Jonathan Aujay, a 38-year-old Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy, vanished after a lone day hike in the Devil’s Punchbowl area of the Angeles National Forest on June 11, 1998. An experienced outdoorsman and ultramarathon runner, he planned to run to Mount Baden‑Powell and return by sunset; witnesses saw a man matching his description jogging toward the mountain, and the last confirmed sighting was at 6:00 p.m. heading for the parking lot. His truck was found in the park and a search involving helicopters, bloodhounds, and a 30-person team turned up only footprints in the snow near the summit.

Investigators have explored multiple theories. The sheriff’s missing persons bureau regarded suicide as the most likely explanation after a five-day search. Other possibilities include voluntary disappearance, foul play linked to a two-year undercover methamphetamine probe called Operation Silent Thunder, rumors he stumbled onto a meth lab, or that he left to start a new life. A 2000 homicide inquiry into a deputy suspected of drug involvement was opened then halted; officers who pursued leads were removed from the case and one later won a wrongful termination suit.

Aujay left a wife of twelve years and a five-year-old daughter and had reportedly asked for a divorce a month before he disappeared. Does anyone who hiked the San Gabriel Mountains in June 1998 remember seeing him or his vehicle that day?