Documentary tracks Hawai'i's missing children
By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer
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That's the way families, victims and officials involved in real-life tragedies describe them in "Hawai'i's Missing Kids: Forgotten Faces and Unsung Heroes," airing tomorrow and Jan. 1 (see info box) on KHON-2.
The documentary's introduction and brief commentary is by John Walsh, host of "America's Most Wanted," who lost a son to abductors.
The one-hour program, hosted by Alicia Michioka Jones, shares heartbreaking tales of children plucked from their families — many still unsolved, a few with happy endings, and a couple with painful and tragic results.
Maile Gilbert was kidnapped but her body was found. Her ashes were buried by her family at Coconut Island. The family, including siblings born after Gilbert's death, makes uneasy pilgrimages to the burial site, to remember her birthday, to say hello.
| • | 'Hawai'i's Missing Kids: Forgotten Faces and Unsung Heroes'
10 p.m. tomorrow; repeats 5 p.m. Jan. 1 KHON-2 |
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Gilbert's disappearance and discovery resulted in the MAILE Alert program, patterned after the Amber Alert system on the Mainland, giving Hawai'i's missing children a better chance of return to their homes. MAILE is an acronym for Minor Abducted In Life-Threatening Emergency.
Some cases have had vast media coverage but remain unsolved:
- Ji Zhao Li, who would be 27 now, disappeared while selling chili tickets at a Nu'uanu store.
- Peter "Peter Boy" Kema Jr., who would be 12, disappeared when he was supposedly taken to an Auntie Rose Makuakane.
- Noel and Daniel Santiago, 11 and 7 respectively, disappeared with their father, Victor.
- Therese Vanderheiden, who would be 19 now, disappeared with her mother in 1990. Her stepmother Jan Walsh, still wonders if she will be found.
There's also the sad demise of Kahealani Indreginal who was abducted and killed a year ago; the case now is in court.
The program introduces the latest sleuth in finding missing children, a bloodhound named Annie. It also applauds heroes in the frustrating and ongoing searches, including Joe Self, a Honolulu Police detective, and Renette Parker of the Missing Child Center.
There are tips on identifying a potential abductor, offered by youngsters, a parental quiz on what children should know and information on how a family can shed light on a missing child's case.
News clips from actual situations and dramatizations project realism in specific cases.
There's even a revelation: Host Jones says she also was taken hostage by a man. Happily, she lived to tell the story herself. Others have not been so lucky.
The show is produced by Seth Feldman, former news director at KHNL and executive producer with Show Doctor, a marketing and media company.
Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.
