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