The Maui News
The family of a missing California man said it’s likely he was caught in a flash flood in Kipahulu and “is no longer with us.”
On a Facebook page providing information about the search for 61-year-old Thomas Lockhart, a post Monday said “the National Parks Service will continue to search for his body, but our family will move forward in our remembrance of Tom.”
Lockhart, who was staying at a Kipahulu Valley farm, was seen at about 6:30 a.m. May 1 when he went jogging in the Pipiwai trails area in the Kipahulu District of Haleakala National Park, officials said.
The Park Service confirmed that Lockhart entered the park early that morning before “a severe storm later in the morning, leading to multiple serious and dangerous flash flood events,” the post said.
Lockhart’s daughters and nephew joined searchers, including police, firefighters and park rangers. Despite multiple searches of the trails area where Lockhart entered the park and surrounding areas, “we have no evidence that Tom is alive, and we have found no evidence of the location of his body,” the update said.
“After consulting with first responders and search-and-rescue experts, we now know that it is almost 100 percent likely that Tom was caught and overwhelmed by a flash flood, and that he is no longer with us,” the post said. “This news is difficult for our family to accept, but we are confident in the efforts of all those who have been searching and continue to search.
“One of our family members who went to Hawaii to search wrote to us, saying that we may never have definitive confirmation, but Tom is most likely laid to rest in a place surrounded by indescribable beauty. He went into his final days doing things that he loved: He was planning to finish his run, attend church, and spend time with his daughter.”
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