During the early morning hours of June 17, 1967, U.S. Border Patrol Inspectors Theodore L. Newton and George F. Azrak were kidnapped while working a routine traffic check operation in this vicinity. On June 19, 1967, following an intensive 48-hour search, both inspectors were found murdered in an abandoned cabin in the Anza area off Highway 371. Investigators determined that the inspectors had intercepted a vehicle transporting over 800 pounds of marijuana and were overpowered by four convicted felons, two of whom had been following the load in a second vehicle. The officers were forced into their service sedan and taken to the cabin, where they were incapacitated and then shot and killed. Theodore Newton, age 26, was married, the father of two, and had served one year in the Border Patrol, while George Azrak, 21, was a trainee with less than two months of experience. All four suspects were eventually found, and the two convicted of murder were sentenced to life in prison.