HI HI - Jeff Zoltowski, 23, Wailua, 31 Mar 1993

[Nina Michigan]

 

[Nina Michigan]

 

[Nina Michigan]

we missed Jeff's birthday last month

 

[mlhenn]

Jeffrey John Zoltowski – The Charley Project

updated May 19, 2024; details of disappearance updated

Details of Disappearance​

Zoltowski was last seen hiking in the Wailau Valley on the island of Molokai in Hawaii on March 31, 1993. He flagged down a helicopter from the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) that day. Zoltowski's feet were blistered and bleeding and he said he was too tired to make the fourteen-mile hike back to civilization. He asked for a ride in the helicopter.

The pilot and ranger aboard the helicopter refused to fly Zoltowski out of the area because this was not a life-threatening situation. They said he could charter a plane for $650, but Zoltowski could not afford it. The ranger did bring Zoltowski's sixty-pound backpack to the DLNR's service yard on Molokai. Zoltowski kept only his tent, putting his compass, first aid kit and maps inside the pack.

He never reclaimed his possessions and has never been seen again. His backpack remained in the yard for forty-one days before Zoltowski was reported as a missing person.

After his disappearance, a Hawaiian man stated a white man had been attacked and killed by a shark in the waters off Wailau, and that he had buried the body. There was speculation that the man was Zoltowski. However, authorities went to Wailau twice to dig at the location the person said he'd buried the body, and they found nothing.

Zoltowski may have been sighted near a homeless shelter in the vicinity of Nimitz Highway and Sumner Street in Honolulu, Hawaii, near K-Mart, on July 28, 2001, eight years after his disappearance.

A woman reported that the man who resembled Zoltowski called himself Sam or Samuel and panhandled for money from vehicles stopped in traffic. He had heavy facial scarring, he limped, and his speech was slurred, indications that he may have suffered a severe head injury in the past.

It has not been confirmed that the individual was in fact Zoltowski. Investigators looked for the unidentified man couldn't find him. The area where he was seen is near a homeless shelter run by the Insitute for Human Services, but no one at the shelter recognized Zoltowski's picture.

Zoltowski had traveled to Hawaii in January 1993 to explore, hike and determine what he wanted to do with his life. He is a graduate of Livonia Stevenson High School and was a student at Wayne State University in Michigan at the time of his disappearance. He had a vegetarian diet and refused to wear leather.

He intended to spend four months in Hawaii, and by the time of his disappearance had been in the state for 49 days. During this time he called home 31 times. His loved ones describe him as a compassionate, caring individual who did volunteer work. He was close to both his parents, who were divorced. His mother died after his disappearance, but his father is alive and searching for him.

Zoltowski's case remains unsolved.

 

[spartanx]

Why did they take his backpack? I assume whatever resources he would have needed would have been there?
I know the pilot was just doing his job, but they should have called the equivalent of park rangers to go find and help Jeff...they left him to die miserably...
either way
rest in peace

 

[Nina Michigan]

Why did they take his backpack? I assume whatever resources he would have needed would have been there?
I know the pilot was just doing his job, but they should have called the equivalent of park rangers to go find and help Jeff...they left him to die miserably...
either way
rest in peace

Because it was heavy and his feet were bleeding. He kept the minimum he needed and let them take the rest.