Gov. Josh Green said many of the 66 people on the latest “unaccounted for ” list might also be among the 54 people whose remains have yet to be identified, so he does not expect a significant increase in the death toll.
One month after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century leveled Lahaina and killed at least 115, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Maui Police Department said Friday the number of unaccounted-for people has fallen to 66 as they seek more information about scores of names that were included on a much longer list released last week.
Following the Aug. 8 fires, more than 3, 200 people were reported unaccounted for before the FBI determined at least 2, 696 of them were alive and well, according to a news release Friday from Maui police.
“The FBI and MPD continue to review and vet reports of unaccounted for that cannot yet be deemed credible at this time, ” the release said.
The FBI had three criteria for a name to be included on the latest list, according to MPD.
“The names on the list were compiled by the FBI and were deemed credible as long as the following criteria were provided : The first and last name of the person who is unaccounted for ; a verified contact number for the person who reported the individual as unaccounted for ; and /or additional verified information received reporting the individual as unaccounted for, ” MPD said.
For the previous two lists, FBI required a first and last name of the unaccounted-for person, and a verified contact number for the person who reported the person as unaccounted for, but not “additional verified information received reporting the individual as unaccounted for.”
That “additional verified information, ” in most but not all cases, meant a second person provided more details to the FBI and Maui police that helped eliminate duplicate names or added more information that helped investigators.
Of the 115 confirmed fatalities, 61 have been identified while MPD and the FBI work to identify the other 54.
At a news conference Friday, Gov. Josh Green said many of the 66 individuals on the latest “unaccounted for ” list might also be among the 54 people whose remains have yet to be identified, so he does not expect a significant increase in the death toll.
“We’re starting to see that the universe of 115 fatalities is about where we are, ” Green said. “There may be some additional fatalities as we go through the next month.”
In an interview Thursday with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said his officers were investigating 43 open missing-person cases.
Investigations of missing persons and identification of the 115 sets of remains in the morgue are being handled by Maui police, Honolulu police and federal agency partners including the FBI, which help with out-of-state and international investigations and victim notifications.
The meticulous task of looking for the unaccounted-for people and identifying the dead is the responsibility of the Morgue Investigation Notification Task Force, based in the MPD Morgue Office on Wili Pa Loop in Wailuku. The MINT is staffed with physicians, investigators, forensic scientists and anthropologists.
The forensic component of the MINT’s work involves combing through identifying information such as X-rays, dental exam details, medical device implants such as hip or knee replacements, fingerprints and facial identifications, said Pelletier.
Investigators are also looking at artifact identification, like rings, memorabilia or artifacts that may have been on an unaccounted-for person when the fires swept through Lahaina on Aug. 8, while also analyzing mobile phone data like call logs, data traffic and other digital footprints of people.
“They are going through all these different components, ” Pelletier said.
Following a full forensic and medical examination of the 115 sets of remains in the morgue, an anthropologist will use DNA samples submitted by family members to match pieces of bone recovered from the rubble with a person who may be missing.
“Our investigative team is a task force of MPD personnel, HPD personnel and our federal partners, and they are doing deep data dives in that investigation. Who they may be, where they lived, who they may know. If you have a missing-person report, you have a name, height, weight, last known location, cellphone data, information on hair color, blood type, ” said Pelletier. “The detectives now are treating this as a full-blown investigation for each and every single person so we can identify everyone.”
The initial unaccounted-for lists released by the FBI and MPD on Aug. 24 and Sept. 1 contained information from open-sourced lists like the Maui Fires People Locator, which were unverified by government agencies with access to certified personal information. Those lists sometimes included names written on Post-it notes and handed to investigators by survivors in shelters, and some included multiple variations of a single person’s name.
On Sept. 1 the MPD and FBI released the “second list ” with 385 names but later determined that 235 of the 385 people were safe and removed them from the list.
Currently, 53 people from the “second list ” are still unaccounted for and remain on Friday’s list, according to the MPD statement.
In addition, 80 names of possible unaccounted for are not included on the new list because “each of those reports are still being vetted for credibility.”
“In these cases, no initial reporting party was provided or was available for follow-up, ” MPD said. “Also, four individuals from the ‘second list’ have since been identified as deceased.”
Thirteen people were added to the latest list from MPD missing-person reports, which are marked with an asterisk on the new list, reports from the American Red Cross and from shelters, as well as people who called in to report unaccounted-for people but did not file a police report, according to MPD and the FBI.
Pelletier said the compilation of data resources, and skill sets, supported by work of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and expertise from law enforcement officials who worked the Camp fire in California and the 9 /11 terrorist attacks in New York and Shanksville, Pa., are being used “so we can do everything to get the John and Jane Does to be identified.”
Pelletier urged the community’s patience as investigators and physicians treat every fatality, notification and investigation of missing people with the “dignity and respect they deserve.”
He also encouraged family members of unaccounted-for people to submit DNA samples and make formal missing-person reports with police.
MPD officers making death notifications to family members are accompanied by the department chaplain and partners in the faith-based community, Pelletier said, with reverence and dignity being the foundation of the notification.
“The people we’ve lost … we know some of those folks. They are some of our department members’ loved ones. This isn’t a town you are policing that you don’t know the people.”
