Mike Bauer

Pushkin.

Malcolm here.

I want to tell you about a man named John Auger.

He was a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy, an ultramarathon runner, a survivalist, and someone who had made a study of how to stay alive in punishing terrain.

And one day, he went for a run in a place called the Devil's Punch Bowl in the high desert of Los Angeles, and he never came back.

Some say Auger is just another missing hiker, claimed by the inhospitable landscape of the Southern California desert.

Some say he took his own life out there.

But there's another theory that many of Auger's friends and colleagues are convinced is true.

that he was the victim of foul play and his own department is covering it up.

Hosted by journalists Haley Fox and Betsy Shepard, Valley of Shadows explores Auger's unsolved disappearance and the stench of corruption that's followed the case for nearly 30 years.

Through exclusive interviews, revealing wiretaps, and buried police files, Haley and Betsy enter into the criminal underworld of outlaw biker gangs, meth production, and crooked cops in Southern California's Mojave Desert, exploring one of the state's most mysterious missing persons cases.

You're about to hear a preview from the show.

If you enjoy it, you can find Valley of Shadows wherever you get your podcasts.

Is this okay?

I get pissed off.

Pissed off old cop.

Okay, my name is Mike Bauer, retired captain, L.A.

Sheriff.

I retired in 2002.

My last assignment was Major Crimes Bureau, Detective Division, L.A.