Search fails to find missing man

Authorities concluded a three-day search at dusk Wednesday for a missing camper at Hookena Beach Park in South Kona.

West Hawaii Fire Battalion Chief John Whitman said Thursday the missing man is a Big Island resident in his 30s, who was reported missing Sunday by Friends of Hookena Beach Park.

“They check-in people for camping,” Whitman said. “I don’t know exactly when he checked in, but when he was supposed to check out, he hadn’t. So they went and they found his van still there and all of his belongings still there.

“… We did an evening search Sunday until it got dark and then we did three full-day searches.”

Searchers didn’t know if the man, who was alone, had entered the water at the popular surf spot.

“Nobody saw where he went, anything. We don’t know,” Whitman said.

Fire Rescue divers and a county helicopter performed an ocean search, aided by Coast Guard radio communications, while a land search included caves in the area.

“We went back 2,500 feet into one of them. … There was no sign of him,” Whitman said. “We covered all the bases. We covered land, in land, in several caves, in the water. We did dives; we did coastal searches with the chopper.”

The missing man’s identity has not been released.