John Cameron Reece was 22 and working as a vegetation research intern for the USGS Biological Resources Division in late 1999. For Thanksgiving he planned a four-day solo hike from North Kohala’s Pololu Valley to Waipio Valley in Hamakua, a route noted for remote, rugged coastline and challenging terrain. On the morning of Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1999, a fellow intern dropped him off in Keaau at about 7:00 a.m.; his plan was to hitchhike the rest of the way to Pololu.

He was last seen wearing camouflage pants, a light-colored t-shirt, and carrying a red Kelty Redwing backpack that held raingear, a tarp, a hammock, a small stove and four days of food. Reece is described as a Caucasian male, 5 feet 10 inches, about 155 pounds, slim, with short brown hair, blue eyes and wire-rim glasses. Intensive helicopter and ground searches turned up no trace and it is unclear whether he ever reached Pololu.

Does anyone have information about Reece’s movements in Puna or sightings of a hitchhiker matching his description around November 25, 1999?