This is from a mother on Maui who's daughter (Charli Scott) went missing in 2014. She has been fighting for victim's rights laws in Hawaii.
PLEASE REPOST-
Since Charli went missing, I have learned a lot about the Maui protocols for missing persons.
There are good people working within the system, but they need backing from administrators, supervisors and the law to do the job correctly.
Example #1-
In 2017
Alexis Felicilda and I met with the Captain of the Criminal Investigation Division, Holokai. We had several questions about Missing Persons Protocol here on Maui, one of which STILL IS-
What is happening with the official MPD Missing Persons website?
The "official" page is incorrect and outdated. There is a name listed of a woman who was found 6 years ago. There are names not mentioned that ARE still missing.
Lee-Ann Lauaki, who is STILL CURRENTLY listed as a Missing Person, was found 3/17/09. Her remains were identified two years after they were found. That means she has been identified for 8 years and the "official" MPD website has yet to update their information as is clear from the current condition of the website-
https://www.mauicounty.gov/425/Missing-People
Does anyone remember Laura Vogel? Missing since 2/21/10. She is not on the "official" list. Neither is Greg Farmer, missing since 5/29/83, John T Madigan III, missing since 7/19/02, or Winston Kalani, missing since 2/3/10.
It is frankly, bad enough that there are missing adults that are not publicly recognized as missing. But there are CHILDREN that are not listed on the "official" MPD missing persons site. Tyahra Hashimoto-Kekona has been missing since 9/14/17. She was 8 weeks pregnant and 14 years old when she went missing. And Dezarae Gest, missing since 9/27/16 was 15 when she went missing. Their information can be found @
http://humanservices.hawaii.gov/ssd/missing-children/ but NOT on the MPD Missing Persons site. Why?
I have tried to speak to the Maui News regarding these issues but have been ignored. It took me months to get an appointment with an appropriate member of MPD. Captain Holokai (Captain of Criminal Investigation Division or CID) is who I was finally referred to. He met with myself and
Alexis Felicilda, to discuss Missing Persons Protocol issues that we both saw and experienced first hand. I will elaborate on the other issues we discussed and the outcomes in another post, for now, it is important that I stay with the issue of the MPD Missing Persons Website.
We proved to Captain Holokai that there were multiple issues and added that the actual wall of missing in MPD was inaccurate and has been for years.
Once the issues were agreed upon as issues that require a fix, Captain Holokai suggested that Alexis and I take responsibility for the wall as well as the website. He told us he would speak to the employee of MPD who was currently responsible and get the information we needed, with permission from his own superiors of course.
It took 3 months for Captain Holokai to locate the person responsible for the website, because no one "came forward" to claim the position as theirs. Alarming in and of itself.
Finally, Captain Holokai texted me to tell me that he had decided how to deal with the wall and the website.He writes,
"So we find out who the manager is for the county missing persons website. And while they are not willing to give up control of it at this point, we've open (ed) the doors for communication.
And I have mandated my guys to contact him on any missing person that go missing in excess of 72 hours so that he can post something and update the county website."
I objected to both the same person doing a job that has not been done correctly in years, and to the fact that the person who was supposed to be responsible all these years was unfindable for months.
Captain Holokai's response-
"Maybe I shouldn't have put my words that way.... I found a party that is willing to manage the site. We still haven't identified who was supposed to be managing it all these years."
Again, Alarming.
When I objected to his solution, he said he would no longer work with me because-
"I was hoping to be able to rely on both of you because you have insight like no other. But I see now that its not simply disagreeing on one incident, its a disagreement on HOW to accomplish our goal."
This last conversation was on 1/26/18. It has been almost a year and the MPD missing person page is STILL THE SAME. Nothing has been fixed.
I thought, when Captain Holokai "fired" me, that perhaps he was right. Perhaps we could not agree "on HOW to accomplish our goal".
So i stayed quiet, hoping that the painful "insights" Alexis and I had exposed would be enough and that change would come.
To recap- The MPD Missing Persons Website has been incorrect for YEARS and STILL IS, even AFTER all those in control have been notified. AFTER those in control said they had fixed the problem.
There are several other issues with Missing Person Protocol here on Maui. We were told improvements were being made. We have no way of knowing if this is true. The one issue we can observe, the Missing person website, has not been dealt with and is likely the easiest of them all.
Should we feel reassured?
I do NOT.
There are others like myself, Alexis and
Nonohe Botelho who continue to battle for the missing and murdered. The above is ONE story amongst hundreds that I have lived. Alexis has her own and so does Nonohe. Multiply our stories and add to them all the other victims and their families stories.
Does it matter to ANY of you? Because "Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are." - Benjamin Franklin
This is what I suggest you do IF it matters to you now-
Email MPD Police Chief Faaumu @
crs@mpd.net and suggest that he visit the MPD missing person website and explain to us all why this has not been correct in years and still is not.
Please let me know if you do and if you receive a response. I am not going to stop till this and the other problems are fixed, and i keep records of all communications.
I hope you will help.
Mahalo.
