Search continues for lost hiker
By Kawehi Haug
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Honolulu Fire Department Captain David Mortensen, middle, with Bobby Fernandez, left, and Barry Peterson, both of DLNR Law Enforcement, plan a search routine at the Palolo Valley Fire Station to try to find hiker Daniel Levey, who has been missing since Monday. |
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| A State Department of Land and Natural Resources search team gets briefed at the Palolo Fire Station where about 25 people from police and fire departments, DLNR and the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club took part in the search for missing hiker Daniel Levey.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser |
"We didn't find anything that would indicate that he had been on the trail or not," Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. Emmit Kane said yesterday. "We covered a large area and didn't find anything new."
Kane said yesterday's search for Daniel Levey began at the Hawai'i Loa Ridge Trail and ended at Pau'oa Flats.
A crew of 30 people searched hiking trails in and around Palolo Valley for eight hours.
Members of the fire department and the Division of Land and Natural Resources, as well as 10 volunteers from the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club covered the area. Fire helicopters also were used.
Levey began his hike Monday afternoon at the Mau'umae Trail above Maunalani Heights. Levey's mother, Dr. Joyce Levey, said her son called her three times from the trail using his cellular phone, but never returned home.
His description of his surroundings indicated that he was hiking in from Maunalani to Ka'au Crater, said Phil Camero of the Honolulu Police Department's Missing Persons Detail. Levey told his mother he was going to shoot photos of what he saw.
A local mountain trail expert believes that the missing hiker was on a summit in Palolo Valley overlooking Ka'au Crater when he last talked to his mother at 6 p.m. Monday.
"He told her he could see the Windward side and downtown Honolulu," said Mabel Kekina of the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club.
Daniel Levey has been missing since Monday.
"There's an identical view from the Lanipo summit looking into Ka'au Crater."
Kane said they are looking for solid evidence — clothing or other belongings — along the trail that would indicate that Levey had been there. But so far, all they've found is the bicycle that police say Levey rode to Ala Moana Center to catch a city bus to Maunalani.
The fire department will call off the search after today if the rescue crew doesn't find any clues, Kane said.
