Introducing Valley of Shadows: Corruption in California’s Mojave Desert
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What happened to Deputy Jon Aujay in the Mojave Desert?
Hey listeners, Betsy Shepard here. I'm dropping into your feed to bring you a preview of my new podcast, Valley of Shadows. It's about an L.A. County Sheriff's deputy named John Adjaye who went missing in the Mojave Desert back in 1998. Nearly 30 years later, the sheriff's department says Ajay's disappearance is still a mystery. But whistleblowers say the sheriff's department is covering up what happened to the deputy, that he was murdered in the desert, where meth labs, outlaw biker gangs, and dirty cops go unchecked. The show's got it all, and I think you're going to dig it. Find Valley of Shadows wherever you listen to your podcasts. Pushkin Plus subscribers can binge the entire season right now ad-free.
Sign up on the Valley of Shadows show page on Apple or at pushkin.fm slash plus. This is an iHeart Podcast.
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Do you know about Jerry Lee Lewis wanting to murder Elvis? Or the hip-hop star who cannibalized his roommate? What about the murders ACDC was blamed for? Or the suspicious deaths of Brittany Murphy and River Phoenix? Or about Anthony Bourdain's wild lust for life and untimely demise? These stories and more are told in the award-winning Disgraceland podcast hosted by me, Jake Brennan, every Tuesday, where I dive deep into subjects from the dark side of music history and entertainment. So follow and listen to Disgraceland on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.
This series includes content that may not be suitable for all listeners. Listener discretion is advised.
Is this okay?
What theories surround Jon Aujay's disappearance?
Yeah, I'll turn it down just a little bit because sometimes you get animated. I get pissed off. Pissed off old cop. This pissed off old cop is Mike Bauer.
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.
Sheriff.
Bauer spent 33 years climbing the ranks of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. And he looks the part of a retired captain. His white hair and mustache are neatly groomed. And his eyes are permanently fixed in a look that says, do not fuck up on my watch. And he's pissed off because of something that happened to one of his guys on his squad back in the summer of 1998. June 11th started off like a normal day in Los Angeles. June gloom and bad traffic. I got up early out of Long Beach and headed up the 605 and into East L.A., our office in East L.A.
Who were the key figures in the search for Jon Aujay?
Bauer was doing paperwork when a call came into the front desk. The receptionist answered. Then she hung up and she comes down to get a cup of coffee across the hall. And I said, hey, who was that? It was John Adjaye. John Ajay was a 38-year-old canine cop, and he was calling to inquire about an upcoming job assignment. I said, well, I've been trying to get a hold of him. 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.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What happened to Deputy Jon Aujay in the Mojave Desert?
0:00–1:44
2
What theories surround Jon Aujay's disappearance?
1:44–2:44
3
Who were the key figures in the search for Jon Aujay?
2:44–11:40
4
What was Deputy Aujay's background and experience?
11:40–27:26
5
What challenges did search teams face during the investigation?
27:26–48:40