
Blighty Nightmares: True Horror Stories That Shouldn’t Be Heard Alone
Blighty Nightmares is your new favorite horror podcast—bringing you terrifying true stories, disturbing encounters, paranormal mysteries, and bone-chilling narrations every single night.From real-life sleep paralysis horrors to haunted British villages, stalker cases, cursed rituals, and internet lore turned nightmare, this show is crafted for fans of Mr. Nightmare, MrBallen, and true crime podcasts with a terrifying twist.
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Blighty Nightmares: True Horror Stories That Shouldn’t Be Heard Alone
True Deep Woods Disappearances – Real Horror Stories from the Forest
The forest hides more than wildlife. Some people go in… and never come back.
In this chilling episode of Blighty Nightmares, we explore three true stories of mysterious deep woods disappearances—cases that remain unsolved, unsettling, and all too real. From a family that vanished in the wilds of British Columbia to a legendary American mountain that seems to consume people whole, these are not just missing person cases… they’re real horror stories set deep in the wilderness.
🌲 In this episode:
• The Yuba County Five – Five young men disappear on a snowy mountain night
• The Bennington Triangle – A Vermont region where people vanish without explanation
• The Jack Family Disappearance – A British Columbia case that still baffles investigators
Told with immersive narration and chilling detail, these stories show what happens when the forest doesn’t let go.
🎧 Follow Blighty Nightmares for more episodes on Missing 411 cases, true outdoor horror, and the real-life mysteries that keep you up at night.
the car was found on a dirt road in the Sarah Nevada mountains Inside maps untouched food wrappers keys in the ignition The snow around it undisturbed Five young men went in Only four were ever found And the last one to this day no one knows where he went or what he was running from This wasn't a ghost story It wasn't an accident It was a slow motion horror that played out in the woods February 24th 1978 Five friends went to Yuba City California Piled into a turquoise and white mercy Montgo they were headed to Chico State to watch a basketball game They were known as the boys by their families Young men in their 20s and 30s with mild development disabilities and mental health conditions Their lives were stable structured gentle Bill Sterling 29 quiet thoughtful Jake Madruga 30 army vet protective Ted Wheeler 32 cheerful friendly loved basketball Jake Huitt 24 shy close with Ted Gary Matus 25 had schizophrenia managed with medication charismatic well-liked They never missed practices never missed games They were due to play in a Special Olympics basketball tournament the next morning They promised their parents they'd be home that night but they never came back The basketball game ended just before 1000 p.m Witnesses saw five men laughing piling into the Montgo and heading south They should have taken Highway 99 the direct route home Instead they turned east into the mountains It made no sense The road narrowed Pavement became gravel Forest rose on both sides like closing jaws The elevation climbed Snow thickened on the roadside They passed towns they didn't know or didn't belong in At 5:45 a.m the next day a forest server ranger found the Mercury abandoned parked neatly in the middle of the road 70 mi from Chico No damage no signs of struggle Keys stilling the ignition Window down Gas tank a quarter full Inside the car were food wrappers from a convenience store One item purchased a cherry pie None of the boys had eaten it Maps of California were untouched in the glove box Then came the footprints Deputies followed a trail in the snow leading north towards the wilderness of Plumemer's National Forest They ended abruptly in white drifts The snow swallowed them Temperatures dropped below freezing that night The boys were in street clothes no jackets no flashlights no cold weather gear and then nothing for months Ted's mother said something scared them off that road Something made them run But no one could explain what For nearly 4 months the forest kept its secrets Rescue crews combed the mountains Dogs helicopters search lines finding nothing until the four came June the 4th 1978 A group of motorcyclists cut through a remote surface road near defunct forestry trailer in the deep woods 20 m from the car One rider smelled something foul followed it to the cabin What he saw inside stopped him cold On the bed wrapped in sheets pulled tight over his head like a shroud was Ted Wher His shoes were missing feet severely frostbitten His beard had grown inches longer than his family had ever seen He'd lost between 80 to 100 pounds Next to him a locker filled with rations enough for five men to survive for months Unopened a boutane tank never used matches still boxed He had staffed to death surrounded by supplies A journal lay on the table scraps with crude notation suggested Ted had lived 8 to 13 weeks after the disappearance Long enough to suffer long enough to wonder where the others went Long enough to give up hope The next discovery came a few days later two miles back along a snow-covered path Searchers found Jake Madruger's body his keys in his pocket shoes missing Nearby hidden in dense brush was Bill Sterling Just bones Jake Huitt was found days after that His spine scattered near a stream just off the trail None of them had tried to return to the car None of them left the message and no one knows why they split And Gary Matas he was never found His shoes were discovered inside the trailer by Ted's body carefully placed under the bed Gary had bigger feet than Ted It meant Ted was wearing Gary's shoes when he died which meant Gary had walked barefoot into snow and vanished There were no signs of struggle no animals no injuries only absence only questions The trail ended at a trailer in the woods but the story didn't end with the bodies Not really Why did they go up to the mountain in the first place they had plans the next day They were excited focused It made no sense to drive 70 mi in the wrong direction into snow into elevation And why didn't they return to the car it was intact warmth shelter fuel Yet they left it walked into the night and then the trailer Someone had broken a window to get in The cabin had heat food clothes and matches but they never used any of it Ted had laid down and just waited to die Was it fear was someone else there one theory surfaced Gary Matas the only one never found may have led them confused possibly in a schizophrenic episode into the woods His shoes in the trailer suggested he cared for Ted Had he left to find help had he gotten lost or did something else happen in those woods locals mentioned stories old cabins long abandoned cult rumors strange lights seen in the hills but nothing concrete No signs of violence no suicide notes no last words Gary's body has never been recovered Some think he's still out there Others think he made it out and never wanted to be found The Yuba County Sheriff said one thing before retiring I've wor murders suicides kidnappings but nothing haunts me more like those five boys Their families never got answers just fragments Jake Madruger's mother said her son wouldn't have left the car willingly He hated the cold hated the woods Ted Wheeler's sister said he wouldn't go anywhere without his special watch It was still missing still is Bill Sterling's father refused to believe the story ended in starvation He insisted someone lured them out there Someone scared them or worse followed them Gary Matas's family Well they've waited years checked mental hospitals reached out to shelters Nothing No confirmed sightings no remains His social security number was never used again He simply dissolved into the forest The Uba 5 is still spoken of in Northern California as a cautionary tale as a tragedy as a mystery that defies logic Over 45 years later questions remain Why drive up to a snowy mountain in the middle of the night why abandon safety why split up and why did Ted wait to die instead of lighting a fire no one knows Just a car with food inside A trail of footprints in the snow A trailer full of supplies and silence And one man still missing There are disappearances And then there's this A car left running A trail that ends in snow A group of young men who should have made it home Who were hours from safety minutes from food yet vanished into the cold like ghosts They weren't hikers They weren't thrillsekers They were just boys headed home after a game And something pulled them off course Something made them run So when you pass a trail head in the forest or you see a narrow dirt road winding into the hills ask yourself what's waiting at the end and what would make you walk towards it If this story haunted you like it haunts investigators to this day hit like subscribe and ring that bell The forest doesn't forget And the next disappearance is even stranger [Music] They vanished into the trees No bodies no blood no footprints Over 5 years five people disappeared inside a patch of Vermont wilderness Each on different days different paths never to be seen again They were alone until they weren't The locals call it the Bennington Triangle What do you call a place that eats people 1945 Bennington Vermont The woods around Gastonberry Mountain were thick silent beautiful and wrong Hunters spoke of a strange echo patterns Compass needles drifted Animals avoided it Old legends told of a cursed stone of a shadow that moved without light But none of that stopped hikers It was just a mountain just trees just air right october 1945 Midi Rivers 74 was a local guide Tough wiry knew the trails better than anyone He led four hunters through the hills north of Gastenbury He hiked ahead to prep the next campsite He was never seen again The others found nothing No footprints no gear just silence They searched called his name but the woods swallowed the echo The first to disappear but not the last A year passed no sign of Midi Rivers Locals moved on but the mountain wasn't done December 1st 1946 Paula Weldon 18 years old a sophomore at Bennington College put on a red coat and left campus for a short walk along the long trail She was seen by several people along the way A gas station attendant a couple on the trail One hiker said she looked distracted She never came back Search parties flooded the mountain Soldiers students dogs planes FBI was called in Her father demanded national attention but nothing No scarf no footprints not even a snapped branch Gone And then came the others 1949 James Tapford a war vet returning to Bennington soldiers home by bus He boarded in St Orbins's Passengers confirmed he was seen mid ride But when the bus arrived his seat was empty his luggage still overhead his bus timet still folded in his coat pocket He vanished between stops on a moving vehicle surrounded by people October the 12th 1950 8-year-old Paul Jepson vanished while riding in a truck with his mother She left him inside briefly to feed pigs near a dump site When she came back the door was open Paul was gone Blood Hound traced his scent to a trail Then nothing She later said he insisted on wearing his red jacket like Paula She felt unease before they even left the house The woods were eating people but it saved its most disturbing case for last The pattern was inescapable Old man young woman war vet a child Different ages different backgrounds but one thing in common They all vanished within a 10mi radius of Glastonbury Mountain And then came Freda Langanger October 28th 1950 just 16 days after Paul Jepson Freda 53 was camping near Somerset Reservoir with her cousin She slipped while crossing a stream and went back to change clothes The camp was only 300 yd away She never made it Search efforts began immediately Hundreds combed the area on foot and horseback Planes scanned the woods Divers were brought in But again no trace not a shoe not a button nothing And then 7 months later May 1951 her body was found in an open clearing that had been searched before Badly decomposed Cause of death unknown No clues no trauma just bones just clothing It was the only body recovered out of the five disappearances And it gave no answers only new questions The mountain didn't explain itself Locals spoke in whispers They said that the Abenaki tribes avoided the area not out of respect for fear They spoke of a man-eating stone somewhere deep in the trees A place where things stepped wrong and vanished Folk storied merged with fat Hunters began to disappear less The area's population declined trails fell out to use The forest didn't feel wild It felt watching like something was there Not a beast not a ghost just absence That thing which stares back and doesn't blink People stopped walking that side of the long trail because now it had a name The name came from folklore researchers They called it the Bennington Triangle a play on the Bermuda Triangle because it fits too well Unexplainable vanishings no remains no violence just people walking into the woods and never returning There were theories many one a serial killer praying on the isolated But how could one man pull victims from buses campsites trails with zero witnesses and no struggle two a bear or a mountain lion The predators leave remains scratches drag trails there were none Three environmental natural sinkholes sudden rock falls weather shifts Possible for five people in 5 years Then came the stranger ones magnetic anonymies Locals claimed the compasses failed near Glastenbury Birds flew wrong Some said the mountain itself was cursed geologically unstable in a way science hadn't mapped Others swore they saw lights in the trees or heard voices in the fog One survivor a hiker in 1952 reported seeing a figure watching him from between the trees He said it was tall too tall And when he turned it was suddenly on the other side of the trail without moving He ran all the way back to the road dropped his gear and never returned He never gave his name The forest gave no final reveal no shadowy culprit no supernatural confession just a number five and a silence that never left Today Glastenbury is a ghost town The old logging roads are overgrown Buildings have collapsed Nature had swallowed the scars But the stories remain Locals still tell their kids to stay away from the long trail Hunters won't camp near the summit And hikers those who don't know the history often report strange sensations lost time paths that loop when they shouldn't One group in 1993 swore their compass spun in circles for 30 minutes Another claimed to hear a woman crying but when they followed the sound it kept moving further and further from the trail They left before sundown No more disappearances had been recorded since the 1950s but maybe people just stopped reporting them Maybe the forest grew more careful Or maybe the stories were warnings all along Don't hike alone Don't leave the path And if the trail starts to feel different like the trees are listening leave Paula Weldon's red coat was never found James Tepford's luggage is still in storage Paul Jepson's mother never forgave herself for turning her back And Freda Langanger's bones rest in a grave no one visits The Bennington Triangle doesn't howl It doesn't attack It simply takes There's something uniquely terrifying about the disappearances No blood no answer no goodbye just a space where someone should be The Bennington Triangle isn't famous There's no horror movie about it But in those woods five people stepped away from the world and never returned Not all ghosts wear chains Some are names on cold case files Some are echoes in the trees If this story unsettled you if it made you think twice about wandering off the trail hit like subscribe and ring that bell Because in the next story a whole family walks into the forest and none of them come back They left in the middle of the night A couple two children smiling bags packed A man had promised them jobs in the woods They got in his car and no one ever saw them again No screams no struggle just gone This wasn't a random disappearance This was a trap And the forest was the perfect place to bury the truth August 1st 1989 Prince George British Columbia Ronald Jack 26 and his wife Dorene 26 were struggling to get by Two children Russell nine and Ryan four A small home long days Then came the opportunity A man met Ronald at a local pub Said he had a logging job offered housing good pay a place for the kids to stay He said they could start immediately Ronald called his mother that night Said they were heading out early around 1:00 a.m He'd send her a forward in address He never called again The next day the Jacks were gone The house was empty beds made dishes clean No signs of struggle Neighbors said they left quietly No bags no farewells A family are raised in a single ride At first no one panicked The Jacks had always been quiet Maybe they started the new job Maybe they were settling in But after 3 days no word no address no call no update Ronald's mother called the police An officer visited the house Everything was in order Two in order Two toothbrushes left behind The children's favorite toys untouched Half a carton of milk in the fridge still fresh It didn't look like a move It looked like they were coming back Ronald's mother remembered something During the call Ronald sounded off quiet tense He said the job was somewhere near the woods but didn't give a location When she asked for the man's name he paused said he'd forgotten Investigators began canvasing bars trying to find the man who made the offer No one knew him Descriptions varied Some say he was a Native American Others said Eastern European Tall short friendly forgettable No one could agree because no one really saw him The forest around Prince George is vast Thousands of square kilometers of logging roads rivers and deep untracked wilderness A perfect place to disappear The RCMP launched an investigation They interviewed every logging company in the region dozens of them Not one had hired Ronald Jack No crews have reported a new family arriving They scoured records permits pay slips nothing Police helicopters flew grid patterns over backroes and cut lines Mounties on horseback traced ancient game trails Divers checked lakes rivers logging ponds Every mile of wilderness they crossed brought them no closer No vehicle no tracks no scent It was as if the jacks had been taken by air and dropped into a void Then came the rumor A witness claimed to see Ronald at a rest stop days after the disappearance He looked pale disorientated was pacing near a truck The witness blinked and he was gone Police investigated No security footage no receipts no proof but it was the only lead they had Another witness a trucker said he passed the car matching the jacks make being driven erratically down a logging road lights off He never followed it The road dead ended into 80 mi of unttracked forest A few began to whisper what others feared that the job was a lie that the man who offered it had planned this that the family had been taken somewhere remote and silenced But for what there was no ransom no note no message If this was about violence it was violence for its own sake And then nothing Weeks turned to months The case went cold No sightings no bodies no evidence just a family of four evaporated from reality Two years passed Then a name surfaced Felix N a drifter part-time logger known in nearby indigorous communities He matched several witness descriptions Tall softspoken lived out of his truck Rumors tied him to the jacks Police brought him in questioned him He denied everything They found no evidence no prints no belongings He walked free But the rumors didn't stop Locals said he had a temper that he'd once taken a woman deep into the woods And she never spoke again Another said he bragged once drunk at a bar about knowing how to make people vanish up north Then he disappeared too Vanished from town Left behind a rusted trailer and two dead dogs Some say he fled Some say something found him Back in Prince George the Jack home was sold The children's toys packed in boxes The photos kept by family But nothing changed the silence No one ever called No one ever wrote No one ever claimed them The RCMP marked the case unsolved but privately one officer wrote in a report "They didn't run They didn't vanish They were taken The Jack family never came home No grave no remains no closure They exist now only in photographs smiling in birthday hats hugging at Christmas standing beside a car that was never found Ronald's mother kept calling the RCMP for years asking if they'd check the lakes again begging them to reopen the file Dorine's sister left the porch light on every night until her own death in 2006 Hope turned to routine Routine turned to ritual In British Columbia the woods are ancient They don't give up secrets easily Hundreds of kilometers of wilderness stretch beyond Prince George It's where loggers disappear where backpackers get lost and are never found But the Jacks weren't hikers They didn't stray They were taken The most terrifying part Someone lured them with kindness promised them work security a future and that person is still out there People still talk about it in hush voices The man with the offer the job that didn't exist the family that vanished like smoke Because up north the forest listens but it never speaks It's one thing to disappear alone but a family a father a mother and two small boys That's not misadventure That's not accident That's intent Someone watched the Jacks spoke kindly gained their trust then led them into the dark And in the vast wilderness of British Columbia there's more than enough room to bury the truth If this story left a chill in your spine if you believe this family deserves justice hit like subscribe and ring that bell Because these woods they're still out there