The strange disappearance of Kyle Brittain in Hawaii

Kyle brittain disappearance hawaii

Kyle Brittain, disappeared August 30th, 2019, Lookout, Waipio (Waipiʻo ) Valley, Hawaii

Kyle Brittain, 27, visited the forests of Waipio Valley, Hawaii, to do a day hike on August 30, 2019. 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 he was a child. He has not been seen since, despite a huge search effort.

Where is 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

Wai’ilikahi Falls

waipio lookout

This trail is not for the novice hiker. Once you reach the top of the ridge, it is another eight miles of hiking through gorges and over hills to reach Waimanu Valley. Hikers are warned not to attempt to do 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 where large amounts of mud and swollen streams make the trek dangerous. The descent into Waimanu can be difficult.

At one time several hundred people lived in Waimanu until a tsunami made them leave for good 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 disappearnace

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, 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

Waipio Valley from the Lookout

Looking Back on Waipio Valley after hiking the Z-Trail

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

Noah 'Kekai' Mina

Khiara Henry

Khiara Henry

Amanda Eller

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 and law enforcement, 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.

Read : The mysterious Koh Tao - Death Island in Paradise

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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/