WEBVTT - Episode 2: An Unreasonable Act 0:00:15.371 --> 0:00:15.890 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, 0:00:37.491 --> 0:00:41.251 or at pushkin dot fm, slash plus, and thanks for 0:00:41.290 --> 0:00:43.331 your support. 0:00:43.891 --> 0:00:46.691 This series includes content that may not be suitable for 0:00:46.731 --> 0:00:53.371 all listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Previously on Valley of Shadows. 0:00:55.251 --> 0:00:58.091 It's an all out manhunt for John Aujay, the thirty 0:00:58.131 --> 0:01:00.611 eight year old when hiking Thursday in a rugged section 0:01:00.691 --> 0:01:04.011 of the Angelus National Forest known as Devil Punch Bowls. 0:01:03.771 --> 0:01:07.731 Park, he says, you know, there's a bunch of caves 0:01:07.731 --> 0:01:09.371 and stuff out here. 0:01:09.411 --> 0:01:13.211 I could pretty much disappear and nobody would ever find you. 0:01:14.131 --> 0:01:17.531 I participated in that search until my feet were bloody. 0:01:18.051 --> 0:01:21.491 But day six they said, well, shut it down. Why 0:01:21.531 --> 0:01:23.771 are you shutting it down? Well, they say that they 0:01:23.811 --> 0:01:25.371 decided he committed suicide. 0:01:26.091 --> 0:01:30.331 I kept contacting homicide and saying something's wrong. 0:01:30.451 --> 0:01:32.891 I'm telling you there's a problem. 0:01:33.091 --> 0:01:36.611 There's something rotten in the woodpile, and it stinks and 0:01:36.651 --> 0:01:37.451 I can smell it. 0:01:42.531 --> 0:01:46.090 Deputy John Auja disappeared while jogging in the Devil's punch 0:01:46.131 --> 0:01:48.731 Bowl on June eleventh, nineteen ninety eight. 0:01:49.571 --> 0:01:50.451 A couple weeks. 0:01:50.291 --> 0:01:56.971 Later, something tragic would also happen to his department issued canine, Bosco, 0:01:57.331 --> 0:01:59.651 and there are more than a few parallels between what 0:01:59.731 --> 0:02:04.651 happened with the two. Bosco was a Belgian Malinwah, which 0:02:04.931 --> 0:02:08.451 looks like a leaner version of a German shepherd. Auj 0:02:08.611 --> 0:02:10.611 got him as a puppy. He trained him to do 0:02:10.691 --> 0:02:13.611 police work and brought the dog home to live with him, 0:02:13.851 --> 0:02:18.291 his wife Deb and their daughter Chloe. I've had my 0:02:18.451 --> 0:02:20.851 dogs Stringer Bell for over a decade. 0:02:21.491 --> 0:02:24.291 His Dringer Bell, Dringer Bear. 0:02:24.731 --> 0:02:28.971 You gonna run around. He's a protector and eighty five 0:02:29.050 --> 0:02:32.331 pounds of emotional support. He's gonna run on the grass. 0:02:32.531 --> 0:02:33.571 You're gonna eat some grass. 0:02:35.091 --> 0:02:38.331 My home life revolves around my dog, just as the 0:02:38.371 --> 0:02:42.371 Aujays did around Bosco. We can tell because the dog's 0:02:42.411 --> 0:02:46.971 front and center and dozens of family photos. Those pictures 0:02:46.971 --> 0:02:50.251 now belong to Aujay's captain, Mike Bauer, and he shares 0:02:50.291 --> 0:02:51.050 them with us. 0:02:51.691 --> 0:02:54.331 Oh my gosh, we get this picture of Chloe and 0:02:54.371 --> 0:02:54.771 the dog. 0:02:55.131 --> 0:03:00.050 Yeah, you can tell that they were raised together. 0:03:00.371 --> 0:03:03.211 She's like squeezing the dogs net, like their heads are 0:03:03.251 --> 0:03:06.531 pushed together, Like you lived like your best Bude. 0:03:07.211 --> 0:03:09.371 Chloe appears to be three or four in the foot, 0:03:09.531 --> 0:03:13.331 though her arms are barely able to reach around Bosco's neck, 0:03:13.491 --> 0:03:16.971 so she leans in to make it happen, smiling from 0:03:17.011 --> 0:03:20.971 ear to ear. Bosco looks annoyed like an older sibling would, 0:03:21.131 --> 0:03:25.571 which is essentially what he was. And there was another 0:03:25.691 --> 0:03:30.131 important Bosco memento. Bower came across it while rifling through 0:03:30.171 --> 0:03:33.891 Aujay's patrol vehicle just days after he was reported missing. 0:03:34.691 --> 0:03:38.211 I found his tape recorder in the visor with tape 0:03:38.251 --> 0:03:40.411 in a little tape recorder. 0:03:40.051 --> 0:03:40.371 Like I have. 0:03:41.491 --> 0:03:44.531 Bower points to a micro cassette player, something he uses 0:03:44.571 --> 0:03:47.971 for audio interviews and personal memos. 0:03:47.571 --> 0:03:49.411 And so I brought it in the office. I played it. 0:03:50.731 --> 0:03:51.811 It's charming as hell. 0:03:53.331 --> 0:03:56.771 The recording was a snapshot of John and Bosco's relationship. 0:03:57.491 --> 0:04:00.651 Bower doesn't have it anymore, but he recaps it for us, 0:04:00.971 --> 0:04:08.651 and it's easy for me to imagine. 0:04:06.131 --> 0:04:09.411 He was playing FECh somewhere in like a high score 0:04:09.531 --> 0:04:11.251 field or somewhere out there in anlet valley. 0:04:12.291 --> 0:04:13.411 He's throwing the ball. 0:04:13.331 --> 0:04:16.091 To Bosco and he's going, hey, Bosco, and Bosco's barking, 0:04:16.130 --> 0:04:17.931 and they're doing a training exercise. 0:04:18.811 --> 0:04:20.851 Good job, you try. 0:04:23.171 --> 0:04:26.731 The connection canine cops have to their dogs is something 0:04:26.811 --> 0:04:30.971 special because they're together all the time in the trenches, 0:04:31.251 --> 0:04:34.450 working during the day and unwinding together at night. 0:04:35.531 --> 0:04:38.171 When you talk about John's relationship with his dog, you 0:04:38.251 --> 0:04:42.010 have to understand he's a one man unit and that's 0:04:42.051 --> 0:04:46.931 his partner, and it's a bond, and it's a big 0:04:46.971 --> 0:04:49.770 deal because that dog saves that officer's life. The officers 0:04:49.811 --> 0:04:51.091 in charge of the dog like a child. 0:04:52.051 --> 0:04:55.731 Canine officers become so bonded to their dogs that when 0:04:55.731 --> 0:04:59.131 one of these animals passes away, the Sheriff's department gives 0:04:59.131 --> 0:05:04.411 it a funeral like it would a uniformed officer. An 0:05:04.451 --> 0:05:08.851 American flag is draped over the dog's casket, a military 0:05:08.891 --> 0:05:14.211 band play taps, mourners give eulogies, and riflemen send the 0:05:14.251 --> 0:05:22.891 dog off with a twenty one gun salute. After Auja vanished, 0:05:23.251 --> 0:05:26.651 Bauer hears that someone from the department retrieved Bosco from 0:05:26.651 --> 0:05:30.570 the Auja home. Bower's confused because he was the person 0:05:30.611 --> 0:05:33.731 overseeing the canine unit, so if someone was to give 0:05:33.731 --> 0:05:36.650 the order to bring in Bosco, it should have been him. 0:05:37.131 --> 0:05:40.411 And I started searching for the dog. Where's the dog? 0:05:41.011 --> 0:05:45.411 I was told that dog died at the kennel during 0:05:45.411 --> 0:05:48.890 a ved exam, and most likely the dog had some 0:05:48.931 --> 0:05:50.531 sort of heart problem. 0:05:51.251 --> 0:05:55.051 The LA Sheriff's Department tells Bauer and the press that 0:05:55.171 --> 0:05:58.011 Bosco was taken to a police kennel where he died 0:05:58.171 --> 0:06:03.691 of natural causes, that the dog stopped eating after Auja disappeared, and. 0:06:03.690 --> 0:06:06.171 The dog may have died of a broken heart because 0:06:06.171 --> 0:06:07.651 its master was gone. 0:06:07.811 --> 0:06:10.291 That's a kind of sappy crap, I was told at 0:06:10.291 --> 0:06:10.690 the time. 0:06:12.131 --> 0:06:15.491 Years later, Bauer hears a different account from a friend 0:06:15.531 --> 0:06:16.090 of all Jay's. 0:06:17.091 --> 0:06:19.690 She said, it's a shame that dog had to be destroyed. 0:06:21.690 --> 0:06:24.451 I said, wait a minute, Bosco died in a vet 0:06:24.491 --> 0:06:25.251 exam from. 0:06:25.171 --> 0:06:27.411 Some sort of heart attack from missing his master. 0:06:29.171 --> 0:06:32.010 So Bauer makes some phone calls and eventually reaches a 0:06:32.011 --> 0:06:35.571 deputy who were not going to name, and this deputy 0:06:35.651 --> 0:06:39.851 claims that he and a colleague killed Bosco. Bower met 0:06:39.891 --> 0:06:42.211 him at a diner and recorded their conversation. 0:06:42.411 --> 0:06:44.611 Go he's gonna bite, always keep going because I got to. 0:06:44.611 --> 0:06:45.450 Kill him before he does. 0:06:46.851 --> 0:06:49.331 He says, I shot that dog with my twenty five 0:06:50.211 --> 0:06:51.371 I said in its kennel. 0:06:51.811 --> 0:06:55.651 He says, yeah, I said, you killed the dog. He says, yeah, 0:06:56.531 --> 0:06:59.091 pull it, throwing that hubster twice cents. 0:07:00.690 --> 0:07:03.931 The deputy says it cost them twenty cents the price 0:07:03.971 --> 0:07:08.971 of a bullet to take out Bosco. He says they 0:07:08.971 --> 0:07:11.331 did it becase as the dog was dangerous without John 0:07:11.371 --> 0:07:15.771 Auja there to control it. Bosco should have been reassigned 0:07:15.811 --> 0:07:19.171 to another deputy, or if the dog was a liability, 0:07:19.851 --> 0:07:21.771 it should have been properly euthanized. 0:07:22.531 --> 0:07:26.091 You would expect a police organization that had ceremonies to 0:07:26.131 --> 0:07:29.451 honor their dogs to give a shit about that issue. 0:07:30.651 --> 0:07:34.331 Instead of getting a police burial, Bosco was tossed in 0:07:34.371 --> 0:07:39.051 a dumpster behind the kennel where he was shot. Bowers 0:07:39.171 --> 0:07:42.371 pissed and he confronts the higher ups at the LASD. 0:07:43.171 --> 0:07:45.051 I see you guys, what happened to Bosco? 0:07:45.331 --> 0:07:47.931 Mike, I don't know, vote, but you will just stop this. 0:07:48.131 --> 0:07:50.131 We all agreed that it was a suicide and you 0:07:50.171 --> 0:07:51.011 should just let it go. 0:07:52.091 --> 0:07:53.131 No, I'm not gonna let it go. 0:07:54.931 --> 0:07:57.851 The department says, it makes no difference what happened to Moscow. 0:07:58.451 --> 0:08:03.171 Baj died by suicide, so case closed. But if the 0:08:03.331 --> 0:08:07.171 LASD would lie about Bosco, what else might they be 0:08:07.251 --> 0:08:14.251 lying about. I'm Haley Fowx. 0:08:14.491 --> 0:08:25.571 I'm Betty Shephard and this is Valley of Shadows, Episode two, 0:08:25.931 --> 0:08:37.011 An Unreasonable Act the Devil's Punch Bowl on June eleventh, 0:08:37.091 --> 0:08:40.731 nineteen ninety eight. It's a scene we're going to keep 0:08:40.771 --> 0:08:43.931 returning to because the story of what happened to John 0:08:43.970 --> 0:08:47.450 AJ is like the sedimentary rock formations in the park. 0:08:48.731 --> 0:08:52.130 It builds up over time and change of shape as 0:08:52.170 --> 0:08:57.050 new layers are added. One of those layers comes from 0:08:57.131 --> 0:09:00.770 the last known person to talk to AHJ before his disappearance. 0:09:02.570 --> 0:09:05.691 Schoolteacher Dave Evanson, took his fifth grade class on a 0:09:05.731 --> 0:09:12.011 field trip to the Devil's Punch Bowl. We stop. 0:09:13.570 --> 0:09:15.571 Jabs the picnic tables. 0:09:16.651 --> 0:09:20.050 Dave Evanson has Parkinson's disease, which causes him to slur 0:09:20.131 --> 0:09:23.290 his speech, so his wife Don is helping him communicate 0:09:23.330 --> 0:09:26.451 with us. At this point, she knows the story pretty 0:09:26.450 --> 0:09:29.370 well because her husband has told it many times over 0:09:29.410 --> 0:09:32.170 the years, and he insists on telling it to us. 0:09:33.251 --> 0:09:36.131 Evanson's class was exiting the trail to go eat lunch 0:09:36.290 --> 0:09:37.930 when they ran into Aujenny. 0:09:37.611 --> 0:09:41.050 Rail and he was just starting up the trail, and 0:09:41.131 --> 0:09:44.851 then the kids saw him and started firing questions because 0:09:44.891 --> 0:09:46.651 they recognized him from Family Night. 0:09:47.930 --> 0:09:51.530 Every year, John Auj volunteered at Family Night, a community 0:09:51.570 --> 0:09:54.451 event held at a local elementary school where Dave and 0:09:54.530 --> 0:09:56.211 Don Evanson both had worked. 0:09:56.851 --> 0:09:57.451 The roster of. 0:09:57.530 --> 0:10:00.330 Entertainers included Auja and Bosco. 0:10:01.011 --> 0:10:03.971 And Aja became one of the stars of the show 0:10:04.011 --> 0:10:07.251 because he would bring Bosco and do demonstrations on what 0:10:07.330 --> 0:10:08.611 the dog could do. 0:10:09.970 --> 0:10:12.891 The event took place two days before the class went 0:10:12.891 --> 0:10:15.771 to the punch bowl, so when the students see Auj 0:10:15.891 --> 0:10:18.771 in the park, they crowd around him like he's a 0:10:18.810 --> 0:10:23.771 celebrity or really the owner of a celebrity. Do you 0:10:23.851 --> 0:10:26.651 remember any of the questions that they asked him? 0:10:27.170 --> 0:10:28.491 Where's Boscow? 0:10:29.651 --> 0:10:33.530 Where's Bosco? The kids ask? Auj says he had to 0:10:33.611 --> 0:10:35.971 leave the dog at home because he's here to train 0:10:36.011 --> 0:10:39.570 for an ultra marathon. Auj took his time with the 0:10:39.611 --> 0:10:43.811 students and even turned the conversation into a teachable moment, 0:10:44.450 --> 0:10:48.530 telling them about the importance of wilderness safety. To me, 0:10:48.970 --> 0:10:51.731 that does not sound like someone who's going out to 0:10:51.771 --> 0:10:55.050 the woods to take his own life. But that's what 0:10:55.170 --> 0:10:59.170 the Sheriff's Department says auj did after he finished talking 0:10:59.210 --> 0:11:03.491 to these fifth graders. Evanson will never be convinced of that. 0:11:05.050 --> 0:11:05.810 He's happy. 0:11:07.330 --> 0:11:08.011 He was for. 0:11:09.690 --> 0:11:15.891 Life, happy, having fun talking to the kids. 0:11:16.851 --> 0:11:21.330 So where is the Sheriff's Department drawing their suicide conclusion from. 0:11:21.690 --> 0:11:25.651 Is there some other evidence we don't know about? Well, 0:11:25.690 --> 0:11:28.810 if there is, the LASD sure isn't sharing it with us. 0:11:29.491 --> 0:11:33.410 They denied our public records request, saying the requested records 0:11:33.450 --> 0:11:37.170 are part of an ongoing and active criminal investigation and 0:11:37.251 --> 0:11:43.971 are therefore exempt from disclosure an ongoing and active criminal investigation. 0:11:45.090 --> 0:11:47.251 This response does not make a lot of sense to me, 0:11:48.611 --> 0:11:52.250 because Aujay disappeared about thirty years ago. The state of 0:11:52.290 --> 0:11:55.170 California issued a death certificate for him all the way 0:11:55.170 --> 0:11:58.570 back in two thousand and three. Meanwhile, the department has 0:11:58.611 --> 0:12:02.570 stuck by its suicide ruling, and they've openly and actively 0:12:02.891 --> 0:12:08.930 discouraged retired Captain Mike Bauer's investigation. Lucky for us, Bower 0:12:09.210 --> 0:12:12.491 has isn't let up. He spent decades looking into the 0:12:12.491 --> 0:12:16.210 aj case. His office is filled with handwritten notes and 0:12:16.330 --> 0:12:20.490 discs of recorded interviews, and he's collected internal documents from 0:12:20.530 --> 0:12:23.410 the Sheriff's department which he's agreed to share with us. 0:12:23.930 --> 0:12:29.091 Including confidential suicide report I somehow got hold. 0:12:28.891 --> 0:12:33.611 Of Bauer Hands is a case file that's hundreds of 0:12:33.611 --> 0:12:37.810 pages long. It includes reports that spanned years of investigation 0:12:38.131 --> 0:12:42.771 in the Auja's disappearance, and it tells a story. 0:12:42.851 --> 0:12:46.691 This was assigned to Homicide Bureau Missing Persons Unit. They 0:12:46.690 --> 0:12:49.371 were the ones who had to make the decision that 0:12:49.450 --> 0:12:51.570 this was a suicide. 0:12:51.651 --> 0:12:55.730 The missing person's investigation began with the person who reported 0:12:55.810 --> 0:12:58.731 John auj missing, his wife, Debbie. 0:12:59.450 --> 0:13:01.971 Then they began to get the feeling, well, this guy's 0:13:02.011 --> 0:13:04.891 got some sort of relationship problems, maybe we better look 0:13:04.970 --> 0:13:05.290 at it. 0:13:06.690 --> 0:13:09.170 Debbie tells detectives that she and her husband got into 0:13:09.170 --> 0:13:11.730 an argument before he took off for the punch bowl, 0:13:12.410 --> 0:13:15.251 and that she can't find his off duty gun. 0:13:16.050 --> 0:13:17.891 They went out to her house and she said there's 0:13:17.930 --> 0:13:23.691 an empty holster on the workbench, but the two inches missing. 0:13:24.570 --> 0:13:27.651 The department begins to speculate that Auj may have taken 0:13:27.690 --> 0:13:30.691 the gun with him into the Devil's punch bowl to 0:13:30.851 --> 0:13:32.290 use it on himself. 0:13:33.651 --> 0:13:37.450 They then get psychological services involved in and find out 0:13:37.491 --> 0:13:38.651 about the marriage counseling. 0:13:38.690 --> 0:13:39.410 The day before. 0:13:40.771 --> 0:13:44.091 The day before Auj disappeared, he and Debbie had gone 0:13:44.090 --> 0:13:48.290 to couples counseling with an LASD psychologist. By the end 0:13:48.330 --> 0:13:52.170 of the session, the therapist concluded the Auj's were incompatible 0:13:52.290 --> 0:13:56.251 and should separate, and the Sheriff's Department says that's what 0:13:56.371 --> 0:14:00.131 pushed Auj over the edge, the final realization that he 0:14:00.251 --> 0:14:01.810 and Debbie were done. 0:14:03.131 --> 0:14:08.851 When we ended, she said, if you have decided to 0:14:08.851 --> 0:14:11.331 go through with the divorce, to come back to her 0:14:11.570 --> 0:14:16.611 and she would give us ideas on parenting skills for 0:14:16.690 --> 0:14:17.410 Chloe's sake. 0:14:19.011 --> 0:14:22.611 This is an interview Bauer recorded with Debbie in twenty fifteen. 0:14:23.651 --> 0:14:26.370 He questions her at length about her marriage to John 0:14:26.611 --> 0:14:30.691 because it's the crux of the department's suicide narrative. In 0:14:30.731 --> 0:14:33.611 a nutshell, Debbie was a stay at home mom while 0:14:33.651 --> 0:14:37.370 John worked a lot. She liked to party. His version 0:14:37.371 --> 0:14:41.571 of fun was extreme running. She was full figured with 0:14:41.611 --> 0:14:45.411 the bleach bond perm He was all muscle, topped off 0:14:45.451 --> 0:14:48.851 with the military crew cut. The report says that after 0:14:48.891 --> 0:14:52.571 twelve years of marriage, the couple drifted apart. They fought 0:14:52.571 --> 0:14:56.210 a lot, and as their fights intensified, John withdrew. 0:14:57.330 --> 0:15:00.651 Okay, let me get to some characterizations that they wrote 0:15:00.851 --> 0:15:03.811 in the report. He was not verbally communicating with you, 0:15:04.051 --> 0:15:06.850 and he was getting more distant from that makes sense? 0:15:07.251 --> 0:15:09.210 Yes, was he depressed? 0:15:10.330 --> 0:15:18.970 Well, he had told the psychologist that he had been unhappy. 0:15:18.491 --> 0:15:20.491 For two years with the marriage. 0:15:20.531 --> 0:15:24.731 With the marriage Bower's fact checking the sheriff's report because 0:15:24.731 --> 0:15:27.811 it attributes a lot of its claims to Debbie's testimony, 0:15:28.371 --> 0:15:31.611 supposed characterizations of her husband and their life together. 0:15:32.731 --> 0:15:35.490 Okay, when you talked to John afterwards on the drive home, 0:15:36.251 --> 0:15:38.891 what was the conversation between the two of you about 0:15:38.931 --> 0:15:44.291 this experience with marriage counseling? What was John's attitude? 0:15:44.731 --> 0:15:47.411 I Since he was angry, do you. 0:15:47.330 --> 0:15:49.291 Think he was hopeful that this session was going to 0:15:49.371 --> 0:15:52.650 help save the marriage? 0:15:52.970 --> 0:15:54.210 No? 0:15:54.210 --> 0:16:02.171 No, no, And already things aren't adding up. If Aujy 0:16:02.171 --> 0:16:04.411 had been unhappy with the marriage for two years and 0:16:04.531 --> 0:16:09.691 thought it was beyond repair, why would he suddenly snap? Well, 0:16:09.851 --> 0:16:13.491 the report quotes Debbie as saying that Auj was psychotic. 0:16:14.411 --> 0:16:18.171 That's kind of describing a person who's mentally ill. 0:16:20.171 --> 0:16:25.051 I don't know if I said he was psychotic. 0:16:25.571 --> 0:16:29.611 I do remember saying that his eyes did not look right. 0:16:30.011 --> 0:16:34.851 I do remember saying that to them, what respect, just 0:16:34.891 --> 0:16:39.531 a real strong look in his eyes. Maybe his eyes 0:16:39.571 --> 0:16:40.411 looked intense. 0:16:43.371 --> 0:16:47.491 There's a world of difference between intense looking eyes and psychosis. 0:16:48.651 --> 0:16:52.451 But investigators say there were other indications that Auj was suicidal. 0:16:53.210 --> 0:16:57.131 He was giving away his prized possessions, including a family heirloom, 0:16:57.611 --> 0:17:00.850 a gold necklace, and then right before he left for 0:17:00.931 --> 0:17:04.370 the punch bowl, Auj told Debbie to have a nice life. 0:17:05.291 --> 0:17:10.930 To detectives, that was Auj saying his final goodbyes. In conclusion, 0:17:11.171 --> 0:17:15.571 the LASD report says the likelihood of suicide is overwhelming 0:17:15.931 --> 0:17:20.610 and by far surpasses any of the other possibilities. I 0:17:20.651 --> 0:17:24.331 can see why the department considered the possibility of suicide, 0:17:24.691 --> 0:17:27.251 because it's clear that Auj was going through a tough time. 0:17:28.091 --> 0:17:30.370 But to me, it's a big stretch to say the 0:17:30.451 --> 0:17:35.491 likelihood of suicide is overwhelming, especially as I keep reading 0:17:35.491 --> 0:17:38.251 the report and find out that Auj had big plans 0:17:38.251 --> 0:17:40.851 for his future and that he wanted to spend it 0:17:41.451 --> 0:17:42.451 with his girlfriend. 0:17:55.331 --> 0:17:57.811 Auj had been seeing a forty five year old woman 0:17:57.891 --> 0:18:01.331 named Vicki d Vita. She was a competitive ultra marathon 0:18:01.411 --> 0:18:04.251 runner just like him, and she was the one Auj 0:18:04.411 --> 0:18:08.371 gave the heirloom necklace to. Their relationship was a bit 0:18:08.371 --> 0:18:11.171 of an open secret, especially when she showed up with 0:18:11.211 --> 0:18:15.571 the punch bowl searching for him day after day. We 0:18:15.651 --> 0:18:18.651 can't ask Davida what she thinks happened to Auj because 0:18:18.691 --> 0:18:21.971 she died of cancer in twenty ten, but her statement 0:18:22.011 --> 0:18:27.091 to investigators reveals a rosier picture of the deputy. According 0:18:27.171 --> 0:18:29.330 to Davida, she and Aj met at a race in 0:18:29.451 --> 0:18:33.291 nineteen ninety five. She was the more experienced runner and 0:18:33.411 --> 0:18:36.971 helped Aj train for his ultra marathons. They bonded over 0:18:37.011 --> 0:18:40.850 their shared passion and slowly they fell in love, but 0:18:40.891 --> 0:18:45.131 according to Davida, the relationship wasn't sexual because Aj wanted 0:18:45.171 --> 0:18:48.330 to wait until after he and his wife had officially separated. 0:18:49.331 --> 0:18:52.451 In letters to Davida, Aj called her his eternal love 0:18:53.171 --> 0:18:57.611 and shared poems by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, and recently, 0:18:57.771 --> 0:19:00.411 Auja had asked her to take an STD test so 0:19:00.491 --> 0:19:05.090 they could finally consummate their relationship. So Aja was making moves, 0:19:05.811 --> 0:19:08.291 and Davida says he was relieved that he and Debbie 0:19:08.291 --> 0:19:10.731 were splitting up because he was ready to start the 0:19:10.771 --> 0:19:14.811 next chapter of his life. Debbie seems to confirm all this, 0:19:14.931 --> 0:19:17.610 explaining that towards the end of their marriage, she and 0:19:17.651 --> 0:19:20.771 Aj slept in different rooms and that he'd begun to 0:19:20.811 --> 0:19:23.851 take photos and art off the walls of his bedroom. 0:19:24.611 --> 0:19:29.731 He was telling Vicki that he was setting a certain 0:19:29.931 --> 0:19:32.251 time frame for him to make a decision what he 0:19:32.371 --> 0:19:33.091 was going to do. 0:19:35.651 --> 0:19:39.731 Did you sense a move out was coming? Yes, it 0:19:39.771 --> 0:19:41.331 appeared that he was going to move out. 0:19:45.691 --> 0:19:49.051 Given this new information, Auj sounds less like someone saying 0:19:49.051 --> 0:19:52.531 his final goodbyes and more like someone saying goodbye to 0:19:52.571 --> 0:19:56.491 a relationship that had already run its course, and it 0:19:56.531 --> 0:19:58.771 sheds new light on what Auja may have meant the 0:19:58.811 --> 0:20:01.411 morning of June eleventh when he told his wife Debbie 0:20:01.771 --> 0:20:02.971 to have a nice life. 0:20:03.771 --> 0:20:05.731 What was your thought at the time when he said it? 0:20:05.811 --> 0:20:08.251 Did you think suicide at the time? 0:20:08.491 --> 0:20:09.331 No, I get it. 0:20:10.291 --> 0:20:12.931 Eye, it was not a threat of suicide. Had he 0:20:13.091 --> 0:20:15.811 ever made a threat of suicide in the past. He 0:20:15.931 --> 0:20:18.491 was going to kill himself because of some prole you 0:20:18.531 --> 0:20:22.371 two were having. No, no, never expressed it. No. 0:20:24.251 --> 0:20:26.931 Debbie paints a picture of Auj's final days that looks 0:20:27.291 --> 0:20:30.971 very different from the Sheriff's departments in their report. It 0:20:30.971 --> 0:20:34.571 seems they've cherry picked details to support their suicide thesis 0:20:34.971 --> 0:20:40.171 and ignore or downplay those that contradict it. So we 0:20:40.251 --> 0:20:43.090 keep digging through the LSD reports. Bauer gives us to 0:20:43.091 --> 0:20:47.011 figure out how the department is connecting in stocks, and 0:20:47.331 --> 0:20:50.171 we find a kind of personality profile they did on Auj. 0:20:51.531 --> 0:20:55.291 I feel like this has summed up so much of 0:20:55.371 --> 0:20:58.971 what we've read and heard about him into a punch list. 0:20:59.171 --> 0:21:00.651 Can I just read the bullet points? 0:21:00.731 --> 0:21:07.330 Yeah, okay, organized, responsible, punctual, regimented, committed, structured discipline. 0:21:07.331 --> 0:21:08.771 There's a definite theme. 0:21:09.811 --> 0:21:13.491 Did not believe in divorce or extra marital affairs, lived 0:21:13.571 --> 0:21:19.011 by and often said death before dishonor occasionally read Bible. 0:21:20.651 --> 0:21:21.491 I like that last night. 0:21:21.491 --> 0:21:26.131 It sounds like a real, real fun day. Auj's code 0:21:26.131 --> 0:21:28.531 of ethics is a big part of why the Sheriff's 0:21:28.571 --> 0:21:31.571 Department says he couldn't live with himself because he thought 0:21:31.651 --> 0:21:36.931 divorce and extramarital affairs were dishonorable. The LSD seems to 0:21:36.971 --> 0:21:39.691 be saying that Auj's girlfriend wasn't a reason to keep 0:21:39.691 --> 0:21:42.771 on living. It was the reason he took his life, 0:21:43.531 --> 0:21:46.171 because he was consumed with guilt over his part in 0:21:46.251 --> 0:21:49.771 ruining his marriage. We try to follow this logic. 0:21:51.091 --> 0:21:58.611 His motto was death before dishonor, which alone is extreme. 0:21:58.851 --> 0:22:02.650 But it's interesting to me that here he is in 0:22:02.651 --> 0:22:06.850 this position where he knows he can't stay with his wife, 0:22:07.571 --> 0:22:12.891 but emotionally he's not ready or willing to accept divorce, 0:22:13.731 --> 0:22:16.171 and then the next day he disappears. 0:22:17.051 --> 0:22:20.211 Yeah, but if he's someone that sees giving up on 0:22:20.291 --> 0:22:24.611 a marriage as failure as dishonorable, then he's sure shit 0:22:24.891 --> 0:22:28.811 thinks that killing himself and giving up on life is dishonorable. 0:22:30.011 --> 0:22:34.971 I'm just saying it cuts both ways. 0:22:35.651 --> 0:22:39.091 Our main takeaway from this personality profile and the rest 0:22:39.131 --> 0:22:42.171 of the Auja report is that the suicide theory isn't 0:22:42.211 --> 0:22:45.651 based on hard facts. It's based on subjective accounts of 0:22:45.691 --> 0:22:49.211 John Auj's behavior. Just like those rock faces in the 0:22:49.251 --> 0:22:52.251 Devil's punch Bowl. It's a matter of interpretation. 0:22:53.851 --> 0:22:56.610 You'd have to say, how was he going to be dishonored. 0:22:58.091 --> 0:23:01.411 We check in with Dave Rathban as Auji's former partner. 0:23:01.611 --> 0:23:03.531 He was one of the few people who had insight 0:23:03.691 --> 0:23:04.771 into his personal life. 0:23:05.371 --> 0:23:07.891 Divorce. That's dishonorable. 0:23:09.091 --> 0:23:12.411 Even eighty year old cop thinks that's ridiculously puritanical. 0:23:13.451 --> 0:23:17.330 I mean, might have been in eighteen ninety three, but 0:23:17.891 --> 0:23:22.051 that was one hundred years before this, so that's beyond 0:23:22.091 --> 0:23:24.731 a stretch. It's like science fiction or something. 0:23:24.851 --> 0:23:29.051 I think Rathman got a divorce, which he says is 0:23:29.051 --> 0:23:31.491 pretty common for law enforcement officers. 0:23:31.971 --> 0:23:34.131 My son even makes this joy. He's a lieutenant on 0:23:34.171 --> 0:23:35.011 the sheriff department. 0:23:35.091 --> 0:23:37.971 And he said, yeah, my future ex wife and I 0:23:38.091 --> 0:23:40.130 are going to go here and do this and do that. 0:23:40.291 --> 0:23:43.651 I said, oh, for crying out loud, don't say that. 0:23:44.331 --> 0:23:46.371 He said, yeah, the deputies will say that. They think 0:23:46.411 --> 0:23:48.051 it's funny. And I said, I don't know if I 0:23:48.091 --> 0:23:50.331 think it's funny. Having gone through a divorce. 0:23:51.931 --> 0:23:55.890 Rathman doesn't buy the whole death before dishonor explanation, and 0:23:55.931 --> 0:23:58.891 he feels pretty certain that auj would never take his 0:23:58.931 --> 0:24:01.811 own life on account of his daughter, Chloe. 0:24:02.571 --> 0:24:06.291 If you got on the subject to Chloe, he glowed. Yeah, 0:24:06.331 --> 0:24:10.850 he glowed and he went softly, wam that fast. 0:24:11.371 --> 0:24:13.330 He loved her to death. He would talk about her 0:24:13.371 --> 0:24:14.011 all the time. 0:24:14.931 --> 0:24:18.811 Chloe, is Chloe that he's going to disappear in the 0:24:18.811 --> 0:24:22.451 mountains and kill himself and leave her alone? Does that 0:24:22.491 --> 0:24:28.251 fit with death before dishonor not very well? It's pretty 0:24:28.291 --> 0:24:34.491 dishonorable to just abandon your five year old daughter, Debbie. 0:24:34.531 --> 0:24:37.531 Auja has her own doubts about the suicide theory. 0:24:38.571 --> 0:24:42.330 It just causes confusion in me, that's all, because I 0:24:42.331 --> 0:24:43.211 don't know what to believe. 0:24:45.251 --> 0:24:47.851 There are more than a few details about Aujay's final 0:24:47.931 --> 0:24:51.051 days that just don't add up for her, Like what 0:24:51.131 --> 0:24:52.891 he did the morning of his disappearance. 0:24:53.931 --> 0:24:55.251