Body of lost hiker, 78, found in Nu'uanu Valley
| • | Family expresses thanks to searchers |
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
The body of George Morishima, 78-year-old hiker missing since Dec. 29, was discovered yesterday by volunteer searchers in a steep ravine well off the Judd Trail above Nu'uanu Pali Road.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
"He didn't look hurt or anything," 24-year-old Sam Heins, one of the volunteer hikers, said shortly after the body was found. "He looked like he had just laid down... like he was resting."
Family members, friends and volunteers were led in a prayer by Gary Morishima, the son of George Morishima.
Morishima had taken off his shirt and was reclining on it.
Volunteers discovered the body shortly before 11:30 a.m. and notified firefighters and police.
Heins described the area where Morishima was found as treacherous and slick terrain.
Family members were called to a helicopter landing site off Nu'uanu Pali Drive shortly after 1 p.m. to identify the body. After looking inside the covered basket delivered by Air One, the Honolulu Police Department helicopter, Morishima's adult children turned and hugged the police officers and firefighters who stood nearby.
"We have identified my father's body," Gary Morishima, Morishima's third son, told reporters after making a cell phone call home to his mother. "We found him. We got him home. That's important."
Morishima said authorities told him his father probably died about two days ago.
Honolulu Police Department photo
"He may have come down the ridge and hurt himself," Morishima said. "He may have been walking in the woods four days."
George Morishima, 78, was reported missing a week ago.
The Morishima family members, representatives of HPD and the Fire Department, and several dozen volunteer searchers met at the trailhead a few moments later. The group stood in the woods, hands joined, and prayed.
Gary Morishima thanked God for leading the searchers to his father and for blessing his family with an outpouring of support from the authorities and volunteers after his father disappeared.
George Morishima, an athletic man who enjoyed hiking along the Pali and who had often taken his children with him when they were younger, left last Sunday to gather bamboo shoots, tree fungus and fern shoots for a traditional Japanese New Year's celebration.
He was reported missing when he didn't return home that evening. Hikers and friends who were also on the mountain that day said they'd last seen him at about 5:30 p.m. He told them he planned to take a shortcut down, but he never made it back to his car, which was found parked along Nu'uanu Pali Drive.
Firefighters and police searched for four days, rappelling down the cliffsides and flying overhead with an infrared camera to detect body heat on the ground.
The official search was continued beyond the usual three days because a searcher found Morishima's mesh bag on Wednesday, but it was called off when no further clues were discovered. The bag contained two bamboo shoots.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Members of the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club and other volunteer groups, including the Pali Bow Hunters Association, state Department of Land and Natural Resources workers, and Morishima friends and family members, continued the search into the weekend, splitting off into groups each day and fanning out along the mountainside.
A lei draped a sign at Judd Trail in Nu'uanu Valley yesterday. The body of George Morishima was found by volunteer searchers.
Heins, who knew Morishima's grandson from church, and pig hunter Van Ohumukini, were in groups that came upon the body soon after it was discovered.
The man who found the body, they said, left the area immediately after the discovery.
"He was really upset," Ohumukini said.
Ohumukini said those who frequent the area often think of the mountains as harboring a spiritual element, and he felt sure the searchers were guided yesterday to the body.
Morishima was found an hour's trek in from the trailhead, Ohumukini said. Morishima appeared to have used pig trails beyond the Nu'uanu-Judd Trail but was well off all trails in the ravine where he died.
"He would have been home free if he had gotten over that last ravine," Ohumukini said.
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
