Mike Bauer

And she says, oh, well, maybe he'll call back.

He never called back.

John Ajay was working for the unit Bauer headed up at the time, the Special Enforcement Bureau, or SEB for short.

which consists of seven or eight SWAT teams.

And the SWAT teams were involved in tactical responses to high-risk situations in the field.

SCB handled things like active shooter situations, hostage negotiations, search and rescue.

It was a job that attracted adrenaline junkies like Ajay.

He was an Army paratrooper and a survivalist.

And those military skills, along with his buzz cut and square build, made him a shoo-in for the Sheriff's Department.

He was in the Army in Special Forces.

He was working at the elite unit of the department.

I have to call him a loner, but he was an elite loner because the guy was doing 50 mile runs.

He was an animal.

Ajay got his kicks by going on long runs through California's backcountry.

He'd go out deep into the wilderness to conquer the only obstacle course that still challenged him.

And that's how Ajay was spending his day off.

on June 11th, 1998.

He woke up, put on his running gear, and drove to one of his favorite parks, the Devil's Punchbowl.

It's a rugged canyon where the Angeles National Forest, the San Gabriel Mountains, and the Mojave Desert all converge.

Ajay entered the park just before noon, used a payphone to call into the sheriff's department, and then he took off running.