Hey everyone, Cassie and Danielle here. We've got a real treat for you today. It's a preview of a new true crime podcast, Valley of Shadows, that has everything you love about National Park After Dark. It's an investigation into what can go wrong in the great outdoors, the secrets that are buried in the desert, and the people who want those secrets to remain hidden.

Hosted by investigative journalists, Haley Fox and Betsy Shepard, Valley of Shadows, explores the unsolved

disappearance of a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy John Aege, and the stench of corruption

that's followed the case for nearly 30 years. Through exclusive interviews,

revealing wire tapes, 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 Mulhavi

Desert, exploring one of the state's most mysterious missing person cases. And let me tell you, this story immediately grabbed us.

It has the eerie combination of vast wilderness, unanswered questions, and the sense that the

truth has been buried on purpose.

Valley of Shadows is the kind of investigation that stays with you long after you finish listening.

In this preview, we hear how Aja, an ultramarathon runner and survivalist, went for a run in

the Devil's Punchbowl Park and never returned.

His body has yet to be found and the people closest to him insist the ruling of his

disappearance as a suicide just doesn't add up.

Instead, they believe Aja may have stumbled into the desert's criminal underworld and his own department

is covering it up. Enjoy the episode.

If you like what you hear, find Valley of Shadows

wherever you get podcasts. And if you want to hear the whole story

ad free right now, you can binge the series

with a Pushkin Plus subscription. Sign up on the

Valley of Shadows page on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm.

slash plus.

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