Remembering Marlo: Missing Hilo woman’s family invites public to gathering

It’s been seven years since Marlo Moku of Hilo left her home to run errands.

“She just never came back,” Moku’s younger sister, Kawehi Moku, said earlier this week. “That was the story.”

For Kawehi Moku and the rest of her family, the case was perplexing from the start.

Marlo Moku last was seen at the 7-11 on Kaumana Drive on Sept. 23, 2008. She was 33 at the time. A devoted mother to her three children, her disappearance first was noted when she didn’t pick the kids up from school that day.

The uncertainty is the hardest part for the family, her sister said.

“It’s a lot of things, you know?” Kawehi Moku said. “They say ‘Life goes on, life goes on,’ but this is one of the things that — it doesn’t. It’s hard without the closure.”

The family has its own small ways of coping with Marlo Moku’s disappearance and of remembering their loved one. They go to the beach to display a banner, and post on the Missing Marlo Moku Facebook page. They celebrate her birthday Dec. 28. The kids celebrate Mother’s Day.

“It’s always a bittersweet thing,” Kawehi Moku said. “They want to honor her but they miss her a lot.”

This year, the family wanted to invite others into the circle to honor Marlo Moku. Members of the community are invited to a remembrance event from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday near the Hilo Walgreens.

“We want to do it in a positive way, keep her memory alive,” Kawehi Moku said. People are encouraged to wear white. Kawehi Moku said she plans to make signs to hold up, and will have supplies on hand for others to create their own signs of memories.

“A lot of people know her because she always had her kids with her,” Kawehi Moku said. “She would visit my mom at Long’s, (and) at that time I was working at downtown KTA, so she would always come with one or all three of (the kids).”

“She was hardly ever seen without them,” Kawehi Moku said.

Lt. Gregory Esteban of the Hawaii Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Unit told the Tribune-Herald that in many missing persons cases, the person in question disappears of their own volition.

“Fortunately for those cases, the individuals are safe,” Esteban said. “It’s those other unresolved cases that are oftentimes a lot more challenging.”

The family never thought that Marlo Moku ran away.

“Seeing that we were so close,” Kawehi Moku said. “She was so close with her kids, she was always with them … it was just out of the ordinary.”

Two weeks after Marlo Moku’s disappearance, her car was found at the bottom of a 120-foot-high cliff in Hakalau. The license plates were gone, and there was nothing inside the vehicle except for a lanyard with the car keys and Marlo Moku’s Maika‘i card from Sack N Save.

“And then the VIN number was registered to her,” Kawehi Moku said. “But that was it — her purse, nothing else was in there.”

“What’s puzzling about this case … is the discovery of the vehicle, and obviously (that) she wasn’t found with the vehicle,” Esteban said.

Kawehi Moku said the car at the bottom of the cliff was even more strange because her sister rarely left Hilo.

“We still haven’t given up seeking the public’s help,” Esteban said. But there have been no new leads or new evidence for years, frustrating efforts to investigate further. Without those leads, Esteban said, “We’re at a standstill at this point.”

“I just try to be persistent in always keeping her name out there, because maybe relationships change, maybe someone wants to come forward and they just don’t know how,” Kawehi Moku said. Because Kawehi Moku is the only one of her sisters who still lives on the Big Island, she is most active in keeping Marlo Moku’s name out in the world.

“She was always smiling,” Kawehi Moku said. “She was the type who could walk into a room and … she would uplift your spirit. That’s the kind of personality she had.”

“We just want to share that with the community.”

Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.