Bradford T. Turek, 28, of Cincinnati, Ohio, disappeared while on vacation in Hawaii in late January 2004. He rented a white 2004 Jeep and checked into a Maui hotel on January 23; the Jeep was found abandoned in the hotel parking lot the next day and some of his belongings were recovered submerged in the hotel pond. He is believed to have flown to Kauai on January 25 and rented a second car that was found on January 27 near the Kalalau Trailhead by the Kalalau Bridge.

Private investigators hired by his family reported a possible sighting of Bradford accompanied by another man for about the first mile of the Kalalau Trail from Ke’e Beach. Searchers recovered a few items that might link to him: his initials carved into bamboo near an old coffee mill in Hanakapi’ai and a Duke University t-shirt found submerged in Hanakapi’ai Stream, though the family has questioned whether the shirt was his. Bradley’s bipolar disorder and the possibility he lacked medication have been noted as factors that could have left him disoriented. Extensive searches on the steep, rugged Na Pali Coast turned up no conclusive evidence and the case has since gone cold.

Did anyone hiking the Kalalau Trail in January 2004 notice Bradford or another man near Ke’e or Hanakapi’ai who could help explain what happened to him?