Rio Amon-Wilkins
The Huge Island of Hawaii is understood for its untamed magnificence and peaceable ambiance. Nonetheless, over the previous two years, worry has grown in the neighborhood as a result of a number of mysterious disappearances.
After reviewing public police reviews and information for the native police division, In Contact confirmed that one to 2 individuals have gone lacking every month — a complete of 39 individuals — within the final two years, with nearly all of the lacking individuals being males. Their households are calling it an “epidemic.” In line with the police division, they solely have 22 lively and open lacking individuals instances from that timeframe, as they cease classifying a case as lively as soon as leads run out. In Contact solely spoke to a few of the lacking individuals’ households, in addition to Hawaii police captain Rio Amon-Wilkins, to be taught extra.
Kelly Gravitt, a 34-year-old fight veteran and Purple Coronary heart recipient, disappeared on the Huge Island in 2023.
“Kelly is my son. He joined the military at 20 years previous, and he was blown up in Afghanistan in 2010,” Kelly’s father, Geff Gravitt, tells In Contact Investigates’ Kristin Thorne. “After that, his mother, my spouse, handed away. However Kelly and I believed we may, we’d moved away to form of heal. So he went over there first, you recognize, he moved over there, form of feeling it out.”
After Kelly didn’t name Geff on his birthday on Might 19, he turned apprehensive about his son, who wasn’t answering any of his household’s texts.
“Proper after that occurred, I flew out to the Huge Island,” Geff continues. “We made flyers … we interviewed a whole lot of individuals. We went to Sunday Funday, we went to open mic night time, we went to the drum circle. I knew all of the locations he frolicked. I went to his camp. I filed a lacking individuals report. I went and talked to detectives.”
There’s additionally 26-year-old Tyler Reikofski-Ekle, whose mom, Heather Ekle, hasn’t heard from him in a 12 months, since August 2024.
“August 10 was his final sighting,” she says. “He was down on the crimson highway throughout from the Kalani retreat. I hadn’t heard from him for over just a few days, so I believed one thing wasn’t proper, after which I get a name from the sheriff’s workplace. They’d discovered his belongings, his telephone, his pockets, a bag of his issues.”
Heather continues, “At that time, they requested me if I needed to do a lacking individuals report. In order that they let me do it over the telephone. We have been making an attempt to get video cameras. You already know, individuals had searched alongside there, alongside the coast, the place he was or the place his belongings have been discovered. A pair days later, I discovered that somebody discovered his canine, Ohia, and he by no means went anyplace with out his canine and his telephone. After which at that time, it simply form of went like, there was nothing there. He was simply gone.”
Then, there’s 76-year-old William Bishop, Sr., who moved to the island to retire and spend time along with his grandchildren. He disappeared from his personal yard in January 2023.
“I’ve a nephew on the island … that was there on the time enjoying basketball. He ended up going inside for roughly an hour for a break, and when he got here out, my dad was gone,” says William’s son Jay W. Bishop. “A number of hours later, we have now a brother on the island as effectively, [and] when he received residence from work, he form of was curious what occurred with dad, and tried calling his telephone. And heard his telephone in his room.”
Jay says that his brother found that William’s telephone and pockets have been each in his room, in addition to a pouch of non-public belongings that he usually carried with him when he left the home. Nonetheless, William and his automobile have been gone.
“So we actually by no means received any solutions from that till most likely shut to 2 and a half to a few weeks later, an individual of curiosity turned in his automobile on the police division,” Jay continues, explaining that the girl took a polygraph check and was let go by the police. Nonetheless, he says he discovered it “uncommon” that she was not charged for having a lacking individual’s automobile. The case was suspended with no additional leads after that.
“It’s been just about a 12 months since that’s occurred, with no contact from the police in any respect,” Jay says.
Amon-Wilkins tells Thorne that the FBI assisted the police in each Kelly’s case and William’s case, however each investigations “got here to a useless finish.”
Relating to the girl with William’s automobile, Amon-Wilkins says that she had “indicated that she had gotten it from one other location.”
“I imagine the automobile was parked down in, I don’t know the way far it was from his residence, however fairly a distance from his residence, and the automobile was left there parked,” he continues. “We fully recovered the automobile. We fully processed the automobile, searching for any sort of indication of foul play, DNA proof. And you recognize, at this level, there was nothing to point that there was foul play in that scenario. I do know that folks have a look at that like … ‘Any person else is driving his automobile, they should have killed him,’ however that’s clearly simply an assumption.”
William Bishop, Sr.’s household
On the similar time, Amon-Wikins does name William’s case “a thriller” and says he can perceive why individuals would discover it regarding.
“It does appear very, you recognize, alarming, I assume, in a way,” he says. However he says police additionally discover it unusual that William left the home with out his cellular phone and pockets.
As for Tyler, Amon-Wilkins says police imagine he fell off a cliff into the water, primarily based on interviews that have been achieved in his case, objects recovered within the space the place Tyler was final seen and his habits previous to his disappearance.
Amon-Wilkins says that 12 of the 22 lively lacking individuals instances are “water-related.” And whereas there’s no definitive proof that these individuals disappeared within the water, he explains that the police get help from the Division of Land and Pure Sources and the Coast Guard.
“We’ll additionally contact the fireplace division to deliver their helicopter to do a shoreline search and water search. So, I imply, it’s numerous assets undoubtedly go into these instances,” he says.
As for different instances, Amon-Wilkins says “it may be very troublesome discovering individuals” because of the island having many “distant areas.” He provides that the police division takes these instances “very severely.”
“We would like nothing greater than to clearly find the individual alive, but when one thing occurred to them, you recognize, we wish to unravel it. And if there may be foul play concerned, you recognize, guarantee that the case will get to the prosecutor’s workplace,” Amon-Wilkins concludes.
Amon-Wilkins says investigators do imagine foul play was concerned within the disappearances of Jarryd Lee Kalanihuli Ah Quin, Joseph David Smithey and Jennifer Michelle Showen. They disappeared between 2019 and 2022.
Amon-Wilkins says detectives made this willpower primarily based upon interviews with the lacking individuals’s associates and the truth that all exercise stopped on their monetary accounts after their disappearances.
When Thorne asks Amon-Wilkins if he believes Jarryd, Joseph and Jennifer are nonetheless alive, he says, “There’s been no exercise to point that they’re. However, we are able to’t definitively say that they aren’t. None of these instances have any recognized suspect.”
In the meantime, the households In Contact spoke with say they hope that extra could be achieved to search out all of the lacking individuals of the Huge Island.
“There must be a joint activity power with the Hawaii Police Division, the FBI, Homeland Safety, U.S. Marshals and the DEA, all working collectively on totally different duties,” Geff says. “So there must be a joint activity power and stuff, and any individual must care. That is so laborious for me and provides me a lot nervousness and a lot despair, and the one cause I’m sitting right here as we speak speaking to you is, I don’t need yet another household to should expertise what all of our households have needed to undergo.”
Under is an inventory of the individuals lacking from Hawaii’s Huge Island over the previous two years, in accordance with the Hawaii Police Division. To see their photos and browse extra about their instances, click on on their names. If you recognize something about their disappearances or the place they might be, contact the Hawaii Police Division at 808-935-3311.
Mark Knittle. Age 63. Disappeared 1/15/23. Final seen in Honaunau.
William Bishop Sr. Age 76. Disappeared 1/22/23. Final seen in Kea-au.
Haunani Trask Gibson. Age 61. Disappeared March 2023. Unknown the place final seen.
Daniel Immonen. Age 40. Disappeared April 2023. Final seen in Kailua-Kona.
William Everette Brownfield. Age 45. Disappeared 4/2/23. Final seen in Hilo.
Kris Seizen Yamauchi. Ag 65. Disappeared 4/6/23. Final seen in Keauhou.
Mary Kaniho. Age 34. Disappeared 4/28/23. Final seen in Kawaihae Harbor
Kelly Gravitt. Age 34. Disappeared 5/19/23. Final seen in Pahoa.
Shanice Ogata-Staudinger. Age 30. Disappeared 7/9/23. Final seen in Pahoa.
Mark Diaz. Age 44. Disappeared 7/27/23. Final seen in Volcano neighborhood.
Marcello Silva Da Costa. Age 32. Disappeared September 2023. Final seen in Kailua-Kona.
Justin Ferreira. Age 34. Disappeared 10/21/23. Unknown the place final seen.
Kunzang Yuthok. Age 65. Disappeared 11/20/23. Final seen in Kailua-Kona.
Alexander Sloane. Disappeared 1/10/24. Age and final recognized location not supplied in police information.
Joseph Francis Madeiros. Age 67. Disappeared 1/25/24. Final seen in Volcano.
Jenny Raylynn Partin. Age 50. Disappeared March 2024. Final seen in Kailua-Kona.
David Taylor. Age 48. Disappeared April 2024. Final seen in Puna.
Sherri Jo Bowers. Age 38. Disappeared April 2024. Final in Kailua-Kona.
Debbie Marie. Age 68. Disappeared 4/2/24. Final seen in Hilo.
William Hammett. Age 74. Disappeared Might 2024. Final seen in Volcano neighborhood.
Randy Smith. Age 58. Disappeared 7/1/24. Final seen in Pahoa.
Anthony Moniz III. Age 28. Disappeared 7/21/24. Final seen in Hilo.
Kasey Bell. Age 39. Disappeared 7/31/24. Final seen in Leilani Estates
Tyler Reikofski-Eckle. Age 26. Disappeared 8/10/24. Final seen in Pahoa.
Toco Hildreth. Age 49. Disappeared 9/2/24. Final seen in Hawaii Paradise Park.
Vincent Souza. Age 24. Disappeared 9/9/24. Final seen in Hilo.
Shayson Estocado. Age 34. Disappeared 10/12/24. Final seen in Hilo.
Anthony Yates. Age 65. Disappeared 10/29/24. Final seen in Hilo.
Simon Varela. Age 34. Disappeared 12/15/24. Final seen in Ocean View Estates.
Dannah Delos Santos. Age 26. Disappeared 12/17/24. Final seen in Hilo.
Michelle Beltran. Age 35. Disappeared 12/27/24. Final seen in Hilo.
Rick Andrade. Age 37. Disappeared 2/11/25. Final seen in Kurtistown.
Larry Lacanaria. Age 35. Disappeared March 2025. Final seen in Aloha States.
Vesna Younger. Age 51. Disappeared 3/16/25. Final seen in Miloli’i.
Earl Hind. Age 42. Disappeared 4/7/25. Final seen in South Level.
Gregory Glaser. Age 56. Disappeared 4/12/25. Final seen in Hawaiian Acres.
Kawika Makahanaloa. Age 25. Disappeared. 4/27/25. Final seen in Kailua-Kona.
Jared Willeford. Age 42. Disappeared 4/27/25. Final seen in Keauhou
Thomas Delima Jr. Age 43. Disappeared 5/1/25. Final seen in Kailua-Kona.
