When Jeff left Michigan in January '93 to spend 4 months in Hawaii, he spent 49 days on the island of Oahu in which he made 31 phone calls to friends or family on the mainland. On March 21, 1993 Jeff called me saying that he was looking forward to a two week hike on Molokai and the Wailau Valley. That was our last conversation.

After the two weeks had passed we expected to hear from him but did not. The third and fourth week went by and we still had not heard anything. When Mother's Day came and went, I felt there was something terribly wrong because Jeff always was in contact with his Mother. On May 2, 1993, his mother filed a missing persons report with Maui County. Ten days later she received a call from the Molokai Police notifying her that a backpack was discovered at the baseyard station at the Department of Land and Natural Resource Outpost.

I called the police chief on the island of Molokai. He gave me story of how Jeff's backpack ended up at the baseyard station. After hearing this story, I was desparate for answers and got on a flight to Honolulu and then to Molokai to try and find my son. What I learned was that Jeff had arrived on Molokai on March 21st and had hiked 14 miles, traversing 5000 feet and descended down the mountain to sea level where the Wailau stream flows into the Pacific Ocean. On March 31st he put up a distress signal to a helicopter. It landed and a DLNR ranger approached Jeff and asked him "what is your emergency?" Jeff had cuts and blisters and was too exhausted to hike back out and requested a ride out. The ranger would not take him out because he did not consider it an emergency but told Jeff for $650. he'd send back a commercial helicopter. Jeff declined the offer because he had only $43 in his backpack and did not have a credit card. The ranger suggested he take Jeff's 60 lb. backpack to the DLNR outpost to lighten his load. Jeff agreed and the helicopter left him there with just his tent and a few other supplies.

There were 4 rangers at the outpost and they put Jeff's backpack in a closet and that's where it sat for 41 days without follow up until the missing persons report surfaced. I spent 5 weeks in Hawaii and came home with nothing but his backpack.

My life has never been the same. There's not a day that goes by that I don't wonder what happened to my son or what else I could have done to find him. It's been difficult for my oldest daughter. She put off getting married hoping that her brother would come home. She did eventually get married 6 years ago. Jeff's disappearance was extremely difficult for his mother as well. She passed away two years ago never knowing what happened to her only son. I still continue to this day to do whatever I can to bring closure to this story.