Patrol Inspector Theodore L. Newton, Jr., and fellow officer, Patrol Inspector (Trainee) George F. Azrak, of Temecula, California, were found murdered in a remote deserted mountain cabin on June 19, 1967, following an intensive 48-hour search after they disappeared while on official duty. The men were kidnapped from their post during a traffic check operation near Oak Grove, California, in the early morning hours of June 17, 1967, at a checkpoint 75 miles north of the Mexican border on a route known to have been used by illegal aliens and smugglers of aliens, narcotics, and contraband. On June 19, the missing Service sedan was spotted by a member of a jeep club from Hemet, California. The sedan was covered with brush fifty feet from a deserted shack where the bodies of the missing patrolmen were located near Anza, California. It appeared that the victims intercepted a vehicle transporting marijuana and were overpowered by four convicted felons in two vehicles. They were taken to the second vehicle. The officers were then taken to the mountain cabin where they were handcuffed, shot and killed.