His NamUs page #MP35066
Missing Person / NamUs #MP35066
Also, a very lengthy article from April 2017:
Two separate tragedies on the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation
Leonard Duguay’s 85th birthday came and went on July 5, 2016, without celebration. The Modjeska Canyon resident had disappeared and the search for him took a mysterious turn weeks later when his car was found at the same wilderness site where a Fullerton couple met a tragic end 13 months earlier.
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Duguay, in the early stages of dementia, left his home on June 13, 2016, to have breakfast at a local restaurant and was never seen again. His Honda Accord was discovered on July 31, 100 miles away at the same site where the Fullerton couple was found a year earlier. The car is still in a ravine, but two searches of the area found no trace of Duguay.
The incidents occurred within 200 feet of each other. In another strange twist, each car got stuck near a massive boulder with the ominous name Turning Rock, which marks the end of the trail. A wooden sign with “Turning Rock” etched on it is staked at the base of the promontory. Duguay and Knutson plowed their compact cars through a road used by off-road and four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Investigators are still trying to unravel the mystery of how they managed to get there, and why they did not turn around earlier. In each instance, Knutson and Duguay left Highway 79 to a winding two-lane asphalt road leading to the reservation. The asphalt ends at the reservation’s campground and continues for eight miles as a dirt road that narrows to a hiking trail in spots. The dirt road is graded and passable at its beginning but starts to deteriorate after a few miles. Except for one house a couple of miles north of the campground, the area is wilderness with no signs of human activity.
Instead of turning around, Knutson went right at Turning Rock, down into a ravine. He then started driving uphill on a rocky path lined with shrubs but backed up and the car got stuck on a rock when he tried turning around. He and his wife, beset with medical and physical problems, were unable to walk up the steep slope to the road above. Authorities said it’s unlikely that Knutson could have driven the car up the slope and back onto the road.
Duguay turned left at Turning Rock and drove down a similar path as Knutson. His car was swallowed by thick brush and ended up next to a huge granite boulder. The climb to the road from the car is steeper and rockier than the climb that challenged the Fullerton couple.
Authorities are flummoxed by Knutson’s and Duguay’s decision to continue driving on the craggy road when it was obvious that it was leading to the middle of nowhere. The vegetation along the sides changes gradually from grass to manzanita, scrub oak, conifers, and oak trees as the elevation increases from about 3000 to 4200 feet.
“You don’t expect this to happen in the first place. But at some point you’d think that they would’ve realized, ‘Hey this doesn’t look good’ and turned around. But for it to happen again a year later — well, that’s strange and very sad,” said Los Coyotes Police Department chief Raymond S. Allen.
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In Duguay’s case family members believe a mountain may have played a role in his disappearance. The trail he and Knutson were on leads to Hot Springs Mountain, the highest peak in San Diego County and located on the reservation. The 6535-foot-high summit and the surrounding mountains can create their own weather. Nighttime temperatures can drop into the 40s and 50s during the summer and reach 100 during the day. The mountains’ reverse slopes drop steeply into the Anza-Borrego Desert.
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His memory loss caused him to get lost while driving, said Joiner’s husband, Steve. Duguay used Saddleback Mountain as a navigation aid to help him find his way home. Steve believes his father-in-law may have relied on a mountain — perhaps Hot Springs Mountain — in the San Diego County backcountry to find his way home. Saddleback and Hot Springs mountains have a remarkably similar profile when seen from afar.
