FAMILY, FRIENDS HOLD OUT HOPE FOR MISSING DEPUTY.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer

Although a year has passed since the disappearance of her husband, Debra Aujay has not given up hope that the former Army paratrooper may still be alive.

A fit 38-year-old who competed in ultramarathons and was training for a 100-mile run, Jonathan Aujay studied how to live off the land - eating bugs and plants - a survivalist who could stay alive in the wilderness where he was last seen.

``I still hold out hope that we might find out what has happened to him,'' Debra Aujay said through tears on the anniversary of his disappearance, surrounded by photos, missing person's posters and maps of the hiking trails, campgrounds and the mountains where Jonathan Aujay was last seen. ``Sometimes I wonder if we'll never see him again.''

A 17-year Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department veteran, father of a girl who turned 6 after he vanished, Jonathan Aujay disappeared June 11, 1998, after telling his wife that he was heading to Mount Baden-Powell, a popular destination for hikers in the Angeles National Forest.

``I should be home by dark,'' Debra Aujay remembers her husband saying. ``He repeated it twice,'' she added. ``I should be home by dark.''

But he wasn't. Debra Aujay reported him missing that night. His white sport-utility vehicle was found the next day in a parking lot at Devil's Punch Bowl County Park.

Aujay was last seen the day he drove away from home. A schoolteacher met him at the beginning of a trail, carrying two water bottles and wearing a green backpack.

The two had a brief conversation, and Aujay told him he was heading for Baden-Powell, over a dozen miles away by a steep, narrow trail. The teacher came forward after seeing a news report about Aujay's disappearance.

``I believe that he is still out there,'' said Debra Aujay. ``He could have split. He could be living somewhere else. But something makes me feel that we just can't find him.''

For six days, more than 100 searchers combed the San Gabriel Mountains. Search and rescue team volunteers, Marines, airmen, sailors and off-duty sheriff's deputies used helicopters, all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, tracking dogs, and infrared and thermal imaging equipment, but no trace was found of him.

A psychic even offered suggestions on where to search.

Since his disappearance, Jonathan Aujay's father-in-law has left laminated missing person's posters throughout the San Gabriel Mountains, hoping that someone might spot the man and notify authorities.

Although there have been no confirmed sightings since he vanished, family members keep in contact with authorities, rangers and hikers, asking them to stay alert for the missing man.

Sheriff's officials say Aujay was having personal problems, and they did not rule out the possibility that he went into the mountains to kill himself.

Family members say Jonathan Aujay was highly competitive and might have reached a point in his life where he became too overwhelmed with the pressures of his life.

He had recently asked to be assigned to the department's shooting range as an instructor but was having second thoughts about accepting the position.

The day of his disappearance, family members said Jonathan Aujay called his supervisor and said he had changed his mind about the assignment and wanted to return to his job as a K-9 deputy, a position he had held for three years.

Bosco, Jonathan Aujay's canine partner who lived with the family, was taken by Sheriff's Department officials a few days after his master's disappearance. The German shepherd suffered a heart attack about two weeks later and died.

Some of the theories that family members have heard explaining Jonathan Aujay's disappearance suggested that he's hurt or dead, that he suffered amnesia and is living in the woods, or that he has joined a mercenary group.

Some say that foul play might have been involved, that's he's in Alaska, a place he talked about gFoing, or living off the land as a nomad.

``So many of Jon's friends feel that he is still alive,'' said Debra Aujay. ``He's still considered a missing person.''

Since her husband's disappearance, Debra Aujay has been receiving accrued vacation and sick time that her husband was entitled to. She recently sold their Palmdale home and is planning to move temporarily into her parents' west Palmdale home.

She is hoping to either go back to school or find a job. Before she was married she worked as a receptionist.

``My daughter and I need a fresh start,'' said Debra Aujay. ``I want to know what happened. I need some closure. But until then, the sun keeps going up and the moon keeps going up, and tears still flow.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Deputy Jonathan Aujay works with Bosco in this 1996 photo.

(2) Deputy Jonathan Aujay and his canine partner, Bosco, worked together on the K-9 unit before Aujay's mysterious disappearance. Bosco was taken from Aujay's home and later died of a heart attack.

Jeff Goldwater/Daily News