At the end of June, authorities at Yosemite National Park began a search for 38-year-old Nathan Baptista. The family of the former national park worker alerted the police that he had gone missing near the park on June 27.
The Mariposa Sheriff’s Department began a two-day search involving multiple branches overseeing search and rescue, helicopter support, and off-highway vehicle searches.
In an update posted on Facebook on July 1, the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office’s said that a case initially identified as an “At Risk Missing Person” was later changed to one involving a fugitive fleeing authorities.Â
It seems investigators discovered that Baptista faced federal charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a fellow Yosemite Hospitality employee that he met on May 31, 2024.Â
Details from the case show that Baptista allegedly tried strangling the woman to execute the rape.
“This case is the product of an investigation by the National Park Service,” the press release from June 2024 reads. “[…] If convicted, Baptista faces a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.”
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‘An absconding fugitive from federal law enforcement no longer in the county’
“As of now we now feel confident that this case has shifted from an ‘At Risk Missing Person’ to an absconding fugitive from federal law enforcement who is no longer in Mariposa County,” the Mariposa Sheriff’s Office wrote after discovering the charges.Â
“Surveillance footage has confirmed that his truck and dirt bike were seen in the Fresno area.”
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Both Baptista and his alleged victims were employed by Yosemite Hospitality, a subsidiary of the Aramark Corporation which oversees lodging and dining at national parks, while the National Park Service (NPS)Â conducted the investigation that led to the initial charges.
Baptista was last spotted driving a white Chevrolet truck with a California license plate and riding a white and blue bike in the area around the park.Â
Anyone with information on the case has been asked to come forward.
Image source: Mariposa County Sheriff's Office
‘Please contact the law enforcement jurisdiction closest to you’
“Nathan Baptista currently has an active federal warrant issued by the U.S. Marshalls Office for violation of probation, with the original charge being sexual assault,” Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office wrote further. “If you have any information on the whereabouts of Nathan Baptista, please contact the law enforcement jurisdiction closest to you.”
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In the summer of 2024, FBI investigators used DNA evidence to identify a 77-year-old Cleveland man named Walter Leo Jackson, Sr. as the suspect in joint murders of 26-year-old Laura Winans and 24-year-old Julianne Williams at Shenandoah National Park in 1996.
Jackson, Sr. was a serial rapist who was eventually convicted and died in prison in 2018 while serving a sentence for other crimes.
The horrific murder had remained unsolved for decades — to date, it is often referred to as one of the worst crimes ever committed in a national park.
Evidence eventually unveiled by the lab showed that Jackson, Sr. likely pulled Winans and Williams into a van and then changed the license plates to conceal his tracks from authorities.
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