Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
Jonathan Aujay
Aujay, date, approximate 1998
Date Missing 06/11/1998
Missing From
Angeles National Forest, California
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
White
Date of Birth 10/12/1959 (62)
Age 38 years old
Height and Weight 6'0, 165 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A light-colored t-shirt, olive green shorts with pockets, black crew socks, hiking boots, a Casio running watch, a blue and white or green and white baseball cap, and black sunglasses with oval frames. Carrying a forest-green Jansport day pack.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, brown eyes. Aujay's nicknames are Jon and O.J. He has a United States Army eagle emblem tattooed on his upper left arm and the word "SEB" inside a triangle tattooed on his upper right arm.
Details of Disappearance Aujay had the day off from work and 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 had a reputation as a skilled outdoorsman and an experienced hiker who hiked in the San Gabriel Mountains about once a week. He was also a long-distance runner who ran daily and had completed six fifty-mile ultramarathons.
A former paratrooper in the U.S. Army's Special Forces unit, 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 and is described as a conscientious employee who worked nights and rarely called in sick or took vacation time.
On the day of his disappearance, early into his hike, Aujay encountered a teacher with class of children on a field trip. He stopped to talk to them and said he planned to go to the summit of Mount Baden-Powell, a 9,400-foot-tall mountain twenty miles away, and returned by sunset. Over the next several hours, two witnesses saw a man fitting his description jogging towards the mountain.
The last sighting of Aujay was at 6:00 p.m.; someone saw him heading towards the parking lot. Not long afterwards, area residents heard a single gunshot in the vicinity. Aujay never returned home and has never been heard from again. His wife reported him missing at 11:00 p.m., and police found his truck in the parking lot and launched a search at 11:30 p.m.
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 his wife of twelve years; they were high school sweethearts and had a five-year-old daughter. According to his wife, a month before his disappearance, Aujay had told her he wanted a divorce. His sister stated he was unhappy living in Los Angeles County and that he wanted to move to the mountains.
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 remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
323-890-5500
Other
California Attorney General's Office
Deaths in the San Gabriel Mountains
NamUs
Missing Persons in California
Los Angeles Magazine
Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
