The Big Island of Hawaii is known for its untamed beauty and peaceful atmosphere. However, over the past two years, fear has grown in the community due to several mysterious disappearances.

After reviewing public police reports and records for the local police department, In Touch confirmed that one to two people have gone missing each month — a total of 39 people — in the last two years, with the majority of the missing persons being men. Their families are calling it an “epidemic.” According to the police department, they only have 22 active and open missing persons cases from that time frame, as they stop classifying a case as active once leads run out. In Touch exclusively spoke to three of the missing persons’ families, as well as Hawaii police captain Rio Amon-Wilkins, to learn more.

Kelly Gravitt, a 34-year-old combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient, disappeared on the Big Island in 2023.

“Kelly is my son. He joined the army at 20 years old, and he was blown up in Afghanistan in 2010,” Kelly’s father, Geff Gravitt, tells In Touch Investigates’ Kristin Thorne. “After that, his mom, my wife, passed away. But Kelly and I thought we could, we’d moved away to kind of heal. So he went over there first, you know, he moved over there, kind of feeling it out.”

After Kelly didn’t call Geff on his birthday on May 19, he became worried about his son, who wasn’t answering any of his family’s texts.

“Right after that happened, I flew out to the Big Island,” Geff continues. “We made flyers … we interviewed hundreds of people. We went to Sunday Funday, we went to open mic night, we went to the drum circle. I knew all the places he hung out. I went to his camp. I filed a missing persons report. I went and talked to detectives.”

There’s also 26-year-old Tyler Reikofski-Ekle, whose mother, Heather Ekle, hasn’t heard from him in a year, since August 2024.

“August 10 was his last sighting,” she says. “He was down on the red road across from the Kalani retreat. I hadn’t heard from him for over a few days, so I thought something wasn’t right, and then I get a call from the sheriff’s office. They had found his belongings, his phone, his wallet, a bag of his things.”

Heather continues, “At that point, they asked me if I wanted to do a missing persons report. So they let me do it over the phone. We were trying to get video cameras. You know, people had searched along there, along the coast, where he was or where his belongings were found. A couple days later, I found out that someone found his dog, Ohia, and he never went anywhere without his dog and his phone. And then at that point, it just kind of went like, there was nothing there. He was just gone.”

Then, there’s 76-year-old William Bishop, Sr., who moved to the island to retire and spend time with his grandchildren. He disappeared from his own yard in January 2023.

“I have a nephew on the island … that was there at the time playing basketball. He ended up going inside for roughly an hour for a break, and when he came out, my dad was gone,” says William’s son Jay W. Bishop. “A few hours later, we have a brother on the island as well, [and] when he got home from work, he kind of was curious what happened with dad, and tried calling his phone. And heard his phone in his room.”

Jay says that his brother discovered that William’s phone and wallet were both in his room, as well as a pouch of personal belongings that he typically carried with him when he left the house. However, William and his car were gone.

“So we really never got any answers from that until probably close to two and a half to three weeks later, a person of interest turned in his car at the police department,” Jay continues, explaining that the woman took a polygraph test and was let go by the police. However, he says he found it “unusual” that she was not charged for having a missing person’s car. The case was suspended with no further leads after that.

“It’s been pretty much a year since that’s happened, with no contact from the police at all,” Jay says.

Amon-Wilkins tells Thorne that the FBI assisted the police in both Kelly’s case and William’s case, but both investigations “came to a dead end.”

Regarding the woman with William’s car, Amon-Wilkins says that she had “indicated that she had gotten it from another location.”

“I believe the vehicle was parked down in, I don’t know how far it was from his residence, but quite a distance from his residence, and the car was left there parked,” he continues. “We completely recovered the vehicle. We completely processed the vehicle, looking for any type of indication of foul play, DNA evidence. And you know, at this point, there was nothing to indicate that there was foul play in that situation. I know that people look at that like … ‘Somebody else is driving his car, they must have killed him,’ but that’s obviously just an assumption.”

At the same time, Amon-Wikins does call William’s case “a mystery” and says he can understand why people would find it concerning.

“It does seem very, you know, alarming, I guess, in a sense,” he says. But he says police also find it strange that William left the house without his cell phone and wallet.

As for Tyler, Amon-Wilkins says police believe he fell off a cliff into the water, based on interviews that were done in his case, items recovered in the area where Tyler was last seen and his behavior prior to his disappearance.

Amon-Wilkins says that 12 of the 22 active missing persons cases are “water-related.” And while there’s no definitive proof that these people disappeared in the water, he explains that the police get assistance from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Coast Guard.

“We’ll also contact the fire department to bring their helicopter to do a shoreline search and water search. So, I mean, it’s a lot of resources definitely go into those cases,” he says.

As for other cases, Amon-Wilkins says “it can be very difficult finding people” due to the island having many “remote areas.” He adds that the police department takes these cases “very seriously.”

“We want nothing more than to obviously locate the person alive, but if something happened to them, you know, we want to get to the bottom of it. And if there is foul play involved, you know, make sure that the case gets to the prosecutor’s office,” Amon-Wilkins concludes.

Amon-Wilkins says investigators do believe foul play was involved in the disappearances of Jarryd Lee Kalanihuli Ah Quin, Joseph David Smithey and Jennifer Michelle Showen. They disappeared between 2019 and 2022.

Amon-Wilkins says detectives made this determination based upon interviews with the missing people’s associates and the fact that all activity stopped on their financial accounts after their disappearances.

When Thorne asks Amon-Wilkins if he believes Jarryd, Joseph and Jennifer are still alive, he says, “There’s been no activity to indicate that they are. But, we can’t definitively say that they aren’t. None of those cases have any identified suspect.”

Meanwhile, the families In Touch spoke with say they hope that more can be done to find all the missing people of the Big Island.

“There needs to be a joint task force with the Hawaii Police Department, the FBI, Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals and the DEA, all working together on different tasks,” Geff says. “So there needs to be a joint task force and stuff, and somebody needs to care. This is so hard for me and gives me so much anxiety and so much depression, and the only reason I’m sitting here today talking to you is, I don’t want one more family to have to experience what all of our families have had to go through.”

Below is a list of the people missing from Hawaii’s Big Island over the past two years, according to the Hawaii Police Department. To see their pictures and read more about their cases, click on their names. If you know anything about their disappearances or where they may be, contact the Hawaii Police Department at 808-935-3311.

Mark Knittle. Age 63. Disappeared 1/15/23. Last seen in Honaunau.

William Bishop Sr. Age 76. Disappeared 1/22/23. Last seen in Kea-au.

Haunani Trask Gibson. Age 61. Disappeared March 2023. Unknown where last seen. 

Daniel Immonen. Age 40. Disappeared April 2023. Last seen in Kailua-Kona.

William Everette Brownfield. Age 45. Disappeared 4/2/23. Last seen in Hilo.  

Kris Seizen Yamauchi. Ag 65. Disappeared 4/6/23. Last seen in Keauhou.

Mary Kaniho. Age 34. Disappeared 4/28/23. Last seen in Kawaihae Harbor

Kelly Gravitt. Age 34. Disappeared 5/19/23. Last seen in Pahoa.

Shanice Ogata-Staudinger. Age 30. Disappeared 7/9/23. Last seen in Pahoa.

Mark Diaz. Age 44. Disappeared 7/27/23. Last seen in Volcano neighborhood. 

Marcello Silva Da Costa. Age 32. Disappeared September 2023. Last seen in Kailua-Kona.

Justin Ferreira. Age 34. Disappeared 10/21/23. Unknown where last seen.

Kunzang Yuthok. Age 65. Disappeared 11/20/23. Last seen in Kailua-Kona.

Alexander Sloane. Disappeared 1/10/24. Age and last known location not provided in police records.

Joseph Francis Madeiros. Age 67. Disappeared 1/25/24. Last seen in Volcano. 

Jenny Raylynn Partin. Age 50. Disappeared March 2024. Last seen in Kailua-Kona.

David Taylor. Age 48. Disappeared April 2024. Last seen in Puna. 

Sherri Jo Bowers. Age 38. Disappeared April 2024. Last in Kailua-Kona.

Debbie Marie. Age 68. Disappeared 4/2/24. Last seen in Hilo. 

William Hammett. Age 74. Disappeared May 2024. Last seen in Volcano neighborhood. 

Randy Smith. Age 58. Disappeared 7/1/24. Last seen in Pahoa. 

Anthony Moniz III. Age 28. Disappeared 7/21/24. Last seen in Hilo. 

Kasey Bell. Age 39. Disappeared 7/31/24. Last seen in Leilani Estates

Tyler Reikofski-Eckle. Age 26. Disappeared 8/10/24. Last seen in Pahoa.

Toco Hildreth. Age 49. Disappeared 9/2/24. Last seen in Hawaii Paradise Park.

Vincent Souza. Age 24. Disappeared 9/9/24. Last seen in Hilo.

Shayson Estocado. Age 34. Disappeared 10/12/24. Last seen in Hilo. 

Anthony Yates. Age 65. Disappeared 10/29/24. Last seen in Hilo.

Simon Varela. Age 34. Disappeared 12/15/24. Last seen in Ocean View Estates.

Dannah Delos Santos. Age 26. Disappeared 12/17/24. Last seen in Hilo. 

Michelle Beltran. Age 35. Disappeared 12/27/24. Last seen in Hilo. 

Rick Andrade. Age 37. Disappeared 2/11/25. Last seen in Kurtistown. 

Larry Lacanaria. Age 35. Disappeared March 2025. Last seen in Aloha States.

Vesna Young. Age 51. Disappeared 3/16/25. Last seen in Miloli’i.

Earl Hind. Age 42. Disappeared 4/7/25. Last seen in South Point.

Gregory Glaser. Age 56. Disappeared 4/12/25. Last seen in Hawaiian Acres. 

Kawika Makahanaloa. Age 25. Disappeared. 4/27/25. Last seen in Kailua-Kona. 

Jared Willeford. Age 42. Disappeared 4/27/25. Last seen in Keauhou

Thomas Delima Jr. Age 43. Disappeared 5/1/25. Last seen in Kailua-Kona.