The leader of the Hilo Criminal Investigations Section said Tuesday he’s “not going out on a limb” and saying a partial set of human remains found last Tuesday in Puna are those of a Canadian tourist reported missing almost 16 years ago.
Police said hunters found the remains July 18 off Beach Road about a half-mile on the Pahoa side of Makuu Drive.
Detectives recovered the remains, as well as personal items in the area belonging to a Canadian woman named Jessica Urbina.
Urbina, who came to Hawaii on vacation in 2000, was reported missing to Honolulu police in 2001. Urbina was 21 the last time she was seen. She would be 37 now.
“We are concerned because there are some items with Urbina’s name on them found in that location, but we’ve acquired some (DNA) samples and we’ve sent them out to a lab and we’re hopeful to get some sort of analysis done with some results shortly,” said Lt. Greg Esteban, who heads CIS. “We’re unable to determine the sex or any other identifiers. At this point, the only thing that we can wait on is affirming who that person is. We are acquiring reference samples from the family.”
Esteban said there were no “obvious indicators on the remains that would tell us a cause or manner on how this person died.”
Urbina is still considered a missing person, Esteban said, and Big Island police opened an investigation of their own into her disappearance, as well as a coroner’s inquest into the remains.
“These are both independent investigations, the coroner’s inquest and Urbina,” Esteban said. Urbina was described as 5 feet 1 inch tall, 100 pounds with long black hair, brown eyes and fair skin.
“The picture is there and we’re hopeful that somebody will see it and go, ‘I remember her from several years ago’ and contact us with any historical information they may have,” Esteban said.
Police ask anyone with information about the human remains or Urbina to contact Esteban at 961-2252 or gregory.esteban@hawaiicounty.gov or to call Crime Stoppers at 961-8300.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
