WEBVTT - Episode 1: The Devil’s Punchbowl 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 --> 0:00:36.931 on the Valley of Shadows show page on Apple podcast 0:00:37.451 --> 0:00:41.251 or at pushkin dot fm, slash plus and thanks for 0:00:41.290 --> 0:00:45.290 your support. This series includes content that may not be 0:00:45.331 --> 0:00:48.731 suitable for all listeners. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:51.091 --> 0:00:52.971 So it's okay, yeah, I'll. 0:00:52.851 --> 0:00:54.491 Turn it down just a little bit, because sometimes you 0:00:54.531 --> 0:00:55.251 get animated. 0:00:56.011 --> 0:00:58.211 I get pissed off, pissed off old cop. 0:00:59.251 --> 0:01:01.531 This pissed off old cop is Mike Bauer. 0:01:02.691 --> 0:01:05.530 Okay, my name is Mike Bauer, retired Captain LA Sheriff. 0:01:05.731 --> 0:01:08.891 I retired in two thousand and two. My last assignment 0:01:08.971 --> 0:01:11.971 was Major Crimes Bureau, Detective Division, LA Sheriff. 0:01:13.170 --> 0:01:15.931 Bower spent thirty three years climbing the ranks of the 0:01:15.971 --> 0:01:19.291 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and he looks the part 0:01:19.331 --> 0:01:22.611 of a retired captain. His white hair and mustache are 0:01:22.651 --> 0:01:26.090 neatly groomed, and his eyes were permanently fixed and a 0:01:26.131 --> 0:01:28.771 look that says, do not fuck up on my watch. 0:01:29.651 --> 0:01:31.651 And he's pissed off because of something that happened to 0:01:31.651 --> 0:01:34.731 one of his guys on his squad back in the 0:01:34.731 --> 0:01:39.931 summer of nineteen ninety eight. June eleventh started off like 0:01:39.931 --> 0:01:43.931 a normal day in Los Angeles, June gloom and bad traffic. 0:01:45.211 --> 0:01:47.291 I got up early out of Long Beach and headed 0:01:47.371 --> 0:01:50.651 up the six zero five and into East La. Our 0:01:50.691 --> 0:01:51.611 office in East LA. 0:01:52.571 --> 0:01:54.931 Bauer was doing paperwork when a call came into the 0:01:54.931 --> 0:01:57.971 front desk. The receptionist answered. 0:01:58.651 --> 0:02:00.531 Then she hung up and she comes down to get 0:02:00.531 --> 0:02:03.771 a cup of coffee across the hall, and I said, hey, 0:02:03.811 --> 0:02:06.571 who was that? It was? John Aujay. 0:02:08.011 --> 0:02:10.971 John auj was a t eight year old canine cop 0:02:11.531 --> 0:02:14.210 and he was calling to inquire about an upcoming job assignment. 0:02:15.370 --> 0:02:17.370 I said, well, I've been trying to get hold him, 0:02:17.851 --> 0:02:21.011 and she says, oh, well, maybe he'll call back. 0:02:22.531 --> 0:02:23.531 He never called back. 0:02:26.331 --> 0:02:28.891 John aj was working for the unit Bower headed up 0:02:28.891 --> 0:02:34.131 at the time, the Special Enforcement Bureau or SEB for short. 0:02:34.291 --> 0:02:38.691 Which consists of seven or eight SWAT teams, and the 0:02:38.731 --> 0:02:43.571 SWAT teams were involved in tactical responses to high risk 0:02:43.611 --> 0:02:45.251 situations in the field. 0:02:46.131 --> 0:02:51.731 Seb handled things like active shooter situations, hostage negotiations, search 0:02:51.771 --> 0:02:55.530 and rescue. It was a job that attracted adrenaline junkies 0:02:55.611 --> 0:02:59.691 like Aj. He was an Army paratrooper and a survivalist, 0:02:59.971 --> 0:03:02.971 and those military skills, along with his buzz cut and 0:03:03.011 --> 0:03:06.251 square build, made him a shoe in for the Sheriff's Department. 0:03:07.211 --> 0:03:10.091 He was in the Army in Special Forces. He was 0:03:10.131 --> 0:03:13.731 working at the elite unit of the department. I have 0:03:13.811 --> 0:03:16.331 to call him a loaner, but he was an elite 0:03:16.411 --> 0:03:21.371 loaner because the guy was doing fifty mile runs. He 0:03:21.491 --> 0:03:22.251 was an animal. 0:03:25.811 --> 0:03:28.411 Auj got his kicks by going on long runs through 0:03:28.411 --> 0:03:32.411 California's back country. He'd go out deep into the wilderness 0:03:32.451 --> 0:03:36.611 to conquer the only obstacle course that still challenged him. 0:03:36.931 --> 0:03:39.451 And that's how Auj was spending his day off. On 0:03:39.531 --> 0:03:43.131 June eleventh, nineteen ninety eight, he woke up, put on 0:03:43.171 --> 0:03:46.011 his running gear and drove to one of his favorite parks, 0:03:46.731 --> 0:03:50.291 the Devil's Punch Bowl. It's a rugged canyon where the 0:03:50.331 --> 0:03:53.931 Angelus National Forest, the San Gabriel Mountains, and the Mojave 0:03:54.051 --> 0:04:02.771 Desert all converge. Auj entered the park just before noon, 0:04:03.131 --> 0:04:05.891 used a payphone to call into the Sheriff's department, and 0:04:05.931 --> 0:04:10.571 then he took off running. Never listen to any music, 0:04:11.131 --> 0:04:13.531 just the sounds of nature as he jogged along a 0:04:13.571 --> 0:04:17.091 maze of switchbacks and up a nearly ten thousand foot mountain. 0:04:18.570 --> 0:04:21.491 By early evening, he looped back towards the parking lot, 0:04:23.051 --> 0:04:25.890 but as the sun began to set, the shadows of 0:04:25.931 --> 0:04:30.010 trees and rocks grew until night engulfed the park. 0:04:37.211 --> 0:04:41.491 That evening, I got a phone call saying that Wog 0:04:41.651 --> 0:04:45.771 is missing, that he didn't come back to his vehicle, 0:04:46.611 --> 0:04:49.130 and that they were going to start some more extensive 0:04:49.171 --> 0:04:52.251 searching for him. 0:04:52.531 --> 0:04:55.331 It's an all out manhunt for John Aujay. Every search 0:04:55.371 --> 0:04:57.491 and rescue team in La County has been called in 0:04:57.491 --> 0:05:00.211 to help the thirty eight year old when hiking Thursday 0:05:00.211 --> 0:05:03.051 in a rugged section of the Angelos National Forest known 0:05:03.091 --> 0:05:06.690 as Double Punch Bowls Park. It's a beautiful but dangerous area, 0:05:06.851 --> 0:05:09.851 an area where it may be extremely difficult to find 0:05:09.891 --> 0:05:10.291 all Jay. 0:05:11.331 --> 0:05:15.251 It's a pretty unique situation. The Sheriff's department is called 0:05:15.251 --> 0:05:17.931 in to look for a missing hiker who's one of 0:05:17.971 --> 0:05:21.131 their own, So the search and rescue team sent out 0:05:21.171 --> 0:05:24.331 to look for Auj consists of his friends and colleagues. 0:05:25.211 --> 0:05:27.731 We took our teams out and deployed in two man 0:05:28.011 --> 0:05:30.531 teams over the edges of the trails, into the little 0:05:30.731 --> 0:05:33.531 nooks and crannies and the gullies that he could have 0:05:33.531 --> 0:05:34.530 slipped and fallen into. 0:05:35.891 --> 0:05:39.651 But searchers find no trace of Aj. It was as 0:05:39.690 --> 0:05:43.331 if he just vanished into thin air. And now, nearly 0:05:43.371 --> 0:05:46.891 thirty years later, the deputy is still missing. 0:05:52.690 --> 0:05:54.130 I guess I'll open a box. 0:05:56.051 --> 0:05:59.091 All that remains from Auj's life is packed into five 0:05:59.211 --> 0:06:03.811 cardboard boxes. The items are wrapped in plastic and Bauer 0:06:03.851 --> 0:06:05.531 wears gloves as he combs through them. 0:06:07.451 --> 0:06:12.011 This is John's work jacket, and it's an SEB jacket 0:06:12.051 --> 0:06:14.931 with his name embroidered on it. And Bossco his. 0:06:15.011 --> 0:06:20.091 Dog now bowers preserving Auja's belongings for future developments in 0:06:20.131 --> 0:06:20.491 the case. 0:06:21.051 --> 0:06:23.811 Okay, so here's his running shoes with his name on 0:06:23.891 --> 0:06:27.291 the back. Those should have some DNA in him. 0:06:28.651 --> 0:06:31.971 The artifacts also tell us who Auja was. There's a 0:06:31.971 --> 0:06:36.411 photocollage full of happy memories him and his high school 0:06:36.451 --> 0:06:39.770 sweetheart Dub on their wedding day, a birthday party for 0:06:39.811 --> 0:06:43.051 their daughter, Chloe, who was just five when he disappeared, 0:06:43.731 --> 0:06:47.291 and puppy picks of Bosco. Auj's department issued K nine 0:06:48.571 --> 0:06:51.770 And next to these snapshots of domestic life, there's a 0:06:51.811 --> 0:06:57.091 steel ballistics helmet intended to stop rifle rounds, trophies for marksmanship, 0:06:57.651 --> 0:07:03.091 army fatigues, you know, tough guys stuff. Auj moved at 0:07:03.131 --> 0:07:06.251 a fast clip, trying to balance the competing demands of 0:07:06.331 --> 0:07:10.051 home and work, but his life came to an abrupt 0:07:10.091 --> 0:07:11.251 and puzzling end. 0:07:12.691 --> 0:07:17.291 A death certificate says cause a death unknown manner, a 0:07:17.331 --> 0:07:20.931 death unknown no body. 0:07:21.531 --> 0:07:25.051 The deputy's body has never been found, which raises a 0:07:25.051 --> 0:07:29.531 lot of questions for Mike Bauer and a survivalist getting 0:07:29.571 --> 0:07:34.611 lost in the woods another big question mark. Over time, 0:07:34.731 --> 0:07:37.251 the mystery of it all has turned into something else, 0:07:38.011 --> 0:07:44.371 deep and unsettling, suspicion about the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the. 0:07:44.291 --> 0:07:46.971 Only law enforcement agency in this country that I know of, 0:07:47.011 --> 0:07:50.331 and I've looked around who has a missing deputy sheriff 0:07:51.051 --> 0:07:55.291 and doesn't seem to care. What the hell happened? What's 0:07:55.331 --> 0:07:58.011 the answer? Who's motivated to find. 0:07:57.731 --> 0:08:03.371 The answer, And that's Mike cue. When Mike Bauer first 0:08:03.411 --> 0:08:07.171 told me about Auja, I thought an unsolved disappearance involving 0:08:07.211 --> 0:08:11.131 a cop, that's unusual. But when he started talking about 0:08:11.131 --> 0:08:15.011 the Sheriff's Department, his department, that's when I locked in. 0:08:15.811 --> 0:08:18.811 Because you'd expect the La County Sheriff's Department to turn 0:08:18.811 --> 0:08:22.451 over every stone to find their guy. So the claim 0:08:22.531 --> 0:08:25.171 that the LASD may have an interest in not solving 0:08:25.171 --> 0:08:30.491 the case, now that's a story. So I called up 0:08:30.531 --> 0:08:34.891 my friend Hayley Fox. Like me, she's an investigative journalist, 0:08:34.930 --> 0:08:38.410 and she knows a lot about the Sheriff's department because 0:08:38.410 --> 0:08:41.971 she's reported on it for many years. Hey, Betsy, Hey. 0:08:41.891 --> 0:08:44.050 Do I'm good? 0:08:44.210 --> 0:08:44.690 I'm ready. 0:08:45.011 --> 0:08:45.970 Yeah, I go to do this. 0:08:46.330 --> 0:08:47.011 It's about time. 0:08:47.050 --> 0:08:49.131 I'm a little road trip adventure. 0:08:50.050 --> 0:08:51.050 All right, let's do it. 0:08:52.851 --> 0:08:55.771 We've teamed up on stories before and decided to get 0:08:55.771 --> 0:08:59.251 the band back together to find answers about this missing 0:08:59.290 --> 0:09:03.170 deputy and to take on the largest sheriff's department in 0:09:03.210 --> 0:09:03.810 the country. 0:09:04.410 --> 0:09:06.891 There's a code of silence in law enforcement. You break 0:09:06.891 --> 0:09:09.211 that code of silence, you're done. 0:09:09.570 --> 0:09:11.771 Hey, if don't fucking kill a Copponberry's what are you 0:09:11.771 --> 0:09:12.250 gonna do to me. 0:09:12.810 --> 0:09:18.410 It's an obstruction of justice of a very large scale. 0:09:19.170 --> 0:09:23.410 I'm Betsy Shepherd, I'm Haley Fox, and this is Valley 0:09:23.450 --> 0:09:27.930 of Shadows, a show about crime and corruption in California's 0:09:27.970 --> 0:09:44.530 High Desert. Episode one, the Devil's Punch Bowl. Betsy and 0:09:44.570 --> 0:09:47.290 I are making the trek from downtown Los Angeles to 0:09:47.330 --> 0:09:51.410 the Antelope Valley, that's the desert area north of La 0:09:51.491 --> 0:09:55.931 where Deputy auj disappeared. The drives about sixty miles but 0:09:56.410 --> 0:09:58.450 takes an hour and a half to two hours because 0:09:58.450 --> 0:09:59.571 of the mountainous. 0:09:59.170 --> 0:10:03.371 Terrain, so you actually have to take We gotta go north. 0:10:04.251 --> 0:10:06.691 Yeah, we're gonna go north, but this is La Dude. 0:10:06.731 --> 0:10:10.371 We gotta go south. One in south five north fourteen 0:10:11.050 --> 0:10:12.651 and then I think there's a one thirty eighth throat 0:10:12.690 --> 0:10:14.771 in there, but nothing's a street shot. 0:10:15.930 --> 0:10:17.610 Spoken like a true Angelino. 0:10:19.491 --> 0:10:22.530 I was born and raised in La County, Go Dodgers, 0:10:23.210 --> 0:10:27.851 but this part of it feels worlds away. The Antelope Valley, 0:10:27.930 --> 0:10:30.811 or the av as it's sometimes called, is a three 0:10:30.810 --> 0:10:34.570 thousand square mile stretch of the Mojave, But this part 0:10:34.611 --> 0:10:37.131 of the High Desert doesn't have the same allure and 0:10:37.290 --> 0:10:41.530 vibingess as places like Joshua Tree. Instead, the avy is 0:10:41.611 --> 0:10:46.090 mostly empty space, dotted with defence plants, bedroom communities, and 0:10:46.131 --> 0:10:47.210 tumbleweed towns. 0:10:48.611 --> 0:10:49.971 So a lot of just like. 0:10:51.410 --> 0:10:54.410 Trailers kind of just park down in the desert. 0:10:56.570 --> 0:11:02.210 Yeah, I mean power lines and scrubbrush. Our story takes 0:11:02.251 --> 0:11:06.011 place in and around Pair Blossom, California. It has a 0:11:06.050 --> 0:11:09.170 population of fifteen hundred and it's where the Devil's Punch 0:11:09.210 --> 0:11:13.491 Bowl located. Driving through it, Betsy gets a case of 0:11:13.530 --> 0:11:14.090 deja vu. 0:11:14.970 --> 0:11:17.091 I had anxiety coming to places like this because it 0:11:17.090 --> 0:11:18.851 reminds me of like a town that I grew up 0:11:18.851 --> 0:11:22.451 and there's just just like I feel, the oppressive weight 0:11:22.491 --> 0:11:27.691 of boredom. Oh really. I moved to La several years 0:11:27.690 --> 0:11:31.210 ago from South Louisiana. I had never been to Anelo 0:11:31.330 --> 0:11:35.050 Valley before, but it was immediately familiar to me because 0:11:35.050 --> 0:11:38.011 if you were to replace desert with swamp, this region 0:11:38.050 --> 0:11:40.170 would look a lot like the small town I'm from. 0:11:40.891 --> 0:11:43.810 It's rural and kind of run down. There's more landscape 0:11:43.810 --> 0:11:47.571 than real estate, lots of pickup trucks in town. Life 0:11:48.131 --> 0:11:49.810 seems like a thing of the past. 0:11:50.771 --> 0:11:51.410 We got. 0:11:52.930 --> 0:11:54.891 An abandoned motel. 0:11:55.410 --> 0:12:00.251 What's this oh, like an abandoned old restaurant and rec 0:12:00.330 --> 0:12:07.330 hall and people getting gas to presumably be all their way. 0:12:08.170 --> 0:12:10.050 Yeah, I mean, I think the three stations in a 0:12:10.090 --> 0:12:12.810 road tell the story. 0:12:13.570 --> 0:12:15.891 But the closer we get to the Devil's Punch Bowl 0:12:15.930 --> 0:12:20.651 where auj was last spotted, and other worldly landscape appears, 0:12:21.131 --> 0:12:24.810 full of spiky joshua trees and sandstone columns. 0:12:26.530 --> 0:12:28.290 It's actually really beautiful out here. 0:12:28.290 --> 0:12:29.610 It's not expected to lay. 0:12:30.491 --> 0:12:33.530 Are you looking at these huge rocks jutting out of 0:12:33.570 --> 0:12:36.771 the ground and like they're making all those crazy shadows? 0:12:36.851 --> 0:12:39.090 For seeing anything like them, I haven't either. 0:12:40.410 --> 0:12:42.371 I feel like I've been an old Western movie, you know, 0:12:42.491 --> 0:12:47.050 like we're just got this like wide epic landscape shots. 0:12:46.930 --> 0:12:49.810 Total endless horizons, totally endless horizons. 0:12:49.851 --> 0:12:52.730 I can see why John aj likes to come out here. 0:12:53.050 --> 0:12:54.490 Yeah, it's pretty pretty umpig. 0:12:59.330 --> 0:13:03.971 Okay, we are pulling into the Devil's Punch Bowl County 0:13:04.050 --> 0:13:05.530 Park parking lot. 0:13:06.090 --> 0:13:07.011 Here we are. 0:13:11.090 --> 0:13:14.131 We've come here to retrace John Aujay's last known steps 0:13:15.090 --> 0:13:18.491 and to meet with ranger Jack Farley. He was working 0:13:18.530 --> 0:13:20.810 on the punch Bowl the day the deputy disappeared. 0:13:24.131 --> 0:13:26.170 Hi are you? 0:13:26.251 --> 0:13:26.931 But are you Jack? 0:13:26.970 --> 0:13:33.330 Farley by chance, I am. This is my reporting partner, Haley, nice. 0:13:33.651 --> 0:13:36.851 Too, Thank you for meeting us out here. Yes, Jack 0:13:36.930 --> 0:13:40.010 Farley's retired now, but for thirty five years he was 0:13:40.050 --> 0:13:41.610 assigned to work the punch Bowl. 0:13:42.930 --> 0:13:44.050 What a cool job. 0:13:45.170 --> 0:13:48.290 Great for me, Yeah, it was awesome, good job. 0:13:49.491 --> 0:13:51.571 It was Farley's job to keep an eye on things, 0:13:51.771 --> 0:13:55.250 to tend the grounds and patrol the area. So he 0:13:55.410 --> 0:13:57.970 noticed when auj became a regular at the punch Bowl, 0:13:58.450 --> 0:14:02.051 and he clocked Aujay's regular parking space the one closest 0:14:02.090 --> 0:14:02.930 to the trailhead. 0:14:03.771 --> 0:14:05.971 So I can remember seeing him sitting in the back 0:14:05.970 --> 0:14:09.290 of his truck when you get done with a run 0:14:10.090 --> 0:14:12.651 in the mountains. So when I'd walk out into the 0:14:12.690 --> 0:14:14.771 parking lot, I'd see him sitting out there and ask 0:14:14.851 --> 0:14:15.690 him about his run. 0:14:17.170 --> 0:14:20.491 Farley remembers that the day all Jay disappeared, his white 0:14:20.571 --> 0:14:23.411 Ford F one fifty truck was parked in that very 0:14:23.451 --> 0:14:27.250 same spot, surrounded on all sides by wilderness. 0:14:28.291 --> 0:14:30.851 One thing that impresses us so much about this area 0:14:31.090 --> 0:14:34.251 is that you have a desert landscape on one side, 0:14:34.330 --> 0:14:36.811 you have mountains and forests on the other, and then 0:14:36.891 --> 0:14:41.051 in between it's these really cool rock formations. 0:14:41.731 --> 0:14:45.971 Right, it's all uplifted from earthquake activity. Oh wow, that's 0:14:46.011 --> 0:14:49.691 a punch bowl fault and that runs parallel with the mountains. 0:14:50.210 --> 0:14:52.011 And then when you came up to here, you cross 0:14:52.011 --> 0:14:54.730 the San Andreas Fault, which of course the big one 0:14:54.731 --> 0:14:58.491 that runs through California, several faults in the area. It 0:14:58.531 --> 0:15:01.451 took all this sand that was laid down flat by 0:15:01.491 --> 0:15:04.531 streams and tilted up into vertical relief. 0:15:04.970 --> 0:15:07.051 And it creates a bowl shape. 0:15:07.210 --> 0:15:10.611 You can see a definite bowl shape coming around like this. Well, 0:15:10.651 --> 0:15:12.130 that's where it got the punch bowl name. 0:15:13.531 --> 0:15:16.171 We're not totally sure about the devil part of it, though. 0:15:18.251 --> 0:15:21.971 According to local lore, early homesteaders saw grinning devil in 0:15:22.011 --> 0:15:25.771 the rock formations. We didn't see satan in the rock face, 0:15:26.330 --> 0:15:29.571 but we did see something else thanks to a county 0:15:29.611 --> 0:15:31.451 park employee named Dave Numar. 0:15:32.891 --> 0:15:36.171 See this right where the shadow ends, there's that big 0:15:36.251 --> 0:15:39.171 rock kind of all by itself. If you look, it's 0:15:39.210 --> 0:15:41.611 like a forehead is facing us and there's a nose 0:15:41.651 --> 0:15:42.171 pointing street. 0:15:42.251 --> 0:15:43.491 It looks like George Washington. 0:15:43.571 --> 0:15:47.970 Yeah, it's a natural not reshmre cool. So there's all 0:15:48.011 --> 0:15:50.571 kinds of faces out here because it's like oh, our 0:15:50.611 --> 0:15:52.770 brains are programmed to see patterns. 0:15:54.011 --> 0:15:57.051 Pattern recognition is why we see gods and goddesses in 0:15:57.090 --> 0:16:00.490 the stars and the man in the moon. It's also 0:16:00.611 --> 0:16:03.811 a key part of criminal investigations, a way to turn 0:16:03.851 --> 0:16:07.811 information into a story. And that's why we've come to 0:16:07.851 --> 0:16:10.571 the Devil's punch bowl see if we can make sense 0:16:10.691 --> 0:16:15.731 of what happened on June eleventh, nineteen ninety eight. So 0:16:15.771 --> 0:16:17.931 we pull out a map we printed from the internet 0:16:18.131 --> 0:16:22.171 because we're prepared journalists and elder millennials, and we present 0:16:22.210 --> 0:16:23.451 it to Ranger farltly. 0:16:24.771 --> 0:16:25.931 Let me show you what it looks like. 0:16:27.571 --> 0:16:29.251 Yeah, line will definitely better. 0:16:29.330 --> 0:16:31.850 It's definitely get us lost in the wilderness. 0:16:32.611 --> 0:16:37.411 Good God. Farley proves his outdoor prowess by whipping out 0:16:37.491 --> 0:16:40.371 some real maps of the area to help orient us 0:16:40.411 --> 0:16:42.651 to our surroundings. 0:16:41.891 --> 0:16:44.011 Okay, here's the Devil's Point. 0:16:44.171 --> 0:16:49.691 Okay, and there's Burkharp tree all right. 0:16:49.731 --> 0:16:53.571 There goes over toward Devil's Chairs, so that'd be just 0:16:53.651 --> 0:16:56.211 to the east, goes to south Fork. 0:16:57.931 --> 0:17:01.330 One witness reported seeing auj near the picnic tables at 0:17:01.371 --> 0:17:05.491 the main trailhead sometime before noon. This witness was a 0:17:05.531 --> 0:17:08.011 local teacher there on a field trip with a bunch 0:17:08.051 --> 0:17:11.571 of elementary school kids, Auj stopped to talk to him. 0:17:11.771 --> 0:17:14.251 He pointed to a jaggon mountain in the distance, Mount 0:17:14.291 --> 0:17:17.051 Baden Powell, and said that's where he was headed. 0:17:18.051 --> 0:17:21.851 So the high mountain behind the telephone poll over there. Yeah, 0:17:21.851 --> 0:17:25.731 that's Baden Powell and that's where he would go sometimes. 0:17:25.771 --> 0:17:28.211 How tall of the mountain, jeez, that is one of 0:17:28.211 --> 0:17:30.891 the higher ones. Let me think ten thousand ten, I 0:17:30.931 --> 0:17:32.051 mean in this range. 0:17:32.371 --> 0:17:36.130 And he would run from here to that mountain all 0:17:36.131 --> 0:17:37.571 the way over there and then run up it. 0:17:38.251 --> 0:17:41.171 Yeah, he'd run over there, and then there're sitchbacks all 0:17:41.211 --> 0:17:43.731 the way to the top of that mountain. 0:17:44.051 --> 0:17:47.371 Auj was spotted again later in the day, when multiple 0:17:47.411 --> 0:17:50.211 witnesses say they saw him jogging through a campground just 0:17:50.371 --> 0:17:53.371 north of the mountain in the direction of the punch 0:17:53.411 --> 0:17:57.130 Bowl parking lot. But when Farley left his post at 0:17:57.131 --> 0:18:00.611 five PM, Auj's truck was still parked in the lot, 0:18:01.411 --> 0:18:04.411 and it stayed parked there as the evening bloomed over 0:18:04.451 --> 0:18:09.651 the desert, and then close to midnight, Auj's wife hold 0:18:09.691 --> 0:18:31.051 the sheriff station to report him missing. 0:18:40.011 --> 0:18:43.931 As June eleventh, nineteen ninety eight years its end. Debbie 0:18:43.931 --> 0:18:48.771 Auja becomes increasingly panicked because her husband, Deputy John Auj, 0:18:49.171 --> 0:18:51.571 told her he'd be home around dark and by now 0:18:51.611 --> 0:18:54.411 he's several hours late. So she dials up one of 0:18:54.451 --> 0:18:56.370 the shriff stations where Auja worked. 0:18:57.411 --> 0:19:01.171 The call comes into the desk and it's from Debbie 0:19:01.291 --> 0:19:04.451 and it says, hey, my husband, who's a deputy, he 0:19:04.611 --> 0:19:07.091 went for a run and he didn't come home. 0:19:08.131 --> 0:19:11.491 Vince Burton was a sergeant in the Antelope Valley. He 0:19:11.611 --> 0:19:14.651 was also Auj's colleague and friend. So he gets on 0:19:14.691 --> 0:19:15.611 the phone with Debbie. 0:19:16.931 --> 0:19:22.091 She was just upset. She was crying. She was obviously 0:19:22.211 --> 0:19:22.931 very concerned. 0:19:23.331 --> 0:19:26.211 I just I said, Okay, Debbie, we're sending people up there, 0:19:26.451 --> 0:19:28.131 you know, keep you posted. 0:19:29.331 --> 0:19:32.171 Patrol deputies high tail it to the punch Bowl, where 0:19:32.171 --> 0:19:36.171 they find Auj's truck, but no Auj. They think maybe 0:19:36.211 --> 0:19:38.890 he got injured, slipped and fell for how to run 0:19:38.971 --> 0:19:43.491 in with some wildlife. So Burton dispatches Search and Rescue 0:19:43.491 --> 0:19:46.571 to the site and he calls in their coordinator, Dave Soer, 0:19:46.811 --> 0:19:48.811 to discuss Auj's likely route. 0:19:49.891 --> 0:19:52.971 And Dave comes in and we pull up a map 0:19:53.051 --> 0:19:54.131 of the area. 0:19:54.051 --> 0:19:56.931 And I told him at that time, I said, you know, 0:19:57.171 --> 0:20:01.371 John's a runner, and he goes yeah, and I said no, 0:20:01.411 --> 0:20:04.651 he's a long distance run and he's an ultra marathoner. 0:20:05.171 --> 0:20:05.691 He's like what. 0:20:07.851 --> 0:20:12.971 Ultra marathoners are running extremists who power through long distances. 0:20:13.691 --> 0:20:16.251 In fact, Auj was scheduled to compete in a one 0:20:16.331 --> 0:20:19.850 hundred mile run the week after he went missing. So 0:20:19.931 --> 0:20:22.610 responders have a hard time wrapping their heads around the 0:20:22.691 --> 0:20:23.651 scale of the search. 0:20:24.771 --> 0:20:27.171 I gave them the best information I could give them. 0:20:27.171 --> 0:20:29.811 You know, don't start your grid pattern so small. 0:20:30.851 --> 0:20:33.891 This is Randy Meggerdley. He was a patrol deputy for 0:20:33.931 --> 0:20:37.771 the Sheriff's Department and one of Auj's running buddies. He 0:20:37.851 --> 0:20:41.531 reiterates to the command post that Auj was a beast. 0:20:42.091 --> 0:20:45.971 You're running goat trails is basically what I categorize them as. 0:20:46.051 --> 0:20:47.571 What do you mean by that goat trails? 0:20:47.931 --> 0:20:52.451 Well, they're just megshift trails. Sometimes they'll be covered with snow, 0:20:52.811 --> 0:20:57.011 sometimes they'll be covered with mud, crossing rivers. I mean, 0:20:57.331 --> 0:21:00.331 it's crazy what kind of stuff that we were doing. 0:21:01.291 --> 0:21:03.851 There was one that we did. It was hand over 0:21:04.051 --> 0:21:06.571 foot trying to get up this mountain. 0:21:07.011 --> 0:21:11.691 Wow, and so part of the activity was figuring out 0:21:12.171 --> 0:21:13.451 how to get to the end of it. 0:21:14.091 --> 0:21:15.531 Yeah, and one piece. 0:21:17.171 --> 0:21:21.171 Hearing Meggridly talk about ultra marathoners, it sounds like they 0:21:21.211 --> 0:21:25.931 have no off switch. So maybe Auj just overdid it. 0:21:27.251 --> 0:21:32.771 Your brain does some wonky stuff when you're dehydrated, and 0:21:32.811 --> 0:21:34.891 they thought maybe he got on the trail and he 0:21:34.971 --> 0:21:38.131 was doing the forest gump just kept running. 0:21:39.331 --> 0:21:42.251 That's a theory that Auj was doing the forest Gump 0:21:42.291 --> 0:21:45.811 and just kept running and got himself into a tailspin 0:21:45.851 --> 0:21:50.211 of dehydration. Responders take note and fan out across the 0:21:50.251 --> 0:21:50.811 search grid. 0:21:51.611 --> 0:21:53.051 I was nice to him, I said, do you know 0:21:53.131 --> 0:21:55.251 I know the area pretty well if you guys want help? 0:21:55.731 --> 0:21:58.211 Ranger Jack Farley again, and the guy. 0:21:58.051 --> 0:22:00.691 Goes, no, we're search and rescue. We pretty much know 0:22:00.731 --> 0:22:05.011 what we're doing, you know. So I go okay, okay. 0:22:05.651 --> 0:22:08.611 But it doesn't take long for the pros realize they're 0:22:08.611 --> 0:22:09.371 in over their heads. 0:22:10.371 --> 0:22:12.371 So then they're going, hey, are you the guy that 0:22:12.491 --> 0:22:14.411 knows the area? You know, maybe you could give us 0:22:14.411 --> 0:22:15.051 a little help. 0:22:16.051 --> 0:22:19.091 So Farley leads a few groups of deputies and bloodhounds 0:22:19.211 --> 0:22:20.331 down the local trails. 0:22:21.251 --> 0:22:24.171 At one time thought they caught a scent and it 0:22:24.211 --> 0:22:27.011 went up on the trail going toward the Burckhart Trail, 0:22:27.051 --> 0:22:29.731 and we had talked about someone saying they heard a gunshot. 0:22:30.411 --> 0:22:33.531 You can't see the house from here, but it's like 0:22:34.251 --> 0:22:36.571 a half mile below the trail up there where the 0:22:36.571 --> 0:22:37.771 people lived that said. 0:22:37.531 --> 0:22:41.731 They heard that the dogs pick up a scent. Possibly 0:22:41.731 --> 0:22:44.571 Auja is on a trail that's near a local resident. 0:22:45.931 --> 0:22:48.131 That guy reported to searchers that he heard a single 0:22:48.171 --> 0:22:52.611 gunshot at sunset the day Auj vanished. It's a detail 0:22:52.811 --> 0:22:55.411 the Sheriff's department registers as a potential clue. 0:22:56.531 --> 0:22:59.090 So I took a group of deputies over there and 0:22:59.131 --> 0:23:01.811 we went that really rugged wooded canyon. 0:23:02.331 --> 0:23:06.891 They didn't find anything, but searchers do spot some footprints 0:23:06.891 --> 0:23:09.371 on the mountain where Auj told people he was going. 0:23:10.411 --> 0:23:13.771 So Auja's captain, Mike Bauer, takes to the skies to 0:23:13.811 --> 0:23:14.971 see where they lead. 0:23:16.011 --> 0:23:17.971 And that was the first time I ever stepped out 0:23:17.971 --> 0:23:21.491 of a huge helicopter on the side of a mountain 0:23:22.491 --> 0:23:26.651 with one skid touching, and then that helicopter flew off 0:23:27.011 --> 0:23:30.610 while we examined the openings a big horn mine to 0:23:30.651 --> 0:23:32.731 see whether or not it had been broken into. 0:23:33.851 --> 0:23:36.731 Bighorn is a mine on top of the mountain leftover 0:23:36.771 --> 0:23:39.691 from the gold rush days. Its entrance has been welded 0:23:39.691 --> 0:23:43.011 shut to keep out hikers, and when the helicopter lands, 0:23:43.251 --> 0:23:47.491 nineties action movie style Bowers crew finds no signs of 0:23:47.531 --> 0:23:53.011 a break in. Aujay's reported missing late Thursday night. By 0:23:53.051 --> 0:23:56.011