On September 30, 1968, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Aero Bureau pilot Deputy Robert Schnur, 43, and observer Deputy Gary McCullah, 29, took off from the Biscailuz Center in East Los Angeles for an Argus air patrol over the East San Gabriel Valley. They were scheduled to return that afternoon but failed to do so.

The following morning, after Schnur’s wife reported that he had not returned home, the Sheriff’s Aero Bureau began a search. At approximately 7:30 a.m., another Sheriff’s helicopter located the wreckage in Dark Canyon in the Whittier Hills, about one-half mile south of the Rose Hills Memorial Park trash dump.

The investigation determined that the helicopter had struck abandoned wires stretched across the canyon while flying at low altitude. Both deputies were killed instantly. Evidence indicated that, after completing their patrol, the deputies had been hunting coyotes from the air in response to complaints from local residents.

Read more: LASD