WEBVTT - Episode 3: Tweaker Talk 0:00:15.371 --> 0:00:15.931 Pushkin. 0:00:18.930 --> 0:00:22.011 Subscribe to Pushkin Plus to hear the entire season of 0:00:22.091 --> 0:00:26.371 Valley of Shadows ad free starting January twelfth. You'll also 0:00:26.371 --> 0:00:30.091 get bonus episodes, full audiobooks, and early ad free listening 0:00:30.211 --> 0:00:34.171 from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors. Find Pushkin Plus 0:00:34.290 --> 0:00:37.531 on the Valley of Shadows showpage on Apple podcast, or 0:00:37.571 --> 0:00:43.251 at pushkin dot fm, slash plus, and thanks for your support. 0:00:43.691 --> 0:00:46.451 This series includes content that may not be suitable for 0:00:46.491 --> 0:00:53.330 all listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Previously on Valley of Shadows. 0:00:54.371 --> 0:00:58.211 This was assigned to Homicide Bureau Missing Persons Unit. They 0:00:58.251 --> 0:01:01.131 were the ones who had to make the decision that 0:01:01.171 --> 0:01:03.051 this was a suicide. 0:01:03.291 --> 0:01:05.810 They said, well, we think he might have sat on 0:01:05.890 --> 0:01:08.890 the edge of one of those minds and blown himself 0:01:08.890 --> 0:01:14.211 into the mind. I think, okay, we are really stretching 0:01:14.331 --> 0:01:17.331 now for an explanation as to why we can't find it. 0:01:18.731 --> 0:01:21.451 I would hope the Sheriff's department would investigate this. 0:01:22.851 --> 0:01:27.091 I just still want John to be found or his remains. 0:01:28.891 --> 0:01:33.331 They told our search teams on day one, John may 0:01:33.411 --> 0:01:39.251 have stumbled into a meth lab by accident, and what 0:01:39.331 --> 0:01:42.931 happened to that idea? 0:01:49.651 --> 0:01:57.011 Let's see Bato, Biker's Coffee, Black Beauty Blade Chalk. I 0:01:57.091 --> 0:02:00.771 made this list from the Internet of all the names 0:02:00.851 --> 0:02:06.211 that were used to describe crystal meth, chicken feed, crank. 0:02:06.051 --> 0:02:10.091 Christy, lengthy in handwritten by my boer. 0:02:10.011 --> 0:02:14.691 Go fast, meth, Lee's quick, methless. 0:02:14.451 --> 0:02:15.251 Meth Le's quick. 0:02:15.291 --> 0:02:17.451 That's cute, TikTok fan. 0:02:17.891 --> 0:02:20.931 There's a reason this almost eighty year old retired cop 0:02:21.451 --> 0:02:23.770 is trying to expand his drug vocabulary. 0:02:24.651 --> 0:02:27.891 I began to understand that the world of trying to 0:02:27.891 --> 0:02:31.611 find John A. J In balb crystal math. That's why 0:02:31.611 --> 0:02:32.131 I made. 0:02:31.931 --> 0:02:36.251 This list, because Bauer keeps hearing whispers of foul play. 0:02:37.331 --> 0:02:41.411 The ruler around the drug scene was at a deputy 0:02:41.971 --> 0:02:44.090 stumbled onto something he's shouldning of. 0:02:44.891 --> 0:02:47.091 The first thing I had heard was he had was 0:02:47.171 --> 0:02:50.291 running in the punch bowl and came upon. 0:02:50.251 --> 0:02:54.011 A meth lamb, a meth lab, a meth lab. 0:02:54.291 --> 0:02:57.011 Then it was said he tried to be a hero 0:02:57.611 --> 0:02:59.371 and that's when he was taken care of. 0:03:03.331 --> 0:03:06.651 When Deputy John aj disappeared in nineteen ninety eight, there 0:03:06.691 --> 0:03:10.011 was a meth epidemic ravaging the Antelope Valley. It was 0:03:10.050 --> 0:03:12.051 a vortex of addiction and crime. 0:03:13.331 --> 0:03:17.251 I think Neth has destroyed this community. I think they 0:03:17.291 --> 0:03:20.250 need to take a bomb and blow it up. It's 0:03:20.291 --> 0:03:20.771 that bad. 0:03:22.171 --> 0:03:25.571 Neth is a powerful stimulant that hijacks the central nervous 0:03:25.571 --> 0:03:28.971 system and causes people to stay awake for days. 0:03:28.691 --> 0:03:31.050 On end after the euphoria. 0:03:31.211 --> 0:03:36.851 Experts said longtime users suffer mind twisting crashes, jagged nerves, 0:03:37.291 --> 0:03:43.171 desperation to sleep, a spooky paranoia, and too often unpredictable rage, 0:03:43.491 --> 0:03:44.571 often homicidal. 0:03:46.011 --> 0:03:48.531 The drug can trick the brain into thinking there's a 0:03:48.531 --> 0:03:50.651 boogeyman around every corner. 0:03:51.571 --> 0:03:53.771 I've had a patient come back to me after two 0:03:53.811 --> 0:03:56.011 years of not using it, saying that he was sorry 0:03:56.051 --> 0:03:58.531 that he hit his wife so hard, but he still 0:03:58.571 --> 0:04:02.491 convinced that she was having an affair with the extraterrestrials. 0:04:03.811 --> 0:04:06.571 Maybe that's how the meth lab rumors got started as 0:04:06.571 --> 0:04:10.011 a drug fueled conspiracy theory, and there were a lot 0:04:10.051 --> 0:04:14.171 of conspiracy theories following Auja's disappearance, that he was kidnapped 0:04:14.171 --> 0:04:17.171 by the CIA, and another that he'd started a new 0:04:17.211 --> 0:04:21.651 life in Alaska. While the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department 0:04:21.771 --> 0:04:25.051 dismisses the leads as rumors spread by a hopped up 0:04:25.091 --> 0:04:29.251 game of telephone, but we discover a small detail buried 0:04:29.291 --> 0:04:31.971 in the missing person's report that suggests the rumors have 0:04:32.011 --> 0:04:36.811 more weight than that. Following Auja's disappearance, multiple informants came 0:04:36.851 --> 0:04:40.291 forward with information about a deputy who was murdered while 0:04:40.371 --> 0:04:44.691 jogging in the Devil's Punch Bowl. Missing Persons detectives said 0:04:44.731 --> 0:04:47.851 these informants can't be trusted, and they opted not to 0:04:47.891 --> 0:04:50.651 follow up on the leads because the meth lab story 0:04:50.931 --> 0:04:55.371 was just smoke and mirrors. But where there's smoke, there 0:04:55.571 --> 0:05:00.651 is sometimes fire. Bower tells us about a homicide detective 0:05:00.891 --> 0:05:04.051 who followed the rumors to their source to find out 0:05:04.051 --> 0:05:06.770 if there was anything to them, and he says, we 0:05:06.891 --> 0:05:09.771 need to hear this story straight from the horses mouth. 0:05:10.690 --> 0:05:14.651 You should go have a drink with Larry Brandenberg at 0:05:14.651 --> 0:05:16.891 his bar and ask him what do you think? 0:05:16.971 --> 0:05:17.291 Larry? 0:05:17.651 --> 0:05:19.691 I have a few questions for you and see what 0:05:19.731 --> 0:05:20.411 he says. 0:05:21.091 --> 0:05:24.571 And that's exactly what we do. We don't often get 0:05:24.571 --> 0:05:30.571 to do interviews in people's home bars, such a cool space, 0:05:32.291 --> 0:05:35.451 and we ask him what do you think, Larry about 0:05:35.451 --> 0:05:38.051 those tips that came in from local drug informants? 0:05:38.851 --> 0:05:40.371 You're not going to get a boy scout or a girl 0:05:40.451 --> 0:05:42.251 scout that's gonna have information about the murder of a 0:05:42.291 --> 0:05:45.611 Deathy Shah. How would they know? So you got to 0:05:45.651 --> 0:05:48.171 talk to these people, and then it's your job to 0:05:48.211 --> 0:05:49.971 figure out who's telling the truth who's lying. 0:05:51.331 --> 0:05:53.770 So we try to figure out who is telling the 0:05:53.771 --> 0:05:55.530 truth and who's lying. 0:05:56.971 --> 0:06:01.531 I'm Betsy Shepherd, I'm Haley Fox and miss His Valley 0:06:01.611 --> 0:06:12.571 of Shadows, Episode three, Tweaker Talk. 0:06:17.851 --> 0:06:20.771 Okay, let's see what you got here, mister Brandenburg. 0:06:20.971 --> 0:06:21.971 Do you go by detected? 0:06:23.211 --> 0:06:23.731 Okay? 0:06:23.891 --> 0:06:28.091 Can you come show us some of your sheriff's men Rebulia. 0:06:28.771 --> 0:06:31.690 Betsy and I are at the home of retired lasd 0:06:31.811 --> 0:06:36.251 homicide detective Larry Brandenburg, poking around his basement bar that 0:06:36.571 --> 0:06:38.570 doubles as a type of trophy room. 0:06:39.171 --> 0:06:41.010 Well, that was a bag one of my old partners. 0:06:41.051 --> 0:06:41.450 You got me? 0:06:42.931 --> 0:06:43.811 What does it say on there? 0:06:43.931 --> 0:06:46.851 I think it says the best partner a copkitab or 0:06:46.851 --> 0:06:47.570 something like that. 0:06:48.771 --> 0:06:52.891 Brandenburg's humility stands in contrast to his career highlights displayed 0:06:52.931 --> 0:06:56.531 on the wall. There's his Marine Corps uniform, A photo 0:06:56.571 --> 0:06:59.211 from an appearance on the TV show forty eight hours 0:06:59.611 --> 0:07:03.770 an LASD Service Award, and nearby there's a jukebox, a 0:07:03.811 --> 0:07:07.011 big screen TV, and a pool table with the giant 0:07:07.051 --> 0:07:08.931 logo of his Sheriff's badge on it. 0:07:09.811 --> 0:07:12.131 Do you have a name for this room? 0:07:12.331 --> 0:07:16.291 We just call it the Brandonburg Family Game Room. I 0:07:16.331 --> 0:07:19.051 try to get the kids go over games, and we're 0:07:19.051 --> 0:07:21.611 all Dodger fans, so revetsed the Dodgers. 0:07:22.971 --> 0:07:26.131 Brandenburg is a grampa. Now goes by Papa, and he 0:07:26.171 --> 0:07:28.651 has a shock of gray hair to prove it, but 0:07:28.731 --> 0:07:30.851 he still looks a bit like a detective with his 0:07:30.971 --> 0:07:35.571 slicked back hair and steely gaze. For more than twenty years, 0:07:35.651 --> 0:07:38.931 Brandenburg was a bulldog. That was the nickname given to 0:07:39.011 --> 0:07:41.851 investigators at the LASD Homicide Bureau. 0:07:42.771 --> 0:07:45.331 It was a La Tanji course said, yeah. The Sheriff's 0:07:45.331 --> 0:07:48.771 onmicide detectors are like bulltoks. Once they put their teeth 0:07:48.811 --> 0:07:51.571 to something and they never let go. Name stuck. 0:07:53.051 --> 0:07:56.531 The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department oversees crime in the 0:07:56.611 --> 0:08:01.891 unincorporated areas of LA County. It's a massive space, four 0:08:01.891 --> 0:08:05.411 thousand square miles, which is about the size of Connecticut, 0:08:06.291 --> 0:08:10.331 covering that much ground. Requires a huge workforce. With its 0:08:10.371 --> 0:08:15.251 eighteen thousand employees, LASD is the largest sheriff's department in 0:08:15.291 --> 0:08:19.611 the country. Homicide cops like Larry Brandenburg work out of 0:08:19.651 --> 0:08:23.371 a bureau located near downtown La, so when they catch 0:08:23.411 --> 0:08:26.171 a case, they hoof it to whatever part of the county. 0:08:26.211 --> 0:08:30.731 The homicide occurred in. The Antelope Valley or AV as 0:08:30.771 --> 0:08:35.731 it's sometimes called, was a particularly distant outpost. That's because 0:08:35.771 --> 0:08:37.851 it's cut off from the city by a mountain range, 0:08:38.331 --> 0:08:41.690 and Brandenburg thinks that's part of why the Auja case 0:08:41.771 --> 0:08:42.771 was handled so poorly. 0:08:44.090 --> 0:08:47.251 I think some of it was lack of interest motivation. 0:08:48.210 --> 0:08:49.611 I can't explain any other way. 0:08:50.930 --> 0:08:53.810 Because the AV was quite the hall from the homicide 0:08:53.810 --> 0:08:56.050 bureau hour and a half drive time. 0:08:56.651 --> 0:08:59.210 Nobody from down in La one to come up here 0:08:59.251 --> 0:09:01.851 at work because they didn't live up here. Hey see 0:09:01.851 --> 0:09:03.410 why the drive sucks. 0:09:04.491 --> 0:09:07.210 LA deputies didn't want to move to the desert either, 0:09:07.731 --> 0:09:10.370 so the department had to recruit lovocals to run their 0:09:10.410 --> 0:09:14.771 AV stations, and that created a schism within the LASD. 0:09:15.651 --> 0:09:17.891 They thought they could do their own thing and they 0:09:17.930 --> 0:09:20.050 didn't need anybody from down in LA tell them what 0:09:20.090 --> 0:09:23.651 to do. Hey, this is our valley. We know everybody 0:09:23.690 --> 0:09:25.810 up here, we grew up here, we live here, will 0:09:25.810 --> 0:09:29.051 handle this shit. But at the same time, department never 0:09:29.410 --> 0:09:32.011 dedicated the resources to this valley that they should have. 0:09:33.371 --> 0:09:37.210 Brandenburg has two sons who are now LASD deputies in 0:09:37.251 --> 0:09:40.170 the Annelo Valley, and it's become a running joke in 0:09:40.170 --> 0:09:40.651 the family. 0:09:41.611 --> 0:09:44.250 You know, I say, ah, you freaking deputies work up here. 0:09:44.290 --> 0:09:47.410 You guys are stupid, he'd laugh. You guys from down 0:09:47.491 --> 0:09:49.251 Belore a bunch of assholes. You come up here and 0:09:49.251 --> 0:09:52.930 think you know everything. But that was for a long 0:09:52.970 --> 0:09:54.091 time kind of the feeling. 0:09:56.290 --> 0:09:59.170 Brandenburg had heard that Auj went missing, but he didn't 0:09:59.210 --> 0:10:02.810 know him or the specifics of what happened, and it 0:10:02.891 --> 0:10:06.290 wasn't a murder investigation. It was a missing person's case, 0:10:06.771 --> 0:10:10.330 so it was outside his domain. But then a colleague 0:10:10.330 --> 0:10:13.771 from the Anela Valley reaches out with an especially persuasive tip. 0:10:14.530 --> 0:10:16.651 He said, Hey, Larry, I'm hearing shit on the street man, 0:10:16.731 --> 0:10:19.811 and Auj wasn't. He didn't commit suicide. He was murdered. 0:10:19.810 --> 0:10:22.331 He came across a math lab and you know, he 0:10:22.371 --> 0:10:24.170 tried to be a hero. He goes, I'm hearing from 0:10:24.170 --> 0:10:25.251 more than one person. 0:10:26.170 --> 0:10:28.931 And there are other details about the Auj case that 0:10:29.011 --> 0:10:31.971 don't sit right with him. How many years were you 0:10:32.011 --> 0:10:33.011 a homicide detective? 0:10:33.731 --> 0:10:34.970 A little over twenty. 0:10:35.371 --> 0:10:37.891 In not twenty years? Did you ever have a case 0:10:38.011 --> 0:10:38.371 like this. 0:10:38.410 --> 0:10:44.851 Where nobody a suicide? Never think about how would you 0:10:44.891 --> 0:10:45.170 do that? 0:10:46.210 --> 0:10:49.490 So Brandenburg asks to review the Auj case file. 0:10:50.491 --> 0:10:53.971 I went to the Captain Frank Merriman, who was the 0:10:54.050 --> 0:10:57.570 lieutenant in charge of Missing persons who handled the initial investigation, 0:10:58.330 --> 0:11:00.570 and I said, hey, Frank, I'm getting some information about 0:11:00.570 --> 0:11:02.651 Auja that you know we need to follow up on. 0:11:03.450 --> 0:11:06.330 He's what, He goes, that's a suicide. You're wasting your time. 0:11:07.450 --> 0:11:11.530 But Brandenburg continues to press this. He's a bulldog, after all, 0:11:11.970 --> 0:11:15.731 and his persistence pays off. In early two thousand, he 0:11:15.771 --> 0:11:19.170 gets permission to look through the missing person's report and 0:11:19.251 --> 0:11:22.931 finds out new details about the deputy's disappearance from a 0:11:22.970 --> 0:11:26.570 year and a half earlier. He discovers that the department 0:11:26.611 --> 0:11:29.851 had received numerous tips that Auja was murdered, and that 0:11:29.970 --> 0:11:33.251 some of those tips came in just three days after 0:11:33.290 --> 0:11:36.850 the deputy went missing, while searchers were still out looking 0:11:36.891 --> 0:11:42.371 for him. And potential evidence was still fresh. If there 0:11:42.530 --> 0:11:46.771 is some suggestion of possible foul play, multiple people are 0:11:46.771 --> 0:11:49.771 claiming there's a murder, what typically would happen. 0:11:50.050 --> 0:11:52.371 It would be assigned to a murder team, people that 0:11:52.410 --> 0:11:53.611 are on call for new murders. 0:11:54.891 --> 0:11:59.170 But that didn't happen because the missing person's team dismissed 0:11:59.251 --> 0:12:02.651 the tips. What would you say is the main difference 0:12:02.690 --> 0:12:06.530 between a missing person's investigator and a murder team or 0:12:06.611 --> 0:12:07.651 homicide detective. 0:12:08.810 --> 0:12:12.891 Well, missing persons they handle a large volume. I mean, 0:12:12.891 --> 0:12:15.011 there are so many people report of missing La County 0:12:15.050 --> 0:12:19.410 every day, let alone every month every year, so they're 0:12:19.450 --> 0:12:22.210 making phone calls, try to find relatives. So they're busy 0:12:22.290 --> 0:12:24.851 doing that stuff. But a lot of it is handled 0:12:24.851 --> 0:12:28.450 at their desk, on the phone. Or you don't handle 0:12:28.450 --> 0:12:31.290 a murder like that, at least, I ope not. 0:12:32.651 --> 0:12:36.370 Brander Murg thinks these detectives drop the ball big time, 0:12:37.170 --> 0:12:41.011 and he's not the only one. Internal documents from the 0:12:41.090 --> 0:12:44.251 LASD show that one lieutenant discussed the AJ case in 0:12:44.330 --> 0:12:48.690 terms of Murphy's law, which basically means anything that can 0:12:48.810 --> 0:12:52.130 go wrong will go wrong. We've reached out to the 0:12:52.170 --> 0:12:54.930 missing person's team, but they declined to talk to us. 0:12:55.611 --> 0:12:57.771 So all we know about their decision to not refer 0:12:57.810 --> 0:13:00.931 the case to a homicide detective is the one sentence 0:13:00.970 --> 0:13:05.450 explanation in their report. The reads, due to inconsistencies in 0:13:05.491 --> 0:13:08.771 their statements, it was determined they were not credible and 0:13:08.930 --> 0:13:10.530 otherly were pursued. 0:13:12.011 --> 0:13:14.290 Well, shouldn't you maybe looked into that a little more? 0:13:14.371 --> 0:13:17.571 I mean, that's just my thought, and that's why I 0:13:17.611 --> 0:13:18.410 started looking at it. 0:13:19.491 --> 0:13:22.130 Brandenburg does what he thinks should have happened back in 0:13:22.210 --> 0:13:26.810 nineteen ninety eight. He treats Aujay's disappearance like a homicide case, 0:13:27.651 --> 0:13:30.330 and he starts by tracking down two of the names 0:13:30.330 --> 0:13:34.491 in the missing person's report so he can reinterview the informants. 0:13:35.090 --> 0:13:37.771 To protect their identities, we're going to call them Sue 0:13:37.810 --> 0:13:41.491 and Mike. At the time, Sue was in custody on 0:13:41.570 --> 0:13:44.730 burglary charges, so Brandenburg and his partner head to the 0:13:44.810 --> 0:13:47.970 jail where she's being held. Sue tells them that after 0:13:48.011 --> 0:13:52.210 Aujay disappeared, her boyfriend Mike, went to score drugs from 0:13:52.251 --> 0:13:55.330 a guy living near the Devil's Punch Bowl, a local 0:13:55.371 --> 0:14:00.050 dealer named Tom Hinkle. What was he known for in 0:14:00.090 --> 0:14:00.611 the area? 0:14:01.251 --> 0:14:04.371 Miss doing it? Or he did it, he sold it, 0:14:04.410 --> 0:14:06.290 he cooked it, and he did all of it. 0:14:08.131 --> 0:14:12.131 Everyone in the area. Hinkle he was the Kevin Bacon 0:14:12.210 --> 0:14:16.051 and his community's six degrees of separation. He was only 0:14:16.050 --> 0:14:18.330 in his fifties when a J disappeared, but Hinkl was 0:14:18.371 --> 0:14:22.131 already known around town as old man. He had wild 0:14:22.251 --> 0:14:25.370 gray facial hair and was described by a local sheriff's 0:14:25.411 --> 0:14:29.451 deputy as bearded meta clause. He lived in a large 0:14:29.451 --> 0:14:32.131 a frame house up on a hill six miles from 0:14:32.171 --> 0:14:34.931 the punch bowl, and his property was a hive of 0:14:35.051 --> 0:14:39.171 drug activity. Sue, the informant, tells Brandon Burg that when 0:14:39.210 --> 0:14:41.811 Mike arrived at Hinkle's home, he led him into a 0:14:41.851 --> 0:14:44.571 back room where Hinkle kept his knife collection. 0:14:46.011 --> 0:14:49.731 Heinkel was showing him knife collection two miles beyond, kind 0:14:49.731 --> 0:14:51.371 of like showing off a little bit. 0:14:51.491 --> 0:14:51.691 You know. 0:14:52.611 --> 0:14:56.371 This is an actual recording of Sue's conversation with Brandenburg. 0:14:57.051 --> 0:15:03.171 I'll bendy bring it up the hop gath Henkler, Yeah, Okay, Tom, 0:15:03.251 --> 0:15:06.611 Heinkel brings it up to My boyfriend tells them basically 0:15:06.691 --> 0:15:07.370 what happened to. 0:15:07.330 --> 0:15:12.051 The man that RJ was on a job, ran across 0:15:12.090 --> 0:15:14.451 that picking shit. That ran across and he had to 0:15:14.491 --> 0:15:17.411 be taken care of, meaning she was killed. 0:15:19.571 --> 0:15:22.210 Sue goes on to say that, according to Hinkle, Auj 0:15:22.451 --> 0:15:24.891 stumbled on a meth lab and tried to be a 0:15:24.931 --> 0:15:29.210 hero with slight variations. The story is repeated by Mike 0:15:29.251 --> 0:15:32.091 in a separate interview and then in second hand accounts 0:15:32.131 --> 0:15:35.331 from a handful of other informants that Hinkle and or 0:15:35.411 --> 0:15:39.131 one of his associates had Auj taken care of. According 0:15:39.131 --> 0:15:42.090 to Sue and Mike, Hinkle pantomimed what he meant by 0:15:42.171 --> 0:15:42.891 taking care of. 0:15:44.491 --> 0:15:46.490 He made the motion like this. 0:15:48.651 --> 0:15:50.811 He made a hand gesture like a gun with his 0:15:50.811 --> 0:15:53.610 finger out, and then opened his hand like he was dropped. 0:15:55.651 --> 0:15:58.131 The moment plays like a movie scene in my head. 0:15:58.731 --> 0:16:01.571 Meta clause is surrounded by a bloom of meth smoke 0:16:01.731 --> 0:16:05.611 and sharp shiny knives. He mentions the missing deputy with 0:16:05.651 --> 0:16:08.691 a knowing look. He draws his hand into a finger 0:16:08.771 --> 0:16:13.331 gun and then releases his fingers, displaying them out, And 0:16:13.491 --> 0:16:17.371 just like that, John A. J. Disappears down a mind 0:16:17.411 --> 0:16:20.611 shaft or some other hole out in the desert where 0:16:20.651 --> 0:16:22.610 people go to bury their secrets. 0:16:55.651 --> 0:16:58.531 We're back at the Devil's punch Bowl. And this time 0:16:58.531 --> 0:17:02.651 we've come for a hike. Oh I love these. This 0:17:02.691 --> 0:17:04.610 is where you write your name and the time that 0:17:04.691 --> 0:17:08.171 you leave, so that in case you go missing, people 0:17:08.251 --> 0:17:10.531 know that we should do that. So dat, Betsy and 0:17:10.571 --> 0:17:12.731 I write our names down on a sign and sheet 0:17:12.771 --> 0:17:14.971 at the main trailhead and enter the park. 0:17:16.891 --> 0:17:19.891 Why why are we doing Why are we doing this again? 0:17:20.811 --> 0:17:23.051 I honestly, I just really had to get eyes on 0:17:23.091 --> 0:17:26.211 the punch bowl. I am having a really hard time 0:17:26.611 --> 0:17:28.691 seeing how someone could set up a meth lab in 0:17:28.931 --> 0:17:29.971 La County Park. 0:17:30.331 --> 0:17:31.971 It just feels implausible to you. 0:17:33.131 --> 0:17:36.051 Yeah, I mean, it just seems like you would be 0:17:36.131 --> 0:17:37.211 kind of asking to get. 0:17:37.091 --> 0:17:41.011 Caught, not to mention, like meth labs are like not discreen, discreet. 0:17:41.131 --> 0:17:44.491 Yeah, all right, let's let's check it out. 0:17:44.571 --> 0:17:49.811 Let's check it out. As we start to descend down 0:17:49.851 --> 0:17:52.691 into the center of the punch bowl, Betsy loses her 0:17:52.731 --> 0:17:58.090 footing on the steep dusty trail. Okay, do you want 0:17:58.131 --> 0:18:00.211 me to go in front of you or hold your backpack. 0:17:59.891 --> 0:18:03.331 So you can break my fall? Yeah? Holding my backpack 0:18:03.411 --> 0:18:06.131 like I'm a child method is a working freak. 0:18:06.931 --> 0:18:11.131 Yeah, here, I got you. But we keep moving, snaking 0:18:11.171 --> 0:18:13.811 through the switchbacks in a slow zigzag motion. 0:18:15.651 --> 0:18:17.651 How hot do you think it is right now? So 0:18:17.771 --> 0:18:19.251 one hundred? Did it break one hundreds today? 0:18:19.371 --> 0:18:19.771 I don't know. 0:18:19.811 --> 0:18:25.971 It's definitely close. It's pushing one hundred for sure. Being 0:18:26.051 --> 0:18:28.971 out here, we realize this public park is much less 0:18:29.171 --> 0:18:30.291 public than most. 0:18:32.331 --> 0:18:36.330 It feels like we are on another planet and we 0:18:36.411 --> 0:18:40.771 are like the last living human beings. So I mean 0:18:41.011 --> 0:18:45.771 in terms of discreetness, like it's open, but it's also 0:18:46.491 --> 0:18:47.611 like out. 0:18:47.331 --> 0:18:49.491 In the middle of nowhere. It's on the fringes. 0:18:51.491 --> 0:18:55.610 We don't see any other hikers or rangers, and I 0:18:55.651 --> 0:18:58.611 find myself playing out the lab scenario in my head. 0:18:58.971 --> 0:19:05.011 You know, we know that Jonathan oj saw uh Classic 0:19:05.091 --> 0:19:07.851 kids on a field trip here, but then we also 0:19:07.971 --> 0:19:11.011 know that he went totally off trail and off roading, 0:19:11.211 --> 0:19:15.451 and to me, that would be the place where he 0:19:15.491 --> 0:19:18.491 could stumble upon the meth lab because there is all 0:19:18.651 --> 0:19:23.610 this land that is not accessible by trail. As we 0:19:23.691 --> 0:19:26.411 wind our way down the gorge with our phones on 0:19:26.611 --> 0:19:30.891 SOS mode, the idea of shady things happening out here 0:19:31.091 --> 0:19:35.931 seems like a real possibility. Hey, dude, I think I 0:19:35.971 --> 0:19:39.330 feel like maybe we shouldn't hit it. It's We're getting 0:19:39.371 --> 0:19:41.291 like pretty far out in the middle of nowhere here, 0:19:41.331 --> 0:19:42.571 and no one knows we're out here. 0:19:43.891 --> 0:19:47.211 I was thinking, I didn't want to say anything. I 0:19:47.371 --> 0:19:49.371 didn't want to be the weaning of the group. Let's 0:19:49.411 --> 0:19:53.011 les let go, Let's not beat around the bush, let's 0:19:53.011 --> 0:19:56.731 get out of the bush. The second Haley gives me 0:19:56.771 --> 0:20:00.291 an out, I pretty much take off running because I'm 0:20:00.691 --> 0:20:04.211 always thinking of worst case scenarios, falling off a cliff, 0:20:04.331 --> 0:20:07.451 getting attacked by a bear. Now I have to worry 0:20:07.451 --> 0:20:10.491 about stumbling on a meth lab. I don't have to, 0:20:10.771 --> 0:20:14.330 but I will, because that's just who I am. A 0:20:14.451 --> 0:20:18.051 firm believer in Murphy's law. That's why I didn't have 0:20:18.091 --> 0:20:21.971 any trouble buying into the whole meth lab scenario. What 0:20:22.131 --> 0:20:24.491 I want to know is how this area became a 0:20:24.491 --> 0:20:28.090 meth hotspot in the first place. We don't have stats 0:20:28.091 --> 0:20:31.171 specific to the Analov Valley, but here in the early 0:20:31.211 --> 0:20:35.531 two thousands, a large scale drug syndicate was busted. Nearly 0:20:35.611 --> 0:20:40.731 three hundred people were arrested, most classified as career criminals. 0:20:42.211 --> 0:20:44.371 I grew up in a rural area where there was 0:20:44.411 --> 0:20:47.650 a lot of drug activity hiding in plain sight, so 0:20:47.731 --> 0:20:51.330 I know the av's remoteness is a factor, but it 0:20:51.371 --> 0:20:57.330 turns out so are its big open skies. Since the 0:20:57.411 --> 0:21:01.731 nineteen thirties, the US government and military contractors have been 0:21:01.731 --> 0:21:07.291 testing planes, rockets, and explosives over the Annalov Valley. The 0:21:07.411 --> 0:21:11.051 Edwards Air Force Base was built, defense plants moved in, 0:21:11.571 --> 0:21:15.211 and it turned the area into an aeronautical frontier. 0:21:17.051 --> 0:21:20.651 In October nineteen forty seven, at Nila Desert Test Center 0:21:20.691 --> 0:21:26.691 in California, history is made by this aircraft and its pilot, Captain. 0:21:26.411 --> 0:21:29.771 Vieger, and it was over this part of the Anilo 0:21:29.931 --> 0:21:33.330 Valley where Air Force pilot Chuck Yaeger pushed his plane 0:21:33.451 --> 0:21:36.211 up to seven hundred miles per hour and broke the 0:21:36.331 --> 0:21:37.091 sound barrier. 0:21:37.811 --> 0:21:41.531 For at time a man has blown an airplane. Not 0:21:41.731 --> 0:21:42.891 there than the fiel of God. 0:21:45.891 --> 0:21:49.330 These military experiments over the AV are actually where the 0:21:49.371 --> 0:21:53.771 principle of Murphy's law comes from. Because these space cowboys 0:21:53.771 --> 0:21:56.411 got so banged up while pushing their bodies to the 0:21:56.451 --> 0:22:00.291 limit resisting the forces of gravity and physics that an 0:22:00.331 --> 0:22:03.731 engineer on the project, a guy named Edward Murphy, said 0:22:03.771 --> 0:22:06.811 something along the lines of anything that can go wrong 0:22:07.131 --> 0:22:11.011 will go wrong. It be long before things would start 0:22:11.051 --> 0:22:15.091 to go wrong across the Antelote Valley. The av had 0:22:15.091 --> 0:22:18.890 a legacy of record breaking speed, and its residents developed 0:22:18.891 --> 0:22:23.850 an appetite for the drug version of rocket fuel meth anthetamine. 0:22:25.451 --> 0:22:29.091 Meth just made life easier out there. Factory workers took 0:22:29.171 --> 0:22:32.891 the drug to power through long shifts at defense contractor plants. 0:22:33.611 --> 0:22:36.171 Construction workers used it to keep up with the area's 0:22:36.211 --> 0:22:39.771 housing boom, and commuters relied on meth to stay awake 0:22:39.851 --> 0:22:43.850 during the brutal drive to and from Los Angeles. But 0:22:43.971 --> 0:22:47.531 moderate matthews turned into a full blown epidemic in the 0:22:47.571 --> 0:22:51.651 early nineties as the Cold War came to an abrupt end. 0:22:52.411 --> 0:22:56.011 The aerospace cutback soon created a domino effect across the 0:22:56.051 --> 0:23:00.691 Antalope Valley, and the munce thriving economy began to evaporate, like. 0:23:00.771 --> 0:23:02.571 So much water in the hot desert sun. 0:23:03.771 --> 0:23:07.211 The meth trade became an easy option for unemployed residents 0:23:07.251 --> 0:23:08.251 to make some cash. 0:23:09.411 --> 0:23:11.971 At the time, the Anlope Valley was a sesspool. It 0:23:12.011 --> 0:23:15.731 was a desert. It was known for manufacturing met the amphetamine, 0:23:15.771 --> 0:23:17.811 so people were getting busted left and right. 0:23:18.851 --> 0:23:19.931 This is Chris Turk. 0:23:20.811 --> 0:23:23.291 My dad calls me Christine when I'm in trouble, but 0:23:23.331 --> 0:23:25.051 most couldn't call me Chris. 0:23:25.371 --> 0:23:28.891 Chris Turk is originally from Massachusetts, but she got stationed 0:23:28.891 --> 0:23:31.451 in the Antelope Valley while working for the US Army. 0:23:32.251 --> 0:23:35.011 She left the military after a few years, had a family, 0:23:35.491 --> 0:23:38.371 and then found work with a local attorney. Because when 0:23:38.371 --> 0:23:42.931 Matthew skyrocketed, so did the need for criminal defense. What 0:23:43.131 --> 0:23:44.371 was your position with him? 0:23:44.891 --> 0:23:47.251 At first it was just apparently ago, and then it 0:23:47.571 --> 0:23:50.811 was investigative. I would go out on the streets and 0:23:50.811 --> 0:23:52.211 I would talk to the people. I would talk to 0:23:52.291 --> 0:23:55.251 some cops. I would join Everett to defend the client. 0:23:56.051 --> 0:23:58.171 Turk discovered she had a real knack for it. 0:23:58.851 --> 0:24:02.651