Gary Ota was 19 and an art student at the University of Hawaii when he disappeared from his Honolulu home in late winter 1979. The last confirmed sighting was the evening of March 3, 1979, when he sat in his blue two-door 1976 Honda Accord parked in his driveway. He was wearing a white t-shirt with the word Kuilima, tan pants, and slippers.

There were a couple of unconfirmed sightings after March 3, the last reported on March 12, but none led to him. Gary, of Japanese descent, had black hair and brown eyes, stood 5 feet 8 inches and weighed 120 pounds. His car, Hawaii plate 8B-1844, also vanished and has never been recovered. The Honolulu Police Department investigated, but few details have been released and the case remains open.