Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia Diambra. And the case I'm going to share with you today

takes place in a popular Los Angeles County recreation space, known as the Devil's Punch Bowl

Natural Area and Nature Center in South Central California. In most of the coverage I read,

it seemed to be referred to most often as devil's punch bowl.

So that's what I'm going to call it.

This area is roughly 1,300 acres in size and is home to a variety of trees, plants, and wildlife.

There are also a lot of scenic overlooks and trail systems which provide beautiful views of the nearby San

Gabriel Mountains, Mojave Desert, and the northern border of the Angeles National Forest.

Visitors who come to this region enjoy climbing, picnicking, horseback riding, and exercising in the

Devil's Punch Bowl, which is why it made total sense in June of 1998 that a dedicated

long-distance runner and decorated Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy named Jonathan Ajae went for a

training run there as he prepared for an upcoming long-distance race. But he never came home.

And for nearly 30 years, the mysteries surrounding what happened to him has been mired in a purgatory of unanswered and puzzling questions.

Questions that two investigative journalist friends of mine named Haley Fox and Betsy Shepard spent more than a year exploring in their latest eight-episode limited series podcast for Pushkin, titled Valley of Shadows.

I've known these two women and their work for a few years, and so when they reached out to see if I wanted to cover this case,

I immediately dove in and learned everything I could about it. All eight episodes of Valley of Shadows are available to binge right now,

and trust me, you won't be able to turn it off.

It's a piece of source material I'll reference a few times, and for good reason.

It's super in-depth, which is great,

because as you'll see, the story of what happened to Jonathan A.J.

is far from straightforward.

This is Park Predators.

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