JONATHAN AUJAY

POLICE DEPUTY DISAPPEARS IN DEVILS PUNCHBOWL 

STATE: CA
LOCATION: DEVIL’S PUNCHBOWL, ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST
DATE MISSING: 06-11-1998
DOB: 10-12-1959
AGE: 38
CURRENT STATUS: UNSOLVED

Aujay went for a day hike in the Devil’s Punchbowl area of the Angeles National Forest on June 11, 1998. He never returned. The Devil’s Punchbowl is a remote park on the north slope of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Aujay was a deputy at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department at the time of his disappearance. He had been employed with the department for fifteen years by 1998. He is a long-distance runner, a skilled outdoors man and an experienced hiker who hiked in the San Gabriel Mountains about once a week. An extensive search involving two helicopters, thirty people and at least two bloodhounds failed to find any trace of him, other than some footprints in the snow near Mount Baden-Powell. The search was called off after a week. Aujay left behind a wife and a young daughter when he disappeared.

For unspecified reasons, investigators believed that Operation Silent Thunder, a two-year undercover methamphetamine operation in the Antelope Valley area, might uncover evidence about Aujay’s disappearance. No clues were found, though, and he remains missing. Aujay’s case remains unsolved.