check the snowline, then had a heart attack. He lay in his car for several hours, possibly hearing strange noises/lights - then he walked 8 miles downhill to get help (passing the boys car on the way)
I've spent the last couple of days poring over this, with people arguing back and forth over how capable these 'mentally retarded' men were, possible motives for taking the route, whether the schizophrenic guy could have had a psychotic episode etc. I don't understand why there isn't more coverage of this story, if it's all true.
Happy reading!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Unresolved...american_dyatlov_pass_five_young_men_abandon/
Second, there is hardly any information about this apart from the original Washington Post article and a long thread on Reddit. I'm not familiar with Reddit, and don't know how reliable it is but maybe this whole thing is a made up urban legend?
So in 1978 a group of young men drove from Yuba City to Chico, a distance of about 40 miles, to watch a basketball game. The men were described as having 'slight mental retardation' and one of them may have had schizophrenia although it was under control. Despite this, they had jobs; 2 of them had been in the army, and they were obviously capable of getting to the game and back. Except they didn't - they never came home.
Deviating from an apparently straightforward route home, they drove 70 miles in completely the wrong direction, from a low California valley up a mountain until they hit the snowline. The car got stuck in a snowbank, although investigators said 5 young men could easily have pushed it out. The car had plenty of petrol. Then they all left the car and headed further uphill on foot in the snow.
Of course they were not dressed for the mountains, and the people on Reddit claim it's almost impossible to make the driving mistake they made - they would have had to make several wrong turns, and the drastic change in altitude should have been obvious. Nevertheless they walked 15-20 miles (details vary) to a disused lodge. On the way, 2 of them succumbed to the elements - their bodies were found in the spring thaw. When searchers found the lodge, another of the men was dead inside. His feet were frostbitten and he had died of hypothermia and starvation. Investigators said they could tell from his beard growth he had lived for 8-13 weeks.
A fourth man had probably been to the lodge and left taking some blankets with him. He also was found out in the snow. The 5th man was not found, and his body has never been discovered, although it is thought he also was at the lodge for some time.
There was food in the lodge but it had not been eaten. There was fuel but it was not used. They had matches to start a fire, but didn't.
Oh, and there was a potential witness to them leaving the car - but he was having a heart attack, and his memory is confused??! The witness was also up along this deserted mountain road and stopped to check the snowline, then had a heart attack. He lay in his car for several hours, possibly hearing strange noises/lights - then he walked 8 miles downhill to get help (passing the boys car on the way)
I've spent the last couple of days poring over this, with people arguing back and forth over how capable these 'mentally retarded' men were, possible motives for taking the route, whether the schizophrenic guy could have had a psychotic episode etc. I don't understand why there isn't more coverage of this story, if it's all true.
Happy reading!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Unresolved...american_dyatlov_pass_five_young_men_abandon/