US Park Ranger Paul Fugate went for a hike and vanished without a trace on January 13, 1980. He was wearing his NPS uniform with the official NPS Arrowhead patch and a gold-colored NPS ranger badge.
Nearly four decades ago, on January 13, 1980, Ranger Paul Fugate took a break from his job at Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona to take a hike, and vanished.
Now renewed interested in the case has prompted the National Park Service to triple its reward to $60,000 for information that could solve the mystery.
Without providing details, the Park Service's Investigative Services Branch announced Tuesday that new information has prompted NPS investigators and Cochise County (AZ) Sheriff Mark Dannels to renew their request for the public’s help in solving the 38-year-old mystery.
Ranger Fugate, then age 41, was working in the monument’s visitor center on the day he disappeared. At about 2 p.m. that day, he left the building to hike a park trail and was never seen again. Ranger Fugate was wearing his “green and gray” Park Service uniform, including the official NPS Arrowhead patch on his upper shirtsleeve and a gold-colored ranger badge pinned over his heart.
Although search teams combed the surrounding area extensively multiple times, they found no sign of the missing ranger, a Park Service release said. Investigators suspected foul play early on, and a formal missing-person case remains open. During the first few years after Fugate’s disappearance, the reward fund grew to $20,000. With this renewed focus, the National Park Service is now offering up to $60,000 for information leading to Fugate’s whereabouts and/or the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for his disappearance.
Searching in Chiricahua is certainly no picnic, Rick Smith, a retired Park Service ranger, wrote back in 2009 in reviewing the case.. The park sprawls over 12,000 acres and has complex terrain with numerous canyons, arroyos, and barrancas.
Had Paul been killed after stumbling onto a drug smuggling or illegal immigration operation? Had he decided that the NPS was too conservative for him and just walked away? The latter notion was born of the fact that Paul had been known as a bit of a non-conformist. He was, for example, one of the first rangers who pushed the boundaries on the Park Service's conservative grooming standards.
Agents with the Park Service's Investigative Services Branch ask that any leads in the case be directed to them via any of the following ways. Your identity will remain confidential:
PHONE or TEXT the ISB Tip Line at 888-653-0009
Go ONLINE to www.nps.gov/ISB and click “Submit a Tip”
EMAIL the ISB at [email protected]
MESSAGE investigators via Facebook @InvestigativeServicesNPS or via Twitter @SpecialAgentNPS
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Comments
Always focus on what is known and evaluate that. when he left he told the other employee to lock up if he wasnt back by 4. Was that out of the ordinary? He left his radio and keys at the center. Was that out of the ordinary? If so then he may have had a plan. If itvwas his habit then that would support the possibility of foul play.
I know this area very well. I know the border, cartel, BP, CCSO and the whole southern AZ valle.
If I had to focus efforts in researching this case, i would start in this priority.
Coworkers; NPS, volunteers, and seasonals.
visitors
Him
locals - foul play
Cartel Those who know will tell you, the last thing the cartel wants in more attention. That far from the MX border, maybe a random act of violence by someone crossing?
Could it have been an alien abduction?
I thought they found his shirt and maybe a boot, possibly both boots? Its been a while since I've read that somewhere.. or was that a different case altogether?
I'm a 54 year old who used to love hiking and have hitched a few rides in my life and there is no way anyone can just go missing unless it's foul play , so I agree with you Valerie , if I had the money to bet on it I would bet a million dollars the man who was giving Paul a hard time is most likely the true suspect, just an old mans opinion, may God bless the family of mr Paul and I hope and pray God gives you all the answers so all can Rest In Peace .
My wife & I took a two-year sabatical to national parks where I read the Statement for Management and the Natural Resources Management Plan at every park we visited, including the defunct Niagara Falls that never became "a gem of the necklace," Fossil Cycad National Monument that was decomissioned by Eisenhower and the New Mexico proposed park that would be dedicated to mining, logging and cattle. Yosemite had thei Nat Res Plan on a lectern in the visitor center, and Canyon Descheyes put me in their library on my own recognizance, but Chericahua was the only park that grilled me for almost 2 hours, fearful of something, and not once was I told in 1986-7 that a ranger on duty vanished. Nothing was said about it, though my questions to the pair who interrogated me should have elicited that information. [The book I wrote never saw publication]
It disturbs me that you hear of stories and implications of not only fowl play of one of our own Rangers but the injustice to those who remain. Clearly from this much of the article Fugate was targeted. Id like to read what profound evidence was presented to justify Howard Chapman's decision that he had "abandoned his position" and was it presented to the investigators in his disappearance . And what new evidence prompted for the case to be re-opened and the reward to go up. Its also clear that Fugate was a fighter of sorts so the story of him just walking away from his career and family doesn't make any sense. Although I will say that the Park services having anything to do with his disappearance over a pissing contest of him having a mustache and long hair is a bit of a stretch. Does it seem that if said such person was capable of actions like that would there by now be a well developed history to view? Back tracking to the story at hand, Fugate to this day has not been found body has not been found no sightings have been reported. In response to the theory that he may have walked up on a drug related situation. That kind of sounds like a band aid. It covers up a lot of areas and seems like its a well rounded theory at first. Then you start to ponder into that. Fugate took a walk? Was it that he needed some fresh air or did I read a lunch break? Does it make sense to go on a brief walk knowing you are to be back at your post and then stumble up on drug plot, dealers, any drug situation that close to a Ranger Post? Id like to know what time he headed out on such a walk? When was his shift to end that day? Does it make sense that he would have walked very far to have to walk all the way back Doesn't hold water. I don't know any other details of this case other than what has been written , but based on what I've read so far this is either a terrible accident , human error , fowl play . May those left behind receive loving kindness, mercy and above all else justice.
I pray he is found, and if there are perpetrators involved, that they are punished to the highest extent of the law! Why do the good guy's, always finish last? This is so sad!