![]() The desperate search ended in the afternoon of Jan. ![]() 30, 1982, article in the Honolulu Advertiser reported that 150,000 flyers were distributed by seven Oahu high school students on Au’s behalf. The oddities in Au’s disappearance quickly spread throughout Honolulu, and slews of volunteers came out to aid in the search for the missing teenager. “If she had had car trouble and got a ride with someone, why would she have left her purse? And why was her purse dry but everything else was soaking wet from the rain that night?” “That was one of the first indications that something bad may have happened here,” Chang said. (Holmes, who now lives in Australia, did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.) The police report notes that Holmes indicated there was about “two or three inches of water” on the floor of Au’s car and the driver’s seat was completely “drenched.” But the teenager’s purse, which had her wallet and keys but did not have her temporary license, was completely dry on the driver’s side seat. “Holmes went out looking for Au afraid that she may have gotten into a traffic accident.”ĭuring his search, Holmes found his girlfriend’s car-and immediately called authorities. “ told police he said goodnight to Au in her car and did not actually see her drive away,” a February 1982 Honolulu Star-Bulletin article reported, noting that it “was a stormy night and Au had called her roommate to tell her she was on her way home” but failed to make it there. Holmes, a University of Hawaii student, immediately began to look for his girlfriend and retrace her last steps. 21, 1982, after not hearing from their daughter. ![]() The questions into what happened to Au began almost hours after she left her boyfriend’s sister’s apartment that rainy January night.Īccording to police reports first obtained by Hawaii News Now, Au’s parents and roommate called the teenager’s boyfriend, Doug Holmes, on Jan. It’s sad knowing they will never know what happened to their daughter, even after they fought so hard for answers.”īut despite the past mistakes in the case and the lack of answers, the Honolulu Police Department insists the case “is still considered an open investigation as there is no statute of limitations for homicide.”Īu’s family did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story. ![]() ![]() “They were looking for some answers and they were never answered. “Unfortunately, there is no closure,” Chang said. Chang, who was hired by the family to help “find answers and hold police accountable,” said the couple were never the same after their daughter died and never “found peace of mind” before they died. While authorities have never officially identified or charged an individual in Au’s murder, the case has been marred by wrongful allegations a police officer may have been involved and a civil lawsuit filed by the teenager’s family over the department’s inaction.Įven more heartbreaking is the reality that Au’s parents, Patrice and Chester Au, will never know what happened to their eldest daughter. The discovery turned a frantic missing person’s case into a homicide case-that remains open four decades later. 31, 1982, police say Au’s naked body was found in a ravine off of Tantalus Drive about three miles from the apartment where she was last seen. ![]()
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