Micah is Missing

Micah Reep went missing from his home in Ocean View, Hawaii in the early hours of October 5th, 2019. This is going to be a long read, but please take the time to read it all the way through to the end.

The outpour of love and attention we have received has been so humbling and appreciated. We thank each and every one of you. We wanted to take some time to give you all some much needed updates and information surrounding Micah’s disappearance.

Micah is 15 years old, and the sweetest and most gentle soul you could ever meet. He loves his family, and he is an avid paddler on a local Hawaiian outrigger canoe team. He was homeschooled most of his life, but is currently attending Konawaena High School. He loves to write and share stories. Anyone who has ever interacted with Micah always comments on how respectful and sweet he is and what an attentive listener he is. He is wise beyond his years, slow to speak, and very contemplative. He has the most striking blue eyes, and you can see his amazing kindness when you look into them.

The last six months have been a very trying time for Micah. On top of dealing with normal teenage issues and hormonal problems, he has developed some physical health complications that we have been trying to figure out. In June, his best friend, Junior and he decided to construct what can be best described as lawn chair hot rods made from broken lawn chairs, wood, and skateboards. They were so excited to report that they had been clocked by a local resident at 35 mph while freewheeling down the streets carved into the volcanic landscape here in Ocean View. As a mother I was horrified, but also knew “boys will be boys”. After weeks of modifications to their hot rods, the inevitable happened. Micah lost control on a downhill run ending with his head smashing into the ground. He seemed fine and him being my third son and us living here in the wild west of rural Hawaii, I did not even take him to the doctor. About a month later he started complaining of headaches and throwing up after physically exerting himself. This was followed by a short black out in the canoe after a race in Kona. We started with his GP, and he has been under medical care ever since trying to determine the cause of his condition. We finally decided that he was suffering from post concussion syndrome, but we still needed to rule out heart problems due to him having pain in his left shoulder before he passed out and a family history of heart problems. Unfortunately, he went missing 2 days before we were scheduled to fly to Honolulu to see the pediatric cardiologist and have an echocardiogram done. We had waited almost three months for this appointment and Micah was looking forward to finally getting it done so he could join the Konawaena High School basketball team. His doctor advised us against any heavy physical activity until he was cleared by the cardiologist. This forced us to make the sad decision to not let him participate in the state completion which his paddling team had qualified to compete at in Kauai. This of course, greatly saddened him. He loves paddling more than anything.

Along with these developments, he became increasingly depressed. He was struggling with the death of his biological father. He was also starting to have anxiety attacks at school which we mostly chalked up to it being his first time in a large public school environment . Next came the lack of concentration and difficulty with completing his schoolwork. His doctor actually sent a note to school asking them to please excuse him from homework due to his injury! We joked about how lucky he was. He found some release in song writing, but continued to become more distant and turned to what I would say was bad teenage coping mechanisms. He was still very sweet and loved by his classmates and teachers, but I was becoming very concerned as a mother that there was much more going on below the surface.

On the Friday night that he went missing, my worst fears were confirmed. He had revealed a shocking trauma that he had endured but left the details very vague due to his emotional state at the time. I didn’t press him for any more information. I just assured him that it would be okay and we would get help. My fiancé, Micah and I had dinner together and watched a movie. Then he fell asleep. I sat in bed for a long time feeling sad and wondering what to do next to help him. I finally fell asleep and woke up again at 1:17 a.m. and he was gone. I figured I knew where he had gone, and I was right. He had run over to a friend’s house. I called and sent a text message to the friend’s mother. She returned my call around 6 a.m. and confirmed that Micah was there and apologized saying she had no idea. I explained that he was upset and I would be down to get him right away. By the time I arrived, he had runaway again. This was the last definite sighting of him.

He did reach out to one of his siblings on Sunday evening, and we were so grateful to know he was alive! However, the things he shared were extremely alarming, taking this whole situation to a level we did not want to count as a possibility. He claimed he felt he had run out of options and needed to change things for himself. He stated that he had found someone who had offered him food and place to stay, as well as a job and rides in a car with tinted windows. He seemed to think he could stay in hiding until his 16th birthday and that he’d “be free” after that. When questioned about his plan by his siblings he second guessed himself, using the same phrases over and over. We were later given information that he had been seen with a local man who goes by the name Elijah we believe and he drives some sort of lowered vehicle with dark tinted windows. This information was confirmed by a second source.

Many well meaning friends and family have tried to reassure us that this is “just a normal teenage runaway” and he will come home. I personally feel that the local authorities are treating it as such also. Anyone who knows Micah would know this is completely out of character for him even considering his emotional state. It is even more concerning that when he reached out to his siblings, it was from a social media account that was not his. So we cannot even be certain that it was him.

We are attaching two research documents from the Polly Klaas Foundation for missing children. I advise you to read knowing ahead of time that it is some very disturbing information and statistics about runaway teens and the dangerous environment they unknowingly put themselves into out of fear and self preservation. We feel the need as a family to inform others about the serious issues facing teen runaways in this day and age. I myself had runaway as a teen as well as many others I know. However, that was a different time, and unfortunately it is a well known fact many victims of human sex trafficking are runaways or thrownaway children. We are living in a time were more is needed to protect our precious children from internet predators. Better laws are needed to help protect victims of the sex trade that is running rampant. An alarming amount of young adults that are arrested for prostitution are actually runaway or thrownaway children who were victims of human trafficking.

While we are remaining positive and staying strong in our belief that we will find Micah and bring him home safely, we are living a nightmare that we truly hope none of you ever have to understand. We thought we could use our experience to help others understand the dangers modern teens are facing and create empathy for the families instead of judgement and blame. No one can truly understand anyone else’s pain until they have walked a mile in their shoes. Our family feels like we have walked the globe in the past 8 days and 9 nights with our sweet Micah being gone.

To answer some of the most common and basic questions we have been asked over the past 12 days:

***We filed a police report On October 5th
***The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has been notified and is helping us
***The Attorney General’s office missing children division has been notified and is helping us
***The Center For Search and Investigations is helping us
*** Team Hope has reached out to us
***We are in contact with the Polly Klaas foundation and finishing our report with them
***He did not take his phone with him
***All of his close friends have been contacted
*** We have distributed flyers island wide
***We have informed Kona and Hilo airports
***We have personally informed gas stations, hotels, grocery stores, and local businesses

Please help us spread the word.
http://www.pollyklaas.org/safe/child-trafficking.html

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This fundraiser is to help with the costs of flyers, gas, a private investigator, and to fly more of the family out to the island. Every and any little bit is greatly appreciated.