Search ends for Ma'ili woman
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward O'ahu Writer
Yesterday afternoon several members of Helen Hun's family placed flowers in a shallow ditch in the underbrush near Ma'ili'ili Stream and Pa'akea Road where a woman's body was found by two boys early Saturday — less than a half-mile from Hun's home.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
The medical examiner's office identified the body as that of Hun, 75, who had been missing since Nov. 3.
Gilbert Hun Jr., Gwen Breshears, and Gilbert Hun, Helen Hun's husband, were among the relatives at the site yesterday where Helen Hun's body was found Saturday.
Hun's disappearance sparked an area-wide search by her family, which escalated into an organized search by police and as many as 150 residents Saturday morning.
Gladys Wai, Hun's cousin, who helped coordinate the search at Poka'i Bay Saturday, was one of several family members yesterday who expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support from the community.
"Many were people we didn't even know," Wai said, referring to the teams of searchers who scoured neighborhoods from Makaha to Nanakuli passing out fliers and looking for any clue to Hun's whereabouts.
"I thanked every one of them. They said they wished they could do more. They just gave from their hearts."
As those teams were getting started, two boys chasing chickens stumbled across Hun's decomposed body in the bushes off Pa'akea Road. Because authorities were unable to identify the body at the time, the search continued throughout the day by those who refused to abandon hope that Hun might still be alive.
Yesterday, Hun's daughter, Helen Sanpei, said the family had accepted the fact that Hun had died.
"We at least have closure with this," said Helen Sanpei, Hun's daughter.
"We at least have closure with this," she said. "We no longer have to worry."
Sanpei said she wanted to dispel rumors that her mother died as a result of foul play. She said police have told her it appears Hun died of natural causes.
Sanpei said she suspects her mother might have become disoriented after crossing over a large berm leading into the brush where her body was found.
"She may have gone over and into the wooded area and couldn't get out," said Sanpei. "We think she just kept walking in a circle and she had a heart attack and was maybe immobilized."
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
HPD homicide Detective Bill Kato said police cannot rule out foul play until a cause of death is determined by the medical examiner's office. He said on Saturday that police are treating the case as a "suspicious unattended death."
Gladys Wai, Helen Hun's cousin, examines a map of the Wai'anae area during Saturday's search, which included as many as 150 residents. "Many were people we didn't even know," Wai said. "I thanked every one of them ... They just gave from their hearts."
Hun was born on Kaua'i on April 5, 1928. Her father, a plantation worker, moved the family to O'ahu when Helen was a young girl, and she and Gilbert Hun were married in the late 1940s. The couple had four children and spent their lives together in the same neighborhood. Their house was at the end of Alapaki Street.
Sanpei described her mother as a woman who liked people and loved to garden and cook.
She said about five years ago her mother developed signs of dementia and as time passed lost her short-term memory. She said prior to her disappearance, Hun believed her parents were still alive.
"When her family first moved over from Kaua'i they lived in Wai'anae Valley," she said. "And that's where she'd sometimes wander off to in search of her parents. We think she might have been trying to find her parents."
Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038 or whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.
