A Maui Circuit Court jury on Thursday found Bernard Brown, the ex-boyfriend of a 46-year-old Maui woman who disappeared eight years ago, guilty of second-degree murder.

Moreira “Mo” Monsalve was the first of two Maui women who disappeared within a month of each other in 2014, and in both cases, their ex-boyfriends were suspected by the women’s families and friends.

The remains of the other woman, Carly “Charli” Scott, who went missing Feb. 9, 2014, were eventually found and led to the 2016 murder conviction of her ex-boyfriend.

Monsalve, who had recently broken up with Brown, went to his Wailuku apartment at around 5 p.m. Jan. 12, 2014, and was never seen again.

Without a body, DNA or blood tying her demise to Brown, the Monsalve case was arguably tougher to prove.

Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Hupp told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser after the verdict that it was his first “no body” murder case in his 28-year career as a prosecutor. “It is difficult, but it’s not insurmountable as this case proved,” he said.

Hupp said the case was tough, and especially so because of the limited evidence.

“We just had to really build a case through little bits and pieces of evidence,” he said. He credits lead Maui police detective Oran Satterfield, who “tracked down every lead, every possible witness,” talking to roughly 75 people.

“The jury, I think, correctly saw through (Brown’s story) and saw in fact that this was the only explanation, that he was guilty,” he said, but admits to being on pins and needles as he awaited the verdict.

“You never know how the jury’s going to see the evidence,” he said.

The trial lasted a month, but the investigation took years and Brown was not indicted until Sept. 20, 2019, and arrested in California and extradited to Maui.

After the long-awaited guilty verdict was read Thursday afternoon, a whoop of joy came from a woman seated in the courtroom gallery.

It may have been Alexis Felicilda, Monsalve’s eldest child, who was 27 years old at the time of her disappearance.

“She was very emotional,” said Hupp who spoke to her after the verdict. “She’s been waiting a long time. The family has been waiting a long time.”

Monsalve, who had worked as an accounts manager for a Department of Defense contractor, is also survived by sons Tyler and Lono Felicilda, who were then 18 and 23, respectively.

After the verdict, Brown, who appeared in court wearing a long-sleeved, light-colored shirt and dark trousers, was immediately taken into custody. He will face a possible life sentence with the possibility of parole when he is sentenced Nov. 23.

In 2014, the Maui Police Department came under a lot of scrutiny by the public as it appeared very little was happening in both cases. Without any evidence to charge Brown with her murder, he was free to leave the state and moved to San Jose, Calif., where he was from.

Her many friends, co-workers, family members and community members showed up week after week to search for her.

Meanwhile police were busy in old shoe-leather detective work, talking to witnesses and gathering evidence.

But it was because of the kind of person Monsalve was in life that got police the cooperation they needed from her friends, who were willing to drop everything to fly from the mainland to testify.

“There were so many people, friends of hers, who just adored her,” he said. “That showed in how cooperative they were. The fact that she was that loved, they all said almost the same thing, they adored her. She was everybody’s friend. Everybody loved her.”

In his closing statement, Hupp said Brown did a good job of covering up the murder, hiding her body and he took advantage of the two-day lead he had before anybody realized she was gone.

The FBI analysis of Monsalve’s phone, which had been broken into pieces, Brown’s use of the phone to book flight reservations to San Jose, the phone records and other records, were key pieces of evidence.

Her purse and other items, including the phone and paperwork, were discovered in a dumpster at Papohaku Park in Wailuku.

Among the more than 30 witnesses who testified at the trial was Brown’s former girlfriend in California who said he called her in a panic Jan. 13, 2014, asking for help in obtaining a burner phone when he gets to San Jose, and later leaving a message asking her how to delete a hard drive.

Brown’s lawyer, Randy Hironaka, called the state’s case “a witch hunt,” which lacked a body, DNA, blood, fingerprint or any biological evidence of any sort. He reminded jurors that a guilty verdict must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.