Two weeks after a wildfire killed at least 115 people and devastated Lahaina, no official list of the names and number of those missing is publicly available.
The Maui Police Department and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation are working on a comprehensive record keeping by merging traditional investigative efforts with a community-provided Google document called “Maui Fires People Locator.”
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said Sunday night that an estimated 850 people were missing — with an estimated number of about 1,000.
“We are both saddened and relieved by these numbers as we continue the recovery process,” he said. “The number of those identified will increase, the number of missing could decrease.”
Hundreds of cops, FBI agents, and search and rescue teams working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency must figure out who among the missing died or who may have left Lahaina when communications and power went down.
Although the Maui Police Department updated the death toll Monday, the latest information was that as of Sunday, 85% of the debris had been searched.
According to FEMA, more than 1,000 federal forces are on the ground on Maui to assist residents, including nearly 450 search and rescue team members and 40 dogs trained to identify remains.
The unofficial Google doc and Facebook page are the only public accounts of who is still missing and unable to contact loved ones after the firestorm leveled the 5-square-mile center of the city of Lahaina.
As of 5:30 p.m. Monday, 737 people were listed in the Maui Fires People Locator under a red sign that reads “Not Found.”
The FBI turned over comment on the list to the Maui Police Department, the lead agency. MPD did not respond to Honolulu Star Advertiser questions about the listing.
County officials also did not respond to Star Advertiser questions about a timeline for compiling and publishing the missing persons’ names, their ages and whether they were residents or visitors.
“The names of the missing persons and all related information are not being released or made publicly available at this time. Information on the confirmed death toll will be released daily,” read an SMS from the JIC’s duty phone to the star advertiser. “Once the next of kin have been contacted, the names of the identified deceased will be released by the Maui Police Department. Please see MPD’s press releases for the most up-to-date and accurate information.”
MPD updates the names of the deceased daily until about 6 p.m.
MPD announced Monday that Lahaina residents Douglas Gloege, 59, and Juan Deleon, 45, have been identified and their next of kin notified.
None of the names appeared in the Maui Fires People Locator under the Not Found tab or the blue Lives Lost tab.
Maui Police said 115 people were killed, 13 victims identified and their families notified. 22 other victims have been identified, but their families have not been located or notified.
“An active search is still ongoing, so it will take some time to get a final missing person count,” the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency’s Joint Information Center said in a statement to the Star Advertiser.
The Maui Fires People Locator is administered by “individual citizens and is not produced by the American Red Cross or any local, state or federal agency,” according to a disclaimer at the top of the document.
“The information provided is not verified and you use this information at your own risk. This information comes from a crowd-sourced compilation of data, and since the data is based on individuals submitting information, there is bound to be human error. Do not rely solely on this information,” the disclaimer states.
The group’s Facebook page has more than 3,800 members and is run by seven administrators and moderators.
The American Red Cross — separate from law enforcement — is compiling its own list of people missing based on inquiries to its call center and information gathered by its field teams, spokesman Daniel Parra told The Associated Press.
The organization has also entered into a data sharing agreement with federal, state and local governments to help with reunions.
To date, the American Red Cross has successfully completed about 2,400 of the more than 3,000 applications it has received for reunion or welfare updates, Parra told the AP.
A completed request means, among other things, that the organization has located a missing person or verified the status of a person, for example, in a medical facility.
In response to a query from the Star Advertiser, the Honolulu Division of the Medical Examiner confirmed Thursday that 44-year-old Lahaina resident Kirk Carter died Aug. 15 in the burns ward at Honolulu’s Straub Medical Center and that his family is providing information had been death.
He was one of nine burn victims admitted to the unit.
Carter’s name has not yet been released by the MPD, fueling speculation that officials are slowly releasing the death toll and the names of the victims.
Theresa Reynolds, senior investigator for the Honolulu Department of Coroner’s Medicine, said Monday that her agency followed its protocols in releasing Carter’s name. The coroner routinely releases the names of people killed in traffic accidents, homicides and other circumstances after certain criteria are met, including formal identification and family notification.
After Carter’s name surfaced in media reports, the Honolulu coroner was asked by the Maui Police Department not to reveal the names of others who died as a result of the Lahaina wildfire — even if they died on Oahu within the Honolulu agency’s jurisdiction after their families have been notified.
“I don’t know why they don’t publish the names. I can’t comment on that, especially Kirk Carter. I have no idea why he wasn’t listed,” Reynolds said.
In response to Anderson’s statement, Maui Police spokeswoman Alana K. Pico said that “the identity of the victim will be released once the victim has been identified and the family has been notified.”
Governor Josh Green and Bissen were repeatedly asked about the number of children killed in the wildfire.
While they acknowledge that children are undoubtedly among the victims, they have not said how many of the remains recovered so far were children and all those officially identified were adults.
“I wish I knew the answer to that,” Bissen said when asked Saturday how many children were among the missing and dead.
Reynolds said that earlier this year, following family complaints, the Honolulu coroner was ordered by the city’s attorney not to reveal the children’s names because they were minors under parental jurisdiction.
In such cases, she said, nothing would prevent the sex and age of the young victim from being released, if not the name.
Police and FBI agents are working to review information from the Maui Fires People Locator and merge it with information about the Lahaina population on Aug. 8.
Data used to assess the area’s population at the time of the fire includes mailing addresses, cell phone location data, hotel reservations, corporate payroll information, utility connections, financial transactions and other data created by the people of Lahaina.
Not having an official list of missing and dead two weeks after a major disaster like the Lahaina fire is not “unusual,” said Dr. Robert Mann, a board-certified forensic anthropologist and a faculty member in the department of anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology at the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine.
When compiling this list when recovering human remains, police and FBI agents must consider a number of factors, including the size of the crime scene, how temperature and humidity affected the crime scene, and whether there is anything to do with the DNA evidence can be compared.
Searchers are checking who lived in the area, whether they were home at the time of the fire, whether they went shopping, took a trip and had other options, he said.
“Time is not always our friend. Over time and temperatures, remains can decompose more and more over time. Time is important, but we really want to be as thorough as possible,” said Mann, former founding director of the US Department of Defense’s Forensic Science Academy. “Every case is difficult.”
Having something of the missing person — dental records, fingerprints, X-rays, or a DNA sample — is critical to solving and identifying victims.
“We have such a large team out there (in Lahaina), so diverse, highly skilled professionals who can really bring anything I can think of to fruition,” Mann said. “They are being used to help those missing from the Maui wildfires. I really think so.”
HELP FOR MISSING
>> The FBI’s Honolulu Division is helping to collect DNA samples from family members to aid MPD in its efforts to identify victims of the Lahaina wildfire. Close family members — parents, siblings, and children — of those still missing can go to the Hyatt Regency Kaanapali between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily to drop off DNA samples.
>> Individuals on other islands or on the mainland should call the FBI at 808-566-4300 or email HN-COMMAND-POST@ic.fbi.gov and provide contact information so further instructions can be provided.
Comments are closed.