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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, May 14, 2009

Body found after missing Hawaii woman's dog turns up near trail

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

The fire department's search and rescue team gathered behind Pearl City High School, using the spot as a base in the search for Gail Yoshida, who hadn't returned from walking her dog May 3.

Photos by DEBORAH BOOKER | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Sharon Tamaru waited out the search for her sister with Edwin Kamikawa and her husband (talking on phone behind her).

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Gail Yoshida

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

The dog, Maile, missing for 10 days along with Gail Yoshida, returned yesterday.

KGMB photo

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser
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PEARL CITY — Officials yesterday recovered the body of a woman in a ravine off Waimano Trail, in a renewed search effort prompted by the reappearance just hours before of a missing woman's pet dog.

It was not immediately determined if the body is that of Pearl City resident Gail Yoshida, 63, who went missing May 3 while walking her dog Maile. But the body matches Yoshida's general description, and the clothing is consistent with what Yoshida was wearing, police Maj. Frank Fujii said.

It was too early to say whether foul play may have been involved, Fujii said.

"The sighting of the dog renewed our efforts to come back here to check the area," Fujii said. "You know, the dog has been missing as long as she has: 10 days. So we needed to come back here and find out a little bit more about what was going on."

Maile, a mixed-breed terrier, showed up about 1:30 p.m. yesterday near the trailhead of the Waimano Trail behind Pearl City High School, Fujii said.

Some of Yoshida's family members were at the park. Maile spotted them and ran to them, Fujii said. Police took the dog to a local veterinarian, and then it was returned to the family.

The dog's presence prompted a search that included more than two dozen police, fire and state land department personnel, plus the police and fire department helicopters.

Fujii said that about 3 p.m., fire rescue personnel in a helicopter spotted the body of a woman in a ravine in Waimano Valley. The body "matched the general description of the missing person, and she was attired in clothing that matched also," Fujii said.

The body was in a stream bed, said fire department Capt. Terry Seelig.

Seelig said that area had already been subject to numerous ground searches and flyovers. He described the terrain as "treacherous for anyone to hike in, much less try to find someone in because of those conditions — steep dropoffs, thick canopy overhead, and dense underbrush around the ground."

Rescue personnel recovered the body about 6:50 p.m.

Seelig had said earlier that it was pretty far into the valley and down a ravine, "so it's going to be a little bit of a difficult challenge to get down in there."

Fujii said police are not ruling anything out at this point.

"Before we make an official statement about foul play or no foul play, we just really need to conduct an investigation," Fujii said. "It's not that there is a glaring thing that is suspicious about the case. But when somebody has been gone such a long time, we need to take a look and evaluate the situation."