Rescue divers and watercraft plied the choppy waters of Kailua Bay Saturday as a Honolulu Fire Department helicopter and Coast Guard plane searched from above for a swimmer, believed to be a Marine, who disappeared early Friday evening.
Witnesses said the missing man had gone into the ocean with two young women around 5:30 p.m. before the trio were spotted in distress. A California couple grabbed surfboards and rescued the women about 40 yards offshore. They tried to save their companion but he was lost beneath the waves.
“You know what’s heartbreaking, he died trying to save those girls,” said Gino Mazzei of San Bernardino, Calif., who saw the tragedy unfold. “I understand he was a Marine. He appeared very physically fit.”
Mazzei, who was in Kailua for his grandson’s high school graduation, alerted his son-in-law and daughter, Bob and Deb Hall of Huntington Beach, Calif., to the trouble and they paddled out, picking up the women. They continued looking for the missing man and were soon joined by Honolulu Fire Department and Ocean Safety crews, who kept searching until nightfall.
The search resumed at first light Saturday but was interrupted around 10 a.m. when at least one shark was observed near the search area. Divers were immediately taken out of the water but the aerial search continued. Signs warning of a shark sighting were posted at the beach and the full search resumed in the afternoon.
Eleven HFD units staffed with 29 personnel participated in the effort, which was suspended at 6:30 p.m. with plans to resume at first light today.
The Halls and their relatives returned to the beach Saturday and opened their relatives’ beachfront home to rescue personnel.
“I just wish they’d find him,” said Deb Hall, 49, as she sat on the beach scanning the water. “The girls were locals. The gentleman had only been here for a month and he’s in the military. They had just met him.”
Bob Hall, 59, said the three swimmers appeared to have been caught in a rip current about 40 yards offshore from Dune Circle, which is near Kalama Beach Club. Conditions were gusty with winds out of the east at 10 to 20 mph and surf of 2 to 4 feet on Oahu’s eastern shores, according to weather reports.
“We were in the Jacuzzi when my father-in-law called us,” he said. “He yelled, ‘I think these people need help!’”
“We grabbed the boards and we both went out,” Deb Hall said. “I got one girl and he got the other.”
HFD responded with eight units and 24 personnel to search for the swimmers, with the first unit arriving on scene at 5:38 p.m. Friday, according to Capt. Scot Seguirant.
No identities were released for any of the swimmers. Honolulu Police Department Det. Mike Garcia confirmed the missing swimmer is not from Hawaii. He is believed to be in his 20s.
Mazzei was on the beach when he saw the man and one of the women enter the ocean while the second woman hesitated.
“She was dinking around and finally she made it out past the shorebreak,” he said. “I took my eyes off them until I noticed they had drifted 80 yards (toward Kaneohe) and I knew then they were in trouble.”
He jumped up to get help and surfboards from the house where his other daughter and her family live.
“They (the swimmers) were yelling, but because of the wind you couldn’t hear it,” Deb Hall said. “If it wasn’t for my dad, who was out here … I was in the hot tub. He came and said, ‘Grab a board!” and I’m like, ‘What?’”
Once they reached the two women, Hall and her husband slid off the surfboards to help them get on. The Halls held onto the back of the surfboards and pushed them to shore, she said.
“The girl I got was in pretty bad shape,” Deb Hall said. “She kind of flailed. They treated her with oxygen and later she was a little more lucid.”
When they were close to shore, the second woman was able to walk through the water to the beach, Bob Hall said.
“I turned around to get the other guy,” he said, but he was nowhere to be found.
“When we came in they were three,” he said. “When I got back they were only two. We kept looking.”
Honolulu Emergency Medical Services treated a 19-year-old woman at about 6:15 p.m. while the second swimmer did not require medical treatment, spokeswoman Shayne Enright said.
Kailua resident Marcia Mead Murakami, 64, who lives just four blocks from Kalama Beach Park, said the search reminded her of recent efforts to locate missing Maui hikers Amanda Eller and Noah “Kekai” Mina.
“It’s just amazing what our search and rescue people do and how people care,” Mura-kami said. “I hope there’s a good outcome from this. I really, really hope for that.”
Eller was found alive May 24 after more than two weeks lost in the Makawao Forest Reserve. Mina’s body was found May 29 on Mauna Kahalawai in the West Maui Mountains.
Mazzei said it was a good thing his relatives used surfboards for the rescue. Without flotation devices, he said, “you would have had more deaths.”
“People have always said how safe this beach is,” Mazzei said. “You better respect water. It’s a basic, cardinal rule … Everything happened in the split of a second. It was very, very quick.”
