Police are seeking leads in the cases of three missing individuals, all from Puna, whom they suspect may have been the victims of foul play.
All have been previously reported as missing in police bulletins. They are Jarryd Lee Kalanihuli Ah Quin, 37; Joseph Smithey, 54; and Michelle Showen, 41.
“No bodies have been found in any of these cases,” said Capt. Rio Amon-Wilkins of the Hawaii Police Department’s East Hawaii Criminal Investigation Division. “But we’ve done a lot of followups, witness interviews and interviews with family members. We’ve reviewed cellphone records and other financial records.”
In addition, there is no evidence that any of the three have left the island, Amon-Wilkins said.
Of the three, Ah Quin, who was 34 when he disappeared, has been missing the longest. According to police, he was last seen in the early morning hours of Oct. 5, 2019, in the Hawaiian Beaches area.
Ah Quin was known to frequent the Hilo and Puna areas, police said. Amon-Wilkins said he doesn’t think Ah Quin had a permanent address.
According to court records, Ah Quin has two active contempt of court cases in traffic matters from 2018 and 2019, with court dates in both cases scheduled for Feb. 8.
“All I know is, he stopped showing up for court, and I was concerned,” Jeremy Butterfield, Ah Quin’s court-appointed attorney in those cases, said Tuesday.
Amon-Wilkins said Ah Quin was the younger brother of Jace Whitney AhQuin (the men spell their last names differently), who was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat on June 20, 2020, in his downstairs apartment at a home on Opae Street in Hawaiian Beaches.
Jace AhQuin’s landlord, Stanley Marion Cummins, is charged with second-degree murder for AhQuin’s death and is awaiting trial.
The house in which the homicide took place was heavily damaged by fire 2 1/2 weeks later.
Smithey was 52 when family members hast heard from him. Smithey, who was reportedly in need of medical attention, was reported missing in late June 2021.
Family members told police they hadn’t had contact with Smithey for about a month, and he was last seen in late May 2021 at his home on Lehua Street in Mountain View’s Fern Acres subdivision.
Showen was 41 when she was reported missing in early July 2022 and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. According to police, she was last seen at her Ina Street home in Pahoa’s Hawaiian Beaches subdivision.
Amon-Wilkins said both Smithey and Showen “left the better part of their belongings” at their residences. He said he doesn’t believe either individual had family on the island.
“We have, over the course of the investigation, been in contact with their families,” Amon-Wilkins said. “Showen was actually, I believe, from Montana and had relocated to here.
“And then Smithey, I’m not sure exactly how long he had been on the island prior to him disappearing.”
Amon-Wilkins said all three disappearances “are still officially classified as a missing person case.”
“We haven’t gotten concrete information that they are homicides,” he said. “But based on the totality of each investigation thus far, we are conducting the investigations as though they are homicides.”
Police ask anyone with information on any of these cases to call the police nonemergency number at (808) 935-3311 or Crime Stoppers at (808) 961-8300.
Tips and other information can also be emailed to unsolvedhomicides@hawaiicounty.gov.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
