Help sought to find missing elderly Kona woman

Jacquelyn “Jackie” Glenn of Kailua-Kona has been missing for almost two weeks.

Police issued a dispatch about her as a missing person on Dec. 10, but that might not be the entire story of the investigation into the disappearance of the 82-year-old retired flight attendant.

“They’ve got the homicide squad on this. That’s what I was told,” Glenn’s brother, Chet, told the Tribune-Herald. He said he was instructed by police to not go into specifics.

According to police, Jackie Glenn, who also has a sister in Kona, was reported missing by family members. She reportedly was last seen at about 6:30 a.m. Friday, Dec. 5, on the 75-200 block of Nani Kailua Dr. in Kailua-Kona, wearing a peach-colored shirt, blue denim jeans and black tennis shoes.

Others have posted on social media that she was last seen at about 9 p.m. Dec. 3 at a card game at a friend’s house.

Glenn is described as Caucasian, 5-feet-6 inches tall, 125 pounds, with curly grey hair and brown eyes. Because of her age, police consider her endangered. She reportedly mentioned going to Hilo with friends but did not say when she planned to return.

Chet Glenn and Gerry Kahulamu, a friend of the missing woman, both confirmed that Jackie Glenn’s car and motor scooter remained parked at the Pines 1, where she lives.

“She was going to take the bus to Hilo. The bus goes to the Hilo side, and it takes all day,’” Chet Glenn said. “But there’s no parking, no gas, no driving. … I did not speak to her about that.”

Asked if she’s ever taken the bus and left her own vehicles behind, he replied, “She has, in the past, yes. But was it a regular thing? No.”

Chet Glenn said his sister also didn’t take her cellphone with her.

“That’s an oddity for most people,” he noted. “I mean, she’s forgot it a hundred times, just coming over here. But I think that most people, whether they use it a lot of not, travel with their cellphone, nowadays.”

Jackie Glenn is divorced, and her ex-husband reportedly lives on the mainland. She has no children, according to her brother.

Kahulamu said she met Jackie Glenn about 25 years ago in yoga class.

“I’m 77, and she’s 82, and she’s in better condition than I am,” Kahulamu said. “She’s always got a smile on her face, just a positive person. She’s the sweetest, most loving lady.”

Others who posted on social media described Glenn as “vivacious” with no dementia or cognitive issues. One poster said on Facebook that Glenn told her she “never met a stranger.”

Another Facebook poster described her as “the most patient, kind and loving person I know.”

“Please guide her back to all the people who love her,” the poster wrote.

Chet Glenn said his sister was “well-traveled and pretty independent.”

“She can just jump on an airplane and fly around, because she did it for 45 years as a flight attendant,” he said. “She can live in an airport and sleep in one, if she has to. She travels a lot, and it isn’t unusual for her to just get up and fly to the mainland and go to two or three different states on passes — free rides, you know.

“She said she loved the smell of an airport. I said, ‘Those are toxic fumes that you’re smelling. It’s asphalt, it’s rubber, and it’s exhaust fumes.’ That’s what it smells like at an airport, and she liked that. She was 100% flight attendant, top to bottom. That was her life.

“Once she stopped working, she would just jump on a plane and fly somewhere — just for a week, even, a few days.”

On the possibility of his sister having boarded a plane and leaving the islands without telling anyone, Chet Glenn said, “I thought about that, but only if she had a brain fart.”

“Half the country’s shut down right about the time she’s missing, from snow,” he added.

The Tribune-Herald reached out to the Hawaii Police Department’s West Hawaii Criminal Investigations Section but didn’t receive a reply in time for this story.

“Somebody’s had to have seen her,” Kahulamu said.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Jackie Glenn is asked to call the police nonemergency line at (808) 935-3311. Those who prefer anonymity may call Crime Stoppers at (808) 961-8300.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.