Atticus Louis Pearson, 22, left Clearwater, Washington for a planned two-week trip to Kauai in early 1999 and decided to stay, camping with people he met on the island. The last confirmed contact was a January 22 phone call to his mother from Hanalei, when he said he planned to hike to Kalalau Beach along the Nā Pali Coast. After that call he was never heard from again.

In May 1999 his mother filed a missing person report. Family members searched in late November and on December 2 found Atticus’s abandoned campsite in Hanakapia’i Valley: tarp, hammock, blankets and a backpack. A man who’d briefly met Atticus in January had discovered the same campsite months earlier and taken the backpack before realizing its significance. Atticus and a female companion had reportedly buried money near the trailhead; her share was recovered but his money was left behind. An official search along the coast found no sign of him. The family concluded their search on December 5, believing he may have drowned near Hanakapia’i Beach or been injured on the trail, but the case remains unsolved.

Did anyone who was on the Kalalau Trail in January 1999 or who knew Atticus in Kauai come across information that could help explain what happened to him?