Episode 6: The Big Takedown

Brandenburg is taken off the Aujay case, but the LASD can’t stop Hager and the federal task force. With the help of wiretaps, informants, and 18 months of investigation, the team pulls off one of the largest drug stings in Antelope Valley history and nets a key witness in the Aujay case. Hear the …

Episode 5: The Legend of Bigfoot

Decades before Jon Aujay’s disappearance, the Devil’s Punchbowl was infamous for something else: Bigfoot sightings. Sasquatch became a known boogeyman in the area. But beneath the folklore lies something real —- a local deputy, named Rick Engels, whose reputation inspires a different kind of fear. …

Episode 4: Outlaw Country

As Detective Brandenburg follows leads in the Aujay case, he finds himself with an unlikely ally. A young buck narcotics detective named Darren Hager, who’s trying to dismantle a meth syndicate run by a local biker gang. Hager discovers that his bikers have a disturbing connection to Aujay’s disapp…

Episode 3: Tweaker Talk

At the time of Jon Aujay’s disappearance, California is under siege by a meth epidemic and the Antelope Valley is the epicenter. So when investigators receive tips that Aujay was killed after stumbling upon a meth lab, it seems like a theory worth looking into. But LASD detectives are quick to dism…

Episode 2: An Unreasonable Act

After deputy Jon Aujay disappears, the sheriff’s department claims he was suicidal — pointing to marital troubles and erratic behavior in the weeks before he vanished. But the LASD’s official story doesn’t square with what Aujay’s loved ones and colleagues remember. Then, investigators start to hea…

Episode 1: The Devil’s Punchbowl

Deputy Jon Aujay is former military, an ultramarathon runner, and a part of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s elite SWAT unit, so when he fails to return home from a run in Antelope Valley’s Devil’s Punchbowl…no one knows what to think. The sheriff’s department launches a widespread searc…

Introducing Valley of Shadows: Corruption in California’s Mojave Desert

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy Jon Aujay disappeared nearly 30 years ago in a remote part of the Mojave Desert. Investigative reporters Betsy Shepherd and Hayley Fox dig into why Aujay’s former department may never want him found. In the process, the hosts uncover vestiges of the Wi…