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The strange disappearance of Kyle Brittain in Hawaii
Kyle Brittain, disappeared August 30th, 2019, Lookout, Waipio (Waipiʻo) Valley, Hawaii
Revised July 2024
Kyle Brittain, 27, visited the forests of Waipio Valley, Hawaii, on August 30, 2019, for a day hike. He said he was going to hike the Waipio Valley's Z Trail but hadn't planned on doing the entire 12-mile hike. Kyle was an experienced hiker who had been hiking since childhood. He has not been seen since, despite a huge search effort.
Where are the Waipiʻo Valley and the Z-Trail?
Waipiʻo Valley is a valley located in the Hamakua District of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi. "Waipiʻo" means "curved water" in the Hawaiian language. The Z Trail, nicknamed because of the route's zig-zag shape, climbs 1,200 feet to the top of a ridge before descending into the Waimanu Valley. The first ¾ of a mile is a very strenuous switchback and near the top, there is a look down there is a great view of the Waipio Valley.
Wai’ilikahi Falls
This trail is not for the novice hiker. Once you reach the top of the ridge, you must hike another eight miles through gorges and over hills to reach Waimanu Valley. Hikers are warned not to attempt this hike in a single day, as you need to cross 13 streams along the way. It is also not advised during the rainy season when large amounts of mud and swollen streams make the trek dangerous. The descent into Waimanu can be tricky.
Several hundred people lived in Waimanu until a tsunami forced them to leave in 1946, and some of the ruins are still visible. The area has many waterfalls, including the spectacular Wai'ilikahi Falls on the far side.
Kyle Brittain - the disappearance
At the time of his disappearance, Kyle was 5’10” (177.8 cm), had black hair, brown eyes, slim build and was fair-skinned. On the day of the hike, he had a black backpack with a T-Mobile logo. His car was found parked at the top of the Waipio Lookout.
Kyle’s father, Steve Brittain, said that another hiker last saw Kyle near a bathroom at the Waipio Valley overlook around 6 am. "He asked where the bathroom was and said, 'Hey, have a good day,' and that was the last time.”
The search for Kyle Brittain
Kyle’s family called off the search for him on Sunday, September 22, 2019, after 24 days of searching with no clues or leads.
His last cellphone ping was on the ridge at the top of the Z-Trail. The cell reception is poor in Waipio Valley - if you’re lucky, you can get a signal near the lookout or at the top of the ridge. Steve said, “Some of this data is open to interpretation, especially when only one cell phone tower is involved. No triangulation is possible with only one cell tower. There are degrees of reliability-probability involved. The farther you get from the one tower, the less reliable the data is.” His other sons, Cade and Sean, were involved in the cell data analysis, along with consultants.
The three-week search involved search and rescue teams from Maui, Big Island, and Honolulu, as well as dogs, helicopters, repel teams, drones, thermal videography, and hundreds of volunteers. Kyle’s sister-in-law, Heather Lee, told CNN that a police search ended after five days, but the volunteer search went on for longer, and there was criticism that the official search ended so quickly. But to no avail, nothing was found.
Search Tech Advisory Team (STAT) leader Chris Berquist joined the search upon Kyle’s father’s request on September 3. His father said, “No backpack, no keys, no clothing, nothing. It’s baffling, that’s the word that keeps coming up, he didn’t just spontaneously combust—he disappeared somewhere and we don’t know how or where.
Waipio Valley from the Lookout
Looking Back on Waipio Valley after hiking the Z-Trail
In mid-September, drone footage captured night video of a man walking on nearby trails. Steve said, “Somebody was walking up the ravine at night without a flashlight, which is kind of odd there, but we sent search and rescue teams up, combed that area, dropped them off on top, swept that area, looked in the ravines, went from bottom and up and nothing,”
“We’ve eliminated every area, so at this point, I have no idea, I really don’t know. We can speculate all we want but we don’t have any evidence of anything.”
Other hiking disappearances and deaths in Hawaii in 2019
Noah 'Kekai' Mina
Khiara Henry
Amanda Eller
Maui hiker Amanda Eller went missing in May 2019. She was found alive between two waterfalls in the Makawao Forest Reserve, a 2,093-acre reserve located in upcountry Maui, on the northwest slope of Haleakala 17 days after she disappeared. Police had called off the search after just three days.
Another Maui hiker, Noah "Kekai" Mina, 35, who went missing on May 20, 2019, was found dead while hiking in the West Maui Forest Reserve. A search helicopter discovered the body at the bottom of a 300-foot fall line near the summit of Mauna Kahalawai, a 1.7 million-year-old volcano on Maui.
Khiara Henry, 23, of San Diego, California, was last seen on July 21, 2019, when she went for a hike in the Waiʻanapanapa State Park, a 122-acre park in Hana, on the island of Maui, in Hawaii. She was on vacation and has still not been found. Ground searches with volunteers, law enforcement, and professional divers searched the area but to no avail.
Is Maui, another “death island”? Is a serial killer at large in the area? Like Koh Tao, off the coast of Thailand, where there have been many unexplained deaths in recent years.
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Sources
https://www.facebook.com/findkylebrittain/
https://www.khon2.com/local-news/family-makes-difficult-decision-to-call-off-search-for-missing-hiker/?fbclid=IwAR3vhXi5MQlfZRIYKtNRAWrY7Dx7NQDIzTrAHxjB-OTLf-EkSlXhV_nR51o
https://www.insider.com/kyle-brittain-missing-hawaii-big-island-hike-2019-9
https://www.hawaii-guide.com/big-island/hiking-trails/muliwai_z_trail_waimanu_valley
https://muliwaitrail.com/trail-information/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waipio_Valley
https://bigislandnow.com/2019/09/11/day-12-cell-data-reveals-last-known-location-of-kyle-brittain/
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/30/hawaii-hiker-noah-mina-found-dead-days-after-rescue-another-hiker/1283830001/