Searches for Alheimer's patients fruitless

By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer

A police manhunt with SWAT team officers was under way in the Waikiki and downtown areas yesterday for a missing 80-year-old man who suffers from Alzheimer's disease and has been missing for more than a month.

Masayuki Kubo wandered away from his Imperial Plaza condo on Kapi'olani Boulevard on June 23. Advertiser library photo

Since Kubo's disappearance, police have fielded many reports of people resembling Kubo in the Waikiki and downtown areas, with one of the most recent reports at the Chinatown Cultural Plaza Shopping Center on July 14. The search is difficult, police said, because a lot of elderly people resemble Kubo.

"We're going to look in all those back alley places where people are afraid to go," said Sgt. Thomas Carreiro of the Specialized Services Division. "I want to find this gentleman. He has a family that is worried and, I think, they need to stop worrying. He needs to be in a good place."

Carreiro said police planned to flood the areas with flyers about the missing man, talk with merchants and scour parking lots and between buildings. He said a core group of six officers, and perhaps more, would participate in the search.

"We're going to go out there and look around, and hopefully we'll stumble on to him," Carreiro said. "If not, we're hoping that the public will see the stories, and if they do see him, they'll call in."

It's not unusual for divisions like the SWAT team to help out in searches, Carreiro said. SWAT team officers have a knack for finding people, he said, but mostly wanted felons. He said many of the officers "just wanted to help out."

Janet Bender, executive director of the Aloha Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, said she believes that Kubo is living with someone who may not know Kubo is missing.

"We have a community of good people," she said. "I think there's a Good Samaritan taking care of him who doesn't have a television and doesn't have a newspaper. I think he may be all right."

Police have searched Kubo's former residences and places where he used to frequent such as Date Street and St. Louis Heights, said Officer Phil Camero of the Missing Persons Detail. Police have also searched homeless shelters, he said.

Camero said there's no evidence of foul play, and the disappearance is classified as a missing person's case. Camero said Kubo wore a white shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes and likely will be unshaven with his clothes well-worn.

He said Kubo might be "confused and scared" and that people should "delicately approach him."

Kubo's wife has offered a $1,000 reward for anyone who finds him.

Anyone with information on Masayuki Kubo is asked to call 911.

Meanwhile, a third day of searching failed to turn up any sign of a 72-year-old Moloka'i man missing since Saturday.

Wally Silva, who suffers from stroke-related dementia, is believed to have wandered into mangrove thickets near his beachside home in Kalama'ula.

Yesterday, police, firefighters, National Guard members, relatives, friends and First Assembly of God church members searched the coastline from Pala'au to Kalama'ula, said Hattie Silva, wife of the missing man.

She said they will continue looking for him today.

Advertiser Staff Writer Christie Wilson contributed to this report.