They never found him

[Haole Girl]

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/o/owen_simon.html

I knew this guy (Simon Owen). He was a very nice and trusting kid. I still think of him as a kid, even though he was 21 at the time of his disappearance. He told me he'd hitch-hiked across the entire U.S. I warned him not to be so trusting. He said, "Nothing's going to happen to me." That was 2 months before his disappearance.

He went for a hike in Hawaii (he was working at Chili's Restaurant in Waikiki for the summer)... he never returned. One of the guys who knew him in Ft. Worth theorized that Simon must have seen something... must have run across something he wasn't supposed to see (maybe a drug deal). The authorities believe Simon must have fallen in a "deep valley pocket." What they don't say in the news articles is just how carefully they searched for him. Marines walked arm-in-arm, scouring the valley below the trail where Simon's bike was found.

Where do people go when they disappear? I asked a man from Hawaii why so many young people disappear there. He blamed the Menehune (the mythical little people of ancient Hawaii). I think there is a more modern explanation-- but I'm not sure what.

I check, every so often, hoping they've found him. When I looked up missing persons in Hawaii, Simon is no longer on the list. After awhile, I guess people just give up. :-(

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. He was a nice looking kid. :^( Poor guy.

[Haole Girl]

4. He was very handsome

Much more than those pictures show.

[denbot]

2. My best friend Craig disappeared off the coast of Hawaii nearly twenty years ago.

His boat was found striped on a beach that it could not have drifted to. He was probably killed for his boat and gear.

[Haole Girl]

5. How awful

I had a friend, in Southern California, who sailed. He always talked about how you couldn't trust ANYBODY on the open ocean anymore. Even if they looked to be in distress. Modern day pirates, and all.

I'm sorry about your best friend. :hug:

[Heidi]

3. Hawaii is trying to export its problem with the homeless.

I suppose that probably doesn't include the bodies of the people who died on the rough edges there. Those people just got in the way of the tourists and no one's going to miss them. :(

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hawaii-exports-its-homeless-problem-to-mainland-us-2036205.html

[Haole Girl]

6. Many people think they'll go to "paradise" and "live off the land"

They think camping out will be easy... until the first few rain storms.

Not sure what the best solution is. Sending them with a one-way ticket, somewhere, certainly doesn't sound reasonable though. The person/people being shipped out will just be homeless someplace else. :-(

[northzax]

7. not necessarily

one of the problems of being in a place like Hawaii is that you can't easily get out. if you lose your job in Texas, you can get somewhere else, maybe you hear about a job in New Orleans, or Oklahoma. you can get there cheaply. if you are in Hawaii, you're stuck, unless you can afford a several hundred dollar ticket back to San Francisco or LA. you can't really be a transient in Hawaii, once you're there, you're there.